Blogoff: Tactile To Do Lists
I would like to directly challenge Blake, my fellow blogger here on NewlyCorporate.com to a blogoff. I am throwing down and anything less than a well reasoned, multiple example defense from Blake will be seen as digital defeat, a binary white flag, a systematic surrender! Why you may ask? Blake is a proponent of online organization, a discipline for the myriad of web 2.0 tools out there, many of which we can both agree, are real time savers. I would like to part from the ways of the keyboard on one topic though: to-do lists.
Too often in today’s digital work environment we get so caught up in organizational tools and devices we forget how tactile or physical humans are. We spend all day lost in a haze of email, web 2.0, social networking and instant messaging then, when the day comes to an end we receive feedback digitally through these same devices, check our tasks off in an online system and go home without ever having the physical sensation of completion.
Whether we like it our not, humans put more weight behind the physical world, that may change in the future but, we still see physical plaques and diploma’s as more important than online email certificates, we measure our success in a very physical world, without physical completion to strive for, tasks often go undone. Thats why I personally find far more value in a physical to-do list (or lists, depending on the categorization, time frame, etc). I can actively checkoff an item rather than perform just another mouse click and have a tangible reminder of what I have done and list of blank checkboxes screaming to be filled. I can’t turn it off, I can’t forget to check it as it occupies a dedicated place on my desk and I have a tangible record of my achievement.
Bring the noise Blake, can a web 2.0 checklist beat my Staples 2.0 pad?
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2 Responses to “Blogoff: Tactile To Do Lists”
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September 25th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Personally, this has become my new favorite “to do” list at work: Emergent Task Planner.
A handy bit of paper in my day.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:48 am
[...] I spend too much time on the site and not enough time getting my tasks done. I reccommend a good old pencil and paper tactile to do list. It feels great to check things off physically and it’s a great record of all your tasks [...]