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

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

#271

Post by MarsAscendant »

matwood wrote: post #197
MarsAscendant wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It took months one time for me to add 5# to my dead lift. Holy cow! I would've quit after a few days of no progress. Thank you for this reply. The workout felt good . I did a little bit of push-ups, squats, and plank, and it was a major boost already. Last time I exercised was a week ago. How did you start? Was it the school PE? your parents' example?

By that point I had been dead lifting for years. Every 5# I added over 500# was a struggle. Some days progress was measured by lifting the bar 1” off the ground. How did I start? Many years ago in my early 20s I thought I had it all. Great fiancé, good job, and a good life. I could see my whole future and it was good. Through a bunch of random circumstances I started playing DAoC (old school mmo). I had always played…

Glad to hear things worked out for you because you'd made a better choice. Shame that it came to that, of course, but once you're in a rut, the only good thing I reckon I can do is praise your efforts towards getting out. :)

What was your mindset like from the day you quit DAoC to now? Did you feel like it all doesn't matter anyway, so why bother? Was yours a resolute mind?

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

#272

Post by MarsAscendant »

lovelearning wrote: post #241
MarsAscendant wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Leisure time is very much part of the daily plan. I put tasks like jogging, workout, reading, going out in all my plans. This kind of discipline sounds impressive. (I don't think I can follow something quite so meticulous: it'll probably confuse me.) How do you fill out a `todo`? Are they different for each category? are they mostly similar? under the same template?

You can be as meticulous or as high-level as you want, depending on your disposition. Because my default state is one of procrastination and laziness, I have to explicitly plan such things. If I don't, the other work or distractions will just expand to fill my time, and I'll just keep perpetually delaying them only to find at the EOM that I didn't indulge in my favorite hobby for even 1 hour the entire month, and tha…

Thanks for sharing your view on this.

I feel, with a certain definitiveness, that I need a schedule. Rather than working on a strict task-to-task basis, I feel like what I need is an obligation: "Do project X at 10, for at least an hour, then take your time until project Y at 2" etc.

Just thinking out loud.

Best wishes to your progress.

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

#273

Post by renierbotha »

I've recently discovered Notion (www.notion.so) and it's changed A LOT for me.

The main selling point is that it's all the other tools - Trello, Kanban, Asana, Google Sheets (to an extent) in one place, with a planned release of an API.

I've been loving it so much that I've started helping my brother organize some of his company's projects using Notion to showcase the value of having your content organized in one place with the tools that make you feel like your living in 2019.

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

#274

Post by renierbotha »

renierbotha wrote: post #273

I've recently discovered Notion (www.notion.so) and it's changed A LOT for me. The main selling point is that it's all the other tools - Trello, Kanban, Asana, Google Sheets (to an extent) in one place, with a planned release of an API. I've been loving it so much that I've started helping my brother organize some of his company's projects using Notion to showcase the value of having your content organized in one pla…

PS - If anyone feels like notion is a vibe and want to try it out, I wouldn't be against you signing up using this link:

https://www.notion.so/?r=f5b9c5492da44f55bedb473d92a0bfb1

The free tier is pretty extensive, and I'm most def gonna upgrade soon, but every bit helps :)

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

#275

Post by MarsAscendant »

beetwenty wrote: post #224
MarsAscendant wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Leisure time is very much part of the daily plan. I put tasks like jogging, workout, reading, going out in all my plans. This kind of discipline sounds impressive. (I don't think I can follow something quite so meticulous: it'll probably confuse me.) How do you fill out a `todo`? Are they different for each category? are they mostly similar? under the same template?

I can't speak for OP, but I've been addressing "leisure planning" primarily with logging and reminders instead of planners: I received a Fitbit over the holidays which has done a great job of encouraging me to block out 10 minute activity breaks and to stick to a certain wake-up time. I just used break time to do some cleaning and often start chores like laundry and dishes on breaks too. When the "activity day" ends,…

I've been thinking about specified breaks. My idea was: a 5- or 10-minute break every hour, away from the laptop, doing anything at all. I've noticed that, once AFK, I have my mind back: it springs back, outputs ideas, regains its perspective...

I've also been thinking about implementing pre- and post-workday breaks, for 1 and 2 hours, respectively.

The former is about starting the day right: instead of diving into whatever web the Internet has for me (a web of my own making, don't get me wrong), I could take a walk, or do a little cleaning, or cook, or read, or...

The latter, preceded by an hour of review, is to wind down, in order to maintain a proper sleep pattern (which I have serious problems with at the moment: waking up at 1 PM is not good for me).

Let's see how it works for me.

Best wishes to you and your own scheduling. I hope it works out to an excellent result for you.

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

#276

Post by raybb »

kingkool68 wrote: post #221

Now that GitHub has private repos for free accounts I use issues + ZenHub as a kanban board to organize things. This helps me get the ideas out of my head and organized in one place that I can search and filter and group into milestones. I use the same tools at the day job so why not my personal stuff too!

Huh so before GitHub had the free private repos what did you do? I take it you don't collaborate on these at all?

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

#277

Post by jwong_ »

lovelearning wrote: post #240
graeme wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! I truly appreciate you taking the time to explain all that. I think this system could work for me. I've just added those four text files into a folder, a notes folder, and also found an ios app which lets me easily view and edit txt files via Dropbox. (Textor) So, you review all four files each day? I'm guessing that if the review system is properly done, then daily and weekly files see the most change? I'…

Reviewing: I read all 4 files everyday to motivate, reinforce my memory and also see if anything is off track. It can happen sometimes that I have ended up allocating too much time to one thing and not enough to another. Daily reading corrects helps correct that. I write end of day analysis every night, end of week analysis on Sunday nights, and end of month analysis on last day of the month. Daily file sees the most…

Sorry if asking too much about the details, but I'm interested in how you track a task being delayed multiple times for consecutive days.

Do you just know it from daily analysis, or are you creating a new file for each day/week/month, and periodically look through those?

And how about weeks, new file for each week? or just clear it out every new week, and bring stuff back up to the year file?

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

#278

Post by lovelearning »

jwong_ wrote: post #277
lovelearning wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reviewing: I read all 4 files everyday to motivate, reinforce my memory and also see if anything is off track. It can happen sometimes that I have ended up allocating too much time to one thing and not enough to another. Daily reading corrects helps correct that. I write end of day analysis every night, end of week analysis on Sunday nights, and end of month analysis on last day of the month. Daily file sees the most…

Sorry if asking too much about the details, but I'm interested in how you track a task being delayed multiple times for consecutive days. Do you just know it from daily analysis, or are you creating a new file for each day/week/month, and periodically look through those? And how about weeks, new file for each week? or just clear it out every new week, and bring stuff back up to the year file?

I have exactly 4 files - no new files. At the end of the D/W/M/Y, I just add a new section on top and plan the period there. So each file has a record of all previous period plans. These are all cumulative files - I never clear out previous period's plans, just add a new section on top.

To see a task that's delayed multiple times, I just have to scroll down and look for [PARTIAL]/[SKIPPED] markers and their analyses. Usually, the daily analysis results in some corrective action that may also go into the weekly or monthly plans.

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

#279

Post by goferito »

slsii wrote: post #32
b_b wrote: post #29

I would recommend for you to read and implement the organization/productivity system from Getting Things Done by David Allen [0]. It discusses essentially your main problems of dividing up your life into projects and timing yourself. The system also includes sections for putting some of your ideas in an 'Incubate', basically putting it off for another day once you get through what you have. Having a running list of a…

I second this recommendation with a suggestion that has hugely helped me. I have more or less copied the approach to to-do lists described in that book into a Trello board and then – importantly – made it my home page on Chrome. This accomplishes two things for me: 1) any time I open a new tab, I get a reminder of what needs to be done 2) adding an item or recording an idea to be processed later is just a cmd-t away.…

I do the same! I even started a project so I can have Trello on the terminal to faster access and manage my tasks.

If someone is interested on using/collaborating: https://github.com/goferito/termllo

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

#280

Post by lcall »

I'm late to this but: After trying many different things over the years, I wrote this: http://onemodel.org (AGPL; and yes I plan to move to https sometime). In it I organize things in a variety of ways, depending on the topics: for periodic/calendar things, I just write a date and have a (relatively) few memorized keystrokes to move it forward a certain amount. For other things I prioritize and have lists by "role" in life (job, health, husband, father, etc). Each entry can link to as much detail on that topics, including from other areas, as I want. Like a todolist for where I left off so I know what is pending, and what is already done, when I have to come back to something. For topics, I have hierarchies based on what it relates to, and sometimes the same thing is in multiple hierarchies, but it seems to evolve well within the system to meet ongoing needs. It is keyboard oriented and efficient, but you have to slightly configure postgres to install: there are clear instructions and a tutorial. On the web site are some tips for organizing info (in a somewhat raw form), but many more available upon request.

You can think of it something like a personal wiki + emacs org-mode, very efficient, keyboard-oriented, using postgres, but with a much larger vision than today's features, including sharing (linking/copying securely) between instances, and computability of the info for things like anki-like features. Self-hosted now but open to hosting for others. The most current code is in github (AGPL). Comments/questions very welcome, preferably via the mailing list; be patient if my answers are slow. The lists are currently low-volume, and the announcements list should always be.

(It can store files, but isn't especially smooth about it yet. For personal notes of all kinds, it is the most efficient, effective, flexible thing I know of. The FAQs link to a discussion comparing it with emacs org-mode and others. It has fulltext search, some finicky but very functional import/export, a nice numbered-outline export to text, and a journal/activity log.)

If someone checks the web site first, I am happy to answer questions per the email address (or preferably, list) indicated there.

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