To Do or Not To Do… That is the Question.

This morning was all about writing the to-do list.  I'm a big believer in writing to-do lists.  Part of it is the ability to cross things over as they're done, and part of it is fading memory recall.  Usually I like a short, focused list.  Three items: breakfast, shower, write, dinner.  That is my favorite list.  Unfortunately, today's list has 26 items.  CRAZY! 

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One of those 26 items is this blog, so I'm doing the Escher to-do list, blogging about a to-do list which contains the blog.  Whoa, too much recursion for this early.

I have tried several to-do list applications and they work well, but nothing works better than the paper next to my desk.    I tried "Things" which is very pretty, but you have to sync it, it does not sync automatically, which is a total pain and very surprising for an application whose visual interface required so much thought.

Things

I next tried Omni-Focus, which I like even better than Things, but it's very militant and you have to adapt to it.  The one advantage to Omni-Focus is that it has context.  So I can have a "High School" context, and all the questions or errands that I need to ask/do at the high school, are located in one place.  Very smart.  Alas, Omni-focus is not cheap, although one many's pricy is another man's occupy wall street protest, so it's all in your context.

 

Omni Focus

When I was a Windows gal, I used the to-do system in Outlook, which I think is awesome and the way a to-do list will work.  I just upgraded to OS X lion, which updated the mail and calendar, so I'll play around with that and see if it emulated the Outlook to-do functionality.  I'm noticing that "Reminders" is a lot spiffier than before, so maybe Apple did do some work on it.

Any other list-makers out there?  Do you use paper or an electronic to-do app?

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