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Todo apps are meant for robots

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151–160 of 205 posts

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#151

I use a Todo app every day, starting in the morning. Almost all of my tasks are recurring, well defined, and relatively short. E.g. "triage email inbox every day", "vacuum house every week on Saturday", "upper body workout every second day", "renew passport every 10 years". For me this works well, because: * I don't forget to get things done * I don't have to think about what I need to do, the app shows me a daily li…

It works for you, because you didn't do what a commenter said elsewhere here.

> We keep adding things we "should get to at some point"

Maybe it's time for a completely new perspective on TODO lists.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#152
post #77

Almost all Todo apps have the problem of showing you stuff that you are incapable of just seeing things you _can accomplish right now_. I think people underestimate the amount of pain that comes from, over and over again, looking at a list of things you can't do anything about at a moment X. The only TODO app that I've found get this at least 95% right is Omnifocus with its billions of settings. Though there's still…

I’m feeling pretty relaxed and focused with https://timestripe.com Don’t think that this is the perfect app. I guess it’s different for everybody but I like time horizons feature which I didn’t see anywhere else.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#153
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking recently that it’s such a terrible idea to put todos in a list. A todo tends to be something that gives you a tiny bit of worry: guilt that you should have finished it already, stress that you might not be able to, etc. By putting a dozen todos together in a list, your level of worry about that list as a whole is going to rise to the most worrisome todo. It’s poisoning the well. Now you don’t want to l…

The way I see it, putting the todo in a list gets it out of my head - I don't have a need to keep remembering it, so I don't worry about it as much - I have confidence I won't forget to to it, because it's on the list.

That is the essence of GTD - your head is for doing, not for storing, so get it out of yer head and into a "trusted system".

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#155

Unfortunately all of the options are bad. I tried to map out the space of info that I need to track in my engineering job: 1) Tasks from emails 2) Meeting notes with details of people who participated 3) Project related tasks that can have a long format and can be tagged/ delegated 4) Scratchpad for unrefined ideas 5) Detailed documentation for completed technical tasks / ideas 6) FIFO list of high priority small dai…

I'm in a very similar boat. My best solution so far has been to use Onenote and Outlook plus paper, but I'm looking for something better. Maybe org-mode or a personal wiki? In Outlook I mark emails that I want to respond to/deal with later as "unread" or else apply the "followup" flag depending on how much work responding will take. There are downsides but I have so far been able to keep the scheme manageable (single…

I think org-mode with org-roam[0] is what you're looking for.

[0]: https://github.com/org-roam/org-roam

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#156
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People drag on GTD but David Allen I’ve not yet found a decent alternative. I think a better book could be written on it though. I think the system could be explained in fewer words making it accessible to more people. David’s book is a good read but you probably have to be very serious about fixing this part of your life to put in the effort required to understand and implement it.

My take on the book was it could’ve been ~20 pages, but had to be padded out to full book length. A lot of that in the self help category.

I would strongly disagree. The Book teaches you not only a system of organisation but also how to think about tasks and organisation in general. The system can be broken down into 20 pages. The general thinking around it cannot easily be condensed as much. It has helped me a lot beyond GTD because the same principles can be applied in other contexts such as agile dev work or organising a company.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#157
post #102

My single biggest improvement in getting somewhat organized and productive so far has probably come from getting comfortable with some amount of chaos. I used to try and set up the perfect system for my notes. I got caught in endless cycles of coming up with some structure, finding new tools, etc. — only to then barely ever write down anything because it never quite fit into any of the boxes I'd prepared. I used to t…

I have exactly the same problem, I've used Notes, I've used Trello and eventually settled on Notion.

I tried out some complicated templates, tried making my own but in the end I've gone back to a pretty unorganised Trello style list in Notion.

Every time I use it I feel bad that I'm not using it 'properly', in a way it almost has so many features that it becomes too much and I use none of them.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What app do you use? I've yet to find something that works really well with recurring tasks.

Todoist - https://todoist.com

I really wish the CEO would get off his own koolaid and add start dates. I get it, you don't use them. I would find them useful. I spend a good few hours a week trying to work around the lack of start dates in Todoist haha. One day I'll pay someone to set up Omnifocus for me and switch to that.

It would be super convenient and would stop my checking out every god damn todo app that comes across my radar too

I know, break tasks down further if they need a start date, whatever. It doesn't work for me, I tried. I don't want to spend my life organising a todo app I just want to do the things in the todo app and then go lie down

Honestly I'd prefer due date be replaced with start date as far as which is more useful. Using Todoist in that way doesn't work well either, I tried.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbh that is the way to go. Be in a position where you have to tackle a few very important tasks, and outsource the little ones to others.

Yes, this. See also the "Eisenhower Matrix".

Yes. When task entry is a chore, and requires detailed determination of priority (and other fields), it's a deterrent. The Eisenhower Quadrants are a way to toss a new task entry into the right box without pausing for headscratching.

Re: Todo apps are meant for robots

#160
ive had much better luck with outliners like dynalist (and previously workflowy) and its the longest ive ever stuck with a single system (maybe 5 or so years). i think the lack of any structure helps things a bit since it gives you more freedom to arrange things depending on the type of task.

with an outliner everything is a bullet point (or node). every node has an optional note section, and every node can have more nodes nested underneath it. thats basically all there is to it, but it means you can arrange things to be a basic a shopping list, or a project that holds many other sub nodes/folders, or if you were writing an article or a book you could have each node be a sort of a header/chapter description and then the content written in each note section.

ive found that rescheduling or tagging features in most todo apps just ends up being more work than actually doing the tasks themselves, so the way i organise my todo list now is by just using now/next/later nodes. i usually have a handful of tasks in the 'now' section, and maybe 10 or so in 'next'. when i run out of tasks in 'now' i move things up from next/later or if there are too many tasks in 'now' i move them to 'next'. the 'later' section is an unholy mess of things but it really doesnt matter because that section is collapsed/hidden most of the time so its not overwhelming and the search is good enough that i can pull something back up easily enough without having to organise anything or follow a system.

overall, the thing i try to remind myself is that i can only work on one thing at a time. its irrelevant whether there are 10 or 1000 tasks up next after the current one. the only thing i need to worry about right now is working on the most important task.

personally i dont get much out of marking something off the list or keeping a 'done' list. just actually completing the physical task is enough of an achievement for me.

about point #5. i would really love to see a solution to that. its the one thing that bothers me about my current setup. small tasks and chores are mixed in right beside big projects and sometimes i only want to work on one type and hide the others. the only thing i can think of its maybe filtering the list by certain words, or maybe the node content since small tasks are just usually 1 node, and projects have many sub-nodes. but its not always that simple either, so other than the only solution is to go back to tagging things.

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