Not unlike my discovery years ago that whether I worked 40 or 80 hours a week my WIP (Work In Progress) queue never changed size. I simply said after 40 hours, unless it is a genuine, gold-plated, class AA prime emergency, I'm outa here. Forced me to prioritize my work, and all the important stuff got done. I was more sane as a result.

Where's the item for convincing my wife that this will do? Calling Yog-sothoth!

Just re-title it, "The Not-Insane Honey-Do List."

Alternatively, if using a hipster PDA or cards like www.nextactioncards.com, you can just pluck out three cards to work on that day.

Liz

So I get to start drinking after three to-dos? WAHOOO!

NSFW

Tom Peters calls this "THE ONE TOOL WHICH WILL MAKE OR BREAK YOUR CAREER". Bob Cree-Hay said it was a list of "those things that, if I achieve them today, will really make a difference."
http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?note=006635.php

I would like to point out that the hipster PDA is not a PDA - it is a PAA (personal analog assistant). You could play tetris on it too, but you'd have to animate it FRAME BY FRAME.

PDA = parietal disgorgement aid, not personal digital assistant. ;)

Personally prefer the GTD system where my tasks are smaller, three of those takes could take as little as five minutes

I rarely am busy, and it's not because I'm retired. This is a fetish with most Americans--they overschedule and underperform so they can say "look how important I am."

Occasionally I make a list, but not often. Today I did, because I needed to buy some Christmas presents.

Norma that's awesome...you're attitude is the only truly sane one.

The whole "productivity" obsession is indeed so much Cah-Cah. We are NOT more productive than we were, say . . . 40 years ago. We just produce more dithering bullshit in less time then ever.

In the race to the Moon (yes the Soviets REALLY were racing us) in the 60's, we got to the Moon from the word "go!" in 8 years.

In the "multitasking" 90's and beyond, we've been building a Space Station less than 300 miles away for the last 2 decades, and are still not done.

I used to keep a list. I would even put things already accomplished on it so I could have some crossed off. It irritated other people that couldn't seem to get as many things crossed off their list.

These days I still have lists, but I look at every entry and ask "what's going to happen if I don't do this right now!" if the answer's 'nothing' then I put it on another list. When I look at things on that list I ask myself "what is going to happen if I never do this?" if the answer to that is "nothing" I can cross it off.

Maybe I'll have a _to do" list some day.
I'm sort of a "do whatever makes ya happy, spur of the moment, impulsive guy.

FYI, "to do" is a sound Chinese people use;
It means roughly "couch potato".

Didi Mao!