Things
Around a year and a half ago I decided it was time to start organising things I needed to do and store ideas I had in my head. I had attempted to do this before a couple of times, but was never committed enough to stick with it, this time would be different.
My tool of choice to assist with this is called Things, created by German based company Cultured Code.
It's a super simple application that stores your tasks in a list. The screenshot above shows the application itself, there are multiple sections, I use them as following:
- Today has immediate tasks that I aim to complete either today or tomorrow, averages 1-10 tasks.
- Next for tasks that need to be done in the immediate future (a week), averages 20-30 tasks.
- Scheduled has repeating tasks like 'Take a photo' for my daily photo project, they get inserted into Today every day automatically.
- Someday for tasks that i'm waiting to decide when to do, has 100+ tasks.
- Projects has a whole bunch of additional tasks groups which I use more for ideas, like music I need to listen to, things i'm planning to read, future blog posts and so forth, similar to Someday but more organised, has 50+ tasks.
This workflow practically runs my life at times, anything I need to do i'll add it to the list so I don't forget. Things like recharge my camera, go shopping, reminders to email people, the list is endless. I don't often forget things but having this list really helps me give things priority and plan my day better. It's especially useful for planning all the things I want to do on weekends.
Often at work i'll remember I need to do things that day so i'll add them to the Today list, or i'll get ideas for something and store them away in different projects. It's easy to add anything within seconds then switch my focus back to work.
Knowing that something is stored away for me to review later is a nice feeling. I often review the lists and find things I had completely forgotten about. While on the other hand ticking off tasks is satisfying as well.
Things itself has served me well for some time, i've tried alternatives (Wunderlist, OmniFocus, text file) but keep coming back to things time and time again. It has just the right amount of features.
Even better, it has a great mobile application as well that I use just as much as the desktop version, especially for completing tasks as I go or adding things while i'm on the move.
While a task list isn't suitable for everyone, it's worth giving it a shot, for me it's been awesome so far (2000+ tasks completed and counting).