Optimising a TODO list
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
When I was in a similar situation with an enormous backlog (snigger) of bugs/enhancements on a product, I asked that everyone got together and put a priority 1-4 against them. It took a while, as at the same time I got them to do a 'finger-in-the-air' how much effort estimate. Once it was sorted I added the estimated times up and showed the team that, effectively, nothing below a priority of 2 was EVER going to get done - we had months worth of stuff to do on 1 and 2 priority, and knew realistically there would be more coming up. So we removed everything below priority 2. Moral improved overnight as there was light at the end of the tunnel. (I did keep copies of the lower priority tasks, Just In Case)
MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
The company I work for needs to clean up bad. We are not big, about 2,500 customers on our site, but there are TONS of tickets that a client might want done. Are we going to revamp the site every ticket we get from clients? Most likely not, unless it is a bug or we think it might be a future issue, then we address it. Sometimes you do just have to get rid of the junk TODO's and move on. Good job, get that list down!!!
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
I maintain 3 separate ToDo Lists viz. High priority, Medium priority, and Low priority. I follow something similar concept such as Generations (0,1,2) in GC :)
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
I had 37 work items overdue, so I decided to rearrange the timeline, and after a week now again 14 work items overdue. Sometimes it's just way too much work, but most of the time it's the work that you don't want to do...
Remind Me This - Manage, Collaborate and Execute your Project in the Cloud
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
I had lots of TODOs whose value over time become pointless comments. I used my favourite editor and regex'ed them into oblivion. Fairwell, Pointless ToDo, you served no purpose. Having said that, I use them but deal with them. Otherwise, they're neither useful nor ornamental.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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I'm a chronic list maker and one of my most guilt-laden, stress inducing lists is my TODO / Buglist. I've been collecting bugs and TODOs for this for over a decade and I decided that tonight was the night I'd do a big cleanup. Before: 676 items After: 79 items The most productive hour I've ever spent in my life. It doesn't hurt than many of the items are no longer applicable, have already been completed, or are ideas that really should not have made it onto the list in the first place. :beer: time
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Hi Chris, Not to sound like your maiden Aunt Sally, who always knows what's best for you ... but, do watch out for the "TAGS" syndrome (Temporary Absence of Guilt Symptoms), which can manifest in puzzling mental and physical ways, such as a strange compulsion to break all crockery in one's house, and shop compulsively for melamine replacements such as [^]. with concern, Bill
“Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection." Edward Sapir, 1929
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Hi Chris, Not to sound like your maiden Aunt Sally, who always knows what's best for you ... but, do watch out for the "TAGS" syndrome (Temporary Absence of Guilt Symptoms), which can manifest in puzzling mental and physical ways, such as a strange compulsion to break all crockery in one's house, and shop compulsively for melamine replacements such as [^]. with concern, Bill
“Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection." Edward Sapir, 1929
I never suffer from an absence of guilt. If I ever did it would make me feel guilty.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/is_it_worth_the_time.png[^] I have this printed out on my desk :)
I have that stuck to our main dev whiteboard in the office.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
