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Ask HN: How you manage your to-do list? Are you happy with it?

5 points by anujkk ↗ HN
Yesterday I created an Ask HN post where I asked HN community to share its thoughts on one of Paul Graham's frighteningly ambitious startup ideas "Replacing Email" in which he cosiders his inbox as a disastrously bad "todo list" and email as the way things get into it. Here is the link - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4228402

Reading the comments I realized there are two contrasting opinions; two groups of people - one that considers email as a to-do list and other who thinks it is just a communication protocol that is wrongly used by some people as a to-do list.

I would like to know from HN community, how do you actually manage your to-do list? Are you happy with it? If not, why?

10 comments

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ammmir
for my primary project, i keep a list of items on a physical whiteboard. i pace around a lot when thinking, so an app would never be as intimate to use.

for everything else, i use a text file with items formatted like:

  [X] add feature
  [ ] fix bug
neither approach is ideal, but i have no major complaints.
rgregory
I've recently thrown my hat in with Things, with the Beta now supporting Cloud syncing. I'm a minimalist, GTD-leaning sorta guy and this fits perfectly with my workflow.
mukundmohan
I use my calendar as a to-do list. Works for me. Block out time to do tasks - not just meetings. That way it forces me to bucket time for stuff to get done.
allardschip
I write my to-dos in a plain text file. I try to avoid writing down actions; I prefer deliverables because it's clearer when you actually have achieved something. I prefix to-do items with a character if the status changes immediately after the change. Here are the prefixes I use:

No prefix: This item was written down but hasn't started @ in progress: I started working on it, the item is with me. # finished > means this item is currently with someone else. It works as a reminder to chase someone after some time. x means canceled / decided not to do d means on hold because dependent on something else ! prioritized for today

I have items grouped with the first line being a heading for the group. I write notes or status if relevant after a to-do item and a comma. If things are crazy I will start notes with today's date. That's specially useful when there is a lot of back and forth on something. Daily, I'll copy yesterdays list and past it above. I remove the items that are done or canceled. The system is all home grown, arcane and works for me.

offsky
I use Toodledo.com and give my tasks tags and priorities so that I can sort and filter them. It works really well for me.
vseorlov
I use calendar and Clear app for iphone. Also not to much time ago I installed Any.do app to try it.
AndrewDucker
Workflowy. And yes.
flomincucci
I used workflowy for a long time and I think it's brilliant, but now I need to keep up with complex tasks, so I'm using tiddlywiki - that allows me to link between tasks, and make notes of relevant things to my tasks
iibtrih
I manage to-dos using https://www.cosapien.com It also manages what other people have committed to-do for me, with built-in quality control.
iibtrih
... i forgot to add -- it is also useful to me because it integrates to do with our meeting minutes