How do you manage your tasks, keep focused
I'm currently in a "how can I improve and refocus" and wanted to see what this group thinks since either seems we have some pretty thoughtful and techy people here.
I have toyed around for years with different techniques. I got really into GTD and used several apps focused on that even writing my own JavaScript app to use with Google sheets.
I've used spreadsheets, OneNote, Wunderlist, plain text files.
What do you use to keep your tasks moving forward and how do you use these tools to manage your tasks and get work done? I found spreadsheets are nice because you can do a lot of scratch work but it's hard to "check them off' but many "check them off" tools don't give you a lot of scratch workspace. OneNote is cool but I can't stand the Microsoft environment and it doesn't seem to give a lot of indication how best to use the tool. Maybe I should do a training....
I'm getting into the BulletJournal system and finding it pretty effective. I enjoy the fact that I have to duplicate data, it helps me keep things that I need to do stuck in my head, as well as drop things that aren't as important as I initially think.
I do marry this with a calendar for scheduling with other people and long-term planning (up to 8 months ahead). It allows me to visually see what where I am spending my time. (Holidays, Work trips). But I also then right it down into my journal.
I also ever only plan on a per-week basis, so at the end of every week I go through everything I need to do for the month and schedule in a few things that need doing for that week.
I find that having a physical list of things to do is very satisfying as I spend so much time on the computer at work, it gives me a break from staring at my screen for so long.
I used to do something very similar to bullet journaling that worked very well. I stopped because I wanted to try out OmniFocus, and have been trying out various software over the intervening years. I think everything I have tried since has suffered from the fact that I have to get into the habit of going through all the steps of GTD or whatever other system, otherwise it breaks down and becomes useless. The strength of my old system, which is also the crux of bullet journaling, was that to use the system at all, it forced me to regularly reevaluate and cull old tasks.
I have been thinking about how to make an app that would force you to go through the ingest and review steps regularly, and not even let you look at your pending tasks until you did. But maybe I should go back and see how well that old system actually worked, or whether I’ve got rose colored glasses. Or maybe I’ll try out bullet journaling, which seems a little more refined—thanks for mentioning it!
I'm glad you appreciate it. I'll add a little more as you look like you have gone down a similar path to me.
I also tried bullet journaling a number of years ago (~4) and only managed for a week or so. I used a tiny A6 booklet though which I just hated writing in. After I gave up with that I tried Omnifocus which I found to be a pretty amazing app, but I had exactly the same issue as you regarding having to alter my workflow to match that of the application. It didn't stick.
My second proper attempt was to use org-mode and this has been far and away the best note-taking/organisational tool that I have used (aside from pen and paper). It has relatively good syncing options for both iOS and Andriod (more and more important these days) and has almost no requirements in terms of modifying workflow to accomodate it. Before you say 'but Emacs', you don't need to be an Emacs user (or even lover) in order to get a huge amount out of this tool. It works like a normal editor, and can be used only for managing todo's.
I still use it today to manage projects, write down more technical information (when I'm wanting to write documentation for a project and include links), and for general todos when I'm on the move (using Orgzly).
Earlier this year I moved country and had to keep track of an insane number of details for the move; how to pay taxes, requirements for renting a house, commute times. I even lost my passport halfway through.
I picked up a notebook in despair a couple of weeks in and wrote down everything I needed to do. I then went through the bullet journal website and started to try and massage my todos into some semblance of order. I've been using it everyday for 3 months nw and really appreciate its presence. And when I encounter some activity/schedule that is weird and idiosynchratic (ie. wouldn't fit into a normal todo application), then I just make up some symbol that signifies that this is weird and make a note of it.
Good luck, and I would say try stick with it for a couple of weeks!
Yeah, that story sounds very familiar haha. I even used emacs (with evil-mode!) for almost a year, partly so I could try out the legendary org-mode.
Moving country would definitely be a stress test for any organization/planning system, so if you can recommend bullet after that, I think I’ll just have to give it a try.
Thanks also for the reminder about A6 notebooks; I’ll go with an A5 as I’m guessing that’s the popular choice for some reason 😛
Yep, I'm a vim refugee so cannot live without evil-minded ;)
Yeah, I love my A5! Although a few people in the office have the A4 one and I have to admit I an very tempted!
I asked a similar question recently that you might want to checkout the answers
I found myself using pen and paper somewhat more productive on the one hand but on the other i think its counter productive to carry a "mini computer" in my pocket and a todo list paper in my other pocket.
For long term goals and mostly notes i use Evernote and i think it fits the role perfectly. Its like my personal knowledge base and i really like it.
Still haven't found my daily todo task app. I might just have to make one when i find the time
I've had trouble finding the ideal app for tracking tasks. The more robust apps that have better feature sets tend to require your data be uploaded to the cloud for sync purposes, which makes me uncomfortable. If an app were to allow specification of the local database for notes, it would be easy to sync it between devices using something like Unison. Even better, if the app used an encrypted database, the files on disk could just be dropped into Dropbox or something.
Maybe I haven't searched hard enough but I'm usually discouraged by things like Todoist and Evernote because, while they look very nice and are cross-platform, I'm not comfortable with using them.
You have summarized my thoughts exactly. I know lots of people use Omni Focus on macOS and i believe it is actually a proper local app as opposed to a cloud storage one but I have yet to find something similar that is well maintained like that for other platforms
After making that comment I took some time to go searching again. It seems like Thinking Rock and Everdo might be pretty close to what we're looking for. Thinking Rock is pretty old and according to comments from a few years ago, their mobile apps left much to be desired, but it seems to have a decent set of features. Everdo on the other hand is shiny and new but is still lacking some functionality. It looks like it has everything I could want planned for the future but it's not quite there yet.
A few things have helped me. If the work isnt captivating the pomodoro technique can be helpful.
I give myself personal goals that, while realistic, are a stretch. Daily and weekly. Sometimes longer depending on the timelines of a task/project. I'll plan out 10 months sometimes.
I've enjoyed OneNote as a space for barinstorming, tasks, notes and to dos. Using a Samsung Note device helped me, too, so if I realized something or had a eurka moment, it could be easily recorded.
Taken together that helped me feel a need to move forward and a way to feel like I'm making progress. Not feeling progress is the surest way to take the wind out of my sails, so these help quite a bit.
I've used org-mode with the Emacs text editor and now I'm using Todoist.
The thing is that whenever I stop keeping track and writing things down, everything becomes a chore and tasks just don't get accomplished.
To keep motivated, I usually don't do estimates and I try to keep things flexible in the GTD style. There's a list of urgent things that have to be done, but then there's a backlog of tasks that can be done later. For me, that feels like progress, being able to tick off one or two tasks in a day is good enough for me. Lowering my expectations about tasks makes me much happier.
I've used spreadsheets for larger projects, especially for tasks that need to be shared. Much easier for others to read than a text file or Todoist list of tasks.