Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#21

Post by tobinharris » Sun, Apr 24, 2022, 9:51 PM UTC

I roughly follow Getting Things Done (GTD) and built a Flutter desktop app for managing the various lists in GTD (I hate flicking between note files).

You can see it on this page. Note that I haven't decided if I'll launch the app yet, so there's not even a domain name. https://qzj2yr24qf8m.umso.co/

GTD also recommends you keep a projects list to remind you of all the open projects you have.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#22

Post by tcmart14 » Sun, Apr 24, 2022, 11:32 PM UTC

DMell wrote: post #3

I have always struggled with maintaining lists and usually revert back to plain text documents with running bullets — however, that doesn't scale well and I end up with text files lacking any order. I've since been using Obsidian[0] and, while my process is similar, I am able to create structure around the files and noticed significant improvement. Since starting a new job earlier this month, I simply maintained a no…

Same here with the text files. They end up going forgotten about until months laters. I even tried obsidian. So for me, I am working on building a TUI application in Rust to do task management. I'll dog food my own code, helps me with learning more Rust, and since I built it, maybe I will actually use it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#23

Post by engineerDave » Sun, Apr 24, 2022, 11:52 PM UTC

The only thing I've found that is as simple or as complex as you want it, and that I have stuck with for over 10 years is Workflowy

https://workflowy.com/

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#24

Post by xyzzy4747 » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 12:12 AM UTC

Generally I don’t keep todo lists. If something is really important I’ll remember it anyways. If not, it doesn’t matter if I forget to do it.

For software projects I use an issue tracker of course.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#25

Post by syntheweave » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 2:33 AM UTC

Started using LibreOffice spreadsheets to outline and make notes. Simple formatting is made easier with a grid. Writing full paragraphs is possible but discouraged. It's easy enough to make a list, reorganize it and export or feed it into code. It's even possible to add multimedia to the document.

I do not rely on writing todos to accomplish todos, for the accomplishment, I focus on "set and setting", using self-talk, making a comfortable workspace etc.

For a lot of things this seems to be a sweet spot.

On occasion I will use a mind mapping tool. This is really another way of brainstorming a topic, and so it doesn't "put things in their place" so much as it does introduce new relationships and address coherency of thought process. The hierarchy of mind mapping is often too much structure and something more like a word or phrase cloud is called for - which grids are good at emulating.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#26

Post by guiambros » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 3:33 AM UTC

I tried everything, starting with Remember the Milk (!) almost two decades ago, to Evernote, Asana, Todoist, Basecamp, Trello, text files on a shared folder, etc. I never was able to stick with any of the solutions for longer than a few months. Each one had something annoying that would distract me from the core goal of getting the work done.

I decided to go back to basics, and went to pen and paper. Got a simple (but gorgeous) kit from Ugmonk [1], and I now use it to prioritize my day/week. Ugmonk follows the classic GTD style of Today / Next / Someday, which helps keep you focused on what is immediate / medium term / long term.

I still use Trello for brainstorming, and to store things online that I'm working on, as well as archive for comments/screenshots/links, things I need to follow-up on, etc.

The combination of Trello for online storage, and a paper-based prio list that is right in front of me seems the perfect balance. I look at Trello a couple of times per week, and write my priorities for the day/week on a Ugmonk card every night.

In parallel I'm testing Obsidian as a long term knowledge library. The client app is way better than it was last year, but I still need to create the habit of taking notes everyday.

[1] https://ugmonk.com/pages/analog

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#27

Post by replwoacause » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 3:35 AM UTC

Sticky notes app on my Mac. Easy and stays in my face until I’m done.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#28

Post by zeagle » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 4:46 AM UTC

OneNote page with a few freeform columns and rows for and using ctrl-1 to create checkboxes. If needed can make a table easily with tab. Various task programs didn't work well for me.

I really only reference it at the start of my day or week. If something really needs to break out on it own subpage.

For organizational todos for projects, contracts, booking stuff for trips etc.. pasting a screen clipping freeform or inline into OneNote or dragging in a docx/pdf is a killer feature nothing self hosted seems to have.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#29

Post by skydhash » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 5:16 AM UTC

Currently, using Craft[0] as the central repository for my projects. It's where I write specifications, diaries, meeting notes,... Once I've outlined a plan for the project, I set up a new project in Things[1], to list all the action items, setting dates and reminders if I need to.

[0]: https://www.craft.do

[1]: https://culturedcode.com/things/

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?

#30

Post by newusertoday » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 5:57 AM UTC

emacs. single org mode file in a github repository. Everything that needs to be done goes in todo list and moves to inprogress->done/postponed. All the notes related to a particular task go in the todo heading of task. It is very handy i can search same file with ripgrep and able to find references/how i deployed something/keys etc.