diego's blog

A new way to build a personal task backlog

I often go down rabbit holes, for things that should not have required it, or even if they did, maybe not at that time.

This are not necessarily tasks that are easily executed: it's not a problem about execution, it's a problem about caring.

I had the idea the other day to find how hard is to travel from Uruguay to Machu Pichu with the least amount of carbon emissions while still being able to work. Do I really care about this idea?

In the moment I would say an absolute yes, I would take my phone and start doing some research. This is not an easy question to ask, and after an hour on the phone I could still be as far from answering it as I could be. Was it worth it?

I'm tinkering with a new system to evaluate all such things: add them to a list, and increment a counter whenever I think about them, or once a week. If the counter gets high enough: act, otherwise don't, and ignore.

This might not be the best approach to everyone: but if you are biased for action as I am, but also get bored fast and excited about new things: things might work very well for you.

I'm planning on keeping a subset of tasks updated here so that you can see how the system works. Should be fun!