PTPL 135 · This is Why To Do Apps Fail and What I’m Using Instead

Joyfully slotting the Wonderland222 planner into my task management workflow

Image by the Author

Digital task lists, paper planner

My Wonderland222 2025 planner arrived this week, and it’s as beautiful as I’d hoped! I love how it fits into my Paper Saver folder, along with enough scrap paper for free-form scribbling. I bought the A5 core planner with unstacked weekends. I’m in Australia and saved shipping by purchasing from the Favourite Things website.

This is how the W222 fits into my current task management workflow:

• Capture - paper (There’s always an A4 sheet folded to A7 in my EDC), Master Task List (a vanilla text file), Apple Reminders (for voice notes)
• Organise - Move captured tasks to Master Task list and give each a tag based on when I intend to do it: this week, this month, next month, long term
• Do - Use queries to review the This Week tasks and write a daily to do list in my planner that contains 2 must-do tasks (excluding routine chores), and an additional 7–8 that would be good-to-do.

This is why To Do apps fail

Clive Thompson’s deep dive into the reasons so many people switch so often between To Do apps and systems and end up feeling overwhelmed with most of them is a good read.

I began to realize that a big part of our problem lies deeper than interfaces or list-making. It’s in the nature of time itself, and our relationship to it. — Clive Thompson

He describes the Why behind what I have found to be true: it’s the underpinning foundation rather than the system for getting things done that usually needs the most work.

Apps, lists, and calendars can help us put our priorities in order, sure. But only we can figure out what those goals are. And setting limits on what we hope to do is philosophically painful. Every to-do list is a midlife crisis of unfulfilled promise. — Clive Thompson

Everything we do, or plan to do, needs to be connected to the bedrock of our values.

Carl Pullein’s resources have been life-changingly helpful in lifting me from the mire of self-flagellation over unfinished tasks. I have his Your Time Your Way book, and have studied his free resources on top of that. I highly recommend Carl’s time and task management approach.

If apps are working for you, that’s great! If you’re a serial switcher who spends more time on the system than the work it’s designed to help you get done, it might be time for some radical simplification. Start with paper and pen and see where it leads you.

Apologies for the broken link in my Christmas message. The Australian Nativity colouring page is back where it should be.

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