My top one is writing my own project management software, and maintaining it for over a decade as its only user, because without it I would be 100% dysfunctional. It could be argued that the software isn’t even that good. But it involves ranking the tasks against each other so at the end you have to pick something concrete.
That sounds super interesitng. How does the ranking work? Like you’ve got a bunch of things you need to do, but you don’t want to. So you ask would you rather do x or y until you choose an action?
Similarly, I have a spreadsheet I’ve been refining for years synced across all my devices for task management. No premade solution satisfied me. The columns I use:
Task: short description of task
Details: any helpful details to remember
Did: date last done
↻: repetition interval in days currently going all the way from daily (1) to every other year (728)
Do: next do/due date
Meta Notes: usually hidden notes for future me about why a task is set up the way it is or placed where it is to avoid relearning certain lessons
I keep everything brief enough for the main 5 columns to comfortably fit both the width of my phone and a space I keep available on my left desktop monitor.
The Do column is calculated for me and is color coded from red (very late) through orange (missed a day), yellow (do today), green (near future), blue, purple, and black (far future).
Completing a task is usually as simple as Ctrl+; or F4 (or a calendar tap) in the Did column, and the immediate feedback of the color change keeps me invested in continuing.
I use this same layout for routines, projects, leisure, etc. which all have their own sheets. To give you an idea of how thorough these are, my routines one has about 200 lines.
My top one is writing my own project management software, and maintaining it for over a decade as its only user, because without it I would be 100% dysfunctional. It could be argued that the software isn’t even that good. But it involves ranking the tasks against each other so at the end you have to pick something concrete.
That sounds super interesitng. How does the ranking work? Like you’ve got a bunch of things you need to do, but you don’t want to. So you ask would you rather do x or y until you choose an action?
Similarly, I have a spreadsheet I’ve been refining for years synced across all my devices for task management. No premade solution satisfied me. The columns I use:
I keep everything brief enough for the main 5 columns to comfortably fit both the width of my phone and a space I keep available on my left desktop monitor.
The Do column is calculated for me and is color coded from red (very late) through orange (missed a day), yellow (do today), green (near future), blue, purple, and black (far future).
Completing a task is usually as simple as Ctrl+; or F4 (or a calendar tap) in the Did column, and the immediate feedback of the color change keeps me invested in continuing.
I use this same layout for routines, projects, leisure, etc. which all have their own sheets. To give you an idea of how thorough these are, my routines one has about 200 lines.