[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer...
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       Ask HN: How do you keep track of your to-dos? longer-term projects?
        
       In 2022, what tools are you using to keep track of your to-dos?
       What tools are you using to keep track of progress on longer-term
       projects?
        
       Author : uger
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2022-04-24 17:19 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
       | throwaway81523 wrote:
       | Text file or org mode. For something really big I guess I'd
       | consider an issue tracker, but I've never had to do that for any
       | personal project. I've been at companies obsessed with using
       | technology for this and it's always been a waste of time,
       | especially when they churn to a new system without fully
       | migrating and deleting the old system. Even if they make the old
       | system archived/read-only, you end up having to look into 5
       | different systems to see what you are working on. I always tell
       | myself that if I'm ever roped into a tech lead slot, I'm going to
       | leave the choice of issue tracker up to the other devs, but will
       | insist that there be only one system and that all the previous
       | ones must be merged into it.
       | 
       | Really, IME, the technology doesn't really matter. I've never
       | seen a tracker that scales really well, and unless very large
       | scale is required, afaict they are all about equal.
        
       | blamestross wrote:
       | Obsidian with the Todo plugin and tags.
       | 
       | I am also a part of the cult slowly building a personal database
       | in obsidian to use as postmortal-simulation training fodder
       | later.
        
       | ozzythecat wrote:
       | I keep Excel spreadsheets with simple todo lists for things I
       | need to do... for example, taxes, renewing a drivers license,
       | purchases that are easy to forget, books I want to read, etc.
       | 
       | It's sort of todo lists and one line notes, all saved into one
       | folder.
       | 
       | I've found for myself that I just need something very simple and
       | easy to use. There are programs out there that let you use mark
       | down, or they sync your todo lists or your notes. All this extra
       | fancy stuff just adds complexity and for me, distracts me from
       | the actual stuff I need to get done.
       | 
       | Of course, this isn't a silver bullet for everyone.
        
       | 7263255 wrote:
       | At the moment, I use Todoist as a front end and have a bunch of
       | automations that run via the API.
        
         | SaulJLH wrote:
         | Could you elaborate on this?
        
       | shrimp_emoji wrote:
       | A .txt file with a "char-checkable" list
        
       | the-anarchist wrote:
        
       | badinsie wrote:
       | trello
        
       | tlhunter wrote:
       | Todoist for personal, shared Todoist with one other person,
       | GitHub Project for technical team stuff.
        
       | tobinharris wrote:
       | I roughly follow Getting Things Done (GTD) and built a Flutter
       | desktop app for managing the various lists in GTD (I hate
       | flicking between note files).
       | 
       | You can see it on this page. Note that I haven't decided if I'll
       | launch the app yet, so there's not even a domain name.
       | https://qzj2yr24qf8m.umso.co/
       | 
       | GTD also recommends you keep a projects list to remind you of all
       | the open projects you have.
        
       | LinuxBender wrote:
       | I write things down on a notebook. I received loads of notebooks
       | from vendors with their logo on them. When I complete something I
       | put a line through it. If something is important I write an
       | asterisk next to it.
        
       | DougMellon wrote:
       | I have always struggled with maintaining lists and usually revert
       | back to plain text documents with running bullets -- however,
       | that doesn't scale well and I end up with text files lacking any
       | order. I've since been using Obsidian[0] and, while my process is
       | similar, I am able to create structure around the files and
       | noticed significant improvement.
       | 
       | Since starting a new job earlier this month, I simply maintained
       | a notebook with tasks. Once those are complete, I cross them out
       | and add them to my Goals / Brag sheet that I keep for personal
       | reference. I'm now wondering why I didn't do this all along.
       | 
       | [0] https://obsidian.md/
        
         | smoldesu wrote:
         | I also use Obsidian, with a slightly different workflow. I
         | create 3 different types of lists: week lists, sprint lists and
         | ticket lists.
         | 
         | - Week lists are divided into days, with one sub-heading for
         | each day, and a sub-sub-heading for a daily todo list and the
         | day's events/meetings. Each one lets me take notes and prepare
         | info for the day, with a general to-do list at the top of each
         | day that organizes my general goals. It really helps structure
         | everything for me in a meaningful way.
         | 
         | - Sprint lists are fairly specific to agile work, but I use
         | them to set goals for each sprint and keep a "birds-eye view"
         | of my work, so to speak.
         | 
         | - Ticket lists are specific to Jira tickets, and they're what I
         | link to in the aforementioned two lists. I use these to store
         | information that is specifically relevant to a task at hand. If
         | the knowledge can be generalized, I'll usually try to make a
         | page for it elsewhere in my notes and link to that instead.
         | 
         | It's a bit of a mess, but it really helps organize things for
         | me. Being able to anticipate, react and record like that is an
         | essential tool to not driving myself crazy in the workplace.
        
       | eimrine wrote:
       | Not having any todos works best for me. Just wake up as early as
       | possible and do as much as possible and that is it.
        
       | moasda wrote:
       | At work I use a personal kanban task organizer to prioritize my
       | tasks. The tasks for today are also visible in Outlook. It is a
       | desktop app that I wrote for my needs.
       | 
       | https://gitlab.com/moasda/task-organizer
        
       | CodeWriter23 wrote:
       | Todos: pad kept near dominant hand. Blue pen to add, Red pen to
       | cross out.
       | 
       | Long Term: Markerboard in office
        
       | hpen wrote:
       | Notion
        
       | tiddles wrote:
       | For my long term side project I just dump ideas into a barely
       | organised backlog.md [^1]. After finishing a feature or taking a
       | few months away, I normally dive back in by browsing this and
       | choosing the next milestone.
       | 
       | It's worked well for a couple of years, and helps me keep the
       | long term goals in mind.
       | 
       | [^1] https://github.com/DomWilliams0/name-
       | needed/blob/develop/.pl...
        
       | dtx1 wrote:
       | Joplin on my phone and linux pc's and a free nextcloud hoster for
       | synching it with e2e encryption.
        
       | dugdale wrote:
       | A list. In my head most of the time. A wiseman once told me that
       | if it's important you'll remember and if you don't, it will come
       | back to you in one form or another. I try with software, but
       | nothing has ever really worked. I work in a small team and we're
       | trying Google Spaces now as it has tasks built in, but it needs
       | just a little more ..
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-24 23:02 UTC)