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Ask HN: How do you organize your life?

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Ask HN: How do you organize your life?

#1

Post by loveparade »

This includes long-term goals, short-term goals, daily planning, TODO lists, reviews, your everyday workflow, and so on.

Over the years I've experimented with several different systems. Simple TODO lists, OKRs, a single ascii huge text file with daily schedules and a few templates, emacs org-mode, and now I am using Obsidian. But I've never been full satisfied with any of the systems. Looking back, the large plain text file was probably the best overall, but org-mode also had some really nice features for scheduling and tracking.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize your life?

#3

Post by brudgers »

I think I organize my life to require less organization.

Organization is a tool not a goal.

What does it take to make a task self-organizing?

Can I delegate organization to habit, routine, or ritual?

In the past, I thought "I will sit at the computer and organize the N problems of my life."

Thus I had N+1 problems.

YMMV.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize your life?

#5

Post by vucetica »

Email. All my notes, plans, todos, reminders (via snooze/send later) are in the email. I also use calendar to keep the family in sync. My current "life database" (i.e. inbox) is on the iCloud (like everything else, so it is good for Legacy Contact, when I pass away), though it was in google workspaces before and it can be on anything else in the future (including self-hosted server).

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize your life?

#6

Post by atomicnature »

Perhaps my answer is a bit unconventional. I try to run my life around the idea of "challenges", and internal/external obstacles I need to "overcome" to get to the next stage. I try to put everything I am doing under a larger "overcome challenge" framework. When there is a concrete story I want to complete, something I wish to accomplish, it is just much easier to get going. Also, I encourage the people around me to identify and take challenges seriously. Humans are natural problem solvers and story addicts.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize your life?

#8

Post by dom96 »

GitHub issues. I have a repo called `me` and I create issues in it.

It all revolves around labels, and I store just about everything there, from lists of web design inspiration to random ideas I come up with (each labelled appropriately, in those cases with "list" and "Idea" respectively). It's particularly useful for tracking todos, since I can just close the issue once I finish the todo.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize your life?

#10

Post by reactordev »

atomicnature wrote: post #6

Perhaps my answer is a bit unconventional. I try to run my life around the idea of "challenges", and internal/external obstacles I need to "overcome" to get to the next stage. I try to put everything I am doing under a larger "overcome challenge" framework. When there is a concrete story I want to complete, something I wish to accomplish, it is just much easier to get going. Also, I encourage the people around me to…

Do you find it exhausting always fighting yourself? Always fighting challenges and gamifying life? Or do you thrive on completionism or achievement that requires you to constantly struggle?

I’m all for accomplishments but daily “challenges” sounds exhausting.

How do you balance that with time off and relaxation?

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