What's to Do with All Those To-Do's?

Of Action Trackers, Visual Tools, Gamifying, and Fun.

Photo by Danielle-Claude Bélanger on Unsplash

How do you manage your to-do’s?

Of course, nothing beats writing to-do’s on a piece of paper and reveling in the joy of striking them off manually at the end of the day when you complete them.

Then there is the simple checklist template¹ in the free Numbers software on Macs, with a predefined box to check off the to-do’s. It can also be a joy to cross items off this offline task list.

But for granular management, including dependencies, categorization, and task automation, especially for work, you need to use pre-defined software workflows.

For instance, I introduced Notion earlier and showed you how to create checklists and journal entries.

One advantage of such tools is that you can assign tasks to others using their platform handles and let the software remind and track closures when working in teams.

Notion: The Simple Stuff in 15 minutes or less. With Videos.

You can apply the same benefits of automated tracking to your lists.

Today, I want to share one of my favorites: Todoist, an easy-to-use, visually appealing, minimalist software product that I particularly like for its simplicity and focus.

One of the benefits of Todoist is that it stays true to its core focus of task management, whether for work or personal life.

The software enables you to park all your tasks in an Inbox, allocate them to projects, label categories on the fly, subdivide tasks into detailed lists, assign due dates easily, and integrate them into your calendar or reminders.

It offers ease of use that makes task listing, tracking, and management a bit of fun.

Let’s face it, if we have to do boring tasks, should we also manage them in a boring way?

The product gamifies the process by assigning you productivity points—called karma credits—for completing tasks and assessing your levels.

Gamifiying Task Closures.

The idea is to reinforce your completion rate by rewarding your brain for closing out tasks, providing a subtler way of creating the dopamine hit similar to striking out to-do’s on paper.

Additionally, you can visually rearrange the views, grouping and sorting your task lists by goal, project, label, priority, and due dates. Default filters allow you to use one-click options.

One trick is to set up your goals as projects and track daily task completions against those goals to help move you forward.

Add the tool as an extension to your browser, and when reminded of a task, click on the Chrome extension icon to add it quickly.

Or add tasks directly without logging in by emailing tasks to the created projects using assigned IDs for later review.

If your task lists make you feel overwhelmed, in one click, either move tasks into oblivion or reschedule them to a later due date that suits you better.

The free version packs numerous features including notifications and integration with Google and Apple calendars. But if you want constant reminders, and backups, then upgrading to the paid version may be necessary.

Exclusive to Premium Subscribers: Do you have a specific use case you would like to see covered?

Check out this brief video to learn how simple setting up tasks for today, tomorrow, and urgent labels can make managing your to-do’s for the day a breeze.

In this video, I:

• Create new tasks and assign them random priorities.

• Assign tasks random due dates using regular words like today/tomorrow/next week which is automatically translated by Todoist.

• Create a new label called ‘urgent and important,’ and assign a task to this label.

• Group and filter tasks based on priorities, and then by due dates.

• Switch between views to see my tasks for the next few days or by priorities.

• Create a project on the fly when creating a task.

You will notice that I can accomplish the list above intuitively without opening many menus.

Conclusion

Tracking your tasks for personal productivity can be as simple as using old-school paper and pen or as sophisticated as you prefer with digital tools. Your specific needs and preferences play a significant role in selecting the right tool for you.

If you find yourself easily distracted when using phone reminders or email calendars, consider dedicating a 20-minute slot in your day to set up and track your goals and to-do's using this free software product.

Then, enjoy the dopamine hit at the end of the day by crossing off your tasks and reviewing your priorities for the next day.

Also, check out this guest post on LogSeq, a new tool for journaling.

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© 2024, Jayshree Gururaj

1. Select New under the File Menu, and then the Checklist template.