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Sticking to TODO software

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Carol Haynes:
I have tried most of these bits of software and always comeback to a pinboard and bits of paper!

Most of the 'organiser' software just adds an extra layer of 'work' to my mind.

40hz:
+1w/Carol above.

I've tried most (or maybe all) of them. If I had the luxury of having one job with a clearly defined set of responsibilities where I mostly was able to sit at my desk all day, then any one of a dozen apps would have served quite nicely. I could be like a friend of mine who runs her extremely busy (and remarkably successful and remunerative) life out of MS Outlook.

But my own life is much more mobile  And my responsibilities and priorities tend to be more...fluid?

For the last few years I've used index cards and Post-its - and a corkboard. My "daily planner" takealong is half a sheet of quarter inch graph paper folded into three columns headed: ToDo; ToSee; ToGet/Buy. My contacts and monthly/long range calendar (in a token nod to technology) are on my smartphone

Not very elegant. And it violates the GTD rule of having everything under one system. But it works quite well for me.
 :)

iphigenie:
When I was running a hectic agency - where I had a mix of fixed meetings, lots of tasks on long/medium deadlines that all had to eventually be done, lots of interruptions and emergencies and support etc. - one tool that did work for me for a very long time was Pim "Above & Beyond". It did have a way for you to enter all sorts of todos and what they take and also what they were worth and would rejuggle your schedule and suggest what you could work on in your next time slot... And since priorities were adapted automagically it helped you not forget something. It was also quite good at warning in advance of overload problems and of the impact of "shoehorning" - and it supported "i have delegated this". Kind of neat. All long gone now although there are clones and offspring around and some add ons that promise the same thing on outlook (never tried)

Now I never have a problem with whatever is my main role/job, but I do need to capture and not totally forget all the little and not so little jobs and tasks in my life - and I have a lot to tidy up there, put off too many times, and not all that much time especially with all the work related travel. Coping with figuring out how to get my hair cut or juggling schedules and commitments ahead, and not forgetting. So I need to capture stuff. Always.

The challenge nowadays for me is to capture before I forget, and be able to access again reasonably whether at home or away. So i use
a)notepads with an electronic pen so i can have my notebooks with me later as long as i have a computer/internet
and
b)a todo list in hiveminder

I like hiveminder because it is very simple and allows for capture "as a dump" (from a browser text box, from email, from instant messenger, over imap and more) and also allows for review (go through tasks mark as done, postpone etc. in about 1 keystroke per task)

More than the todos, the frustrating thing in my life is missing stuff I could have done had I only noticed or remembered - concerts, events, seeing people...

40hz:
@iphigenie - was your Above & Beyond PIM the same product as the one currently being sold by 1Soft (www.1soft.com)?

iphigenie:
@iphigenie - was your Above & Beyond PIM the same product as the one currently being sold by 1Soft (www.1soft.com)?


-40hz (July 09, 2011, 12:11 PM)
--- End quote ---

yes it is - I am not sure it has changed much, the pages say nearly exactly the same thing as they used to. Might have added some more stuff on the information management (notes etc.) but I never used that much (to me bits of information have to sync or go out of the program for reuse, else it is not worth putting the information in - tasks are different since they vanish). But the dynamic scheduling things can really work, I can confirm that :)

And something not mentioned on the site that it used to do - the calendar view or task view can also be used as a time tracking tool (click on task, start work) able to handle interruptions and sliced up tasks (so i did an hour, now i stop, and tell the tool either that i am done, or that the task is still needed with x left to go)

Making me want to give it a whirl again... but it's not cheap :S

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