51–60 of 82 posts
voting for plain text or pen and paper. What I've found most helpful is writing down 'predicted time required' next to each task. And then if you run over adding an additional prediction next to it. And if you run under writing how long it actually took. I quickly realized my poor time management was due to habitually underestimating the time certain types of tasks take me to complete. An additional benefit is if you…
I use Notational Velocity ( http://notational.net ) and a single text note within it (I get to it by typing "todo"). I have sections for "this week", "next week", "this month", "next month", and "someday". If I weren't using NV, I'd use Notepad.exe or TextMate or TextEdit. I wouldn't use anything more complex than those. I adjust things on my (multiple times a) weekly review. Stuff that needs to be done on a specific…
I created http://untodos.com last year with similar groupings (today/soon/whenever). I used it for about a year but stopping using it because adding/removing tasks individually was too much work and I much preferred managing nested todo lists in a text-editor with code-collapse features (so I could hide entire sublists). Earlier this year I created http://bulletxt.com (text-editor like todo/outline app with collapse)…
SO I might have:
08:30 - Wakeup, check social messages, read cartoons, breakfast. 08:45 - Shower, Clean Teeth, Shave.
Things which need doing in the future go at the bottom then when I'm starting them I can just put the current time on to mark them as current.
At the end of the day I divide the time into useful and non-useful blocks and calculate a ratio: useful time / time wasted.
It has had some unexpected but good effects, for example I cook myself much better meals. I know good food makes a difference to me and I allow myself that as time well spent. Previously I'd have been too worried about not doing X important thing and so have stressed out and wasted time on facebook instead.
I'm planning on making a web-app version of this, I'll do a HN post on it if anyones interested.
I've been using it consistently for 6 months now. It took a couple of hours to go through the huge list of options tweaking it to my liking, but it's worth it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I created http://untodos.com last year with similar groupings (today/soon/whenever). I used it for about a year but stopping using it because adding/removing tasks individually was too much work and I much preferred managing nested todo lists in a text-editor with code-collapse features (so I could hide entire sublists). Earlier this year I created http://bulletxt.com (text-editor like todo/outline app with collapse)…
Bulletxt isn't responding. I hope for you that that signifies good demand from HN.
Sounds like the Hawthorne effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
"The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect of their behavior being experimentally measured simply in response to the fact that they are being studied, not in response to any particular experimental manipulation."
In GTD, anything that requires more than 1 action is a project, so implementing a minor feature for a client that takes an hour might actually be a project, because it has multiple steps. When I say “high-level project”, I mean collections of GTD-projects around a related node, like building a web application for a client, or learning iOS. This "feature" of GTD is what finally got me off of it after years as a religi…
I've had this experience as well doing research. GTD is great for doing many small tasks that are hard to remember, but I always seem to have tasks that are hard to break up. Something like "Make machine learning method X work for data Y". Sure there are lots of mechanical things like importing/exporting data that are easily tracked GTD style, but then there is the core problem, that is very difficult to break up ahe…
This is similar to a problem I have delegating tasks. Not always, but often by the time I detail out things that need to be done, and how to do them, for someone else with less experience, I could have just done the work faster. In the short term this is incredibly frustrating, and I balance that out by telling myself that over the long haul, getting others up to my level on certain tasks will mean I don't have to do it at all. But determining when to delegate and when to do, with real world deadlines involved, is stressful.
org-mode
org-mode