[terminalcommand]

For the last 3 years I've been trying to find a way to organize my life.

Before that I was in a rebellious phase, I didn't believe in time management and plans. I thought they caused stress and inefficiency. I thought there was enough time for everything.

However, then I crashed and realized that professionalism and proper planning have their place. But I could not and cannot manage to adopt a system.

I tried org-mode, the to-do list on my phone, some calendar apps. I tried the flash card system from Cal Newport's book Focus. I managed to stick to it for a week, and actually got some work done.

Nowadays I don't plan ahead, if something needs my attention and needs to be done I write down a checklist for the task with minimum self-explanatory items on a piece of paper.

Most things that I perceive as tasks are either not important in the end, or they go away. The ones that remain receive my undivided honest attention and in the meantime I procrastinate.

I don't trust myself, so I don't plan ahead. If I plan, I don't think I'll stick to it. If a task has the potential to haunt me, make me anxious and rob me of my sleep, I try to be cautious with it and get it done ASAP. Other than these types of tasks, I don't force myself to do anything and simply pass the time.

I wish I could be an organized person, procrastinate less, tidy up, live healthier etc. But knowing from experience that it's quite unlikely that I'll do all that, I try to focus on the bare essentials and try to feel less guilt.

[rayiner]

The thing to realize is that you are planning, you're just keeping it all in your head instead of writing it down. That can often work, but one of the things I found when I started formal planning is that getting all those tasks out of your head onto paper actually relieves stress and increases efficiency. At least for me, I found that it causes a lot of unconscious anxiety to have that stuff in your head. I realized that when I was relaxing I was actually unsettled, going through in my mind whether I was forgetting something. And when switching tasks, it takes a lot of time to sort through your mental task list to figure out what to work on next.

What made it "stick" for me was getting an Apple Watch. On one hand I can add a reminder trivially with Siri. On the other hand, I can put my tasks on my watch face so I'm constantly reminded to actually check and maintain my list. Obviously, YMMV, but for someone who has struggled with organization since I was a kid, that was a game changer.

As for the point about minor tasks: little tasks will often go away, but that doesn't meant here are no consequences. One of the things that made me get a formal task management system was my wife getting sick of me blowing off household todos. Not because I wasn't doing my fair share of the actual grunt work like cooking, etc., but because by blowing off all the little things I was by default making her do all the task management and planning.

[dsr_]

"Most things that I perceive as tasks are either not important in the end, or they go away. The ones that remain receive my undivided honest attention and in the meantime I procrastinate."

Every honest organization system is trying to teach you that very point.

You can amass an infinite tasklist in finite time, but only the important things matter. It's much better to accomplish one important thing in a day than twenty inconsequential jobs.

...the difficulty is in discovering what isn't important.

[problems]

Don't downplay the significance of small jobs though - investing a few hours in housework, server configuration or refactoring can all pay off hugely in my experience.

[oddlyaromatic]

You might get something out of a Gretchen Rubin's 4 tendencies idea if you haven't already come across it. Disclaimer, I don't use this in my life, it's just something I've been meaning to look into http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2013/10/what-kind...

[blazespin]

Cautionary tale.