to-do systems
I've used a lot of different online to-do applications and systems.
Today, I use mainly three:
- Obsidian
- bullet journal
- scheduled tasks
How do I use these systems?
| System | Use |
|---|---|
| Obsidian | * meeting notes * web pages * PDFs * all other kinds of data |
| Bullet journal | Enter everything that's been done and everything that's coming up. The list of stuff I've done during a day is reviewed at the end of the day; tasks that aren't completed are moved to where they ought to be. Things that come up and can't/shouldn't be done today are moved to a future date. Every morning I review my list of things to do today and during the next week. |
| Scheduled tasks | When something needs to happen at a specific date and time I enter it into the bullet journal. I also make an entry about the task in my work or private calendar to make sure that a specific time period is reserved for taking care of the task. |
In other words:
Obsidian: this is an application that I use on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android. I use it as a place where I dump data, make notes, write drafts, create flowcharts, draw connections, etc. Obsidian is both one of my 'inboxes' and the place where I often write drafts.
At work, I'm a technical writer. I pick up tons of information from many different places. To see one of the main reasons for why I use Obsidian, see Link notes. This feature allows Obsidian to connect notes, to link them, to graphically show relationships between notes; this makes it very easy to spot fragments of information that pop up, which I often need. Technical writers often need to quickly move between different teams that work on new stuff, which means I'm sometimes part of meetings that contain information that may not make sense to me at that point in time; later, as I connect notes and sift through information, I tend to find nuggets that are very important for documentation purposes. For example, I can connect notes to easily see an overview of what I need to do before a product version is released; this can otherwise easily become fragmented and hard to overview. Bonus information on Obsidian: I use Ole Eskild Steensen's brilliant Obsidian Digital Garden plugin to publish this site.
Bullet journal: this is a paper notebook that I carry around. Naturally it's easier to enter notes into a small notebook than carrying a laptop everywhere; it's more immediate than making notes in a phone. If I make notes that need to be in Obsidian, I later transfer the notes to Obsidian.
Scheduled tasks: for anything that needs to be done at a specific date and time.
Back when I used to work in IT technical support, I constantly reprioritised work. This is natural for a support technician. I used Getting Things Done (GTD), a productivity system; my current way of handling tasks isn't that much different from GTD; these days, I'm more proactive than reactive. I really enjoy mixing digital applications and the bullet journal; to physically write in a bullet journal somehow helps me to remember my present-day tasks a lot more than if I use a digital system. Go figure. If something works, it works; like Primal Scream said: don't fight it, feel it.