- bitlbee + weechat for managing social messaging. Slack for work.
- A custom deployment of https://github.com/gollum/gollum for managing all notes, personal and work related. Can easily share Markdown files with teammates / friends. https://github.com/zachlatta/mullog is code for custom deployment. I usually edit locally using vim and have tons of shell scripts specific to note management to automate file creation, renaming, and git usage. This is my most used life system and I'm almost constantly using it.
- Arch Linux with i3 and tons of custom scripts for managing how I use my computer. Have heavily customized my machine in https://github.com/zachlatta/dotfiles.
It's difficult to predict the future and unlikely that someone else will build a tool that will always meet my personal needs, especially as they change over time. Better to use systems that lend themselves to customization so I can always build systems that work for me – hence heavy reliance on scriptable programs.
How do you manage to have a consistent logging with atimelogger, without having spurious information? I mean, I can say I'm working, but I can be distracted for a few minutes and come back, or something else. Do you stop/start the timer each time you switch? I find that really annoying about using these kind of trackers, which of course is a problem with me, not with the tracker itself. But nevertheless, I'd like to know what your approach is..
Do you have Android 7? I'd love to have a power/volume activated voice recorder but the power 3x tap to start recording conflicts with the awesome power 2x tap shortcut to open the camera in Android 7+. Any other methods/apps you know of to customize the shortcut to use volume buttons?
I use Trello for all kinds of stuff. For example we have a grocery board, so if I'm at the grocery store I can pull it up and make my trip more effective. Every Saturday morning I bang out my weekend todo list in Trello. Whenever my wife and I are going to do just about anything: go on a vacation, buy something, whatever, we make a trello board for it.
Also Google Inbox's reminders were an honest to god game changer for me. I pretty much don't forget anything anymore. I even have a recurring "take out the trash" reminder pop every Sunday for example.
- Native notes tasks and calendar for iOS/OSX, I can sync it with work's exchange / iCloud / gmail and it works with "Siri - remind my to do x on y time" tried other dedicated apps, but this just makes everything simpler.
- Pomodoro app on my phone, this is simply amazing, best way to get work done
Some things I've used at various points in the past for specific goals:
-My fitness pal for tracking food
-Spreadsheets for tracking workouts. I found it worked easier if I just listed everything I was going to do weeks in advance and just cross it off as I did it, vs writing it down as I did it
-Tiny but gmail keyboard shortcuts - makes sorting and going through email a breeze.
-Back again chrome extension. When you land on a page it tells you how many times you've been on it that day. Useful for curbing the HN and reddit habit.
After trying a lot of digital list/note-creating products, I now primarily use paper and haven't looked back. Writing the grocery list on paper is much easier than fumbling around with (and dropping) my phone while I'm shopping, for example. If I will ever look at it while not on my laptop/desktop, it always goes on paper. Some things (mostly work TODOs and notes) go in plain text files. I find tagging/organizing digital notes takes me more effort than it's usually worth.
I use 1Password to synchronize and store logins, passwords, CC/bank info, and other specific personal numbers (passport/ID, membership programs, etc). This solves two problems: I can view the info easily without hunting for the information, and I can sync it easily with my spouse. Moving to this has simplified a lot of the tedious "number management" that is modern life.
Important single and recurring events for me and my spouse go in digital calendar that syncs to mobile devices, with reminders. I use this for everything - work meetings, travel, fill out my fantasy sports roster, change my toothbrush, etc. You shouldn't have to live off your calendar, but I've found this very useful for things I'd like to make sure I do but would forget with high frequency.
I have a notebook called "Captain's Log" that I constantly post things into. I have my Evernote app set to default to that notebook. Everytime I hear something on the radio I want to look up, I type a few of the lyrics into a note and save it and it goes into the Captain's Log for perusal later. Everytime I have something I need to remember to do I post a note into the Captain's log and add a "todo" tag to it so I can sort those out when needed. All meeting notes go in there too. When I start coding something I take notes on what I'm working on in a note so that I can go back and remember what I did when I was working on that thing I can't quite remember.
I can sort that notebook by "date created" and see a log of my life going back in time and I've found it very useful.
Basically it's a todo list based around habit formation. It also has journal functionality. I set it to open when I open my browser; the idea is that keeping track of these things should be as low friction as possible.
As an aside, journaling (which requires minimal fancy software, or none if you use a paper journal) has been critical in accounting for where my time goes and what I spend my time thinking about.
I use ledger to track my finances. Also low friction, high return; my frivolous expenditures have gone down remarkably since I started doing this last year.
2. Remembering stuff (books, shopping, project ideas) - list limited to just 100 items (so it can't get too long)
3. Tracking habits - daily, weekly, and monthly trackers that only track current period and previous one. (So I can make sure not to skip two periods in a row)
4. Planning - an hourly schedule and a weekly worksheet to track most important tasks, fun, etc.
5. Capturing new ideas - queue that deletes items older than a two days (so it forces me to review things, or just let them go)
So I've tried probably every note taking and todo list tracking application out there. They all suck. This is what I do which is _okay_. I'm tempting to write a custom solution, however...
- Use Evernote with 3 Notebooks (Inbox, Filed and Shared). Anything I think of that I want to remember later, regardless of what it is, I toss into Evernote Inbox. I later add tags to it and move it to Filed. This allows me to do a quick tag search (either by clicking on tags or typing them out) to find stuff very quickly. This works but Evernote is really meh it just is the only thing that fits how I use notes.
- Tasking I use Todoist but, honestly, I rarely end up using it. It's a chore with every Todo app. None of them sync with my calendar and, at the same time, is available to me on all devices while also allowing quick entry and quick re-organizing.
- I use Fitbit to track my movements. Works decently well unless I forget to wear it.
- Dropbox handles anything I want to sync to any computer (usually not very large amounts of data) and I keep common files and documents stored there.
That's it. My biggest problem is I've found that organization later or temporary organization is far better than any organization up front because nothing is perfect the first go around but there is almost NOTHING that lets you do this and, at the same time, offer good things like calendar integration and multiple platform support.
Wow, I didn't realize my post would end up being more of a rant than anything else. Hope it's helpful to someone else though.
Todoist syncs to my GCal quite well? using Settings -> Integration -> "Subscribe with Google Calendar" read-only sync.
I think the Android app is really great and allows me to add entries w/ dates via voice e.g. "OK Google, note to self - go to bank tomorrow". Not sure if iOS integration is as good!
The iOS Reminders app easily sees the most day-to-day use for me in the daily management/productivity realm. Many times a week I'll just say "Hey Siri, set a reminder for 7pm tomorrow to do X" and then I can just forget about it. My memory's not the greatest, so I find that offloading even the smallest tasks to the Reminders app has helped me immensely. :)
For longer-term events, I used to be a heavy Google Calendar user while in college, but now I typically just throw events onto the Reminders app as well! I like to set them for a certain amount of time before the event in case I need to remind myself to accomplish a few sub-tasks in the days/hours beforehand. For example, if I'm flying out to a different city a month from now, I'd schedule a reminder about that flight for a few days before the day of the flight, and when it goes off I know to create some reminders like "do laundry" for the next day and "check in for flight" for the night before.
Of course, sticking with a calendar is probably the better approach for this entire thing. :P I still pop things on my calendar, but I just like the sense of checking items off once they're done.
I'm a big fan of Gtd since 6 years. I used to use CulturedCode Things, Evernote, Dropbox, Minco(time tracking) and Mail.app.
After some years of use and multiple spikes into other setups, I migrated to using Emacs org-mode with git and mu4e for everything. It's cross platform, text only, does have a stable UX and API and the licenses don't expire all the time. Couldn't be happier!
My digital life is undergoing some great transformation. I moved over pretty much all of my stuff to Cloudron and it's been working out very well so far.
The apps I use are
- I use Cloudron's built-in email with bluemail android app
- nextcloud for photos, files, contacts. on Android, davdroid works great. For passwords, I use Keepassx with sync to nextcloud. on android, there is keepass2android.
- meemo for my notes and bookmarking
- gogs for my git hosting.
- tinytinyrss for my rss feed. i really wish someone makes that ui a little more pretty but the android app works quiet well
- I have our family's baby blog, personal blog/website and my niece's blog on wordpress. There's a piwik setup for analytics as well (via wp piwik plugin).
What I do not self-host: Wire messenger (maybe Riot/Matrix app will become good enough some day but I need video calls). I used to use Skype but it has become very unreliable off late.
OneNote for broad concepts and Google Keep for day to day. Tips:
OneNote - use tags. I mostly use the checkbox and question tags. You can pull up every unchecked checkbox in a document or review everything labeled a question. Great for finding things you forgot to finish. I borrowed from Wiki and made an stub tag for things I want to fill out later after I'm done brainstorming.
OneNote - put double brackets around a word or phrase to create and link to a page with that name. Great wiki functionality.
Keep - Pin important actionable items. Make a widget and put it on your homescreen. Set it up so that at the end of a productive day your todo list is empty.
Keep - Use location based reminders. This feature alone has saved me many trips to the hardware store.
Keep - Use hashtags to tag items. A great way to jot down ideas and review sets of them at a later date.
I keep a small Moleskine notepad and a 'Space Pen' in my pocket, mostly just for remembering things and stuff like shopping lists etc. I've tried heaps of apps to do the same thing, but I found something I didn't like about each one. I find taking a few minutes to actually write down a note is actually quite relaxing, and because it takes a bit longer than using an app and it's a bit more involved I tend to remember things better as well.
At work, I have a similar system just with a bigger Rhodia notepad and Lamy Safari on my desk.
Beyond that, I occasionally use Siri as a kitchen timer or to remind me to do stuff if I don't have my notepad with me. Also Gmail/G-Suite for email and storage with my own domain name.
- Evernote is awesome, and I use it for all kinds of things (desktop, web, and mobile.) It's kinda the building block of my life. (I make sure to export the database regularly and back it up to Google Drive, just incase.)
- Google Calendar is what we use to manage the family schedule (particularly kids events, etc.)
- Google Sheets for finances and other family stuff. It's simply fantastic. (I used it 10 years ago to plan my wedding.)
- Keepass and Lastpass for password management. (Keepass for critical "root of security" stuff, and lastpass for everything else.)
- I've been using Google Voice as my main phone number ever since it launched.
- Google Drive for almost all my data (scanned docs, taxes, books, projects, etc.)
- Crashplan to backup everything (including what's in Google Drive.)
I suppose you mean software, and by manage you mean maintenance tools, tools that you use all the time as opposed to one-off cases where you might use a specific tool once to solve a specific problem that won't likely appear again.
If that is the case I don't use any tool. I don't use notes, neither software notes nor paper notes, and I don't use calendars. I try to keep my life free enough of stress so that I don't need calendars to remember what I have to do. If I can't remember what I need to buy, it probably means I don't need that item anyway.
I don't use spreadsheets or anything like that for tracking expenses either.
Of course I use stuff like e-mail, although I would not put that into life-management category.
For grocery shopping, I use Google Keep and constantly update the list of groceries the next time I go grocery shopping, which is usually 1-2 times a week.
I usually add items on the desktop version and then remove them on the mobile version when I'm at the store.
- Todoist for all work & personal tasks I want to complete, scheduled by target completion date. Native OSX global keyboard shortcuts plus Android task addition "OK Google, note to self- mail out quarterly taxes on Tuesday", it's far and away the best todo tracker I've ever found to date.
- Workflowy for structured idea-generation and brainmapping
- Gmail for all inbound tasks, that other people want me to complete. Chained with followupthen.io (which lets you bounce/snooze emails for specific time intervals)
- Gcal for fixed-date events (meetings, birthdays, vacations)
- Dashlane for password mgmt. Used to be unstable but great now!
[+] [-] zachlatta|8 years ago|reply
- https://xph.us/2013/01/22/inbox-zero-for-life.html for managing email
- bitlbee + weechat for managing social messaging. Slack for work.
- A custom deployment of https://github.com/gollum/gollum for managing all notes, personal and work related. Can easily share Markdown files with teammates / friends. https://github.com/zachlatta/mullog is code for custom deployment. I usually edit locally using vim and have tons of shell scripts specific to note management to automate file creation, renaming, and git usage. This is my most used life system and I'm almost constantly using it.
- Arch Linux with i3 and tons of custom scripts for managing how I use my computer. Have heavily customized my machine in https://github.com/zachlatta/dotfiles.
It's difficult to predict the future and unlikely that someone else will build a tool that will always meet my personal needs, especially as they change over time. Better to use systems that lend themselves to customization so I can always build systems that work for me – hence heavy reliance on scriptable programs.
[+] [-] polote|8 years ago|reply
- Zim for my todo and write down my ideas/projects http://zim-wiki.org/
- Syncthing to synchronize and backup :https://syncthing.net/
- Secret voice recorder to save a quick vocal message without the pain to turn on my phone and write my idea: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.miragestac...
- GPSLogger to save my gps position every 10 minutes and save it as gpx, and synchronizing the files with my server : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gp...
[+] [-] mrleinad|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cypherpunks01|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] city41|8 years ago|reply
Also Google Inbox's reminders were an honest to god game changer for me. I pretty much don't forget anything anymore. I even have a recurring "take out the trash" reminder pop every Sunday for example.
[+] [-] Hnrobert42|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitwisebob|8 years ago|reply
I have separate "teams" to sort my many different boards for my work-related notes, my side-business notes, and my family-related notes.
Planning out meals a week at a time also makes grocery shopping simple and painless.
[+] [-] eranation|8 years ago|reply
- Native notes tasks and calendar for iOS/OSX, I can sync it with work's exchange / iCloud / gmail and it works with "Siri - remind my to do x on y time" tried other dedicated apps, but this just makes everything simpler.
- Pomodoro app on my phone, this is simply amazing, best way to get work done
- http://musicforprogramming.net/
- Google sheets and Mint for budgeting etc.
I tried other apps and tools (RescueTime was nice but I can't use it at work or on iOS)
Didn't try IFTTT or similar tools but never found the need.
[+] [-] gxs|8 years ago|reply
Some things I've used at various points in the past for specific goals:
-My fitness pal for tracking food
-Spreadsheets for tracking workouts. I found it worked easier if I just listed everything I was going to do weeks in advance and just cross it off as I did it, vs writing it down as I did it
-Tiny but gmail keyboard shortcuts - makes sorting and going through email a breeze.
-Back again chrome extension. When you land on a page it tells you how many times you've been on it that day. Useful for curbing the HN and reddit habit.
That's it!
[+] [-] fhood|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jly|8 years ago|reply
I use 1Password to synchronize and store logins, passwords, CC/bank info, and other specific personal numbers (passport/ID, membership programs, etc). This solves two problems: I can view the info easily without hunting for the information, and I can sync it easily with my spouse. Moving to this has simplified a lot of the tedious "number management" that is modern life.
Important single and recurring events for me and my spouse go in digital calendar that syncs to mobile devices, with reminders. I use this for everything - work meetings, travel, fill out my fantasy sports roster, change my toothbrush, etc. You shouldn't have to live off your calendar, but I've found this very useful for things I'd like to make sure I do but would forget with high frequency.
[+] [-] zwieback|8 years ago|reply
- Outlook for everything email/calendar/notes
- Alarm clock on the phone for stuff I might forget
[+] [-] revicon|8 years ago|reply
I can sort that notebook by "date created" and see a log of my life going back in time and I've found it very useful.
[+] [-] gxs|8 years ago|reply
I've always wanted to create an app that optimized for exactly something like this.
Like a Zenefits almost for personal life.
[+] [-] soviel|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ioddly|8 years ago|reply
Basically it's a todo list based around habit formation. It also has journal functionality. I set it to open when I open my browser; the idea is that keeping track of these things should be as low friction as possible.
As an aside, journaling (which requires minimal fancy software, or none if you use a paper journal) has been critical in accounting for where my time goes and what I spend my time thinking about.
I use ledger to track my finances. Also low friction, high return; my frivolous expenditures have gone down remarkably since I started doing this last year.
[+] [-] dela3499|8 years ago|reply
1. Brainstorming/thinking - https://thoughtwriter.org (which I just launched)
2. Remembering stuff (books, shopping, project ideas) - list limited to just 100 items (so it can't get too long)
3. Tracking habits - daily, weekly, and monthly trackers that only track current period and previous one. (So I can make sure not to skip two periods in a row)
4. Planning - an hourly schedule and a weekly worksheet to track most important tasks, fun, etc.
5. Capturing new ideas - queue that deletes items older than a two days (so it forces me to review things, or just let them go)
[+] [-] BinaryIdiot|8 years ago|reply
- Use Evernote with 3 Notebooks (Inbox, Filed and Shared). Anything I think of that I want to remember later, regardless of what it is, I toss into Evernote Inbox. I later add tags to it and move it to Filed. This allows me to do a quick tag search (either by clicking on tags or typing them out) to find stuff very quickly. This works but Evernote is really meh it just is the only thing that fits how I use notes.
- Tasking I use Todoist but, honestly, I rarely end up using it. It's a chore with every Todo app. None of them sync with my calendar and, at the same time, is available to me on all devices while also allowing quick entry and quick re-organizing.
- I use Fitbit to track my movements. Works decently well unless I forget to wear it.
- Dropbox handles anything I want to sync to any computer (usually not very large amounts of data) and I keep common files and documents stored there.
That's it. My biggest problem is I've found that organization later or temporary organization is far better than any organization up front because nothing is perfect the first go around but there is almost NOTHING that lets you do this and, at the same time, offer good things like calendar integration and multiple platform support.
Wow, I didn't realize my post would end up being more of a rant than anything else. Hope it's helpful to someone else though.
[+] [-] cypherpunks01|8 years ago|reply
I think the Android app is really great and allows me to add entries w/ dates via voice e.g. "OK Google, note to self - go to bank tomorrow". Not sure if iOS integration is as good!
[+] [-] alfon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Dragonai|8 years ago|reply
For longer-term events, I used to be a heavy Google Calendar user while in college, but now I typically just throw events onto the Reminders app as well! I like to set them for a certain amount of time before the event in case I need to remind myself to accomplish a few sub-tasks in the days/hours beforehand. For example, if I'm flying out to a different city a month from now, I'd schedule a reminder about that flight for a few days before the day of the flight, and when it goes off I know to create some reminders like "do laundry" for the next day and "check in for flight" for the night before.
Of course, sticking with a calendar is probably the better approach for this entire thing. :P I still pop things on my calendar, but I just like the sense of checking items off once they're done.
[+] [-] preek|8 years ago|reply
After some years of use and multiple spikes into other setups, I migrated to using Emacs org-mode with git and mu4e for everything. It's cross platform, text only, does have a stable UX and API and the licenses don't expire all the time. Couldn't be happier!
[+] [-] projectramo|8 years ago|reply
Are you always by a keyboard or do you find yourself with just a phone sometimes?
[+] [-] jansc|8 years ago|reply
- org-mode for meeting notes, ideas, todo-lists, agenda
- ledger for personal finances
- pass for password management
Mobile:
- Note Crypt Pro for tracking ideas on the run
- OpenScale for weight tracking
- Wunderlist for sharing shopping lists with my wife
edit: formatting
[+] [-] the_common_man|8 years ago|reply
The apps I use are
- I use Cloudron's built-in email with bluemail android app
- nextcloud for photos, files, contacts. on Android, davdroid works great. For passwords, I use Keepassx with sync to nextcloud. on android, there is keepass2android.
- meemo for my notes and bookmarking
- gogs for my git hosting.
- tinytinyrss for my rss feed. i really wish someone makes that ui a little more pretty but the android app works quiet well
- I have our family's baby blog, personal blog/website and my niece's blog on wordpress. There's a piwik setup for analytics as well (via wp piwik plugin).
What I do not self-host: Wire messenger (maybe Riot/Matrix app will become good enough some day but I need video calls). I used to use Skype but it has become very unreliable off late.
[+] [-] ortusdux|8 years ago|reply
OneNote - use tags. I mostly use the checkbox and question tags. You can pull up every unchecked checkbox in a document or review everything labeled a question. Great for finding things you forgot to finish. I borrowed from Wiki and made an stub tag for things I want to fill out later after I'm done brainstorming.
OneNote - put double brackets around a word or phrase to create and link to a page with that name. Great wiki functionality.
Keep - Pin important actionable items. Make a widget and put it on your homescreen. Set it up so that at the end of a productive day your todo list is empty.
Keep - Use location based reminders. This feature alone has saved me many trips to the hardware store.
Keep - Use hashtags to tag items. A great way to jot down ideas and review sets of them at a later date.
[+] [-] synicalx|8 years ago|reply
At work, I have a similar system just with a bigger Rhodia notepad and Lamy Safari on my desk.
Beyond that, I occasionally use Siri as a kitchen timer or to remind me to do stuff if I don't have my notepad with me. Also Gmail/G-Suite for email and storage with my own domain name.
[+] [-] zeroxfe|8 years ago|reply
- Google Calendar is what we use to manage the family schedule (particularly kids events, etc.)
- Google Sheets for finances and other family stuff. It's simply fantastic. (I used it 10 years ago to plan my wedding.)
- Keepass and Lastpass for password management. (Keepass for critical "root of security" stuff, and lastpass for everything else.)
- I've been using Google Voice as my main phone number ever since it launched.
- Google Drive for almost all my data (scanned docs, taxes, books, projects, etc.)
- Crashplan to backup everything (including what's in Google Drive.)
[+] [-] 4ad|8 years ago|reply
If that is the case I don't use any tool. I don't use notes, neither software notes nor paper notes, and I don't use calendars. I try to keep my life free enough of stress so that I don't need calendars to remember what I have to do. If I can't remember what I need to buy, it probably means I don't need that item anyway.
I don't use spreadsheets or anything like that for tracking expenses either.
Of course I use stuff like e-mail, although I would not put that into life-management category.
[+] [-] heyheyhey|8 years ago|reply
I usually add items on the desktop version and then remove them on the mobile version when I'm at the store.
[+] [-] 300bps|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cypherpunks01|8 years ago|reply
- Workflowy for structured idea-generation and brainmapping
- Gmail for all inbound tasks, that other people want me to complete. Chained with followupthen.io (which lets you bounce/snooze emails for specific time intervals)
- Gcal for fixed-date events (meetings, birthdays, vacations)
- Dashlane for password mgmt. Used to be unstable but great now!