I fear Apple Notes, which I use religiously. The problem is, I use it to its fullest-with long notes, PDF attachments, drawings, and so on. I’m afraid at some critical point I’ll hit some undocumented wall, and find that I’ve a usage or search limit, only to be told “you’re not supposed to use it that way.”
true, and I have some of the same fears. I figure worst case its a weekend of exporting the handwritten parts to PDF and copying the text from the rest into org mode, but with all things APPL going too far outside of mainstream usage is a real risk.
I use the git repo as a "scratch pad" of sorts and toss anything in there that's relevant to my issues but not yet "fully baked" so it has a bunch of crappy ad-hoc scripts, config files, patches, etc. They'll all related to the issues in my private repo and only live in there long enough to get cleaned up. Anything long-term moves into a configuration management repo, my personal dotfiles repo, a repo of it's own, or upstream.
What do you mean by checklists? Like in an airplane pilot's safety checklists?
If yes, then in my current company I've learnt to script the hell out of them (though not too early — only once you see how the typical pattern/path is shaping up). Good automation (a.k.a. scripting) can help a lot to reduce brittleness of deployments.
Or "TODO" checklists? If yes, then personally I use https://github.com/jffrymrtn/temaki, though it has some limitations for me, so I'm trying to build a replacement/ripoff and extend it to my needs.
> If yes, then in my current company I've learnt to script the hell out of them (though not too early — only once you see how the typical pattern/path is shaping up). Good automation (a.k.a. scripting) can help a lot to reduce brittleness of deployments.
Can you elaborate on how you accomplish this? I read the checklist manifesto a few years ago and started using checklists for things like checkins, code reviews, etc. I figured these kinds of lists could be automatable, but I was never able to come up with a UI that was easier than a pre-populated textarea.
Checklist automation does not have to be graphical, and does not even have to look like a todo list. A list of failing checks, separated from waived checks (with clear signoffs from specific usernames), is generally sufficient.
Can you try to list some example of what you have on your checklist? It'd help me understand your particular trouble, currently I don't have a good idea of it. Also, haven't read "the checklist manifesto", I understand you mean the book by the title. On technical side, there are pre-commit, pre-push etc. hooks in git, and bots like Travis-CI for github.
I use Gmail's new task manager, I find it super helpful to keep my emails and task list together. It's also has a notes function which I haven't used much yet.
I use Things on my phone. I love the app, but the price of the full suite (iPhone, Mac, iPad -- even though I don't have an iPad) is too high for me so I don't use it often enough :(
Same. Mac $50, iPad $20, iPhone $10, Too much for what is essentially a fancy list-keeping app. You can use the iPhone version on an iPad though, which I do.
Things 3 is excellent. Any fan of well-designed and well-constructed software will appreciate it.
I also like the philosophy behind Things: make it really easy to add items and make the core workflows fast. Additional complexity (tags, dates, projects) is incremental and optional. It's one of the few GUI apps that can be operated solely from the keyboard with no loss of functionality.
As far as I'm concerned, the only feature that Things lacks is shared lists.
I organize literally my entire life between Trello, Google Docs and Google Calendar.
Trello handles strategic planning and todos i.e. "Learn Spanish , Get new job" and a separate board handles smaller more operations stuff like "buy an electric toothbrush" or "finish reading system design books"
I even designed a system with trello custom fields, webhooks and an aws lambda that will automatically sort the task buy some weights I can assign. (Just numbers for urgency, impact, and effort)
I use Google Calendar for time sensitive todos. Stuff that is or needs to happen on a specific day.
And if the calendar event description gets too long i make a trello card for it.
Google Docs I use for long form content like keeping track of my own understanding and research of modern software architecture, techincal interviewing, or competitive fighting gaming.
http://quip.com/ -- It works everywhere except, unfortunately, the terminal. What I like about quip's way is that it doesn't differentiate checklists from notes -- which is exactly my style. And you can even embed a spreadsheet if you suddenly need more power.
P.S.: They also don't like Firefox for some reason (it works ok, but it works better in Chrome). Now that Salesforce bought them, I don't have my hopes too high that it is going to change...
Taskwarrior. I really wish I could use it on all my mobile devices easily. I especially wish that I could control it using my voice and use it with all my wearables. I think a taskwarrior service with easy setup and UI through modern channels is my dream of how people change the way they get things done. Taskwarrior isn't there yet but I feel like I've got super powers when I plan with it. Unfortunately when I'm doing my plans I don't want to always have a terminal window open.
For day-to-day tasks I built Natrium[1]. Other tools can accomplish the same thing, but I wanted a couple things in particular:
1. To have a single daily checklist that refreshes every day
2. Views of what I did (or wanted to but didn't) broken down by goal. This makes reflection a lot faster when I can quickly see what I did every day this week for a particular goal.
For longer-term planning (home repairs/improvements, side projects) I use Trello to organize and prioritize things.
At work I tend to use physical post-it notes to track things. It might just be an odd habit but I think it helps me compartmentalize and leave work at work. It's also really satisfying to crumple a note when I finish a task.
If it's something like a grocery list, etc I tend to use Google Keep.
If it's code specific then one of GitHub's project boards.
If it's going to require managing a team, keeping up on tasks, generating productivity reports and something akin to virtual scrum / kanban / post-it's on a daily, weekly or monthly basis BusinessDay [1]. I chose it because of recurring tasks, aging of cards and private lists.
It’s interesting to note that there are very few repeated answers or “me too” type posts, which suggests that what works best is highly idiosyncratic and depends on a lot of factors (what you need to organize, with whom, and in what ecosystem).
I just use a [ ] in a plaintext. When I complete something I add an x, e.g. [x]. I haven’t found any shortcomings of this system yet.
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 225 ms ] threadIts good if you use an iPhone, great if you use a Mac too and fantastic if you're "all in" on the apple ecosystem with a watch/ipad as well.
Organize it using a GTD like system and you'd be hard pressed to find something that is as powerful as it is while being super simple.
Although the "remind me at location" thing never worked for me.
If yes, then in my current company I've learnt to script the hell out of them (though not too early — only once you see how the typical pattern/path is shaping up). Good automation (a.k.a. scripting) can help a lot to reduce brittleness of deployments.
Or "TODO" checklists? If yes, then personally I use https://github.com/jffrymrtn/temaki, though it has some limitations for me, so I'm trying to build a replacement/ripoff and extend it to my needs.
Can you elaborate on how you accomplish this? I read the checklist manifesto a few years ago and started using checklists for things like checkins, code reviews, etc. I figured these kinds of lists could be automatable, but I was never able to come up with a UI that was easier than a pre-populated textarea.
I also like the philosophy behind Things: make it really easy to add items and make the core workflows fast. Additional complexity (tags, dates, projects) is incremental and optional. It's one of the few GUI apps that can be operated solely from the keyboard with no loss of functionality.
As far as I'm concerned, the only feature that Things lacks is shared lists.
Things 3, powerful but not bloated.
It allows to insert check list in any note (that is HTML under the hood)
Very flexible and cross-platform. Works for personal checklists and team projects.
- Evernote for tasking my daily activities - Firefox for my bookmarks on internet - Google drive for finances
I organize literally my entire life between Trello, Google Docs and Google Calendar.
Trello handles strategic planning and todos i.e. "Learn Spanish , Get new job" and a separate board handles smaller more operations stuff like "buy an electric toothbrush" or "finish reading system design books"
I even designed a system with trello custom fields, webhooks and an aws lambda that will automatically sort the task buy some weights I can assign. (Just numbers for urgency, impact, and effort)
I use Google Calendar for time sensitive todos. Stuff that is or needs to happen on a specific day.
And if the calendar event description gets too long i make a trello card for it.
Google Docs I use for long form content like keeping track of my own understanding and research of modern software architecture, techincal interviewing, or competitive fighting gaming.
P.S.: They also don't like Firefox for some reason (it works ok, but it works better in Chrome). Now that Salesforce bought them, I don't have my hopes too high that it is going to change...
Personal stuff: I just send emails to myself.
Something like: '[TODO] Do something ...' Then you can elaborate in the message body.
Pros:
- free
- simple
- no apps required (or: you can use any app/web client you want)
- easily done and accessible from anywhere
- auto sync out of the box
- search/filtering out of the box
- timestamps out of the box
- tags out of the box (via email tags/labels)
- groups/projects out of the box (via mail folders/inboxes)
- rules out of the box (via email rules)
- supports files, links, code snippets, formatted text etc.
- I can flag/unflag them, delete/restore, mark as read/unread and so on
- most clients allow you to add a reminder/follow up for an email (hence, reminders and notifications out of the box)
This video from a recent Linux.conf.au has got my brain buzzing on using Taskwarrior, but I'm yet to embark on the journey.
1. To have a single daily checklist that refreshes every day
2. Views of what I did (or wanted to but didn't) broken down by goal. This makes reflection a lot faster when I can quickly see what I did every day this week for a particular goal.
For longer-term planning (home repairs/improvements, side projects) I use Trello to organize and prioritize things.
At work I tend to use physical post-it notes to track things. It might just be an odd habit but I think it helps me compartmentalize and leave work at work. It's also really satisfying to crumple a note when I finish a task.
[1] https://natriumapp.com
At the end of each workday, I write down the (predicted) todo list for my next workday.
It's a carry-over from my early days of using the Franklin-Covey system.
If it's something like a grocery list, etc I tend to use Google Keep.
If it's code specific then one of GitHub's project boards.
If it's going to require managing a team, keeping up on tasks, generating productivity reports and something akin to virtual scrum / kanban / post-it's on a daily, weekly or monthly basis BusinessDay [1]. I chose it because of recurring tasks, aging of cards and private lists.
This goes into the process behind it [2]
[1] https://blog.businessday.io/
[2] https://blog.businessday.io/2016/09/04/quick-start-for-accou...
Businessday seems excellent,I will demo it.thank you!
I just use a [ ] in a plaintext. When I complete something I add an x, e.g. [x]. I haven’t found any shortcomings of this system yet.
- [?] question - [o] blocked by someone else - [~] in progress - [H] on hold - [Y] Is X true? (yes) - [N] Is Y true? (no)