This post has me worried this morning. I don't have any long term goals. Curious to see what other people have.
Set a short-term goal (a month) and set aside some time (weekly?) to spend focusing on the task of discovering your long-term goals? :)
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?
#92Advice from my physics professor: make a detailed plan and then discard the plan and do what you feel. This doesn't mean the plan was unnecessary...rather the plan carves out the neural pathways in your mind. The feeling part is important too since if I am so rigid then I am going to be crushed by the randomness of life.
"Write a business plan to prove the idea is feasible, then throw it away".
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
#93A 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 aside from having recurring todos.
If you'd like, I've got a 3-month premium code left over I can send your way. Not affiliated with them, just a happy user.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
#94For the big projects in my life right now, I just keep track of my time spent, on a daily basis, in a text file. I've found that if I spend enough time, things get done. A simple breakdown of 30 minutes on this, 90 minutes on that is enough.
Looking back at what I've been doing this week, it's pretty clear what areas I've been neglecting.
Anything more than this would not get updated regularly. My time log also works like Jerry Seinfeld's Xs on the calendar; I'm motivated to put in a minimum of effort today to avoid breaking the chain.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
#95A 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…
Have you seen http://weekplan.net/ ? Might be a substitute for Timeful
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
#96Advice from my physics professor: make a detailed plan and then discard the plan and do what you feel. This doesn't mean the plan was unnecessary...rather the plan carves out the neural pathways in your mind. The feeling part is important too since if I am so rigid then I am going to be crushed by the randomness of life.
That's what I arrived at as well. However, sometimes it's good to make a new plan after a while and then discard that one as well and so one. One could call it "iterative creation of intention".
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
#97Advice from my physics professor: make a detailed plan and then discard the plan and do what you feel. This doesn't mean the plan was unnecessary...rather the plan carves out the neural pathways in your mind. The feeling part is important too since if I am so rigid then I am going to be crushed by the randomness of life.
"Plans are nothing; planning is everything." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
I used to hear this a lot from one of my better bosses. I agree with it. It is, however, important to capture "planning". Any form is fine, whether scribbles or a list or a picture of a whiteboard. Trying to organize the raw info was usually a waste of time, but having it accessible as a reference wasn't.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
#98> moleskine notebook Ok. That's a weird detail to bother hipsterbragging about. Anyway, I have a post it on my monitor that says. "Just do the fucking thing and stop doing busywork". I have a second one that says "Successful people have better things to do than arguing on reddit/hn" Tldr; constant visible progress, cut distractions
> Ok. That's a weird detail to bother hipsterbragging about. > "Successful people have better things to do than arguing on reddit/hn"
That wasn't arguing. This is arguing.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
#99Google calendar and an hour each morning to move actions related to long-term goals into your short term todo list (notebook in your case). However, bear in mind that plans are rarely followed to execution perfectly. You may meet someone who wants you to stay, or you may get a really good offer. You might experience financial hardship and need to settle down for a while. When I go on a hike, I spend a good hour or tw…
Thanks for this. I usually rush through planning/organization because I think it shouldn't take long, especially just for day to day things. But you mentioning that you give an hour is eye opening. Do you do this at work or before? How do you stay motivated/consistent to do it everyday?
An hour is a bit of an exaggeration. I come in to work early every day, and sift through operational alerts/clear out easy tasks in that hour. I do this while eating cereal, making and drinking coffee, etc. If I have some time left over, I read the news (usually finish everything up in about 20-30 minutes).
Of course, we do a technical rotation, and there's a lot of small tasks to do, most of which require a very quick grep of the logs.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
#100I 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"?