3 ms·

I used to have ideas on a to-do list, but it was torturing me (especially as it takes a few orders of magnitude to come up with an idea, however elaborate, than

by stared 11y ago

I used to have ideas on a to-do list, but it was torturing me (especially as it takes a few orders of magnitude to come up with an idea, however elaborate, than to do it; and doing it is also a reality check - some things seam clever until you start doing it and meeting contradictions). Now it is a separate list, entitled "n-th-priority-tasks-tml.md". And I try to keep no regret for not doing things. For doing, as cheap as it may sound "just do it". As I heard from one writer "Imperfect books have one advantage: they exist". (At least for me perfectionism is the prime reason for delaying such projects.) And one advice from a friend of mine, when I was delaying (for 2 years) writing a quantum game (http://quantumgame.io http://quantumgame.io, coming this March!): "the only thing you lack is sitting on your ass and writing code". She was right. Also, one of my write ups: "If you have a great project, do moonlight. Don’t wait for better times, because they won’t come. Maybe you overstate the need of money, institutional support or social confirmation?" from http://crastina.se/theres-no-projects-like-side-projects http://crastina.se/theres-no-projects-like-side-projects

vog 11y ago
> Now it is a separate list, entitled "n-th-priority-tasks-tml.md". And I try to keep no regret for not doing things. It's interesting to read that I'm not the only one doing this. See also my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11032799 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11032799 I chose the name "ideas" instead of "n-th-priority-tasks" to clearly distinguish this list from actual tasks. Because they aren't. None of those entries deserves to be named "task", until one starts to get serious about them and creates a prototype. And this will happen only to a tiny fraction of those entries.
- stared 11y ago
  The title may be misleading (actually, I remember it is "n-th-priority-things.md"). I've just checked its heading (I keep this file always open) and it's "n-th prority ideas". I read your comment before posting my own. :) When it comes to their length and (what is more important) being specified, it varies a lot. From a blog post I have in mind and can write in a few hours, to things that make take months or years. I was thinking about making it public, but: - most of them are idiosyncratic and a few words stands for a long idea, - I am afraid of self-censorship (is it good enough for the public? doesn't it sound offensive?). When it comes to tasks-ideas separation, it reminds me of http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd073010s.gif http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd073010s.gif (I used to have to do bullets which were there for years - and they were causing so much pain).
marcosdumay 11y ago
I have a directory. Every idea is either on a file, or a subdir that holds whatever work I've done on it. That subdir may hold a TODO list, scoped on that idea - if I ever work on that idea again, I'll probably start by reviewing the TODO. I don't intend to work on 90% of what's there anymore, it's not a TODO list. It's just a set of info that I may use someday later. I don't even know what's in there.
- vog 11y ago
  Good point. This is also what I do with projects that have some (partial) implementation. Local TODO/IDEAS files are a very good thing. However, most ideas didn't come to live (and probably never will), and I prefer to have those in a single file instead creating a separate file or directory for each topic. The reason is that some ideas are vague, and sometime I split or merge them.

by stared 11y ago

vog 11y ago

> Now it is a separate list, entitled "n-th-priority-tasks-tml.md". And I try to keep no regret for not doing things. It's interesting to read that I'm not the only one doing this. See also my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11032799 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11032799 I chose the name "ideas" instead of "n-th-priority-tasks" to clearly distinguish this list from actual tasks. Because they aren't. None of those entries deserves to be named "task", until one starts to get serious about them and creates a prototype. And this will happen only to a tiny fraction of those entries.

stared 11y ago
The title may be misleading (actually, I remember it is "n-th-priority-things.md"). I've just checked its heading (I keep this file always open) and it's "n-th prority ideas". I read your comment before posting my own. :) When it comes to their length and (what is more important) being specified, it varies a lot. From a blog post I have in mind and can write in a few hours, to things that make take months or years. I was thinking about making it public, but: - most of them are idiosyncratic and a few words stands for a long idea, - I am afraid of self-censorship (is it good enough for the public? doesn't it sound offensive?). When it comes to tasks-ideas separation, it reminds me of http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd073010s.gif http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd073010s.gif (I used to have to do bullets which were there for years - and they were causing so much pain).

marcosdumay 11y ago

I have a directory. Every idea is either on a file, or a subdir that holds whatever work I've done on it. That subdir may hold a TODO list, scoped on that idea - if I ever work on that idea again, I'll probably start by reviewing the TODO. I don't intend to work on 90% of what's there anymore, it's not a TODO list. It's just a set of info that I may use someday later. I don't even know what's in there.

vog 11y ago
Good point. This is also what I do with projects that have some (partial) implementation. Local TODO/IDEAS files are a very good thing. However, most ideas didn't come to live (and probably never will), and I prefer to have those in a single file instead creating a separate file or directory for each topic. The reason is that some ideas are vague, and sometime I split or merge them.