BoxTofu

I’ve used a lot of productivity apps. I’ve come up with my own productivity strategies as well. When it comes down to it, nothing as really worked for me. Things was good and RememberTheMilk was good (In fact, this is what I use now), but I’ve never been able to stick with one system for longer than a couple of months before burning out on it. Sure, maybe it’s because I’m not disciplined enough. Maybe it’s because it’s lazy. I say it’s neither of those things. I say it’s because my to-do lists don’t give me enough “incentive” to get things done. Here’s what I think:

Punishing To-Do Lists

Right now, if I don’t get one of my to-dos, what happens? It gets underlined and bolded, to get my attention. After a while, too many things get like that, and I just stop noticing them until I clean up. There’s no real incentive to get some things done (besides the things I really have to get done for work, etc).

My idea is that to-do lists should punish you for not getting things done. In theory, you could input a bunch of different “punishments” that could be done, but I think it shouldn’t tell you what it will do until after you’ve failed to finish something and mark it off as done. Maybe there’d be an option to make you have someone else approve something as done (like your boss, perhaps?). Here are some ideas for “punishments” your to-do list could do on you if you failed to be on time:

• It changes some of your passwords online
• It sends out an embarrassing Tweet in your name (hopefully the to-do list would have a database of embarrassing things to Tweet so you’d never know what it is and be surprised).
• All of your music gets deleted
• It breaks you up with your girlfriend / boyfriend on Facebook.
• It installs Spyware on your computer
• A group of folders / files get renamed “Porn” and “more porn”
• Your Facebook status is updated to “I’m a scrub, I’m lazy, and I do inappropriate things with animals.”
• Inverts your keyboard

The list goes on and on. I say make the punishment really bad – make it so you have no choice but to get things done. That’s real incentive.

To-Do Lists That Take Your Money

Another idea, which is a little more altruistic, is to set your to-do list up with your credit card and your favorite charities. For every day something doesn’t get done, you send $5 to a charity. Or, better yet, you send that money to me

Desktop Items

I’m a big fan of beautiful desktops. I also think that desktop images should be seen, and not covered by hundreds of icons. I can only speak for myself, but I’m one of those people who gets embarrassed about my dirty computer desktop if it’s messy. It’s about on the same level showing someone my apartment when I haven’t cleaned up. I can’t stand messy desktops, and I’m always looking for ways to make mine blank. I often end up using it as a kind of “to-do” list, because when there’s something on my desktop, it means there’s something that needs to get done, and I think it’s the same for others as well. That got me thinking…

My idea is to create an application that adds a countdown timer to files and folders that are on your desktop. A good ol’ 10, 9, 8 … 3, 2, 1 countdown would do, but I’m sure you’d be able to choose what number you want to use. You would be able to associate length to each number to (for example, you could make “one” worth 24 hours, 1 hour, 1 minute, etc), and it would count down based on the numbers you specify.

The fun part, though, is what happens when the timer hits zero. Each file / folder will have a countdown on it, depending on when it was added to the desktop. Once that timer goes to zero, your file gets deleted. And even crazier, it gets emptied from the trash to. You lose it forever! That would certainly get me to clean up my desktop, since I wouldn’t want to lose anything on there. It’s a win-win. Your desktop is cleaner, and you’re getting more done!

How do you get things done?

I use a combination of to-do lists and RememberTheMilk. I’ve also been writing things down lately. Anything creative that you do to stay on top of things?