More sophisticated I think in terms of flexibility in workflows and plugin maturity. I was used to it from work, but it's really not that hard to learn.
I am building my own system that is a little bit like Evernote. I wrote a Firefox plugin for capturing clips from the web, I can upload all the eBooks, PDFs, etc., that I have accumulated, and as I search for and view stored information, my software automatically detects topics, entities, etc., and tries to pull in other information from DBPedia and from Bing search. I use simple tagging of information to collect stored information for different uses. I am just now rewriting it to be a multiple user system (I wrote it originally as a single user (me!) system).
I am trying to decide whether to try to sell it as a commercial product or open source it. The codebase is a collection of Clojure, Clojurescript, Java, and Javascript and is fairly easy to hack on.
This works extremely well for me as i get new tasks from:
- Emails
- Meetings
More important is generating metrics about what you did with your time. I rely on a timesheet(xls with 24slots a day). Basically filling the slots upfront with task-ids when i need to plan for a few upcoming tasks, estimate effort etc. Also everyday i fill any empty timeslots in the sheet with what i did then.
2Months of this and i have:
- A better idea on my actual burn-down rate.
- Improved schedule estimates.
- No feeling of constantly being pushed to the limit.
By not having so much stuff that it's untrackable.
Your question is too open ended. Projects? Basecamp. Todos? My own brain. Random stuff? Evernote. Files? Dropbox.
This is all fairly standard stuff, but I suspect I'd go back to my original point, which is that if you feel overwhelmed by "track"ing "everything" then there's a chance that you've just got too much stuff. Delegate. Trash things that aren't truly important. Pare down your list ruthlessly.
I keep important things in mind and let the world remind me whenever I've missed anything.
I have two tools I use when this becomes unmanageable. I'll get out a pad of paper and a pen when the number of important open loops (things I can't just let go and let the world remind me of) exceeds the ability of my brain to focus on. I've had to seriously do this twice in the last two years. Open loops go one to a line, and get crossed off when they stop being open, i.e. I can leave them alone and the world will tell me when they become important again.
Second I can open up a project file. I'll start with a collection of ideas which will accrete until I'm ready to start a git repo, define some dependencies, flesh out the ideas in code. Since I started doing this, my reliance on the first tool has diminished.
Nothing public I found was really simple and advanced at same time. Evernote, Google Keep/Task, Trello, even Jira and thousands of other things I tried. All failed - either UIX is crap or the basic things take ages.
I'm now using my own system called Kemu Note, Kemu tasks, Kemu links etc. (I'm the owner of Kemu as you can see ;) ). But it's not public yet.
I use Notational Velocity (and its fork, nvALT) on Mac for almost everything. This replaced everything, including Evernote, etc. The text files are saved to git repository daily.
On Linux, I use vim (with lots of plugins that gives me similar functionality to NV).
There is no single solution to track everything. And I believe there won't be, because for a tool to provide value for a specific subdomain of information, it needs to be tailored to that subdomain. For example, Evernote is great for capturing and tracking unstructured information, but bad for tracking numerical information (because aggregating numbers requires structure). If you look my list below, you see that each subdomain can have very specific use flow (e.g. passwords) and generic tool would likely to be really bad for that subdomain.
Evernote for capturing unstructured (or semi-structured) information: thoughts, links, excerpts.
Asana for tasks that need to be done.
Google Calendar for events and alerts.
Dropbox for files & media. For example, I put things like work contracts or flight tickets and other travel documents there instead of Evernote.
Keychain and 1password for passwords.
Various programs to track exercise: different programs for different sports: Strava for running, swimming and cycling, my own prototype iOS app for gym.
I have a big whiteboard in my living room with three columns. To do, doing and done. Then I have loads of post-it notes. Each note has a title of what project it's for, then a brief description of what needs doing and a time estimate at the bottom. I just move 'em all along.
I keep a rough overview of that mapped out in Trello also as well which I keep in sync with my whiteboard, so that I can update it and add things whilst I'm not at home.
I've been battling with this issue for quite sometime now. I did not find the 'ultimate' solution (probably because there isn't any but self-discipline). One important tool that I found most helpful was `Reminders` on OSX, specifically the fact that I can put an alarm (one-off or recurrent) on each task. Given that Reminders are synced across devices (iPhone, iPad) and are available in the notifications center this helps me a lot when I'm on the move. One downside of using this method or any other is that your capacity to memorize the due tasks disappears as soon as you write them down. I'm not sure what's the psychological/neurological explanation for this, but it's true. If your task list is not that big, your brain is the best way to keep track of them. Otherwise be prepared to skip a few as soon as jot them down.
I personally use Trello for this. It works well on all my devices and sync immediately when I add any task in it. Also, its very easy to use. Surprising thing is I don't pay any single penny for it.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 108 ms ] threadhttp://mint.com for tracking money
https://www.rememberthemilk.com To-do list :)
Everything I do goes into JIRA.
I am trying to decide whether to try to sell it as a commercial product or open source it. The codebase is a collection of Clojure, Clojurescript, Java, and Javascript and is fairly easy to hack on.
I've spent a lot of time trying different tools... there isn't a magical one size fits all 😔
- Personal Hourly timesheet.
- Outlook Tasks.
- Old-school post-it notes.
This works extremely well for me as i get new tasks from:
- Emails
- Meetings
More important is generating metrics about what you did with your time. I rely on a timesheet(xls with 24slots a day). Basically filling the slots upfront with task-ids when i need to plan for a few upcoming tasks, estimate effort etc. Also everyday i fill any empty timeslots in the sheet with what i did then.
2Months of this and i have:
- A better idea on my actual burn-down rate.
- Improved schedule estimates.
- No feeling of constantly being pushed to the limit.
- Not missed any important deadlines.
Your question is too open ended. Projects? Basecamp. Todos? My own brain. Random stuff? Evernote. Files? Dropbox.
This is all fairly standard stuff, but I suspect I'd go back to my original point, which is that if you feel overwhelmed by "track"ing "everything" then there's a chance that you've just got too much stuff. Delegate. Trash things that aren't truly important. Pare down your list ruthlessly.
I have two tools I use when this becomes unmanageable. I'll get out a pad of paper and a pen when the number of important open loops (things I can't just let go and let the world remind me of) exceeds the ability of my brain to focus on. I've had to seriously do this twice in the last two years. Open loops go one to a line, and get crossed off when they stop being open, i.e. I can leave them alone and the world will tell me when they become important again.
Second I can open up a project file. I'll start with a collection of ideas which will accrete until I'm ready to start a git repo, define some dependencies, flesh out the ideas in code. Since I started doing this, my reliance on the first tool has diminished.
I'm now using my own system called Kemu Note, Kemu tasks, Kemu links etc. (I'm the owner of Kemu as you can see ;) ). But it's not public yet.
On Linux, I use vim (with lots of plugins that gives me similar functionality to NV).
I really like the hyperlinks and full text search in nvALT.
There is no single solution to track everything. And I believe there won't be, because for a tool to provide value for a specific subdomain of information, it needs to be tailored to that subdomain. For example, Evernote is great for capturing and tracking unstructured information, but bad for tracking numerical information (because aggregating numbers requires structure). If you look my list below, you see that each subdomain can have very specific use flow (e.g. passwords) and generic tool would likely to be really bad for that subdomain.
Evernote for capturing unstructured (or semi-structured) information: thoughts, links, excerpts.
Asana for tasks that need to be done.
Google Calendar for events and alerts.
Dropbox for files & media. For example, I put things like work contracts or flight tickets and other travel documents there instead of Evernote.
Keychain and 1password for passwords.
Various programs to track exercise: different programs for different sports: Strava for running, swimming and cycling, my own prototype iOS app for gym.
[1] https://airtable.com
I keep a rough overview of that mapped out in Trello also as well which I keep in sync with my whiteboard, so that I can update it and add things whilst I'm not at home.
At work we use Jira.
Events / Anything with a date - Google Calendar, Not a huge fan but haven't found anything better.
Movies / TV - Combination of Letterboxd and episodecalendar
Random Files - Dropbox, Thinking of moving to Google drive though since I dont actually use the sync. Contains a copy of ~/documents and ~/code.
Code - Github / Gogs mirror on one of my servers.
Email - Yahoo. In the process of switching to self hosted though.
Passwords - Lastpass.
Everything Else - Just using logical folder structures. I.e
~/video/movies/unwatched/ or ~/video/tv/keep/Archer/1/Archer.S1E01.mkv
ghi to keep track of github issues
mutt for email, with notmuch for searching/indexing
ynab via wine for budgeting, though I'm not the best at keeping up with that : )
other than that I have a moleskine that I fill with random things related to that day/week/month, inspired somewhat by bullet journal