I love org-mode, but the lack of mobile is really a wall for me. I need the flexibility to add notes in a second from my mobile (without emacs server etc).
I switched to Bear atm, just because has the sync between all devices.
How to organize yourself as a solo founder
11–20 of 68 posts
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#12I use a mix of bullet journaling and GTD, and it has worked quite well for me (though not perfectly, of course). The physical bullet journal (notebooks from Leuchtturm) is a log of sorts, a place where I can take notes from calls etc. and write down anything that comes to mind, in the spirit of capturing every idea. Pen and paper just works better for me.
My GTD context lists with next steps for all ongoing projects are physical index cards that I just keep in there, I re-write them whenever they get full (one side only).
For my projects list, I use Notion, where I have one page that holds the list of projects, and each project having its own page which, most of the time, is just a simple list of TODOs, but can be more elaborate, with kanban boards for more involved stuff or simply a loose collection of documentation, screenshots, drafts, etc..
And of course, Google Calendar.
I was never super disciplined with the weekly review stuff, but it really worked well for holding stuff that my brain would shed in the blink of an eye. I was always very slow, but it's rare that I forget anything I need to get done.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#13I love org-mode, but the lack of mobile is really a wall for me. I need the flexibility to add notes in a second from my mobile (without emacs server etc). I switched to Bear atm, just because has the sync between all devices.
You can try the orgzly mobile app to sync or edit orgmode files on your phone. Its equally good and I love it.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#14I use a mix of bullet journaling and GTD, and it has worked quite well for me (though not perfectly, of course). The physical bullet journal (notebooks from Leuchtturm) is a log of sorts, a place where I can take notes from calls etc. and write down anything that comes to mind, in the spirit of capturing every idea. Pen and paper just works better for me. My GTD context lists with next steps for all ongoing projects…
I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to ask, but what kind of layout / system do you use with your bullet journal?
What I understand is that bullet journals are typically most effective when you adapt it to your own work / domain, but most examples of what others use (including the subreddit community) are almost art projects.
I would be very curious what a more “HN-approved” bullet journal would look like.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#15I love org-mode, but the lack of mobile is really a wall for me. I need the flexibility to add notes in a second from my mobile (without emacs server etc). I switched to Bear atm, just because has the sync between all devices.
Have you seen beorg? It’s a mobile app for org-mode, and allows you to sync through a Dropbox folder.
https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/beorg-to-do-list-agenda/id1238...
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#16I use color coded Post-It notes to track my tasks. Red for high priority tasks, yellow for medium, green for low. Orange and blue for subtasks. Stick them on a whiteboard near your workspace and then move what you want to tackle into a row that acts as your queue. Finished tasks go in a stack you can watch grow.
Why not just use something like jira or trello at that point? Having to remember the color associations for subtasks physically seems a bit too much for me. Also, software is something you can access from anywhere and you don't have to be in one single place.
I don't like the added cognitive overhead (having to remember how the app works) and lack of physical tangibility of software solutions.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#17I've never found a way that I like to integrate dealing with email into a to-do list. Reading emails is a perpetual need but it is damaging to focus and I often find that it saps my energy by reminding me of all the things that are not yet done. I've tried having fixed times of the day where I always deal with emails; adding "30 minutes of email" to my task list; reading them between each switch of tasks. None of the…
The solution I have pulled out of GTD is that once a day I clear everything out of my inbox, and anything that needs a reply gets put into a todo list. Slightly later in the day, I groom that Todo list, and work out which items I will today, and set aside 30m in which to do those. If there's an item in there that will take a significant investment in time -- including a certain email -- then I'll make an appointment on my calendar to do it.
I'll respond to interesting email that comes in during the day if I feel like it / if I'm bored, but knowing that once a day I do a complete clear-out is helpful to me
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#18I use a mix of bullet journaling and GTD, and it has worked quite well for me (though not perfectly, of course). The physical bullet journal (notebooks from Leuchtturm) is a log of sorts, a place where I can take notes from calls etc. and write down anything that comes to mind, in the spirit of capturing every idea. Pen and paper just works better for me. My GTD context lists with next steps for all ongoing projects…
I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to ask, but what kind of layout / system do you use with your bullet journal? What I understand is that bullet journals are typically most effective when you adapt it to your own work / domain, but most examples of what others use (including the subreddit community) are almost art projects. I would be very curious what a more “HN-approved” bullet journal would look like.
I put together a YouTube playlist with the best videos I've found [1], exactly because it's so hard to find any that treat it as a tool and not an art project. It's roughly in the order I recommend watching.
The main bullet Journal reddit has also been taken over by the art crowd, but there are two others that are specifically about journaling and productivity. [2][3]
[1] https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL50SnCmB2W7tUaHuUzeB8OLC2...
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#19I've never found a way that I like to integrate dealing with email into a to-do list. Reading emails is a perpetual need but it is damaging to focus and I often find that it saps my energy by reminding me of all the things that are not yet done. I've tried having fixed times of the day where I always deal with emails; adding "30 minutes of email" to my task list; reading them between each switch of tasks. None of the…
The solution I have pulled out of GTD is that once a day I clear everything out of my inbox, and anything that needs a reply gets put into a todo list. Slightly later in the day, I groom that Todo list, and work out which items I will today, and set aside 30m in which to do those. If there's an item in there that will take a significant investment in time -- including a certain email -- then I'll make an appointment…
I agree with this, email (professional at least) inbox should be treated as its own todo list.
anything in the inbox is something to action, anything you don't need to action personally, archive / tag or move to a folder and be done with it.
If it's something to action then at least gmail has a snooze button and I've found that to be super helpful.
My rule of thumb is that I should not have more than 30 items in my inbox. If there's more then clearing the inbox takes priority over anything else (bar key meetings).
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#20Having tried everything, nothing works better than 5x8 yellow pads. Write down everything you need to do. Draw a line thru when done. Every few days, rebuild the list. Everything has to be on one page, or there are too many to-do's, and you can delete ones that just don't make the cut.
No technology, just pen and paper.