Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#21

Post by vegancap » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 3:57 PM UTC

I have a big whiteboard in my living room with three columns. To do, doing and done. Then I have loads of post-it notes. Each note has a title of what project it's for, then a brief description of what needs doing and a time estimate at the bottom. I just move 'em all along.

I keep a rough overview of that mapped out in Trello also as well which I keep in sync with my whiteboard, so that I can update it and add things whilst I'm not at home.

At work we use Jira.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#22

Post by thirdtruck » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:02 PM UTC

A YAML file, edited in vim and reported on by Ruby scripts. Seriously. Here's a sample:

  date: XXMar2015#                                                                                                       
  IWT at gym:                                                                                                            
   tasks: [atx]    #                                                                                                    
   time estimate: "1.5 hours"                                                                                            
  Mail processing:                                                                                                       
   pomodoros: [ax, ax, ax, ax]                                                                                           
   tasks:                                                                                                                
    Review unsent drafts: [atm]                                                                                          
  Move prep:                                                                                                             
   pomodoros: [ux]                                                                                                       
  Taxes:                                                                                                                 
   time estimate: "1.0 hour"                                                                                             
   tasks:                                                                                                                
    Download and send W2: [atx]

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#23

Post by danwakefield » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:16 PM UTC

Random Thoughts - Google Keep

Events / Anything with a date - Google Calendar, Not a huge fan but haven't found anything better.

Movies / TV - Combination of Letterboxd and episodecalendar

Random Files - Dropbox, Thinking of moving to Google drive though since I dont actually use the sync. Contains a copy of ~/documents and ~/code.

Code - Github / Gogs mirror on one of my servers.

Email - Yahoo. In the process of switching to self hosted though.

Passwords - Lastpass.

Everything Else - Just using logical folder structures. I.e

~/video/movies/unwatched/ or ~/video/tv/keep/Archer/1/Archer.S1E01.mkv

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#24

Post by teddyh » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:17 PM UTC

zerocored wrote: post #7

teddyh wrote: post #6

Keep track of what?

everything

Nobody keeps track of everything – this would require omniscience.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#25

Post by Link- » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:17 PM UTC

I've been battling with this issue for quite sometime now. I did not find the 'ultimate' solution (probably because there isn't any but self-discipline). One important tool that I found most helpful was `Reminders` on OSX, specifically the fact that I can put an alarm (one-off or recurrent) on each task. Given that Reminders are synced across devices (iPhone, iPad) and are available in the notifications center this helps me a lot when I'm on the move. One downside of using this method or any other is that your capacity to memorize the due tasks disappears as soon as you write them down. I'm not sure what's the psychological/neurological explanation for this, but it's true. If your task list is not that big, your brain is the best way to keep track of them. Otherwise be prepared to skip a few as soon as jot them down.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#26

Post by shahocean » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:21 PM UTC

I personally use Trello for this. It works well on all my devices and sync immediately when I add any task in it. Also, its very easy to use. Surprising thing is I don't pay any single penny for it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#27

Post by shahocean » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

beachstartup wrote: post #3

google spreadsheets.

I found GS bit complex. Are you comfortable using it on your mobile device?

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#28

Post by clearing » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

taskwarrior and taskwarrior-vim so I can keep tasks in the same terminal as work.

ghi to keep track of github issues

mutt for email, with notmuch for searching/indexing

ynab via wine for budgeting, though I'm not the best at keeping up with that : )

other than that I have a moleskine that I fill with random things related to that day/week/month, inspired somewhat by bullet journal

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#29

Post by shahocean » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:27 PM UTC

zwischenzug wrote: post #4

Jira. I host it at home and have my own workflows and projects set up. Everything I do goes into JIRA.

I just checked the website. It looks like its similar to Trello. Is that so?

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of everything?

#30

Post by patrickg » Sun, Mar 29, 2015, 4:30 PM UTC

otterpro wrote: post #18

I use Notational Velocity (and its fork, nvALT) on Mac for almost everything. This replaced everything, including Evernote, etc. The text files are saved to git repository daily. On Linux, I use vim (with lots of plugins that gives me similar functionality to NV).

NV and nvALT were such a gereat push in note taking. My first note is now five years old. Before that, I have used a plain text file for everything.

I really like the hyperlinks and full text search in nvALT.