Jeff Atwood, answering the question, “What’s your best time-saving shortcut/life hack?”:Do not under any circumstances keep to-do lists or use to-do apps. If you can’t remember the most important things you need to do every day, you should work on that. And if you can’t remember something you “need” to do, it’s probably not worth doing in the first place.
Well … By this logic, shouldn’t you also refuse to keep a calendar? There’s a baby-out-with-the-bathwater element to this. No doubt, some people become obsessed with their to-do apps and project management software and life-hacking strategies, but for most of us these tools are simply helpful and don’t need to be treated as Enemies of Life. When I know that I’m going to have to turn in a form or finish a project by a certain day, or when on a Monday I sit down to think about the things that need to get done during the week, I write that stuff down for reference. Why exactly is that a problem? What is it interfering with or preventing or compromising?