Ask HN: Which productivity tools do you use and why?

[dennismu]

I'll start: - Calendar, Todos: Google Calendar -> I found that I do all my chores if I set aside time for them so Google calendar does the job because it's not too cluttered - Habits: Habitify -> it's not really satisfactory but after testing them all at least has the best UI - Notes: Paper notebook/ Notion -> Notion is just super flexible and gives me a feeling of progress

[ksaj]

The best thing about Google Calendar is that it plays well with other calendars. For example, I connected my Mac desktop calendar to it, and so now it doesn't matter if I use my phone, my tablet, my desktop, my Google login, etc, all my devices have the same info that I need to access and/or modify.

I installed a home cloud, and as of yet I don't have the calendar working with it the same way. Which is to say, that cloud's calendar is gaining a layer of dust until they fix it.

Something that I use a lot: mind mapping. It doesn't even matter what software you use to do it, as long as you can drag things to different branches of the mind map as things evolve.

Mind mapping is the one thing I won't give up when it comes to planning and productivity. There's a reason "napkin" meetings end up producing bare-bones mind maps. Digitizing those maps makes them so very powerful.

I'm starting to use Anki style retention methods, but haven't done so long enough to comment yet. I'll leave that one for someone who's used it longer than I have.

EDIT: One more for the road-- I really like using Dropbox to keep all my devices in sync. I'm clearly a stickler for all of my devices being "in the know." I believe if one device gets totally trashed, I should be able to boot up just about anything else and continue like nothing happened. I shouldn't have to modify my work flow just because I'm on my phone instead of my desktop, or whatever.

[violetgarden]

I like Todoist. A friend recently leant me a book called “Getting Things Done,” and what I got most out of it was using my todo lists better. I have several todo lists for things like house, study, and “I’ll get to this one day, but it’s not urgent.” I use Todoist to review what I want to do, then I press a little button to mark them for today, then I just work off today’s list. It lets me make long todo lists so it’s off my mind, but then being able to move things to today easily makes me not get overwhelmed when I look at what I have to do.

[dennismu]

Interesting point you make regarding not feeling overwhelmed. In what other ways does it make you feel progress or control?

[sfarhat]

Google calendar for scheduling daily tasks and future commitments. pomodoro-tracker dot com for actually doing the tasks on the day. Google Sheets for setting yearly, monthly goals, ideas, movies to watch later... I also use Sheets to track my workouts, meditation sessions, nb of times I've had coffee, etc.

I've found one Google Sheets document gives me the greatest visibility over the various aspects of my life and the most flexible as I can integrate complex formulas for stat generations, etc.

[cloudking]

Google Tasks & Keep for personal todos. They are simple, have Gmail integration and a standalone mobile apps.

Asana for business/project todos, gives you more structure and collaboration.