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Beyond the Checkbox: Reimagining Productivity
Innovative Strategies to Replace Traditional To-Do Lists and Boost Your Efficiency
Last semester, I had the pleasure (yes, it was a pleasure!) of leading a workshop with a group of students on “Alternatives to To-Do Lists.” The idea came from the students themselves, who realized they were struggling to meet deadlines or at least having difficulties with them. They all had apps, lists, notebooks, reminder systems, and calendars. Yet, they still couldn’t quite get a handle on productivity and time management.
Todo-Lists are often frustrating
Our initial conclusion after a quick brainstorming session, which also served as our introduction to the topic, was that many people feel overwhelmed or frustrated by traditional to-do lists. We plan, schedule, check off completed tasks — and unfortunately, all too often, we don’t. At least for me and almost all the workshop participants, there are regularly a number of items left over at the end of the day that need to be postponed and, in the end, are often simply deleted. We just can’t bear to keep seeing them. After a brief discussion, we agreed that this has less to do with procrastination and distraction than with a very practical problem in dealing with productivity. Psychology, in other words.
