Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?
Hey HN! I'm looking for new ways to keep track of my personal to-dos. I started using Google Tasks a few years ago and stuck with it for awhile but over time I fell out of the habit and now I'm ready to declare bankruptcy on the remaining tasks. I'm especially interested in finding something always-on (or always-on-top) and maybe with an intrusive reminder to make sure it's still accurate on some kind of schedule.
Thanks!
83 comments
[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 156 ms ] threadI particularly like Taskwarrior's ability to set task dependencies. And I've found tasklib [0] to be nice for writing Python scripts to interact with the database.
[0] https://github.com/GothenburgBitFactory/tasklib
I currently use Tracks and one of the things that holds me back is I still like a good GUI interface to help visualise. I occasionally take a look at various offerings but find those I've surveyed a bit mediocre.
Personal: paper notepad. The timelines are longer and the lists are shorter, it doesn’t need anything fancy.
In both cases embrace the Bullet Journal notion of having a regular step where you decide to scratch items you’re not really going to do. Otherwise the list keeps growing no matter what system you use.
Most days I go through my next action lists when I’m thinking of stuff to do and review it each week to do any re org.
The key is that it's a methodology and not a tool. It works just as well on paper or a basic list manager (e.g. trello, iOS Reminders) as it does in more complex tools like OmniFocus or Nirvana (and I'd argue you should start simple). No tool can give you what a methodology will.
While I highly recommend the book itself, I have found this podcast episode to be a great overview: https://gettingthingsdone.com/2017/05/episode-29-david-allen...
But regarding OP's question about TODO lists, a TODO list should go nowhere near a GTD system. It should go on "project reference/planning", and maybe slowly be moved to "next actions" as needed. But dropping traditional TODO lists on GTD is a bit of a misunderstanding of the system.
I use Kanban with manually created cards based on preexisting notes, with the Dataview plugin to get the tasks from the respective note, so that within the Kanban view i can see the subtasks required.
Alternatively i also have a view of all tasks accros notes ( grouped by custom metadata).
In terms of workflow, i start my morning by looking at the Kanban and tasks view, and calendar/Slack/email, after which i plan my day with the Day Planner plugin ( which is kind of abandoned and not really necessary besides an automatic Gantt view of the day, and an indicator of where you are on the current thing and how much time remains until the next one).
The folder structure is simple
root folder -> Inbox.md (everything goes there first. I have shortcuts on mobile to open inbox directly)
Sub folders for Projects, Tickler, Attachments, Next Actions, Tickler, Someday Maybe Lists, and References
Attachments is just the folder that Obsidian automatically attaches stuff into when I paste/drag'n'drop something in.
I have about 9 Next Action lists inside the Next Actions folder (broken down by type of work [personal, work communication, work tasks, self education, etc])
Every project gets its own file inside the project folder. This will have links to sub projects and will also have its own notes and updates about the project so that it becomes a one stop location to check on a project and its history. When I finish/halt a project I move it into the Completed or Discontinued sub folder in the Projects folder.
When I need a next action on a project, I open one of the next action lists and use and add a task in there with a backlink to the relevant project. This way when I am reviewing my projects I can use the backlinks panel to see what next actions I have pending.
References are additional things like mails/announcement I am writing up. I insert references to these inside the project document (I'll use ![[project X status update announcement]] to embed)
The tickler is exactly like it's described in the book. Each day and each month gets its own file. I came up with an alphabetical arrangement method so that it displays exactly as the book specifies it — days coming up, next month, the days of the month that are done, the months that are coming up, the months that have completed (in that order). Re arranging this requires a bit of precise naming of files which is why I have a script to do that for me. I run `tickle` when I turn on my computer and the tickled tasks go into my Inbox.md file and everything is arranged automatically.
When I need to pick a next action to work on, I have several workspaces I have saved (eg: Work tasks to choose from). I open the workspace, review a next action to work off of and get into it.
And that's all there is to it. It's a lot of words to describe a process that doesn't require any mental overhead to maintain. The only mental overhead is in following the process required by GTD and that's a given :D .
Happy to answer more (feel free to mail as well)
I recommend you read the book, but it's also a good refresh for all those who read it years ago.
I've tried Notion, Trello, and Keep in the past: they felt over-engineered and too reliant on having an internet connection/browser window open, so in the end I always found myself going back to basics. Haven't had a single problem with my current setup so far.
It's the best GTD system I've seen online, and the infinite sub-tasking/grouping, where each grouping can be set to be done either sequentially or in parallel, either surfacing the next task or all the tasks in the "Next" list automatically is amazing.
Throw in the review settings, and the big picture areas of responsibility? And end-to-end encryption?
It's amazing.
Is it collaborative?
The way I would do this would be to basically treat "move the container" as a project and "empty container" as the first sequential subtask.
If you have: - Move container (sequential) | --Empty container
empty container will show up in the "Next" list because it's the "first" (only) subtask in the project. As soon as it's completed, the parent task, "Move container" will automatically show up on "Next" because it's now a task in its own right, not a project with subtasks.
This matches my intuitive way of thinking about how tasks relate to each other (do the parts, and when the last part is done, complete the project), but it's not done by naming something a "blocking" task.
Edited to add: I've not tried using it collaboratively, but I don't think that functionality exists. GQueues might be a better fit for that.
Sometimes the back log does grow and I won’t copy everything over into today, and just mark the previous things I didn’t do with something attention grabbing.
For stuff that absolutely, positively needs to get done, I'll sometimes report to the aggressively-persistent Due³.
¹https://culturedcode.com/things/ ²https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212758 https://www.dueapp.com/
I've never had success with the systems and apps that require maintenance, there's just too much cognitive burden in reviewing and cleaning them. It's much easier for me to just rewrite from scratch, maybe copying a few items, and then accept I can ctrl+f a previous month if necessary.
It's a note taking app but it has three very useful features
1) you can make anything into a checkbox
2) you can #tag anything
3) you can create "views" that display tagged content e.g. #admin AND #priority NOT #waiting
This combination effectively lets me evolve my own todo system and note system at the same time. So over time you build up a knowledge base of how you completed previous tasks that's relatively easy to find again.
For overflow beyond that, I have a Google Sheet that just keeps growing. I categorize activities into their basic category, and then tag them with one of the following: “urgent and important,” “urgent and not important,” “not urgent and important,” or “not urgent and not important.”
What “urgent” means is obvious, but “important” is intentionally vague. Specifically, it’s “important to me and not necessarily anyone else.” It’s a value judgement encapsulating a lot of things. Do I enjoy it? Do I care? Will it help me achieve something? Do I feel happy for having spent time on it? Etc. It’s best used as a quick gut check.
I then order from top to bottom in terms of urgency, and then importance. This way, discipline is pretty much out of the question: I simply pick the top item and get to it, as logic has already dictated that it’s the most urgent item, which by definition has to come first. Beyond abject urgency, items sort themselves by their importance to me, therefore also removing discipline (I don’t need to be disciplined in order to work on things that are important to me).
This way, it’s kind of a self solving system, as problems identify themselves quickly and naturally. If I’m always stuck in one of the “urgent” quadrants, I need to reduce my workload so that I can do more of what’s important to me. And if I’m spending a lot of my time in one of the “not important” quadrants — why? Clearly something needs to change.
The sweet spot is “not urgent and important.” That’s where I want to spend as much time as possible.
I also have fields for things like “next action,” “sub-steps,” “what’s blocking it,” etc. Plus fields for tracking progress of each sub-step (not yet started, in progress, wait, finished, etc).
I use this system for everything — basic to-do’s, app ideas, whatever. It requires a decent amount of sitting down and organizing things, but that organization process is an important time for self-reflection.
It’s low tech, but like how my best financial system is putting time aside each Sunday to manually log every cent I spent that week, it’s effective in that nothing escapes my brain and I’m consistently forced to self-reflect. No other system for me has stuck.
The list is only for this single day. The rest 3/4 of the two pages is for notes from meetings or ideas. If there is not enough room, I just turn over and use the next two pages completely for notes. If I don't need the second page, I don't use it or paint something nice (this is important, because I don't wanna turn pages for a single day)
If I remind a todo, that is not for today, I put it on the LAST 2 pages of the notebook. One is for SOON (last page) and the other is for ANYTIME (before SOON).
My daily routine is:
- Check yesterday, put all unfinished todos on the top of the new page
- Check my calendar and also put all important appointments on the list
- Check the notes from yesterday, if there is something important
- Check the last two pages, if there is something, I might wanna do today
- Use my smartphone to "screenshot" yesterday and mail it as backup
- Having the paper notebook ALWAYS with me
Works pretty good so far, but it requires discipline and it's a lot of management work. But it is also a good "worklog"...
Every task in the board is also its own page (Notion creates a database) so I can keep track of notes and other useful content right on the task. Once it's complete I pull the task out of the board, and now it's a self documented project history.
https://culturedcode.com/things/
I assign due dates to most tasks (only the least important tasks don’t get a date - and I never get to those) and then I use some custom components written for xbar on Mac and Scriptable on iOS to make sure that every screen I look at shows me the items that are due today.
I can create a new task and assign a due date by talking to my phone using Siri or shortcut on Mac and iOS. I’ve also got a shortcut that clears my list for the day and pushes everything out until tomorrow, which I might use of a weekend.
I’ve been doing this for 5 months and have 175 items in Done, which is huge for me as I’m a procrastinator.
I also have an accountability check-in every other week with a friend, where we set goals and talk about getting them done, etc, as a means of having some accountability to someone other than ourselves.