July 12, 2026
Re: Stated vs Revealed Preferences
Long-time friend of the list and frequent contributor, Clemens Adolphs replied to my Stated vs Revealed Preferences message from a few days ago, wondering if perhaps friction in a todo tracking system was a feature, not a bug (shared with permission):
That’s why some people swear by using paper (bullet journal?) for their todos. The extra friction of manually migrating yesterday’s todos to today means you spend an extra moment to think if you really want to do it.
Also: Time blocking has a few similar forcing-functions of facing reality: If you make a time-block plan for the day, you have to admit that you can’t do everything your overly optimistic self thought it would do. And if you note when and how you go off-plan, you can also identify certain realities, like if you’re a chronic under-estimator, or if you have to constantly drop what you’re doing to fire-fight something you should just take proper care of.
Anyway, enjoying the nerding out about productivity.
My reply:
re paper to-do lists:
I can see how the friction would naturally cause things to drop off, but it’s REALLY hard for me to imagine dealing with all the other friction associated with a paper to-do list.
Simple example:
If I have a to-do to “Review sales page for Dave”, it will have a direct link to the Google Doc where the draft lives.
Most of my work-related to-dos link to the stuff I need to focus on to complete the task.
Not being able to link to digital assets is a complete non-starter for me because I’d have to remember where everything was. Yuck! :-)
re time-blocking has a similar forcing function:
I can see that. I just think the calendar is a terrible app for managing to-dos.
Others here on the list have argued that that is part of the forcing function - i.e., it’s such a pita to move the incomplete tasks from today to tomorrow that they’re more likely to do them today.
I guess I buy that, but I don’t trust myself not to let things fall through the cracks that way.
re nerding out about productivity
I’ve been thinking about time-management systems quite a bit recently because I’m working on a new book about the system I’ve used to stay productive for the last 20 years.
Unlike classics like Getting Things Done by David Allen or the time-blocking stuff in Deep Work by Cal Newport, mine is written specifically for people like me:
i.e., business owners who work from home and have lives that require something more flexible than garden-variety day planning.
It’s ESPECIALLY useful for folks who have separated their time from their income, which is why I suspect it’ll be relevant to y’all on the daily list.
Stay tuned!
Yours,
—J