Week 1: Ta-Da!
Creating a more playful and effective to-do list.
Part of my ongoing 10 Bad Weeks design challenge.
How might I make each day just a littttle more fun? This question was the source of my inspiration for the first project in 10 Bad Weeks, and what led me to reimagine the classic to-do list.
Process Shots
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Further Notes...
This section will contain a few rough notes from the week, including learning moments, areas of improvement, and things I found fun, curious, or intriguing. If these musings spark any thoughts or questions for you, I would love to hear about it.
Accurately defining a problem (and its entangled root causes) is one of the most challenging aspects of design (and probably many other human endeavors). For example, one impetus for Ta-da! is that my to-do list is (1) making me feel crummy and (2) isn't helping me make progress on the things I care about most.
There are a ton of potential causes driving this outcome, stretching from small elements of my to-do list itself (like it's low structure or poor salience), all the way to how I define success, pick my projects, and react to failure.
This week, I took more time documenting my process than I normally do. I found that taking photos and filming the various steps offered a glimpse into a third-person-ish perspective, which opened up new insights into not only the design itself but the process behind it.
It might take more effort up front, but I already can see how an on-going and structured documentation process can teach me a lot and I look forward to incorporating these steps more formally into my projects.
Initially, I felt a TON of stress around this project. "What will people think?" "This is so low-tech.. maybe I shouldn't share.." Etc. Etc. Etc. My negativity gremlin, Mr. Bad, in full effect.
But, toward the end, something unlocked. I started laughing during my video takes, especially when making my little Ta-da! sounds. After that, the rest of the project just flowed.
So, laugh. Don't take it so seriously. And figure out ways to have fun, especially when the project is a little more stressful.
Finally, like most projects, this blog is a work in progress. I plan to iterate and change things up to figure out what works. If you have any ideas of things you think would be interesting, feel free to let me know in a comment below!
With care,
Max
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