to do list

your brain is not a filing cabinet

here's a fun experiment: try to remember everything you need to do this week without writing it down. groceries, emails, appointments, that thing your partner mentioned three days ago, the bill that's due friday...

how'd that go? probably not great. and that's not because you're forgetful — it's because your brain wasn't designed for storage. it was designed for processing.

the case for writing it all down

david allen nailed this decades ago with GTD: your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. every task sitting in your head is using up cognitive bandwidth. it's like having 47 browser tabs open — technically they're all "there," but everything runs slower.

a to-do list isn't just organization porn. it's a genuine cognitive upgrade. when you externalize your tasks, you free up mental resources for actual thinking and doing.

what makes a good system

not all to-do lists are created equal. that sticky note buried under your keyboard isn't cutting it. your system needs three things:

accessibility — it needs to be available everywhere. phone, computer, wherever you are when a task pops into your head
reminders — it needs to nudge you. if you forget about the list, the list is useless
simplicity — if it takes more than 10 seconds to add a task, you won't use it consistently

apps like todoist, things 3, or even apple reminders work. a paper notebook works too, if you actually carry it everywhere. the best system is the one you'll actually use.

the real benefit

the magic isn't in checking things off (though that dopamine hit is nice). the real benefit is the mental clarity that comes from knowing nothing is falling through the cracks. you stop carrying that low-grade anxiety of "am I forgetting something?" because the answer is always right in front of you.

stop trusting your memory. start trusting your system.

if this resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it.