As a project manager, I find it difficult to balance my time between project tasks, project management tasks, functional tasks, and supervisory tasks. Until recently, I thought a to-do list was a silver bullet for my lagging productivity. Surely if I just write down all my tasks and check them off as I complete them, I’ll start getting everything done – right?
Not so much. After trying all kinds of different applications, sticky notes, and iPhone apps, I finally realized something – my to-do list sucks. Obviously a list of things to do isn’t going to help – it’s just a list of things! A to-do list is like a siren that sings a sweet song promising productivity, but crashes your ship.