Dynalist.io
Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#1124 text files that go from vague life goals down to concrete hourly tasks: - todo-year.txt : all goals for the year - todo-month.txt : track subset of annual goals to finish this month - todo-week.txt : track all monthly high-level tasks to finish this week - todo.txt : daily task plan based on weekly plan. Switch tasks every 1 hour. In a day, I plan for about 4 tasks, so each task ends up getting about 2 hours. Self-…
4 columns in Trello wouldn’t do the job?
Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#1134 text files that go from vague life goals down to concrete hourly tasks: - todo-year.txt : all goals for the year - todo-month.txt : track subset of annual goals to finish this month - todo-week.txt : track all monthly high-level tasks to finish this week - todo.txt : daily task plan based on weekly plan. Switch tasks every 1 hour. In a day, I plan for about 4 tasks, so each task ends up getting about 2 hours. Self-…
I do something similar. It's similar to reverse engineering the year starting from the year end goals, although I personally think more in terms of building personal systems instead of setting annual goals. The book "The One Thing" talks a bit more about that concept of breaking down the year into, quarters, then from quarters into months and then into weekly sprints and daily tasks. I also wrote a little bit about m…
You have explained it beautifully in your blog! Matches a lot of my own thinking on the topic and workflows.
Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#114Dynalist.io is one of those rare things that I don't know how I lived my life without before its creation.
Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#1154 text files that go from vague life goals down to concrete hourly tasks: - todo-year.txt : all goals for the year - todo-month.txt : track subset of annual goals to finish this month - todo-week.txt : track all monthly high-level tasks to finish this week - todo.txt : daily task plan based on weekly plan. Switch tasks every 1 hour. In a day, I plan for about 4 tasks, so each task ends up getting about 2 hours. Self-…
Me too! At least with the single TODO.txt.
Here are some other tips:
-- I sync my TODO.txt with Google Drive so when I switch computers, or I want to check on my phone it's sync'd.
-- I don't do weekly or monthly goals, but I do yearly check-ins with myself and every few weeks after I feel like I'm not as focused as I want to be. I keep those goals in Google Docs since those are things that I want a more permanent place.
Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#116Todo lists are doomed to fail.
Schedule everything.
Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#1174 text files that go from vague life goals down to concrete hourly tasks: - todo-year.txt : all goals for the year - todo-month.txt : track subset of annual goals to finish this month - todo-week.txt : track all monthly high-level tasks to finish this week - todo.txt : daily task plan based on weekly plan. Switch tasks every 1 hour. In a day, I plan for about 4 tasks, so each task ends up getting about 2 hours. Self-…
4 columns in Trello wouldn’t do the job?
The problem is that you don't want to see a lot of the other goals very often, you want to stay focused on what you want to do, so a primary TODO is a great way to do that.
I also find that the speed to setting your TODOs matters a lot, and nothing is faster than a TXT file, especially if you travel a lot and internet can be spotty.
As a mental trick, it also seems to help that the first thing I do is look at my TODO since it's the fastest and untethered from my web browser. Once I open my web browser, I need to check e-mail and other things and it's quick and easy to get distracted before you're focused on your short term goals for your working session.
But of course, if Trello works for you, but all means.
Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#118It's funny, I was just talking about this very thing yesterday and got what I feel is some pretty good advice.
The long and short of it is that you are having a hard time organizing the things you want to do because you aren't _finishing_ anything and the backlog is building up. So rather than focusing your energy on organizing all the things you want to do, pick one, maybe two max and finish them. Rinse, repeat. Don't start anything new until you've cleared out the backlog.
Once you've picked, its imperative that you then schedule time in your week to focus on it. Like literally block out time in your calendar and defend it like you would any other appointment.
tldr; finish something and schedule time to do it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#119I think this is more a question about prioritizing and time management than a question about organizing
Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?
#1204 text files that go from vague life goals down to concrete hourly tasks: - todo-year.txt : all goals for the year - todo-month.txt : track subset of annual goals to finish this month - todo-week.txt : track all monthly high-level tasks to finish this week - todo.txt : daily task plan based on weekly plan. Switch tasks every 1 hour. In a day, I plan for about 4 tasks, so each task ends up getting about 2 hours. Self-…
I have tried all sorts of methods and software, but in the end always ended up with a single "today.txt" file.
This year I have started to the same thing, split into today/this_week/this_month but also buy, sell, and for repetitive events, monthly (change passwords, upgrade comps, lubricate all the things), spring and autumn.
I try to review most weekly, with a special focus on this_week, this_month, buy and sell.