actualNoteContentPart: ## The user contribution: constantly mixing up "important" & "urgent" with "recent"
  While the impotence of todo lists is problematic, there's enough blame left over to share some with the user. The most common problem with todo list users? [Our]()  ongoing refusal to pick apart what is "important" or "urgent" from what is merely "recent." Many todo list apps offer a single "Starred" or "Priority" designation for tasks that conflates the three concepts, making things worse. This matters when considering how a classic todo list accumulates garbage over time:
  
  
  Classic to-do lists shuffle older tasks to the bottom, where they have little hope of getting attention and lead to feelings of overwhelm
  
  
  The promise of a todo list is that it will tame the overstimulated world modern humans navigate. Yet, the more a todo list is used, the more exhausting it becomes. Consider the visualization above: which of the gray shaded tasks are the best prospect during Week N? Without a compass to guide focus, the oldest tasks sink to the bottom, making it ever-more unpleasant to visit the nether regions of your todo list.
  
  Our modest proposal is that users do a favor to Future You and consider whether that newly added task is important, urgent or just new? Here is how we characterize the difference between the three:
  
  An "important" task is one where **the task objective is aligned with a personal/business goal**.
  
  An "urgent" task is one where** your personal/business wellbeing depends on some task being completed within the next day or three**. 
  
  A "new" task is one where **it was added recently**.
  
  Squint closely and you might see why we prefer to work on tasks that are important, urgent, and recent, in that order. 🧐  
  
  In the context of our evolutionary history, it's forgivable that we instinctively mix up "recency" and "urgency." What's less acceptable is that we keep making the same damn mistake, day after day. Here is an experiment for current todo list users to try: make yourself wait as long as possible (ideally 1-2+ days) before taking up a newly added task. You can experience firsthand how clarifying and unsatisfying it is to escape the clutches of recency-based list sorting. The "unsatisfying" feeling of abstaining from shiny new tasks proves that you're not just working on this because it's going to be fun 🤡. You're working on it because, after considering it relative to other opportunities, it is best aligned with your goals. In the Amplenote world, we would label that task "[Important](https://images.amplenote.com/96c65ff2-98c1-11ea-8cbd-ba8f9d97df1f/e80c9c32-ab19-4a83-930e-fe9c39fe4cd5.png) ."
processedNoteContent: ---
  title: Classic to-do lists don't work
  headers: ## The user contribution: constantly mixing up "important" & ...
  ---
  The user contribution: constantly mixing up "important" & "urgent" with "recent"
  While the impotence of todo lists is problematic, there's enough blame left over to share some with the user. The most common problem with todo list users? [Our]()
    ongoing refusal to pick apart what is "important" or "urgent" from what is merely "recent." Many todo list apps offer a single "Starred" or "Priority" designation for tasks that conflates the three concepts, making things worse. This matters when considering how a classic todo list accumulates garbage over time: Classic to-do lists shuffle older tasks to the bottom, where they have little hope of getting attention and lead to feelings of overwhelm The promise of a todo list is that it will tame the overstimulated world modern humans navigate. Yet, the more a todo list is used, the more exhausting it becomes. Consider the visualization above: which of the gray shaded tasks are the best prospect during Week N? Without a compass to guide focus, the oldest tasks sink to the bottom, making it ever-more unpleasant to visit the nether regions of your todo list. Our modest proposal is that users do a favor to Future You and consider whether that newly added task is important, urgent or just new? Here is how we characterize the difference between the three: An "important" task is one where the task objective is aligned with a personal/business goal
  . An "urgent" task is one where** your personal/business wellbeing depends on some task being completed within the next day or three**. A "new" task is one where it was added recently
  . Squint closely and you might see why we prefer to work on tasks that are important, urgent, and recent, in that order. 🧐 In the context of our evolutionary history, it's forgivable that we instinctively mix up "recency" and "urgency." What's less acceptable is that we keep making the same damn mistake, day after day. Here is an experiment for current todo list users to try: make yourself wait as long as possible (ideally 1-2+ days) before taking up a newly added task. You can experience firsthand how clarifying and unsatisfying it is to escape the clutches of recency-based list sorting. The "unsatisfying" feeling of abstaining from shiny new tasks proves that you're not just working on this because it's going to be fun 🤡. You're working on it because, after considering it relative to other opportunities, it is best aligned with your goals. In the Amplenote world, we would label that task " [Important](https://images.amplenote.com)`
   ."
noteTitle: Classic to-do lists don't work