I had a few things to do today, and started thinking about how one usually organizes a “to-do” list. Some people do things in the order that they come to mind, while others tend to do things right at that very moment, pushing other things to the bottom. The first group of people would be classified as a queue – think of a lineup at a grocery store, while the second would be called a stack.

The defining property of a queue is the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) property. Things that come to mind first should be accomplished before others, while the analogous property of the stack is Last-In-First-Out (LIFO). I tend to think of myself as a queue-type person, though admittedly sometimes I push things to the back in a stack-like fashion.

So, which one is better? It depends; usually you should accomplish things in the order that they come to mind if you want to keep your life in order, but other times, important tasks can take precendence. I would guess the easy answer would be to find out a system that works well for you, and keep at it.