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Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

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71–80 of 84 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#72
I just write them out each morning in a notes app (along with my standup notes). Anything that I didn’t get to / anything still pending, I’ll write them again the next day.

It works really well for me, as it keeps even older todos in my head every morning and also makes me aware of how much I have on my plate overall.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#73
post #8

GTD. Been using the gtd system with obsidian for almost 2 years now. I sometimes fall out of sync with it, particularly during high stress times where I lose the motivation to work in a disciplined way, but it’s never too hard to get things back under control. 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.

Could you share how you use Obsidian for GTD? Do you make use of the Kanban extension or something else?

Not OP, but sharing nonetheless.

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).

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#74
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GTD (Getting Things Done) is definitely my answer. I use it for everything from planning my mom's birthday, to building features on an app, to managing a large team. 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 yo…

Thank you for sharing that podcast link. I have just finished listening to the episode while walking and found it so potentially beneficial to me that I was taking notes on my phone while walking. I enjoy how this method is more about one's approach than the actual tool used. A yellow notepad or a few .txt files could work equally as well as a more complex "app". Those are the solutions that tend to work best for me.…

Glad it was helpful!

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#75
post #8

GTD. Been using the gtd system with obsidian for almost 2 years now. I sometimes fall out of sync with it, particularly during high stress times where I lose the motivation to work in a disciplined way, but it’s never too hard to get things back under control. 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.

GTD + Notion here. Here is a 15 min version of GTD: https://hamberg.no/gtd

I recommend you read the book, but it's also a good refresh for all those who read it years ago.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#76
Single text file.

3 main categories: Must do, should do, could do. (Plus a couple of other for recurring and seasonal).

On Sunday eve or Monday morning I go through, add new things, delete done things.

Then pick things I want to do this week and transfer it on a sheet of paper that sits on my desk.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#77
post #10

I'm a huge fan of https://momentum.earth . 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.

Can you do 'blocking' tasks? E.g. Can't paint a wall until the task to move a container is done, but can't do that until the container is empty, so the sequence is derived from blocking tasks. Is it collaborative?

Tasks are all handled as the same kind of object, but I'm going to call any task with a subtask a "project," and any task without any subtasks just a "task."

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#78
Google Calendar for reminders like Tax deadline, Driver License Expiry etc.

Google Keep for checklists - Travel checklist, Address change checklist, Grocery checklist.

Rarely, when I need to note something long form, I use Google Docs.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#79

I use the cli tool taskwarrior -- https://github.com/GothenburgBitFactory/taskwarrior or https://taskwarrior.org/ -- which does have a remote sync option. If you're a "I live in the terminal" kinda person, you might get on well with it.

Switching over to Taskwarrior has been on my TODO list for a while now. (Yes, fully aware of the irony.)

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage – and remember to manage – your to-do list in 2022?

#80
post #12

I tried every todo app and personal organization and management system I could think of over a few years. I eventually gave up and moved to a nice notebook and a decent pen (Leuchtturm and Muji ballpoint pens) and haven’t looked back. I write the date every morning and start a new “section”, copy over anything from the previous day that doesn’t have a “check” mark, and write any new things I think I might need to get…

I might try this again — there's definitely value in having to re-write the tasks every day. For me, a key contributor to success is keeping the "today" list short (like, 5 tasks or less), so how do you track your "backlog"?

Turns out, I don’t do a lot :) I keep the list very short.

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.

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