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

#1

Post by mezod » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 1:30 PM UTC

I keep categorizing ideas that I really want to execute into groups like work, personal life, projects etc, and then try to allocate time to them. But even when I try to focus and narrow the list of things I want to do, life still gets in between. So how do you go about it?

In the end I spend more time reorganizing my ideas than working on them >.<

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

#2

Post by D4RKH0R53 » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 1:32 PM UTC

I was in the same situation from the last 7-8 year, I read so many self-help books, watched countless motivational videos and other activities to stop procrastination. And the most important thing which I learned is 'Focus in one thing at a time' I will recommend you to read this https://www.briantracy.com/blog/time-management/the-truth-ab...

Hope it will help you...

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

#3

Post by numike » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 1:55 PM UTC

I use index cards and pen/pencil. i keep them around me car/home etc and I write ideas, to do list, whatever on them and as I finish/archive what I wrote on the card I toss it away. Please note I am an old person

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

#4

Post by osrec » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 1:58 PM UTC

I dog food the project management module of an app we built (it's a glorified list with time and completion tracking) - https://usebx.com/app

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

#5

Post by organsnyder » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 2:03 PM UTC

I've come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to have enough time in life to do everything I want to do. And I'm okay with that—I always have something on the list that I feel is worth doing, so it's hard to lose a sense of purpose.

When I'm overwhelmed with must-dos (rather than just want-to-dos), I try to remind myself that I just need to be doing something. It might not be the perfectly optimal thing to be doing at that particular time (though often it is), but it is indisputably better than paralysis.

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

#6

Post by dharmapure » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 2:03 PM UTC

I had an epiphany of sorts about this when working on a freelance project with a client who was particularly organized. They had a kanban board split up into Inbox (ideas and incoming features and bugs), Backlog (accepted tasks), In Progress (doing right now), Review (for others to look at), and Complete columns.

At the beginning of a sprint, the project manager sat down for about 10 minutes and looked at all the cards in the inbox and decided if any should be moved to the backlog. He then rearranged the cards from most to least important.

This prevented the need to think at all when working on the project - I just took the top card from the backlog and put it into in progress until it was done.

I realized, why don't I do this for my own projects too? Since my own projects aren't paid, I for some reason think they should just be able to be done without organization. I've implemented this same system in Trello for arbitrary projects and it seems to work well when I use it. Also nice that it makes it easy to collaborate if relevant but that isn't required.

It's a hard problem though - figuring out how to "Just Get Things DoneTM" is a skill that requires trial and error to figure out what you'll actually stick to, but in some ways is the most important thing to figure out.

I also highly recommend the book The One Thing - my coach recommended it to me and though it started a little fluffy the second and third sections were solid. In short, doing less helps a lot.

The Twelve Week Year is another book with some good ideas - instead of planning long into the future, plan only on a quarterly basis, and have that quarter align with your grand vision for the future.

Happy to chat more about this, as it's a problem I've wrasseled with a lot too as a self-employed freelancer. My email's in my profile.

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

#7

Post by IloveHN84 » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 2:03 PM UTC

I'm using the Bullet Journal method

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

#8

Post by mondo9000 » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 2:04 PM UTC

Realize that this behavior is just fancy procrastination. I can collect recipes all day, but it won't make me a better cook.

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

#9

Post by Gonzih » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 2:05 PM UTC

I have a trello board with all personal ideas/projects. New idea? Write it down. Have some spare time? Do some work on one of the ideas/project. Trick is to optimize setup on anything you do in the way that it takes seconds to start working. For that you have to know an overview of what needs to be done and setup process should be as painless as possible.

Hardest for me in that regard are hardware projects. I don't really have any dedicated hardware workbench. So every time I have to get all my boxes out, all my equipment (soldering station, meeters, etc) and then pack it back. Which usually means I don't have enough time to do actual work.

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

#10

Post by k__ » Sat, Jan 12, 2019, 2:07 PM UTC

I'm trying Github projects this year. Maybe it helps.