Multi-task tracking
January 15, 2019 12:53 PM Subscribe
The short: I manage about a dozen different topic-areas, with projects ranging between "do right now" and "there are 20 different steps to take, over the next two years," and my current to-do and note-taking systems are less than ideal. What are better ways to track activities and deadlines? The long:
My current tracking tools are a notepad where I jot down everything that comes up, and a daily email reminder that I revise at the end of the day for the next day, reorgainzed by priority daily.
Given the complexity and multi-faceted nature of some of these efforts, my next step is to use a collection of small notepads, either on a big snap open/closed O-ring, kind of like a hipster PDA but with notepads, or modifying a zip-closed binder, so I can have different topic notepads side by side (or slightly layered).
I also have the digital equivalent in ColorNote, an Android freeware app, but it's not as intuitive or easy to manage as physical notes. Also, typing away on a phone while in meetings and talking with people is more closed-off than jotting things with a pen and pad. So I could jot my collection of notes and then transcribe into more organized ColorNote-type documents, but that means spending time transcribing notes. I've thought of using a tablet instead, but that means I lug around a tablet instead of a smaller (note) pad, and again I'm using a digital device that is often perceived as less open than an old-fashioned pen and paper.
Is there something better? How do you manage varying projects of different scales?
My current tracking tools are a notepad where I jot down everything that comes up, and a daily email reminder that I revise at the end of the day for the next day, reorgainzed by priority daily.
Given the complexity and multi-faceted nature of some of these efforts, my next step is to use a collection of small notepads, either on a big snap open/closed O-ring, kind of like a hipster PDA but with notepads, or modifying a zip-closed binder, so I can have different topic notepads side by side (or slightly layered).
I also have the digital equivalent in ColorNote, an Android freeware app, but it's not as intuitive or easy to manage as physical notes. Also, typing away on a phone while in meetings and talking with people is more closed-off than jotting things with a pen and pad. So I could jot my collection of notes and then transcribe into more organized ColorNote-type documents, but that means spending time transcribing notes. I've thought of using a tablet instead, but that means I lug around a tablet instead of a smaller (note) pad, and again I'm using a digital device that is often perceived as less open than an old-fashioned pen and paper.
Is there something better? How do you manage varying projects of different scales?
spending time transcribing notes
There are lots of apps that will let you just snap a photo of your notes and will transcribe them or save the picture. OneNote and Evernote both do this.
posted by soelo at 1:55 PM on January 15, 2019
There are lots of apps that will let you just snap a photo of your notes and will transcribe them or save the picture. OneNote and Evernote both do this.
posted by soelo at 1:55 PM on January 15, 2019
Bullet Journalling might work for you. It's very customisable and flexible. Specifically the 'Collections' concept may help you to manage different scales of project.
I use it paired with Due to remind me about stuff I do every day, or things I need to do at a specific time (mainly so my journal doesn't get cluttered with a daily repetition of 'go for a run' and 'pack lunch for tomorrow'), along with a digital calendar for event reminders.
If you search online for Bullet Journal you're going to see a lot of very beautiful but massively time-consuming visual art that people have added into their journals, but the basic system is pretty minimal and easy to set up. This is a good introduction. So's this Reddit FAQ.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:06 PM on January 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
I use it paired with Due to remind me about stuff I do every day, or things I need to do at a specific time (mainly so my journal doesn't get cluttered with a daily repetition of 'go for a run' and 'pack lunch for tomorrow'), along with a digital calendar for event reminders.
If you search online for Bullet Journal you're going to see a lot of very beautiful but massively time-consuming visual art that people have added into their journals, but the basic system is pretty minimal and easy to set up. This is a good introduction. So's this Reddit FAQ.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:06 PM on January 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
I only use to do lists on the scale of one to a few months. I have a folder for each project in Todoist or a list for each project in Trello with a batch of currently-doable or soon-doable items that I pull from to make a daily todo list. (In Trello, you can have a separate board with lists for each project phase that you transfer over as needed, but usually that's overplanning for me.)
Stuff that's further out goes in my calendar if it's a deadline (with a reminder or two appropriate amounts of time before) and/or in a project timeline/outline in the folder where I keep the other documents related to the project. It sounds like you might also find it helpful to do an overall plan for the next couple months of what needs to happen each week.
Putting stuff in your to do list that you can't do anything about just gums up the works, and all those year-away items may not be relevant anymore by the time you get to them. Just make sure you're reviewing all of your projects, say, weekly to make sure they're moving forward.
posted by momus_window at 9:11 PM on January 15, 2019
Stuff that's further out goes in my calendar if it's a deadline (with a reminder or two appropriate amounts of time before) and/or in a project timeline/outline in the folder where I keep the other documents related to the project. It sounds like you might also find it helpful to do an overall plan for the next couple months of what needs to happen each week.
Putting stuff in your to do list that you can't do anything about just gums up the works, and all those year-away items may not be relevant anymore by the time you get to them. Just make sure you're reviewing all of your projects, say, weekly to make sure they're moving forward.
posted by momus_window at 9:11 PM on January 15, 2019
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As far as note taking during meetings is concerned, I can only reliably capture by typing on a keyboard because conversations happen so fast and longhand is slow for me. I put my notes in OneNote, organized by project and then meeting event. If action items need to make it into my planner, I flag them when I write them.
I'm still not great at getting all my stuff done, but I'm getting better.
posted by smuna at 1:09 PM on January 15, 2019