Ask HN: How do you keep track of daily tasks

[vrisha]

Got into senior position now and there's so many things to keep track of. Every once in a while I forget something.

For now, I'm writing them down in notebook and review it daily. Is there a better way to tackle this?

[begemotz]

I was once attracted by every new shiny productivity gimmick that would come around the block. I got tired of never using all of their 'features' and the propriety nature of the software since they often folded or were bought out etc.

Now, I am a simple text guy.

todo.txt - both cli and gui synced across computers and phone. Can be viewed anywhere and has a simple grammar. I use it as a personal kanban (i.e. priority of A means doing/do today; B means 'next on deck'; C means 'look at all the stuff you still need to do eventually')

markdown files with a .TODO extension for projects (although you could just have multiple todo.txt files for each project, I dont). And the projects I manage are not complex enough for more complicated solutions (although I do use Pagico for a few larger projects- but have been phasing that out).

I also keep a physical notebook for meetings and for projects. When an actionable item assigned to me comes up, I circle it in the notebook and then transfer it to the one of the files above.

[daveed]

I have a "monthly log" google doc that's always open in my browser (it's tab#2). At the top of each day's entry, I just have a list of TODOs for the day. Below the TODOs are the running thoughts I have as I'm getting stuff done. Every day, yesterday's undone TODOs get copied to today's, and there's a different section for long-term TODOs. This means I see my tasks every day and I can make things as done (bold/unbold) pretty easily.

(Not to assume that something similar will work for you, but basically accessibility and making sure I see my TODOs every day is pretty helpful for me to remember to do them)

[tomjen3]

You will want to do things at certain times that are not meetings, and for this an electronic todolist is really, really nice. I like Apples but only because it is built into their ecosystem anything but MS will do.

Never feel guilty about marking things of your todolist you didn't do. You don't put things on your todolist because you want to do them, you put them on your todolist because you don't want to have to remember them. If at a later point you decide you don't want to do them, you don't have to.

[tugberkk]

I personelly use Trello and making a tick helps me to follow up on many stuff. I create diff. boards for diff. categories and I found this to be the best way.

I can see what I need to do, what I need to follow up on, etc. Using checkboxes also helps.

[beolowo]

Keep a list; a list never fails to ensure you have objectives met and crossed out. Plus, it helps with staying organized.

[aww_dang]

There's something satisfying about crossing out an item or looking at pages of completed items.

Not sure a digital alternative would ever be as satisfying. When ideas bother me at night, I just jot them down and go back to sleep immediately.

[timoteostewart]

I have an 18”x24” whiteboard mounted on the wall. A cup next to it has markers. I’ve trained myself to quickly jot down things that come to me so that (1) I don’t forget them and (2) so that I don’t have to remember them. A big perk is that it’s highly visible.

It’s very satisfying to run a line through completed tasks.

[gtf21]

I keep a list of things in teuxdeux (teuxdeux.com) which I quite like, but also frequently use a little "list notebook" I keep in my pocket because there's something about pen and paper I find stimulates my neurons better.

[tacostakohashi]

https://www.staples.com/Ampad-To-Do-Notepad-5-x-8-20-001/pro...

I have the red one, it works well.

[muzani]

Sam Altman says "make a lot of lists" [1]. That's basically it. There's many types of lists. Many books are written on lists. A lot of it is BS but the solution is really just lists.

I set aside 30 mins/day for cleaning up my schedule. You need to set aside time to buy food and take out the trash. And you need to set aside time to clean your email.

First 15 minutes: I go through all my emails, flag everything to take action on, archive/delete the ones I don't need to. Then I move it all to the Big List. Go through wallet, any loose papers, Slack, WhatsApp, whatever you're communicating on. Dump it all into Big List. If I have extra time, do the browser bookmarks too.

Prerequisite: I have 10 goals I want to achieve this year, each of them their own list. Workflowy is good for tracking these. These are large goals. Something like "get promoted" might be a subgoal of "buy a house". Picking goals is worth whole books in itself, so I won't cover that. But things like "be healthy" and "spend time with family" are goals too.

Now I take everything out of Big List and assign it to those 10 goals. If it's not on the goal list, I consider just ditching it. Do you really need to get your car tinted this year? Do you need that book? Do you need a blog?

Next 5 minutes: I plan my schedule for the following day. You should commit hard to it. Plan as best you can, then remove one thing. I have an excel sheet with four colors: meetings, focused time, break time, and processing time. Processing time is often first, and frequent. Times to check messages, distribute tasks to other people, do stuff like this, and all blockers.

Last 10 minutes: Pick out stuff from that list of goals and fill in the slots as needed. You often want to sort it so that things from different goals that can be batched together (e.g. calls) are done together. Sort out the goal list so that the thing that needs to come first comes first.

The schedule is purposely tight, so I stay focused. If you run out of time, just do it the next day or assign some time to do it if it's important enough.

[1] https://blog.samaltman.com/productivity

[__warlord__]

Simple kanban board. Todo, Doing, Done.

[2rsf]

Why do you need to track doing and done if it is just you and mostly small tasks?

[Jtsummers]

Because it's probably not just you and even small tasks can be useful to know the status and history of.

Boss: So what all did you do this year, including things that I wasn't directly involved with (like I've done in the past, working as support or internal "consulting" for other projects)

You: Well, I don't know, I didn't track it.

That's not the answer you want to give. Similarly, unless it's a solo project you'll want to be able to answer questions from colleagues. Since not every piece of data shows up in a git repo or JIRA tasks, your own log can be very helpful. Or just for yourself, "Wait, did I actually finish that thing or did I just scratch it off the 'todo' list?"

[aliswe]

i DM myself on Slack and set reminders that pop up in Slackbot.