How do you manage your time? What tools do you use and what philosophies do you follow?
Apologies for the vague title, but the topic itself is really open, and I was having trouble cutting down on its scope.
Here’s some background: Recently, I’ve been going through several transitions in life: moving and switching jobs somehow were not the most stressful among them. During this period I’ve been trying to keep all of the various tasks, events, reminders, alarms, etc. organized for myself. This process of organizing my time has been extremely overwhelming for me. I’ve been trying to take it one step at a time, only adding tasks as they come up. This still has lead to my problem of figuring out whether or not an event should be added to my calendar, or a task added to my todo list, or even an alarm added to my phone. If I add everything, then it becomes tough to see what is important, and if I don’t then I risk not remembering one of them.
My question is kind of two fold: what tools do you use to keep track of your day/tasks/events, and what philosophy do you have regarding adding or omitting items?
For me right now, I am using google calendar to keep track of major events and birthdays, and for everything else I use a physical notepad. In my calendar, I have birthdays and any event that has a time set in stone. This lets me see whether or not I am actually free when I’m invited to things or asked if I can help someone out.
For everything else, I use my notepad and attempt to keep track of anything that could be considered a task. At the end of each day I try to organize my list of tasks based on how immediately they need to be completed or how important they are to complete.
My system has two pitfalls: occasionally I over extend myself, because an event (stored on my calendar) will coincide with a day where many of my tasks (stored in my notepad) are due. For example, I had a day where I worked in the office (9 hours plus commute), had another event (4 hours plus commute), 1 task that took me two hours, 3 different tasks (each one ending up taking over an hour), and several other tasks that I didn’t even get to before falling asleep.
What tools/systems/philosophies do you use? And semi-related, how does one keep from falling into the trap of spending more time planning than actually living?
Trello is something I never really considered. I've heard of it and seen it, but always thought of it as more of a GitHub/DevOps/Jira Kanban board. Using it for personal tasks in that way definitely seems interesting. Keeping a backlog of tasks and slowly moving them up as you see fit, or removing them entirely down the line if you don't end up wanting them is a fantastic idea.
My only foreseeable issue with it (on a personal level, not saying others would have this problem) is the ability to be impulsive in how I add or write down my tasks. Something I keep bullet point lists, other times I draw a little graph, and still others I write a paragraph in shorthand to get my thoughts down, and then the next day when I take my old tasks I can organize them a bit better. I guess I could just do a "refinement" column where I throw those messy thoughts and then move it into the "backlog" or other columns.
Thanks for sharing your process! I might not jump into the multiple boards for each month (maybe I'll use tags or due dates instead?), but I will definitely have to experiment with a more "agile" based approach to task keeping.
Just because I saw archery on your list, It's actually pretty relaxing in a way, not sure I'd call it a "fun" activity, but I do enjoy it. I'm a self-taught cheapskate who hasn't bothered to take classes or paid to go to a range yet, I just bought a bow off eBay so many years ago and I only do target shooting. There's a free public archery range about 45min from my house, so I'll go out there when I have free time (almost never). I assume if I ever did get serious and take classes for it, I'd have to unlearn alot of what I'm doing, but I haven't injured myself or anyone else yet, so I guess it's worked out ok so far.
I'd say first that because different people think differently, different things will work for different people. Probably the most important factor in that front will be to figure out if you're a slow, deep thinker or a fast, shallow thinker (it'd be useful to think about how you were as a kid, since your current chosen lifestyle might push you to one or the other). I'm someone who's a slow, deep thinker.
I use a calendar to keep track of events, recurring activities, and tasks that are far out enough that I'd forget them. And that's it. I don't have trouble keeping the rest in my head and I try to get short and simple things out of the way as soon as possible. I also prefer to (actually I pretty much need to) finish one whole thing before moving onto the next, so that helps keep the list of things I need to do short. When it comes to-do lists, I don't really like them and only typically use one when things get really hectic and I need to keep things from falling apart.
For you, it seems practically inconvenient to have a notepad. I'd say use something digital. Also, if something needs to get done at a discrete point in time, just put it in your calendar. To-do lists should generally be a list of things that you can go and do whenever you have the time. Last piece of advice would be to look for inspiration when looking at other "systems" versus copying them wholesale.
I can see why hand written notes could be considered less convenient or efficient to use. Funnily enough, just like you mentioned about some things working better/worse depending on the person, physical notes are the one thing that I can consistently use to remember things. There's something about the ability to write your thoughts down in an extremely abstract way that no note taking app has been able to reproduce for me. The Samsung Notes app on their Note series got very close, especially with the ability on the later ones to just start drawing/writing on the screen with the pen and it would immediately save it as a note, but it still was not quite "perfect".
Physical notes have their "inconvenience" factor: having to lug around a notepad and a pen/pencil, but I feel like the benefits of being able to directly spill whatever is going on in whatever format I please is worth it. Bullet points? Easy. Shorthand sentences? Don't have to fight autocorrect because I'm not fully spelling out words. An illustration? I draw terribly, but arrows, stars, and simple shapes are easy enough.
Now, backing the notes up can be a pain. If I want to sync them and have them everywhere, there's no clear winner for what is "best", but I can easily just use Good Notes, Google Drive / Keep, or OneNote if I ever have a note that absolutely needs backed up
Your point on taking inspiration vs copying a system in its entirety is very true. I tried "bullet" journaling a few years and ended bailing on it completely until these past few months when I decided to keep what I found the core value to be: useful notes, not necessarily pretty ones. I write half-thoughts and shorthand that no one else would really be able to understand outside of myself, but it works for me, and that is all it needs to be. If I need to share one of my "notes" then I can reword it later one when I have the time.
But I digress, for the purpose of organizing my calendar and "tasks" I have note found an app or mixture of app solutions that really work for me. The lack of "flexibility" with most task apps regarding workflow make them no goes for me. A bullet list is not enough, and a complex note taking app is too time consuming. Obsidian, EverNote, LogSeq, and similar are flexible enough for what I want, but feel too complex and heavy. Google Keep, Todoist, and the default task apps (Samsung and Apple) are too simple for what I want.
I understand that I might be picky, and I think that might be the reason I stick to physical task keeping.
My response was going to be almost exactly this, important things go on the calendar, then to-do only when there's too many tasks.
I think one important thing that OP touched on is prioritising tasks. Generally I can roughly tell what's most important but for tasks it generally doesn't matter. As long as it gets done eventually then that's fine. If a task keeps getting bumped then maybe it's not that important and I probably don't need to do that.
I think David Allen's book Getting Things Done (GTD) is a valuable resource. The book is short and can be read in an afternoon. There are lots of resources that cover the basics available for free online as well. It's a well put-together system that may be over-powered for what you want, it I find that it can be pared down to fit a more basic approach, too. It is also tool-agnostic. A lot of so-called productivity gurus seem to be so bogged down in the weeds of their tools that it's a wonder they get anything done at all (Bullet Journals). Or endlessly reclassifying tasks without actually doing them. So you can choose any tool you like and still implement the GTD system.
GTD does get in to the difference between a calendar and a to-do list. The purpose of a calendar in this system is to put things that must happen on a specific day, or not at all, like a meeting or doctor's appointment. The task list houses everything else, and if you're in GTD, then that list is a Next Actions list which all should be things that should happen as soon as possible. This way, when planning your day, you can see your calendar of events that must happen today and then your Next Actions, which you would be working on in between those events.
I love the Pomodoro technique which is incredibly simple but also (for me) really helps: do 25 minutes of work, followed by a 5 minute break (which must involve standing up and walking around). There's a nice app called Flow (which sadly only works on Apple devices) but there are others around, and you could also get a physical timer.
I use Pomotroid which is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
I have been using Pomodoro for the last three weeks or so and it's been nice. I struggle both with under-focusing and over-focusing depending on the task and whether I'm having a high energy or a low energy day. Pomodoro is good for both - when I'm having trouble focusing, it's easy to think "well, it's only X minutes until my break" and power through, or I can adjust the times to be more generous towards the rest phase and still get something done, which is better than nothing. On days when I'm over-focusing the alarm reminds me that I do, in fact, have a physical body that I need to feed and water sometimes.
I use the app TickTick (all platforms) for pomo timers. TickTick is primarily a to-do list app, but while clicking around on it I found it also had a built-in timer. I really like the ability to track time against a particular work task and seeing the little tomato icon on my tasks is weirdly satisfying.
The best tool I used for time management was Trello. It was a godsend in my old accounts assistant job, especially when the site allowed our team to create collaborative to-do lists.
It's baffling that every company I've worked for since has used Microsoft Teams as their communication/collaboration tool, and Microsoft doesn't offer any kind of meaningful alternative.
I have two calendars. One on my phone which has absolutely everything on it so I can quickly see if I’m double booked, and a physical one (with columns for each member of the family) for things which don’t happen every week. By that I mean I don’t include things like my recurring Physio session as it’s the same time each week, only the extra events that are more occasional like a birthday party.
This way my phone calendar makes sure that I never double book myself, and the physical one means we can all see at a glance how much busier our week is than normal. I also use the calendar widget so that every time I pick up my phone to do something I see reminders of what’s on for that day.
For to do lists I prefer physical lists but I don’t have one ongoing. I find if I never complete it then it becomes demotivating. I only make a to do list if I have a lot to do that day, and I aim for it to be completed same day. For more ongoing things I use lists on my phone.
For time management I have loose schedules, for example Friday is the day I clean the bathroom, Monday is the bedrooms, Tuesday and Thursday are days I run, Fridays I swim. It doesn’t matter much if I don’t stick to the schedule, but it a) stops me feeling decision paralysis about what to tackle first and b) if I miss it that week I know I’ll get to it next week. Some of this is applicable to work and some isn’t; I don’t work so I have no hard deadlines, but it means I’ve had to be better at self discipline to get things done.
Pretty straight forward. Google Calendar for anything time-specific, like bills coming around, or planned visits with family. Google Keep for everything else - groceries, various to do lists, backlogs. For note taking or anything extensive that would involve images, I used OneNote, but that's becoming increasingly rare. I used to stress out over time management, but on the personal side it just left me feeling like any free moment needed to be filled with the most interest/productive/fun thing otherwise I was wasting precious time. On a professional side, time management and increasing efficiency didn't get me any sort of raise, it just meant I had more time complete even more work, yippee lol
I was going to suggest bullet journaling, but see that you're already doing that. Could the issue be that you're not using the bullet journal enough, and the switching between systems is what's making it complicated?
I'm quite new to BuJo, I started recently as a way to help keep me from over extending myself. I'm recovering from illness and trying to learn to take it easy, and found that my digital calander made it too easy to plan way too many things in a day because of unlimited space. So I switched to paper.
My current system is that I use my phone calander when out and about, it has my appointments and any reminders for a specific day, it keeps me from double booking and helps to plan further in the future. If there's something I need to remember or add to my to do list I will add an entry in the calander for the current evening, so I'll see it when I'm home.
At home I have the paper BuJo in which I plan out my week on paper. I'm not a morning person, so in my paper calender the mornings are smaller than the afternoons, which means I can fit less tasks in on mornings. When I set up the weekly calendar I copy my appointments and reminders from my phone calendar, from the BuJo and add whatever else comes up. Then I'll review the weekly every evening, adding info I collected on my phone that day to the paper BuJo.
I guess it might sound like a lot of work, though I've found that sitting down, copying the information and reviewing the calendar and my to do's isn't that time consuming once you're in the habit. I keep the journal itself super simple (no artwork, just practical) and it's been very helpful for me.
Truth be told, I just make a rough list for the day.
And I try to keep it reasonable.
But sometimes I just let the planning go and let the flow of time "manage me".
After all, do I really need to manage time?
Also, after a day or two of flow I seem more charged to get some stuff done again.
please note that the above is all within reason and as long it doesn't hurt others around me