Why I Stopped Using a To-Do List

A year ago, I was sitting writing my focus list.

It occurred to me that the way I choose what makes it onto my list today had evolved from trying to work on too many things at once.

That is essentially where Eightly came from.

Not from a desire to create another productivity system, or a better to-do list, but from a practical problem I kept running into. I was overwhelmed by too much coming in, and no clear way to decide what deserved my attention today.

As a software developer, part of my job was to distil bigger problems into smaller, more manageable pieces. A large system was never built all at once. It had to be broken down, understood, shaped and worked through piece by piece.

In many ways, I had to think like an author.
I couldn’t write the whole book in one day. I had to work through it a section at a time.
Perhaps that is why I write software.

I noticed that on some days I was very busy, but nothing moved. I was working hard, answering things, dealing with requests and keeping myself occupied, but I wasn’t making meaningful progress.

I was treading water, but barely keeping my head above the surface.

The problem was that my focus was in the wrong place.

I used a to-do list, which at the time seemed efficient.
First in, first out.

Something arrived, I added it. Something didn’t get done, I carried it forward.
Each day I would add new things and move unfinished items to the following day. By the end of the week, I would have a list of twenty or more things sitting there.

Some of them were important.
Some could wait.
Some were urgent.
Some were only there because they had been there yesterday.

I had plenty to do. What I didn't have was a clear way to choose what mattered today.
I needed some logic to help me separate the important things from everything else.

My solution was to create a focus list. A daily focus list.

I would start each day with a clean list.
That gave me a chance to choose again. I could decide what still mattered that day, rather than simply carrying yesterday forward.

Over time, I found a few simple questions useful.

Does it move something forward?
Will it prevent a problem?
Does it enable others?
Does it bring something to a close?
Will it restore balance?
Can it wait?

These questions helped me choose.

My list was no longer a storage area. It became a list of focus, a list with direction.
But knowing why something had earned a place on the list changed the list itself.

It helped me see the difference between activity and progress.

It helped me make better choices.
That is the difference between a to-do list and a focus list.

A to-do list stores what might need doing.
A focus list asks what needs my attention today.

You write. You reflect. You return.
Do what matters. Every day.