Have Done List
To-do lists don't work. Rather, I should say that they work for their intended purpose, which is to remind you that there is something that you should be doing, but not for the purpose that many people use them for, which is as a way to try to get themselves to do things that they don't really want to do.
The problem that I had with to-do lists (back when I was stupid and tried to use them in that way) was that I would get behind and feel guilty, and then I would avoid looking at my to-do list. Then I forgot things that I actually would have done had I remembered, and my to-do list became just one more complication in life. So basically, bad stuff.
More recently, I've stopped trying to get myself to do things that I don't really want to, which makes me quite a bit happier, although not really more productive.
So how to actually become more productive? My current idea comes from a couple of facts about human psychology. First: visualizing the goal is a bad idea. It means that when you fail to live up to your goal, you're disheartened and end up quitting; nearly the exact scenario I found myself in. Second: The best way to lose weight is to write down everything you eat.
It strikes me that productivity is a similar situation to weight loss, and that a much better approach to productivity would be to write down everything that you've done, rather than everything that you're going to do. That way, when you look back on the things that you've done, you either feel good about what you've achieved, or you feel immediately motivated to get something done.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had this idea, and, if so, how they implemented it. The problem with writing down activities, as opposed to food, is that you do a lot during a day. This could cause a bit of a burden that isn't there with keeping a simple food diary.
For an online solution, you could use Google Calendar or something, but it seems like that would be a bit annoying to fill out in retrospect. Something I think would be a much better approach would be a sort of dropbox where you type in something like "Read Discworld last 2 hours", and it would take that input and construct a calendar from it automatically. That way you could log your time with just one sentence. You could use it over SMS if you wanted to log time on a cell phone, or you could have it read your twitter feed (if you're one of those people that tweets things like "Just spent 5 min in the bathroom OH MY").
I suppose, if no one else has made it, I should get working on it. Just having it for me would be worth it.
EDIT: I posted this immediately after I thought of it, so I googled "Have Done List" immediately afterward, and found that there were a few other people that had the same idea. However, I think my idea for a web application for it is fairly unique.
The problem that I had with to-do lists (back when I was stupid and tried to use them in that way) was that I would get behind and feel guilty, and then I would avoid looking at my to-do list. Then I forgot things that I actually would have done had I remembered, and my to-do list became just one more complication in life. So basically, bad stuff.
More recently, I've stopped trying to get myself to do things that I don't really want to, which makes me quite a bit happier, although not really more productive.
So how to actually become more productive? My current idea comes from a couple of facts about human psychology. First: visualizing the goal is a bad idea. It means that when you fail to live up to your goal, you're disheartened and end up quitting; nearly the exact scenario I found myself in. Second: The best way to lose weight is to write down everything you eat.
It strikes me that productivity is a similar situation to weight loss, and that a much better approach to productivity would be to write down everything that you've done, rather than everything that you're going to do. That way, when you look back on the things that you've done, you either feel good about what you've achieved, or you feel immediately motivated to get something done.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had this idea, and, if so, how they implemented it. The problem with writing down activities, as opposed to food, is that you do a lot during a day. This could cause a bit of a burden that isn't there with keeping a simple food diary.
For an online solution, you could use Google Calendar or something, but it seems like that would be a bit annoying to fill out in retrospect. Something I think would be a much better approach would be a sort of dropbox where you type in something like "Read Discworld last 2 hours", and it would take that input and construct a calendar from it automatically. That way you could log your time with just one sentence. You could use it over SMS if you wanted to log time on a cell phone, or you could have it read your twitter feed (if you're one of those people that tweets things like "Just spent 5 min in the bathroom OH MY").
I suppose, if no one else has made it, I should get working on it. Just having it for me would be worth it.
EDIT: I posted this immediately after I thought of it, so I googled "Have Done List" immediately afterward, and found that there were a few other people that had the same idea. However, I think my idea for a web application for it is fairly unique.