A bit unrelated, but are people actually getting anything out of personal task managers and ToDo lists?
Supposedly they are to help me do the right thing at the right time and not worry too much. I've started to believe part one of that problem manages itself more or less and part two just get's worse and worse by trying to be organized with projects, lables, calendars, ideas and ambitions.
I'm currently thinking maybe I should encrypt all my notes and make the password unavailable for me for the next year or so whilst I try starting every day with a blank page.
I use a single flat text file + VIM for all personal todos.
The first header is "calendar". For each line below it, there is a date and the name of an important non-recurring meeting to attend.
The second header is "schedule". For each line below it, there is a start clock time, a stop clock time, and a 1-2 word project name.
The third header is "projects". There are 1-2 word subheaders beneath this of project names. Under each project name, there is an independent, non-heirarchical todo list. Projects are sorted alphabetically, not by priority.
It works for me because I don't bother generating a combined task list sorted by priority, and don't bother listing more than 1-5 tasks per project.
If I need to prioritize a project, I add an additional block of time via 1 line in the "schedule" section. I don't bother changing the order or sorting of items.
The main benefit I get out of it is faster context switching, so if I am working on 10+ projects, or communicating with several different clients simultaneously, I can quickly pull up a single file to check the state of every project.
I use a separate journalling tool for brainstorming, and git+email to more exhaustively list tasks for individual projects.
My central TODO file is more of global brief and status report to keep things moving.
They don't have any causal power to make you actually do the things you set out to or should do, but they can be a useful way to organize and keep track of your tasks and deadlines if you have more than a handful of them.
My personal life outside mostly consists of eating, sleeping, having fun, and the occasional visit to the dentist, so I don't need a computer program to manage it.
Procrastination trivially circumvents any system by simply ignoring it, and it's possible to go overboard with micromanaging yourself to the extent that you spend more time fiddling with your "Getting Things Done" setup than you do actually doing things...
But for example, with the very small business I own with my brother, setting up a Trello board and using it to keep track of various bureaucratic errands very clearly improved our efficiency.
I am without exaggeration an order of magnitude more productive in my life and in my work because of proper task management. And because I use a comprehensive system like GTD, I typically don't let things slip through the cracks either. Beyond testimonials, the psychology is pretty clear: the human mind is not built to efficiently keep track of responsibilities and commitments in a way that keeps us maximally productive. Externalizing parts of that system have clear psychological benefit.
But your own issue sounds like it is more rooted in procrastination. "The NOW habit" by Niel Fiore might help you out.
Not necessarily. It's hard to put into words but to make it short: To-do lists only work for me if I write down an item while having the intention of actually doing it asap. If that is the case then specific software that, for instance, allows tagging can be useful. But again, tags wouldn't be useful for the sake of it or to have some sort of reference. It is rather intentionally choosing tags that helps my brain to structure upcoming work and thus helps me getting things done.
I noticed the same with LeechBlock (a browser extensions that blocks a list of webpages at times specified by the user)
I disabled it because it annoyed me when I really needed to visit a site that was blocked. But thinking about what site I wanted to block at what specific times has helped me to understand how I want to use the web. LeechBlock made me think about when it would be ok to browse news websites or how many hours a week of "wasting" time on reddit or hn is acceptable for me.
If you really want to implement the GTD system the right way, pay the money for Omnificus. For your phone, use the Omnifocus IOS app or the Focus GTD app on Android. Integrate it with MailPlane, and you've got a sweet task tracking system that actually works and can link back to your email inbox.
I recently saw a presentation by the head of the GTD consultancy connected with the book anf he says he uses Omnifocus to implement GTD. I have tried tons of to do apps over the years and nothing beats Omnifocus.
Absolutely not. I will not get sucked into their lock in again. I own several macs but I constantly switch between iOS and Android and, for the past year, I've been getting back into doing development on Windows again. I had most of my life in Omnifocus at one point but what good is it if I can't use it on my windows computer or my phone?
Focus GTD is awful. It's very buggy and relies on the Omni folks not radically changing or introducing something. The last time I used Focus GTD it actually lost some of my data during a sync. Sure it's probably better now but I'll never try it again.
I think it's a mistake to pick a system that forces you to only use a single platform. GTD helps people run their entire lives depending on how much you use it so I think it's important you pick a system that is flexible enough to come with you no matter what.
Though I'll be honest there are not a lot of good alternatives out there (especially if you want a dedicated windows app).
Abuse of todo lists ultimately leads people to focus on doing even more urgent-but-not-important tasks. To get to important-but-not-urgent, a good task app should have some concept of planning, or identifying action items from first principles.
This is inherently a graphical data structure. PERT charts and GANTT charts do this, so does graphviz. Most todo apps do not. Omnifocus does not. Weirdly, most bubble-graph software does not - you can grab a bubble, shake it, and realize it's just a strict hierarchical tree where a bubble can have multiple children, but no bubble has multiple parents. Org-mode kind of has it through tags but I hear it's awkward. taskwarrior does have it, but it's hard to work without creating a bunch of complicated shell aliases (which is doable).
Lists of discrete tasks minimize interruptions because you add the item when it bothers you, and then take care of all of them when you're not in the middle of something else. Without the list, you'd likely forget something and be bothered by it again. Actual to-do software is just structured text which some people prefer and some don't, similar to IDEs, MS Word, etc.
I very much prefer organization systems that help me prioritize. I think a kanban, with its work-in-progress limits, is a much better task list. One can achieve such a thing quite easily in org-mode.
I use them for continuity. I'll see something that annoys me or needs to get done. Anything from needing to add a window manager key bind to a bug that needs to be fixed. I'll add it to my list. Then I work on the big and pressing tasks of the day, but when I have 10 minutes I can go back through the list and pick a task and knock it out. Anything I'm working on at close of business gets added to the top of the list so I don't forget about it when I start tomorrow. I don't really prioritize or sort just track things so I can think about other things.
A bit unrelated, but are people actually getting anything out of personal task managers and ToDo lists? Supposedly they are to help me do the right thing at the right time and not worry too much.
In the past, I would do fine without a todo manager and primarily used my mail inbox and text files to keep track of things. As the number of responsibilities and hard deadlines grew over the years, it simply became impossible to keep track of everything. Moreover, I would realize that I forgot something urgent when at home, etc.
I decided that it's not doable anymore, tried some todo managers and settled on OmniFocus. Now I just add tasks with the appropriate due dates or defer dates when necessary and forget about them. It gives peace of mind and I rarely miss deadlines ;). The integration with iCal is great - the Forecast gives a nice overview of what I should definitely do on a day.
(On-topic: I did once try TaskWarrior and the vim plugin, but I like OF's integration, syncing support and ease of use.)
I get a ton out of my to do lists. I could not function without them. But I do not use fancy tools. I use a text editor, and always have my todo file open.
For me, I make a note each morning of everything I want to get done that day. I write up notes as I plan out my work, and design my solutions, so I can focus on just one piece at a time, and make a note of other details as I think of them. Over the course of the day, I knock things off the list. And if things are leftover that are large enough to warrant it, I document them in the "real" tracking system we use at my company.
That being said, you should do what works for you. If to do lists are not helping you, by all means, don't use them.
Our memory is limited. Besides why clutter it? Use an external storage facility to track what needs to get done. Also, don't clutter it. Set priorities and limit your TODO list to a max of 5.
If you find that your TODO list is expanding, you're not doing it right. Reset priorities, keep the top 5 and just fucking delete the rest.
I personally only focus on the top 3 TODO items and just ignore/delete the rest. Seriously, you might think that an item at number 7 is too important to forget so you might be tempted to just let it lay there. But as all processes managing a TODO list requires discipline too. The key is to set priorities. A TODO list without priorities is meaningless.
I think that happens when the org system is too complicated. I use a single file txt TODO list with three sections: red, yellow, and green. Each section contains a prioritized list of tasks. I delete the line when done and push to git. The day usually starts with 5 minutes looking over the tasks and that's about it. Dated things go to the calendar. Inbox zero as much as possible.
Personal task managers and todo lists are by themselves not helpful. You need to have a workflow in place (morning routine, regular schedule, whatever). Todo lists are one of the tools that help you to execute your workflow.
I'm currently thinking maybe I should encrypt all my notes and make the password unavailable for me for the next year or so whilst I try starting every day with a blank page.