[...]Noise in the Mix: the Trap of Repeating Tasks | Hanami Design[...]…

In my experience, though, a few well honed routines go a long way and we already probably do a few: daily and weekly reviews.

I usually don’t forget much, but I find really useful to have an app that reminds me multiple times in case I get distracted or try to procrastinate.

What I’m really finding is that I’m using the tools as excuses not to do something (I topic I’m really interested in writing about). I’ve been using GTD and taking good notes long enough I don’t forget much, but no system or tool has stopped me from putting things off. They aren’t giving me self-discipline, which is where my focus needs to be.

Basically I just need to do what needs to be done and throw away the crutches.

I’m a big fan of tickler files, but not in the traditional sense (meaning they are not scheduled). I like having a few notes that remind me of things not within projects or easily captured in a task manager.

This way I’m not distracted by these tasks on my calendar and they don’t show up on my task list or in my reviews.

A benefit of Due is that it constantly nags me until I actually defer the task or complete it. When I defer the task too often it feels like I didn’t keep a commitment with myself, so I usually complete all the tasks I put on this list.

For me this works much better than a single reminder from a calendar or task which I fail to notice or simply forgot. I often noticed I forgot about simple tasks I put on my calendar during my Weekly Review, put them back on the calendar and then forgot about them again.

Another great method to keep noise levels down is to schedule tasks in the future similar to a Tickler file. My current GTD app doesn’t show them on my Next Action list until 2 days before the task was scheduled.