There are two kinds of to-do lists: lists for what we have to do and lists for what we want to do.
A lot of applications available today focus on what we have to do. They offer features like team collaboration, calendar integration, and file sharing. This ‘business first’ approach can make these apps indispensable for the corporate world, but what about life outside the office?
When it comes to places we want to see and things we want to do, modern applications are ill-equipped. Their features focus too much on addressing workplace needs. A primary reason for a to-do list in the fist place is to bring order and simplicity to your life. If you have too many features you can become overwhelmed. Simplicity is paramount for to-do apps and is why trying to effectively offer an app for both work and life often ends in failure.
The myopic view of what a to-do list is (or should be) is pervasive throughout the productivity industry. It is so commonplace to see the same type of to-do apps that we really only tend to think of them as fulfilling the need for meeting reminders or project tasks. But to-do apps can be so much more.
Traditional to-do lists and apps have always focused on ‘actionable verbs’. Words like run, meet, send, and pick up are all easy to find in the average to-do task. They reflect the common habit of tracking microwork. This is great in an environment where status details matter and projects have long time horizons with lots of steps and stakeholders. However, supporting ‘actionable verbs’ determines the functionality (and features) of a to-do app.
On the other hand, ‘actionable nouns’ have a different impact more in line with tracking things we want to do. These nouns could be restaurants, locations, books, and more. What makes them actionable is that their related actions are implicit. They don’t require clarification or extra verbs. They stand on their own. The predictable nature of ‘actionable nouns’ allows you to anticipate the information necessary to act on them. It’s difficult for a traditional to-do app to know what information you need when your task is ’email Sara’, but it’s easy to think of what might be useful information related to a business or a book.
All of us have things we want to do. Having a list (physical or virtual) can help a lot for tracking them and taking action. But it’s time to stop tracking them alongside the things we have to do. Bucket lists have been used for ages to separately record the major ‘actionable nouns’ we wish to take on. Take that same goal-oriented focus a bucket list inspires and channel it into a new type of to-do list.
How you choose to keep this want-to-do list is up to you, but you will come to find that keeping a list for work and a list for play (and keeping them separate) will help you experience more.
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