Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 291 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

#251

Post by technics256 »

klenwell wrote: post #143
lovelearning wrote: post #40

4 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 very similar but I use a Trello board with columns like these. Specifically: - Daily - Weekly - Monthly - [YEAR] Completed I like Trello because the cards support checklists, due dates, and comments which are great features for promoting habits associated with getting stuff done. Some cards are recurring (getting moved from monthly or weekly to daily column), others are finishable. I take a small but r…

Do you have an example you can share?

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

#253

Post by darekkay »

christiangenco wrote: post #232
darekkay wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, this looks like something I've been looking for lately. I'd only wished Polar would also support epub books. I couldn't find a reliable epub reader with annotations support for Windows so far.

Why not just `ebook-convert book.epub book.pdf`?

Yes, it's a workaround, but I like ePubs, as they allow me to change the font size etc. at runtime.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

#254

Post by alfonsodev »

I’ve created a Slack account with just one user, me. I have a private channel for every project, every category of problem and every interest I have. It’s not just about pasting links in the channel, you can leave messages in the channel(obviously) create documents, threads, todo lists, the search and the automations even sometimes I chat to myself in private to clarify my mind. All this is registered and can be revised later.

It might seem a bit weird but it works for me, problably because the familiarity with the tool and the versatility of Slack.

Also it helps to have this place to quickly dump ideas in the right channel and move on so you are not distracted at work, you can come back to the channel when you have the time for it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

#255

Post by wj »

slsii wrote: post #32
b_b wrote: post #29

I would recommend for you to read and implement the organization/productivity system from Getting Things Done by David Allen [0]. It discusses essentially your main problems of dividing up your life into projects and timing yourself. The system also includes sections for putting some of your ideas in an 'Incubate', basically putting it off for another day once you get through what you have. Having a running list of a…

I second this recommendation with a suggestion that has hugely helped me. I have more or less copied the approach to to-do lists described in that book into a Trello board and then – importantly – made it my home page on Chrome. This accomplishes two things for me: 1) any time I open a new tab, I get a reminder of what needs to be done 2) adding an item or recording an idea to be processed later is just a cmd-t away.…

I do the same with a personal dashboard that pulls in my "today" Asana tasks as my new tab homepage. Are you using the New Tab Redirect Chrome extension? It seems that you can set a homepage for when you open a browser natively with Chrome but not a new tab.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

#257

Post by jamieson-becker »

Here's mine. I just use vim for this in a single file. Everything is designed to be rapidly searchable and make navigation just a few keystrokes.

https://github.com/jamiesonbecker/organization-system

Vim is powerful.. if you don't know how to copy/paste blocks, vertical blocks, search backwards/forwards, etc, learn that first.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

#258

Post by sh87 »

joshgel wrote: post #106
rodolphoarruda wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a 4 file system as well. I keep them in Evernote for easy access. - health: things I need to do to improve my health. It goes from food recipes to medical appointments to exam results. - future: I'm in my mid-forties, so I look ahead with more pragmatism in my eyes. In this file I put the kind of work (or projects) I want to be involved with until retirement (included). Info here serves as directives for all th…

I have a "want" list in evernote too! I think it helps me buy less stuff that I don't really need. I add stuff to it when I see something on the expensive side that I 'want' but am not sure about purchasing. I check on it every once in a while and think "why did I want a GoPro, I never would have used it". Boom saved $500.

I started something similar. I keep a list of all the money that I saved by either not buying some fancy thing, use a cheaper service, DIY/repair, etc. Then, I spend it on some cheap thrills. Funnily, This process has made me happier. I kinda have a good reason to say no!

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

#259

Post by mbohde »

bayindirh wrote: post #215

I have a tiered storage for my to do lists. The biggest storage (also the longest term) is Trello. I have a board with many "lists" in Trello term. Some examples: - Learning - Software development - Home (repairs, improvements, etc.) - Physical organization* - Digital organization* etc. *: Having lots of data and items create its own mess. However, the most important four lists in my Trello board are - ToDo (what I'v…

I also like the pomodoro technique but i have a hard time choosing a good looking app. I came across mater from Jason Long [1] but it still need some work under the hood. It is based on Electron.

[1] https://github.com/jasonlong/mater

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize everything you want to do?

#260

Post by oldboyFX »

Just focus on executing and getting things done instead of planning. I have a flexible work/social schedule and just do things when it's most convenient.

Forget about things you're kind of interested in and just execute on high-priority stuff.

Calendars and meticulous planning are a necessity for ultra-productive people with insane schedules, but for most folks, they often end up as nothing more than extra busy-work.

Post reply on HN