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The Search for the Perfect To-do List

steveworsley.com

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Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#111

Post by phirschybar »

antognini wrote: post #99

I've found WorkFlowy [1] to be helpful. It's just a touch more sophisticated than a text editor (you can collapse different levels, for instance, and there's an app so you can take notes on your phone, too). But it's not so sophisticated that you get lost in the features. It gets out of the way so you can make your lists. I've been using it for years now. [1]: https://workflowy.com

I tried this years ago and was just reminded by this post to check it out again. This is an absolutely PERFECT task and notes organizer for me. Super fast, intuitive and without all of the typical todo app bloat.

Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#113

Post by tim333 »

hackuser wrote: post #102

I have yet to meet anyone who kept and followed a todo list over the long term. Can anyone say otherwise? It just doesn't seem to be human nature to do it consistently beyond short bursts of focus, like dieting and following step-by-step procedures.

I'm not convinced todo lists are a good long term solution. Short term if you've got more things to do than you can easily keep in mind then they are good but longer term you're better off automating or simplifying life so you don't have the issue, perhaps.

Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#114

Post by Tiksi »

julianpye wrote: post #40
Chris2048 wrote: post #28

I haven't found a decent ToDo list with this killer feature: dependencies. I want to mark a task as dependant on another being done. I want to add time estimates to those tasks, and see a gantt chart. I want tasks to show the sum of their dependencies estimates next to their own estimates. I want priorities to also flow through dependency chains in this manner - if a high priority task is dependant on a low priority…

This is key for any ADDers - chains of dependencies to ensure that not only raisins are picked off your ToDo List and you get to only see next steps and not all steps. For the past three years I have been working on this in an app sideproject and planned to launch the beta this winter, but I keep getting distracted :) Android alpha testers can get in touch with me.

I'd love to alpha test this, my email is listed in my HN profile if you'd like to get in contact.

Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#115

Post by VladimirGolovin »

krzrak wrote: post #16
nextos wrote: post #4

IMHO GTD-based approaches are not optimal for knowledge workers cause they don't limit work-in-progress, and this ends up being overwhelming.

I am not sure if I get you right, but what I have a problem with is that to-do list are, well, lists of deadlines. There is no representation of task being "in progress". This way, if you don't groom your list on a daily basis, you may end up having dozen of deadlines to face one day.

Yes, most todo apps today are not friendly to dateless tasks, and they conflate start / hide-until date with due date, which should be kept separate. I call this problem 'due date pollution'.

I think a user must be able to postpone a task without assigning a due date to it. I'm working on a todo app that will implement separate hide-until and due dates.

Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#116

Post by VladimirGolovin »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #66
Chris2048 wrote: post #28

I haven't found a decent ToDo list with this killer feature: dependencies. I want to mark a task as dependant on another being done. I want to add time estimates to those tasks, and see a gantt chart. I want tasks to show the sum of their dependencies estimates next to their own estimates. I want priorities to also flow through dependency chains in this manner - if a high priority task is dependant on a low priority…

Precisely this. Beyond that, we need opportunity tracking. Often, there is a very small window in progress can be made on a task. It could be an unique event, a recurring event, a time of day, access to a resource, etc. - Buy milk when you're near milk - Talk to John when you're near John - Tan when they sun is bright - Catch the train in the next 5 minutes otherwise you'll wait an hour for the next You can't make a…

I'm working on a todo app that will address this via automatically-activated contexts. For example, you could have a task which has "@work & @near:Bob" in its Contexts field, and it will appear in your list when the both conditions are met.

(The app currently has all the infrastructure for such contexts, however I'm not yet sure about how to implement person proximity triggers in particular).

Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#117

Post by drjesusphd »

npsimons wrote: post #106
drjesusphd wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Make the OS your task management system Can anyone who is more familiar with orgmode describe how it might play this role?

> > Make the OS your task management system > Can anyone who is more familiar with orgmode describe how it might play this role? Emacs, full screen ( https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/FullScreen ), auto-starting org-mode, and do everything you can in it ( http://blog.vivekhaldar.com/post/3996068979/the-levels-of-em... ). It helps if you already use Emacs, such as writing software in it.

Yeah there's my problem. I've heard wonderful things about orgmode, to the point that people think it's worth switching. But I'm a vim user and I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble. Trying to get a variety of opinions.

Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#118

Post by jwdunne »

julianpye wrote: post #40
Chris2048 wrote: post #28

I haven't found a decent ToDo list with this killer feature: dependencies. I want to mark a task as dependant on another being done. I want to add time estimates to those tasks, and see a gantt chart. I want tasks to show the sum of their dependencies estimates next to their own estimates. I want priorities to also flow through dependency chains in this manner - if a high priority task is dependant on a low priority…

This is key for any ADDers - chains of dependencies to ensure that not only raisins are picked off your ToDo List and you get to only see next steps and not all steps. For the past three years I have been working on this in an app sideproject and planned to launch the beta this winter, but I keep getting distracted :) Android alpha testers can get in touch with me.

Send me an email. This sounds awesome :)

Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#119

Post by joch »

reubenswartz wrote: post #101
joch wrote: post #72

I recently published my current OmniFocus/GTD workflow, which has been working really well for me. http://johnny.chadda.se/the-2016-omnifocus-setup-and-workflo...

that's a nice write up and very helpful.

Thank you! There are so many way of implementing GTD and countless posts on parts of everyone's setup, so I just figured I just post my entire setup in one single article.

Re: The Search for the Perfect To-do List

#120

Post by lemonberry »

drjesusphd wrote: post #117
npsimons wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > Make the OS your task management system > Can anyone who is more familiar with orgmode describe how it might play this role? Emacs, full screen ( https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/FullScreen ), auto-starting org-mode, and do everything you can in it ( http://blog.vivekhaldar.com/post/3996068979/the-levels-of-em... ). It helps if you already use Emacs, such as writing software in it.

Yeah there's my problem. I've heard wonderful things about orgmode, to the point that people think it's worth switching. But I'm a vim user and I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble. Trying to get a variety of opinions.

I just switched from vim to emacs for org-mode. I use evil and the key mappings are very, very close. Give it a shot. It's really good. eLisp is kind of fun to play around with, I already grok that better than the vim language.

A couple perks of the switch: org-mode, magit (wrapper for git), elisp is kind of fun and makes customizing emacs really approachable (subjective of course), I used to live in the commandline (bash, tmux, vim) but I've found that I navigate my system faster and better than before (buffers and registers).

There's a steep learning curve, but being willing to read documentation is helpful. It's definitely been worth it for me. And I do think that conceptually thinking of emacs as an OS or interface to your computer rather than a text editor is helpful.

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