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Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#141

Post by bevan »

markprovan wrote: post #139
bevan wrote: post #138

I made a web app exactly for this- for staying focused on your most important 1-year goal. It reminds you of your goal in every new browser tab (with the accompanying browser extension), so that your goal always stays top-of-mind. It also reminds you to record your daily progress and to track your goal-related habits. It has other productivity tools as well (pomodoro timer; habit tracker; brainstorm tool) all dedicat…

This looks pretty much what I'm after. Do you offer any sort of data export?

Not yet, but an export feature is on my list. I launched it recently- any feedback much appreciated.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#142

Post by Shank »

kore wrote: post #93
renaudg wrote: post #39

A critical factor of success in achieving long term goals is to schedule corresponding daily todos on a calendar. Because if something isn't either obviously urgent or scheduled on a calendar, it never gets done. For this reason, I sorely miss the Timeful app (bought and shut down by Google) which nailed the process perfectly, integrating one-off todos, habits (e.g. 3 runs/week) and calendar management in a single sy…

Sounds like you've already tried plenty of productivity apps, but in case you haven't tried it, I've found Todoist quite good. The "Apple-ification" as you put it is done pretty well. In place of drag + drop to set a time of day, tasks can be created with inline date parsing. So tasks can be created with something like: "Meeting with Tim at Tues 3pm", and it'd pick that up. It's missing direct support for habits asid…

The difference is that those apps use time blocking (e.g., block out an hour for a task in the middle of actual calendar events) and are usually automatic in nature. The ideal system blocks out the time for a task -- it's not just setting a due date.

I too have tried most if not all of the tools in @renaudg's post and have come to the same conclusion: nothing really matches Timeful.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#143

Post by Xeps »

Xeps wrote: post #140

I've put a lot of thought into year-long planning. I've surveyed 5 of my friends and here's the answers i got: Q: How do you visually plan out your year and keep track? A: I use the calendar app on my mobile phone My issue: logging stuff in a mobile device that is really small, doesn't allow you to see big picture and serve as a constant reminder Q: How do you visually plan out your year and keep track? A: I use a ca…

i just realized AR/VR would be a 3rd option.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#144

Post by noufalibrahim »

The Franklin Covey system is somewhat outdated (especially when GTD came on the scene) but it's designed to do this.

They start from long term goals (they call it vision or something similar) and then break it down into smaller and smaller items which you schedule on a weekly and daily basis. This ensures that everything you do works towards a larger goal. There will be smaller interruptions and things but the overall direction is quite clear.

This has fallen by the wayside with our rather disruptive lives but there are still lessons which are useful. Larger targets (e.g year goals) can be broken down into manageable monthly targets. Then you can work towards these and make sure that you always progress towards your larger vision.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#145

Post by cobalt »

Jtsummers wrote: post #120
andthenrobots wrote: post #100

I have never in my life made long term plans and I don't know many people that do. Maybe making long term plans is a cultural thing? Despite not having a plan, life seems to work out just fine. For those that do cherish long term plans: don't you get fed up with the perpetual feeling of "being not quite there yet"?

Never? You never planned to start and finish university? You never planned to make a large purchase (like a home)? Never planned a project that was going to take longer than a few months, possible requiring years of time? Never had a long-term relationship, which often requires identifying shared or compatible life-goals to make it sustainable? At some point, like budgeting your income, planning has the effect of red…

Hmm to that I would say, I expected to finish college (and I did) but It wasn't something I planned. I did it one semester at a time until i was able to leave. Also, I put money away, but I am not planning for anything (at least at the moment) - I would say you can budget for possibilities in the future without directly 'planning' them.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#147

Post by bdreadz »

renaudg wrote: post #87
firehawk895 wrote: post #72

David Allen's getting things done hands down. You don't even need to read the book to implement it, although it's a great read. here's the 15-minute summary that will get you going right now - https://hamberg.no/gtd/ - I have used Trello to implement it - here's a screenshot. http://i.imgur.com/dbH8yGq.png specifically answering your question - this framework makes you regularly review your task list and ensures that…

The problem with GTD is that it explicitly discourages you to schedule tasks at a specific time unless strictly necessary : you're always supposed to do whatever is "next" in the "context" you're in. You're never done, and this can be taxing and make you want to give up. Newer research (Dan Ariely's IIRC) has shown that having tasks on the calendar improves the chances of actually doing a realistic number of them.

Well I think part of GTD is that brain dump of tasks. So that they are captured some place other than your memory.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#148

Post by bdreadz »

renaudg wrote: post #87
firehawk895 wrote: post #72

David Allen's getting things done hands down. You don't even need to read the book to implement it, although it's a great read. here's the 15-minute summary that will get you going right now - https://hamberg.no/gtd/ - I have used Trello to implement it - here's a screenshot. http://i.imgur.com/dbH8yGq.png specifically answering your question - this framework makes you regularly review your task list and ensures that…

The problem with GTD is that it explicitly discourages you to schedule tasks at a specific time unless strictly necessary : you're always supposed to do whatever is "next" in the "context" you're in. You're never done, and this can be taxing and make you want to give up. Newer research (Dan Ariely's IIRC) has shown that having tasks on the calendar improves the chances of actually doing a realistic number of them.

Well I think part of GTD is that brain dump of tasks. So that they are captured some place other than your memory.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#149

Post by Jtsummers »

cobalt wrote: post #145
Jtsummers wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never? You never planned to start and finish university? You never planned to make a large purchase (like a home)? Never planned a project that was going to take longer than a few months, possible requiring years of time? Never had a long-term relationship, which often requires identifying shared or compatible life-goals to make it sustainable? At some point, like budgeting your income, planning has the effect of red…

Hmm to that I would say, I expected to finish college (and I did) but It wasn't something I planned. I did it one semester at a time until i was able to leave. Also, I put money away, but I am not planning for anything (at least at the moment) - I would say you can budget for possibilities in the future without directly 'planning' them.

Savings in a straight savings account? CDs? Investments? If the latter, you're planning (even a little bit by selecting the right date-targeted funds).

And you just winged it in college? No clue what the next semester would hold? Never selected classes because they were needed for future classes and/or graduation requirements?

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?

#150

Post by hollander »

Find a coach. Find someone who can keep you on track, someone who is independent, who knows what he or she talks about, who knows what you do and what is good for you, personally and professionally. This is probably a professional (life) coach with IT knowledge (assuming that is your profession), so that means paying for it.
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