ToDon’tList

Creative people have many things to do and even more ideas. But most of these never get done, and even brilliant ideas never see the light of day. Why? If you ask a creative person, the answer will always revolve around time. We simply need time to execute an idea (and do it well)—more time than we have.

The ToDon’tList App supports you in making the hardest choices: what will and won’t you do.

— How it works
You have 3 lists — a Do list, a Done list, ​and a ToDon’tList. You can only put 3 items on your Do list. The rest of your to-dos automatically go on your ToDon’tList.

When you’ve finished a task, the corresponding to-do will be transferred to your Done list (giving a nice sense of accomplishment). This will leave space for a new item on your Do list, which will be added from your ToDon’tList.

Tasks remaining on your ToDon’tList for longer than 3 months automatically disappear, without notification. After all, if they had been important enough, you would have done something about them by that time.


— Background
Once a psychologist was invited to the Pentagon to give a workshop to generals on time management. He asked the group to each write down in 25 words what their strategy had been so far for managing their time.

Nearly all generals already hit a wall there. 25 words were too little. The only one who succeeded in completing the task was the only female general at the gathering. She came up with the following strategy: “First I make a list of priorities: one, two, three, and so on. Then I cross out everything from three downwards.”

What the general had done was turn her to-dos into to-don’ts. She placed all her to-dos on a to-don’t list and only chose three to-dos to complete. Anything below the line would simply not get done. This gave her more time to do those 3 things well.

Just like the general, you can only place three items on your DoList. The other items stay on your ToDon’tList.

This general’s method is a simple, but an extremely effective way of making choices. It inspired this app, which in turn inspired a book (‘Don’t Read This Book, Time Management for Creative People’).