The number one problem I have with to-do lists? When I do them right, I get depressed. I have a lot of projects and a lot of stuff I should be doing. But if I write them all down and attempt to remember them all, then it is completely overwhelming and it sucks all the joy out of my life. There are just too damn many of them. If I try to get undepressed by doing as many of them as possible, I inevitably fail to meet my goals and feel even worse about myself.

There are only two possible solutions to this I can think of. One: don’t use a todo list. Only write down the things that are drop-dead important, meaning, your life will suffer or you will fail someone if you don’t get it done. And then rely on the rest of the things simply occurring to you in the moment if you really have to do them, and are at a place where you can do them without any planning, stress, or feelings of obligation.

That’s the solution I’m going with now.

The second solution? Some sort of todo list aid that is extremely, extremely good at hiding your task items. Using any possible method to PUT THEM OUT OF THE WAY. Hiding tasks that have earlier dependencies. Making tasks invisible if you want to “demote” them for a couple of weeks, to magically reappear at the requested date. Assigning them to “friendly categories” that then become invisible unless you are specifically in the mood to work on that category. Anyway, I am actually trying to write such an application - however, the problem is that since it isn’t on a todo list, I don’t always remember to work on it.