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I do similar to manage my stack — without it, more often than not, I find myself with a "blown stack." But these days, I'm actually using physical index cards.

I do similar to manage my stack — without it, more often than not, I find myself with a "blown stack." But these days, I'm actually using physical index cards. I've given up on todo apps — even ones that provide arbitrary nesting/trees (e.g. org-mode, Worfklowy, etc.). I've considered using a simple stickies app, but there's something about pencil and paper that I find beneficial — or at the least, comforting — and I haven't quite put my finger on it. Not sure if it's the ability to do free-form sketching, or that I can quickly physically shuffle/order/arrange the cards, or that I can jot things down without needing to be at my computer/on a mobile device — or just being able to step/look away from a screen for a bit. I'm thinking most likely it's that whatever added functionality or benefits I would get from using an app to manage this stuff would be offset by me fiddling around with features, settings, tweaks, etc., and screwing around "evaluating" different tools.

Karunamon 13y ago
That's the same thing I've run into. It's a never ending cycle of trying an app (I love Omnifocus, it's just too much to deal with at times), reverting to something simpler (stickies app), yearning for some extra piece of functionality that doesn't exist (gee it would be nice if...), and then repeating the whole cycle over again. I think meta-productivity is just too much damn fun to leave alone.
khalilravanna 13y ago
I'm the exact same way: I need a physical medium when it comes to notes, etc. I discussed it with a another friend of mine (a business guy) who similarly prefers notes/notebooks and we seemed to hone in on the fact that its superiority over non-physical mediums comes from its freeform nature. The freeform nature allows you to record things in a format that more accurately models the way your mind works. This makes it easier to come back to and have your brain go "Aha yes I have a memory stored for this data because I created this note". With a physical medium, you're never (or at least, much less so) forced into any format that was created by another person (to-do apps, etc.).

Karunamon 13y ago

That's the same thing I've run into. It's a never ending cycle of trying an app (I love Omnifocus, it's just too much to deal with at times), reverting to something simpler (stickies app), yearning for some extra piece of functionality that doesn't exist (gee it would be nice if...), and then repeating the whole cycle over again. I think meta-productivity is just too much damn fun to leave alone.

khalilravanna 13y ago

I'm the exact same way: I need a physical medium when it comes to notes, etc. I discussed it with a another friend of mine (a business guy) who similarly prefers notes/notebooks and we seemed to hone in on the fact that its superiority over non-physical mediums comes from its freeform nature. The freeform nature allows you to record things in a format that more accurately models the way your mind works. This makes it easier to come back to and have your brain go "Aha yes I have a memory stored for this data because I created this note". With a physical medium, you're never (or at least, much less so) forced into any format that was created by another person (to-do apps, etc.).