Help me get organized!
March 16, 2019 10:54 AM Subscribe
The amount of tasks and projects I'm involved in with work have slowly increased, while my limited to non-existent organizational skills have remained the same. Help me find a tool or technique to keep it all together!
I'm looking for something more than a simple to-do list, and something different than just Google calendar (which I already use for appointments, meetings, and reminders). I have a lot of work-related short-term to-dos but also longer term projects or goals that have lots of sub-tasks as well. How can I keep this all organized? Right now it mostly lives in my head, and I worry about forgetting things, or mis-prioritizing.
I've seen the Bullet Journal idea and am intrigued, but am concerned that there might be too much "overhead" in writing everything and keeping a written log up to date. I'm also open to electronic solutions. Is there an app or program that you recommend to keep me organized? I'm using an iPhone and use Macs both at work and at home, and Google products everywhere, so any electronic option that can sync between Mac devices is ideal.
I'm looking for something more than a simple to-do list, and something different than just Google calendar (which I already use for appointments, meetings, and reminders). I have a lot of work-related short-term to-dos but also longer term projects or goals that have lots of sub-tasks as well. How can I keep this all organized? Right now it mostly lives in my head, and I worry about forgetting things, or mis-prioritizing.
I've seen the Bullet Journal idea and am intrigued, but am concerned that there might be too much "overhead" in writing everything and keeping a written log up to date. I'm also open to electronic solutions. Is there an app or program that you recommend to keep me organized? I'm using an iPhone and use Macs both at work and at home, and Google products everywhere, so any electronic option that can sync between Mac devices is ideal.
Do you use a task-tracker? I'm a huge proponent of this. I use Wrike but another popular one is Asana. Trello is a Kanban style board where you can make your own categories but a simple "in the queue" "working on" "in review" "complete" process would probably help you a lot. All of these have some form of daily digest of your list and have due dates which can alert you. I own a small business and I use my task tracker constantly. I also use my calendar and I also have a wall with sticky notes that have the names of each of my projects and where they are in my process. Sometimes you have to have some analog. My husband has done something similar in the past with sticky notes and four categories "urgent and important" "important but not urgent" "not urgent or important" "not important but urgent." YMMV. :)
posted by amanda at 11:25 AM on March 16, 2019
posted by amanda at 11:25 AM on March 16, 2019
Trello. Trello all day long. Seriously.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 11:42 AM on March 16, 2019
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 11:42 AM on March 16, 2019
OmniFocus is a very powerful program for this purpose as well, although Mac and iOS only. Highly recommended; it is actually worth learning how to use. It can do complicated things like defer tasks so they just disappear and pop up again on a later date, or show you a menu of only the immediate next thing to do for all of your projects. Extremely powerful and flexible.
posted by vogon_poet at 12:43 PM on March 16, 2019
posted by vogon_poet at 12:43 PM on March 16, 2019
I use OmniFocus when things get really crazy. (The effort/reward ratio isn't there when things are calmer). It is based on Getting Things Done and it has the great feature of being able to create the lists as organized by project but then display based on calendar or location. ("On the computer" is the location that helps me find all the those little things that I need to do. I also like the way you can dive deep into a project to just focus on the current to-do times without losing track of the things that will come later. In fact, one of the huge benefits of Getting Things Done based systems is the idea that you don't have remember things if you can trust your system to remind you when it is time to think about it again.
posted by metahawk at 2:58 PM on March 16, 2019
posted by metahawk at 2:58 PM on March 16, 2019
I like Todoist enough to have the paid version. I'd say Todoist is between Trello and Omnifocus in, hmm, how fussy-therefore-powerful it is. Trello is great for really visual work.
*Anything* that will take in a task when I think of it and remind me on a date, or when I look stuff up under a heading, is incredibly useful not just in getting stuff done but in not being perpetually freaked out.
posted by clew at 3:30 PM on March 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
*Anything* that will take in a task when I think of it and remind me on a date, or when I look stuff up under a heading, is incredibly useful not just in getting stuff done but in not being perpetually freaked out.
posted by clew at 3:30 PM on March 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
For me it's Trello on my phone, tablet and desktop (though I'm Android and Windows, it seems Trello is also available for Mac).
The paradigm is "boards" which have vertical lists of cards. The "back" of each card (which can be much bigger than the front!) can have images, attachments, bullet lists (using a kind of mark up), dated comments and colored labels. It's easy on the go to create a card with minimal info and later flesh it out. Some of my cards are VERY fleshed out.
I use a main board with lists ASAP, Errands, In Process and Hold for Next Use. I have another board called Recurring with lists Weekly, Monthly, Yearly and Irregular. Then I have boards for each project I am involved in, with appropriate lists.
You can search/browse their enormous gallery for an appropriate background for each board, which I did. You can move cards within and between lists by drag/drop, or between boards via "Move" action. You can also assign a Due Date to a card.
Personally, I like the paradigm, the graphic/visual aspects, the "cloud" on-the-go use and the fact that the longer I've been using it the more it seems to just work for me. Of course, YMMV.
posted by forthright at 4:29 PM on March 16, 2019
The paradigm is "boards" which have vertical lists of cards. The "back" of each card (which can be much bigger than the front!) can have images, attachments, bullet lists (using a kind of mark up), dated comments and colored labels. It's easy on the go to create a card with minimal info and later flesh it out. Some of my cards are VERY fleshed out.
I use a main board with lists ASAP, Errands, In Process and Hold for Next Use. I have another board called Recurring with lists Weekly, Monthly, Yearly and Irregular. Then I have boards for each project I am involved in, with appropriate lists.
You can search/browse their enormous gallery for an appropriate background for each board, which I did. You can move cards within and between lists by drag/drop, or between boards via "Move" action. You can also assign a Due Date to a card.
Personally, I like the paradigm, the graphic/visual aspects, the "cloud" on-the-go use and the fact that the longer I've been using it the more it seems to just work for me. Of course, YMMV.
posted by forthright at 4:29 PM on March 16, 2019
The basic trick is to not let anything live only in your head. Everything goes into your chosen solution, digital or analog.
I use a task manager (used to use GQueues, which is fine, but I switched to Todoist recently and like it even better) to write down my tasks, next steps on my projects etc. But I then make a daily plan in Evernote, where I actually think about how to structure my day and when to work on what tasks and so on. The same thing could be done on a piece of paper, a BuJo, a Google document or anything else you use often enough that you don't forget to check it whenever you finish a task.
Another basic trick is to go through your to-do list regularly, so you can keep it up-to-date and also make sure you're not forgetting any tasks.
posted by gakiko at 11:52 AM on March 17, 2019
I use a task manager (used to use GQueues, which is fine, but I switched to Todoist recently and like it even better) to write down my tasks, next steps on my projects etc. But I then make a daily plan in Evernote, where I actually think about how to structure my day and when to work on what tasks and so on. The same thing could be done on a piece of paper, a BuJo, a Google document or anything else you use often enough that you don't forget to check it whenever you finish a task.
Another basic trick is to go through your to-do list regularly, so you can keep it up-to-date and also make sure you're not forgetting any tasks.
posted by gakiko at 11:52 AM on March 17, 2019
I use Trello for some projects but don't love it. I am a much bigger fan of Freedcamp, which works better for me spatially - Trello's wide arrangement of lists makes me feel like things get lost more easily, while Freedcamp lets you have everything in more of a checklist-on-a-page view.
The nice thing about both Trello and Freedcamp is that they have free levels, so you can try either one (or both!) to see whether either one fits your style.
One tip: most people find this is an iterative process, so be prepared to fine-tune and improve things over time. You might find it helpful to put a 15-minute weekly check-in on your to do list to evaluate your system:
* My goal with this system is (to avoid missing deadlines / to do at least one thing on each important project / to make sure I do the three top things every day). How well did this system help me meet that goal this week?
* What worked well this week?
* What didn't work so well?
* What one change could I make that would make the system work better for me next week?
posted by kristi at 7:25 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
The nice thing about both Trello and Freedcamp is that they have free levels, so you can try either one (or both!) to see whether either one fits your style.
One tip: most people find this is an iterative process, so be prepared to fine-tune and improve things over time. You might find it helpful to put a 15-minute weekly check-in on your to do list to evaluate your system:
* My goal with this system is (to avoid missing deadlines / to do at least one thing on each important project / to make sure I do the three top things every day). How well did this system help me meet that goal this week?
* What worked well this week?
* What didn't work so well?
* What one change could I make that would make the system work better for me next week?
posted by kristi at 7:25 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by hijinx at 11:23 AM on March 16, 2019 [3 favorites]