Electronic planners/to-do list/project trackers -- seeking group wisdom

[Mary B.]

I'm seeking some advice on online planning tools.

(And when I finished typing I realized I am seeking advice in a really long note!)

As I mentioned on Iris Lilies "planners" thread (which I didn't want to derail), I use a combination of a calendar on the frig for family events, Google Calendar and Excel. Plus a blackboard. And plus two notebooks, one for project ideas (writing, craft, gardening) and one for to-dos -- a kind of ongoing "getting things done" type list. Plus Excel for personal goal tracking.

Here's my dream:
* I keep the family calendar, which works for everyone and is near the phone (doctor appointments, etc.)
* I keep the blackboard since I like to see it in the morning (I update the list at night) and I love the way it looks
* I use an online planner for everything else, integrated with my Google calendar.

Here's the kind of thing I need to keep track of -- the everything else:
* Deadlines for online courses that I teach -- helps predict arrival of assignments for feedback
* Deadlines, next steps, other steps, etc. for projects I work on for $ -- I often have several going at a time (education-related -- course development, etc.)
* To do lists for three major projects at home (house, garden and boat)
* Ideally hours spent on each project, and doing what -- especially for the paid ones, since I usually bill by the hour (I keep track of this in Excel at the moment)
* Ideally tracking tasks connected to my major goals as related to those goals

Here are the three I'm thinking of:
* Omnifocus, which turned up on some old threads here when I searched and is recommended various places
* Wunderlist, which some people have mentioned before, and
* Todoist, which seems to pop up whenever I look for this kind of thing.

Suggestions? Comments? Recommendations? Thank you!

[catherine]

I mentioned two of your three options in my post in the Planner thread...

Wunderlist is very simple and pretty flexible and I liked it for that reason. It does not track time spent, but I don't think OmniFocus does, either. I used to use an app called tictoc to track the time I spend doing projects.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I'm still learning about OmniFocus. It doesn't have the simplicity of Wunderlist, however. Note that apparently WL has a new version that seems to really improve functionality.

See this review in MacWorld:

Bottom line
Detail-view clunkiness aside, Wunderlist is one of the best, simplest tools for team collaboration I've ever used. While it lacks the location-aware, context-specific sophistication of OmniFocus, its simplicity lends itself to easy adoption by everyone on your team. The option to assign tasks to specific people and monitor all parts of your team's projects makes Wunderlist arguably the best group task management app there is.



Of your list of needs:
* Deadlines for online courses that I teach -- helps predict arrival of assignments for feedback: OmniFocus (sophisticated)/Wunderlist (basic)
* Deadlines, next steps, other steps, etc. for projects I work on for $ -- I often have several going at a time (education-related -- course development, etc.) OmniFocus--very sophisticated and flexible--I think WL might be just as good now.
* To do lists for three major projects at home (house, garden and boat) Omnifocus and Wanderlust. Again, OF is more sophisticated.
* Ideally hours spent on each project, and doing what -- especially for the paid ones, since I usually bill by the hour (I keep track of this in Excel at the moment). Neither OM nor WL that I am aware of.
* Ideally tracking tasks connected to my major goals as related to those goals Definitely OmniFocus and I suspect WL.

Here is a great comparison article (https://www.getapp.com/project-management-planning-software/a/wunderlist/compare/omnifocus/) about OF vs. WL. This is very helpful for me, too, because I'm in the process of making up my mind about OF. This article makes me think maybe I'm better off sticking with the WL upgrade (I still have the first version)

[Mary B.]

Thanks very much, Catherine. I'm going to think more about the context aspects of Omnibus, and try out WL -- in fact I'll maybe try both before the beginning of the year. I'll check out tictoc as well!

[Selah]

I could not live the professional life I live (two part-time jobs plus four other sporadic gigs and a social life) without the app on my phone, Life Reminders. You just set yourself notification alarms for any date and any event you need to be reminded of. It's a free app...you get it from the Google Play store. I use it as an alarm clock, medication reminder (I have two meds I have to take only twice a week), and a reminder of all the small things I have to do on any given day. From what you described, it might be extremely useful for you as a way to keep track of all your deadlines...you could also set yourself mini-deadlines along the progress of some of your courses, i.e. "Tuesday, March 3rd, 2016, complete rough draft of term paper."

[Mrs. Hermit]

I have had good luck using Evernote for project management like mapping out the steps to a project and keeping track of the research on projects. I have used Klock for time tracking on projects. For quick to-do lists, I use Google Keep.

[Mary B.]

I could not live the professional life I live (two part-time jobs plus four other sporadic gigs and a social life) without the app on my phone, Life Reminders. You just set yourself notification alarms for any date and any event you need to be reminded of. It's a free app...you get it from the Google Play store. I use it as an alarm clock, medication reminder (I have two meds I have to take only twice a week), and a reminder of all the small things I have to do on any given day. From what you described, it might be extremely useful for you as a way to keep track of all your deadlines...you could also set yourself mini-deadlines along the progress of some of your courses, i.e. "Tuesday, March 3rd, 2016, complete rough draft of term paper."

Thank you, Selah. The mini-deadlines would be really helpful for me in reminding students where they should be with their assignments.

[Mary B.]

I have had good luck using Evernote for project management like mapping out the steps to a project and keeping track of the research on projects. I have used Klock for time tracking on projects. For quick to-do lists, I use Google Keep.

Mrs. Hermit, when you use Evernote in this way, is it mostly a question of organizing notes on steps etc into a notebook? I have mostly used Evernote as a file cabinet, and I love it for that.

[SteveinMN]

Honestly, after trying what seemed like every list manager/to-do app on the planet, I've reverted to my calendar and text files. When I realize there's a task I need to complete, soap I need to buy, etc., it is important to me to be able to write that down quickly. That means the system must be simple and it must work across my laptop and my phone (whichever is closer when I have the thought). Since we're an Apple household, that last part is a little simpler. But it was not always thus, so keeping things in transportable forms has been worthwhile.

Anyway, my rules are pretty simple: if it has a date or a deadline, it goes on my calendar. If it does not (it's seasonally-oriented, like "paint windows"), it goes in one of several context-sensitive text files ("Home", "Rental", "Work", etc.). I review the text files periodically to see if anything needs to be moved to the calendar. Granted, I don't want to track effort, so that simple a system works for me now.

I did use Wunderlist for a while and liked it, though it was a little simple for my needs and it did not keep track of effort (which I needed at the time). I tried Todoist very briefly; I don't remember why I stopped, though I will admit my needs now are quite different than they were when I was in the corporate world. I guess the only advice I would offer is to consider the exit sign over the door -- what you will do if you change electronic ecosystems or if the provider goes under. Exportable formats may make the difference between having a usable backup system and starting over from scratch.

[Mrs. Hermit]

Yes, I create a note for each step or group of steps. I can then add any research I do to that note, or make annotations as desired. Then when the project is done, I close the notebook. I have used OneNote also for this (Evernote is not supported at my work), but I like the portablity of Evernote over the OneNote platform for my outside-of-work work.

[Mary B.]

Thank you all! Very helpful.

I think what I'm going to do for January is write everything down, all in one place. I'll keep using my Google calendar for meetings, but otherwise I'd like to really consolidate what it is I need to keep track of. Then I'll refer to this list for the "which" of going electronic. I realize in reading the suggestions that I'm not really clear about why I want to record the things I record -- what's planning, what's record-keeping, etc. -- and it seems to me to be crucial to figure that out before I identify a system. Otherwise it's sort of like choosing a package before I decide what I'm putting in it.

[SteveinMN]

One other thought I'll throw in -- which I should have put in my post -- is the Getting Things Done concept of "One Trusted System". Others might recognize the concept as "system of record" -- the one place where you can count on all the information being before it is farmed out to satellite systems or devices.

[Mary B.]

Good point, Steve. And likely another good reason to start with a more consolidated approach to paper and go from there!

[catherine]

In my downtime this week, I'm further exploring and deciding on productivity systems.. and this one, a paper one, seems very reassuring after being inundated with research on digital alternatives. Mary B., since you are thinking about a paper approach, try the Bullet Journal:

http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/

[Mary B.]

Catherine, this looks terrific! Thanks.

[Mary B.]

Just an update now that we're nearly halfway through January. I tried the bullet journal Catherine found, and so far I absolutely love it. The secret for me seems to be in indexing the note book so I can be confident I'll find things later on. Still using other places to take notes on projects, but that will likely change as I get more used to this system.

Thanks again!

[Teacher Terry]

For the online course I teach I print out the Syllabus and tape it to the wall in my office. I look at it daily so I can remind students of when things are due. I have a paper calendar in my office and one in the kitchen. I tried using my phone but just never kept it updated.