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How to organize yourself as a solo founder

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Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder

#31

Post by chasd00 »

paul_f wrote: post #20

Having tried everything, nothing works better than 5x8 yellow pads. Write down everything you need to do. Draw a line thru when done. Every few days, rebuild the list. Everything has to be on one page, or there are too many to-do's, and you can delete ones that just don't make the cut. No technology, just pen and paper.

I have boxes of those 5 subject half size bound notebooks you can get at the dollar store. All filled with notes and doodles from throughout my career.

I’ve tried to switch to a digital form but always end back up at pen and paper.

Edit: well had boxes of notes, they got thrown out on the last move

Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder

#32

Post by jokethrowaway »

urban_winter wrote: post #7

I've never found a way that I like to integrate dealing with email into a to-do list. Reading emails is a perpetual need but it is damaging to focus and I often find that it saps my energy by reminding me of all the things that are not yet done. I've tried having fixed times of the day where I always deal with emails; adding "30 minutes of email" to my task list; reading them between each switch of tasks. None of the…

The issue is that you're likely leaving too much on your inbox. I use my inbox as a to-do list (especially before Gmail removed inbox and its reminders, now I just create a draft with a title) but it doesn't contain the backlog of all the projects I'm working on.

If you have too many tasks that needs to be done I think you should group them by activity and store them in a separate place. Then you can timebox "dealing with $activity" where you just get down with those tasks.

Eventually you can hire someone and give them the task of a certain activity (which can be anything: a software project, dealing with a visa application, buying a house etc)

Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder

#33

Post by Kharvok »

I'm absolutely paralyzed by this at the moment.

I want the mobility of a digital solution, so much of my documentation and task items are spread across Evernote and Trello. Except an analog solution such as a note card or post-it notes has a physical prescense that's very focused and attention grabbing.

Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder

#34

Post by codazoda »

aetherspawn wrote: post #30

Microsoft Todo is great for this. It syncs between all your devices, Office365 and integrates with outlook (flagged emails become todo items). You can make hierarchical folders and the recurring option is super handy.. I run much of my invoicing/AR/AP as just a recurring todo item.

Microsoft threatened to kill my favorite tool, wunderlist, so I stopped using it and avoided their new tool too. I just can’t seem to forgive them. I am not sure what wunderlist provided that I loved, or I might write my own replacement, but nothing has felt as good since.

Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder

#36

Post by drifty-t-sleep »

codazoda wrote: post #34
aetherspawn wrote: post #30

Microsoft Todo is great for this. It syncs between all your devices, Office365 and integrates with outlook (flagged emails become todo items). You can make hierarchical folders and the recurring option is super handy.. I run much of my invoicing/AR/AP as just a recurring todo item.

Microsoft threatened to kill my favorite tool, wunderlist, so I stopped using it and avoided their new tool too. I just can’t seem to forgive them. I am not sure what wunderlist provided that I loved, or I might write my own replacement, but nothing has felt as good since.

Amazing Marvin. All the tools of every to do app out there. With the ability to customize everything. You add and remove only the features you need and use. You can even theme it to look exactly like Wunderlist.

Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder

#39

Post by smartmic »

Hey, a little bit off-topic, but: here comes a very original HN experience. The author himself writes that tools are the least important, but for the HN crowd, it seems that tools are above anything. In consequence, the thread here is mostly about the tools only. Combined with the favorite topic of self-organization, this can serve as highly illustrative material about HN.

Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder

#40

Post by awillen »

paul_f wrote: post #20

Having tried everything, nothing works better than 5x8 yellow pads. Write down everything you need to do. Draw a line thru when done. Every few days, rebuild the list. Everything has to be on one page, or there are too many to-do's, and you can delete ones that just don't make the cut. No technology, just pen and paper.

Oh man, found my spirit animal. I tried recreating the same system on a white board next to my desk to save paper, but it just doesn't work without rewriting the list from scratch regularly (though I must have smaller tasks, because I'll rewrite 1-2 times per day).
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