---
title: "Back to Basics: My To-Do List"
date: "2026-07-09"
author: Pixelated Thinker
tags: [Productivity, Workflow, Digital Minimalism]
categories: []
---

Over the past few weeks, I've been taking a hard look at the technology I use every day. Not because anything was broken, but because I started wondering how much of it I actually needed.

Part of it came from the endless subscriptions that we all seem to now have. Of which, I don't have too many. Mainly... Apple One, YouTube Lite, Carrot Weather, and Alfred Camera. I recently cut out a few.

Part of if came from simplifying workflows - "Do I really need these features?" or "I'm paying for this and am I even using the features that make it worth paying for?"

The biggest reevaluation came from task management. Something I seem to look at unconsciously every number of years. Most recently, I've been using [TickTick](https://ticktick.com/). It's a great product that I have no real complaints with. I can't remember fully why I went with it over other similar offerings - that basically all do the same thing - but I do remember that I liked the way it handled subtasks and general layout density. I had my lists set (using Kanban View), tasks scheduled and recurring, priorities set. It all worked great.

TickTick wasn't failing me. In fact, it was doing exactly what I asked it to do. So why leave something that worked?

Well first off, my yearly subscription was up for renewal at the end of July. It's not much, but it is yet another subscription. That triggered the brain to start percolating.

Simplifying the workflow popped up next. I don't use most of TickTick's features. So why am I paying for them?

I've always liked the vision of carrying around a notebook to jot notes in and keep my task list handy, but I've never been able to bring myself to do it.

Enter Apple Notes.

I've used it for years for well... notes, have all sorts of thoughts and ideas stuffed away in it, and have even used it in the past (along with Reminders) as my to do list. But I switched away from it in the past for a reason. How would it be any different this time? Time to percolate.

Some time later, I posed the question to ChatGPT. I told it how I used TickTick, what my workflow was, and my thoughts on moving to Notes - how could I do it? Combining my own ideas with a few suggestions from ChatGPT, I ended up with a workflow that feels much more sustainable. I've been able to twist my method from Notes before into something that should be able to scale, last, and keep organized.

And Reminders is around for when I need a notification. And only that - to do lists are forbidden in Reminders - it all lives in Notes. Maybe one day I'll get into the nitty-gritty of it.

(As an aside, I find posing questions like this to an AI agent as a fun experiment. It's helpful boring over the excruciating minutia of something like task management, without boring those around me with it.)

Some other things for later - Bitwarden to Apple Passwords, Fastmail to iCloud Mail... Yes, it's the Apple ecosystem, for better or worse. But that's for another day.

More soon...