A Love Story

Because Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to write this article about the love of my life. I am not ashamed to admit that my love and I spend a lot of time together. It may sound cliché, but my love is the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep at night. I rely heavily on my love for support, guidance and a sense of peace and well-being. As long as I have my love by my side, I know that I have everything I need.

Please allow me to introduce you to my love, my life, and the one I genuinely can’t live without: my to-do list app, Todoist.

Before we go any further, I promise you that I’m not here to encourage you to use a specific app. I’m not sponsored, and this is not an #ad. I just want you all to find inner peace (and maybe true love) by writing things down.

You see, the human brain developed to not only move your body, but to help you with higher-order thinking skills. Your brain is meant to help you solve problems and express yourself creatively, not to remember what you need to work on during ERC or what to bring to your IB Spanish oral exam next week.

I have no shame in admitting that my brain is a terrible storage device. I’m excellent at thinking clearly and creatively, but I’m terrible at trying to think clearly and creatively when I also have to remember which club’s meeting in the library after school today and how many chairs need to be set up. The key to thinking clearly and creatively without forgetting things is to write everything - yes, everything - down. I write down important tasks that I need to accomplish, birthdays, reminders to pay bills and even to send texts to friends or family. I also write down small tasks, questions that I have and things that I want to look up. If I’m not going to do it right

now, I write it down and promptly forget about it until I open the app back up again.

As I was drafting this article, Ms. Kimani stopped by the library and we made plans to have an IB uploading party in a few weeks. As we were tossing ideas around, I grabbed my phone to put a few reminders into my Todoist.

Once I write down what needs to be remembered, I can forget about it until it pops back up. Today I set my reminders about the upload party for “tomorrow”; tomorrow, they’ll appear as tasks to complete. This is how I remember to post Extended Essay Schoology updates, send birthday emails and set up the library for different events. I plan things out when I have the time, schedule tasks and reminders for when I need them, and then I move on with my life. Writing things down isn't a sophisticated life hack, but it's a quick and easy way to look organized and impress everyone around you.

I’ve been faithful to Todoist since we first got together in September of 2020, but I think it’s important to explore one’s options before committing to a relationship or a to-do list app. For many years, I used a paper agenda. After I went digital, however, I ended up with multiple calendars, lists and places that I wrote important information down. After flirting with many different apps, I settled down with Todoist and my every thought goes there now. Everything is in one place, and that’s what helps me rest so easily. It’s still possible to forget to write something down, but I’ll never again forget where I wrote something down.

The uses for a to-do list app are endless for students. For school work, the obvious things to write down are homework deadlines, important class reminders, meetings with teachers and even when to wear your House shirt or PE uniform. For clubs, planning projects and events becomes much easier with shared to-do lists. Making your own to-do list in Notes or in a Google Doc is a good start, but a to-do list app does the work for you, organizing your tasks by date, project, priority or person that’s assigned to the task. For my Extended Essay tasks, I can view everything that’s labeled as “Extended Essay”, or only what’s labeled “class of 2024”, or only what’s assigned to Mr. O’Bryant.

No matter how you keep track of your homework, tasks, appointments and birthdays, I encourage you to stop using your brain as external storage and to start writing things down. Who knows - you may also find true love in the process!

(Photograph via Todoist)