I am drowning in “to-dos” I have dozens, maybe hundreds, of things that I need to take care of. There are multiple categories - work, the house, financial, personal, etc., and they range from important things I have to do for work to setting up a budget to ordering spare keys for my car. These tasks are like balls that swirl around in my brain and random balls will pop up to the top of my attention at random times. I am hoping that one of you wise CC posters will know of some software that I could use to organize everything and keep the tasks straight, and prevent anything from dropping through the cracks.
H just likes “to do” lists. He sometimes makes them manually on paper and other times puts them on his phone. I sometimes do this when I’m feeling very pressed for time as well.
I also calendar things that I know need to be done by a deadline. I often calendar them awhile before the real deadline so I can finish early.
Following - I use the note app on my phone and the calendar on my phone for reminders but there must be a “better” program or app to really keep organized with those “to-do’s”. I can see myself wanting to keep them organized by “home” “work” “finances” etc. like you mentioned, OP.
I use Trello to organize my business - it’s a great program because it uses a system of boards, lists and cards which allows you to organize your tasks the way you need. It is really easy to use and can be sync’d to a phone or other device. It has a reasonably powerful free version which is perfect for personal or small business organization, plus a paid business version. I love it!
Despite using technology for so many parts of my life, for some reason I still use good old pen and paper for my daily “to do” lists (“email such and such”, “call doctor” etc). For recurring stuff like bills or long term stuff like appointments or deadlines, I use google calendar (which I can also access on my phone) and look at it regularly or if I think I might forget something, use email notifications to remind me something is coming up soon. If something comes in via email that I have to remember to do or respond to, I flag it.
I use an iPhone app called “Paperless” (costs maybe $5), which I find pretty helpful. It has lists, sublists, and sub-sub lists, so I can have House - Living room - clean carpets, wash windows… The makers (CrushApps) have recently released a new list making app called IKIRU, which is similar and also has the ability to set reminders. I have that one as well, but don’t really like the look of it so much. It has some bugs also which need to be worked out. “Paperless” can be synced through DropBox with other devices. I used it on my iPad for a time, but now my iPad is no longer updating so it doesn’t support.
I think you have to do what works for you. I had been stuck for way too long on how to organize my recipes. I watched a YouTube video and had the task that I put off for years done in two days. I found out I was a visual learner.
Count me in the old school paper to do list group. There was a great article in the New Yorker years ago about air traffic controllers (who clearly can’t make a mistake moving planes and people through the air every day). They have all this high tech equipment but they rely on a manual system to track each plane they have guided through their air space.
For me, the problem with using paper is that I have so many items, I’d like to organize them, and move them around and set priorities. Paper doesn’t work for me. I will look into Trello, @ILMom13579, thanks. I don’t have an IPhone, and in any case I prefer to use my laptop because it’s so painful to type into my phone.
Your welcome @NYMomof2. There are some great YouTube videos explaining how to use it for all sorts of different organizing tasks. My business for example, I have a list for each major client and then cards for each job with that client. Each card has the name of the client, due date, color coded timelines and check boxes for indicated when I’ve finished each step to completing the job. When it’s finished I move it over to the invoicing list. Once the invoice is complete, the card is removed from the list. So it allows you choose which organization tools you like to use/are comfortable with - lists, colors, check boxes, dates, moving things, etc. You can use as many or as few as you need or like. It also allows you to create cards from emails. So say you wanted to create a board for recipes to try (yes, there are actually people who use Trello for this!) and your friend emails you a recipe. You can send a copy of that email to your Trello board and it creates a card! Then you can go in and add whatever you need, move it, whatever. It not only is easy to use, but I actually find it fun to be organized, which is saying a lot!
It sounds great, @ILMom13579! I will check out the videos. I only hope that at some point I get my life under control to the point that I’d think of organizing recipes - that’s not even on my radar at the moment!
EverNote!!! I don’t care for Trellis, it seems so messy to me. I create notebook stacks, notebooks and notes (several types of notes exist). I can share notes with people. It’s a beautiful thing!
^^^That’s true but if you have many areas in your life that has needs, you can feel swamped with which couple of things to start off with. By using an organizational “system” you can prioritize, make deadlines, etc. - AND stay motivated to get things done.
I started fooling around with Trello a little bit. I do like the visual layout of it - reminds me a bit of Pinterest. Which I like.
I use Wunderlist which works on computer or phone and syncs across devices. You can set up all the to-do lists you want, set reminders, etc. It’s very easy to use and allows you to set due dates, reminders, and share with others… There are free and paid versions. I find the free version does everything I need.
In the paper vs online contemplation, one factor would be whether you would reuse the list.
For a loosely related example, my mom orders most of her groceries online, for delivery via Walmart-To-Go. It’s very easy to add things she has ordered before. Also sometimes it will make a suggestion, based on something she orders regularly but left out this week.
