Give an engineer a problem…

As I walked in the indoor track at the local YMCA, I could see the hordes of people playing badminton below (the track is in the 2nd floor) and idly thought of the general health of my family, and how it would be good for all of us to be more active in general. This led me to think about what could be done to naturally get us to be active. I was reminded of the habit stacking idea from the Atomic Habits book, and quickly decided that going to bed early, with our exercise clothes laid out, or even slept in, might do the trick. This led to thinking about how reminders dont work because they always ring at a fixed time, and you might be doing something else that came up at that time. This led to thinking about how a daily schedule is essentially a hard problem to solve, so much so that there is at least one application I know of that uses a dedicated solver to schedule the doings of complex institutions like colleges and factories. In a consumer setting, the best you have is Google Calender, maybe? There are better paid solutions out there too.

But even if you bought a solution, would it really matter if it kept rearranging your chaotic life? Instead, how about setting up a few themes - work, spouse, kids, hobbies - for example, and the percentage of time you’d want to spend on them in a week, and have software manage that for you. Of course, you’d need an app, and an app can only show a limited number of themes and still be effective. Would ten suffice? Yes, let’s call it “Ten things that matter” - TTTM - nay, T3M - there!

Within minutes as I walked my paces, I’d gone from problem to fully formed idea for an app!

The input problem, though…

The problem with every software app, however, is that you still have to tell it when things change in the world. Sure, it could prompt you, and make it easier to input the change in state, but its still ignorant of changes in the world itself. Sure, you could attach sensors and make the input easier, and almost automated even, but it still is not in this world. And sure, there are many companies that have spent a lot of money making this easy for you for some price that you pay; but even those solutions a) come with a price and b) work within the bounds defined by the solution provider.

My luddite pitch aka “There are software systems, and just systems”

Maybe there shouldnt be an app sometimes? I recently solved the problem of my teenager who’d forget to take their lunch by placing the lunchbox right on top of their shoes. This beat all the reminders both they and I had setup. And while this sounds like habit stacking, there’s a subtle different, I think. Its not that I stacked the “pick up lunchbox” atop the “wear footwear to school” habit. Instead, I just made it hard to avoid picking up the lunchbox by putting it right in the way of wearing footwear. It’s still a system, and for want of a name, let’s call it forced habit.

But there are many such “systems”. I’m constantly amazed at many people in my life who do so much without todo lists and reminders, while I cannot operate a single day without a multitude of them. I have a bad memory, I explained to everyone, until everyone just believed me. And it’s likely true too. However, one of those people also said: I’m able to do all these things from memory because I care and prioritize them. Their “system” is to constantly think about the top things that matter to them. That sounds like my pompous T3M system in practice, except without the costly app build-out and the additional input needed.

Do what works, but stay in control

Maybe the ultimate system is to just do whatever works. I have my own mini-system for what I carry on my person: wallet in one pocket, keys in the other and so forth, so that just the presence/absence of weight in a particular pocket is reminder enough. For work I’ve tried every kind of task tracker, and settled on just writing it down somewhere. If its important enough, it’ll either return to my active memory and get done, or remain in my collective storage locations - hard disk or online sharing portal - until seen and acted upon, or searched for. Sometimes I use multiple reminders becuase I know I’ll ignore them.

So applications do have their place, especially when combined with whatever works in the real world. What does seem useful, however, is to not rely on too dedicated an application for a particular goal. Such an app does make things easy, but only till your use is aligned with it’s design. This is probably why universal applications like text editors, note taking apps and spreadsheets are most used - they do not tie you down to a particular workflow.

If we focused on what we’re trying to do, and not the tool that we’re using to do it with, we’re in a much better place when the system needs changing.