The philosophy of Doing and Bucket lists

Pathstory has two kinds of tasklist, and people sometimes ask which one to use. The honest answer is that they are the same thing. A list is a list: a name, some items, a place to put what’s in your head so it stops taking up room there.

What differs is not the object. It’s the stance you take toward it — and the timeframe you expect it to live in.

Doing: the stance of finishing

A Doing list is a list you intend to empty. Packing for Crete. The weekly reset. Everything before the renovation starts. Its items have dates, reminders, owners, subtasks — the machinery of getting something out of the way.

Its timeframe is short and closed. A Doing list has a finish line, and when it’s reached the list is done. Some repeat — the Saturday chores clear themselves and come back — but each run is still a thing you close.

The feeling a Doing list is for: relief.

Bucket: the stance of remembering

A Bucket list is a list you intend to keep. Books to read. Restaurants in Zürich. Films, places, people to call, ideas you don’t want to lose. Its items have no deadlines, because nothing on it is late — it is a memory, not a schedule.

Its timeframe is long and open. A good Bucket list is never finished; it is pruned and added to for years. The list that holds your “someday” is one you want to still have when someday comes.

The feeling a Bucket list is for: possibility.

Why we didn’t merge them

Most apps have one list type and let you add a due date if you like. That seems flexible. In practice it means every list is quietly a Doing list, and the things you merely wanted to remember sit there looking overdue. The restaurant you haven’t been to is not a failure. The book you haven’t read is not late. A tool that can’t tell the difference makes you feel behind on your own curiosity.

So Pathstory separates the stances, and keeps the plumbing shared: both kinds share the same way, build with Clio the same way, attach to an outcome the same way. The only thing that changes is what the list expects of you.

They talk to each other

The two stances feed each other more than you’d think. A Bucket item becomes a Doing list the moment you decide: “Trip to Crete” moves from someday to packing. A finished Doing list can leave something behind in a Bucket — the restaurant from the trip you’d go back to.

Remember, then do, then remember what was worth it. That’s not two features. That’s how a life with intentions actually runs.

Which should you use?

Ask one question: do I want this list to end? If yes, Doing. If no, Bucket. If you’re not sure, it’s a Bucket — nothing on it will ever go red.