First things first: Make a list

To-do list:

I am a big fan of Making A List, whether on paper or digitally.1

As taught to me by Chuck2, the most important thing about a to-do list is that the first item on it is “Make a list”. Then, when you’ve finished adding tasks to your list, you can check it off immediately. Bam, dopamine. Happy day, you’re already partly done with your list! Look at you, so much progress already! My notebook is filled with (partially-completed 😅) daily to-do lists, each of which starts with “make a list”.

The one type of list I don’t regularly start this way is the punch lists that I often add to pull requests. (Pull requests (PRs) are proposals to merge a set of changes into a set of existing documents, e.g., source code.) PR punch lists both keep me on task and let my reviewers know what subtasks I intentionally considered—and, implicitly, what I did not. (Are you requesting a non-trivial review from me? Bonus points if you include a punch list!)

I’ve also found that adding a punch list to a Github PR template helps improve review turnaround time and reduces review friction, and sets newer contributors up to succeed more quickly.

Footnotes

  1. This is a different skill than the skill of completing tasks, mind…↩︎

  2. One of the most valuable things I learned in grad school!↩︎