作者讨论实时工作方式：不过度依赖待办清单和层层优先级，而是在当下根据最新情况做决定，关注现在认为重要的事，而不是拘泥于过去的判断。
Jason Fried
April 8, 2025
Whenever I talk about working in real-time, making decisions as you go, figuring things out now rather than before, I get a question like this...
"If you don't have a backlog, or deep sets of prioritized, ranked items, how do you decide what to do next?"
My answer: The same way you do when your made your list. You make decisions.
We just make decisions about what to work on next as we go, looking forward, rather than making decisions as we went, looking backwards.
Why work from what /seemed/ like a good idea before? Instead, work from appears to be a good idea now. You have more information now — why not use it?
It's always baffled me how people who pluck work from long lists of past decisions think you can't make those same kinds of decisions now instead. It's all yay/nay decisions. Same process. Before wasn't magical. Before was just now, then. Why not look at now, now? Now is a far more accurate version of next.
The backlog way is based on what you thought then. The non-backlog way is based on what you think now. I'll take now.
One's stale, one's fresh. We'll take fresh.
Then is further, now is closer.
There's nothing special about having made decisions already. They aren't better, they aren't more accurate, they aren't more substantial just because they've been made. What they are, however, is older and often outdated.
If you've got to believe in something, I'd suggest putting more faith in now.
-Jason
About Jason Fried
Hey! I'm Jason, the Co-Founder and CEO at 37signals, makers of Basecamp and HEY. Subscribe below to follow my thinking on business, design, product development, and whatever else is on my mind. Thanks for visiting, thanks for reading.