Tag Archives: Todoist

Coaching

Are subtasks useful?

Many of the task management applications available today offer the feature of subtasks: tasks that are embedded or tracked under a parent task.  For example, if you have a task called “grocery shopping” the subtasks may be all the items you need to pick up at the store.  In this case, the subtasks are functional and useful, but is this always the case?

One of the challenges I’ve run into is in many applications the subtasks are hidden within a task and are difficult to access from the master list of tasks.  This creates a couple of problems.  First, things can be easily missed because they are not visible.  Second,  and this is my larger issue with them, is they can create a false sense of the amount of work ahead.  If you have a task that has two subtasks, a task with 20 subtasks, and a task with no subtasks, at the task level they all look equal.  It’s that misleading sizing that causes the issue. A good tool will show you not only the task, the presence of subtasks, but also the number of subtasks.

Let’s have a look at how you can handle subtasks in some popular productivity tools.  Some of these are not dedicated to task management but are popular enough to be used for it frequently.

Todoist

Todoist is an example of an application that does subtasks right.  Not only can you create subtasks on any task, but when  you view the task itself the application tells you that you have subtasks, how many, and how many are incomplete.  Can’t ask for much more than that.

Any.Do

The Any.Do mobile application tells you a task has subtasks but not how many.  The Windows application shows the number of subtasks as well as the number remaining completion.  This is where I struggle with platforms…this inconsistency between their mobile and desktop applications.

Workflowy

While not a dedicated task management application, tasks can be tracked to completion through the interface.  This doesn’t support subtasks in the same manner as the other applications as they are indented tasks in an outline format with no roll up to their parent task.  This accomplishes the same goals for the most part, but there is no tracking of subtask quantity or degree of completion.

OneNote

OneNote works in a similar manner to Workflowy with no real subtask functionality available.  It can be challenging to manage tasks within OneNote but it’s flexibility in an outline structure can mitigate the difficulties.

While there is no way to avoid having subtasks within task lists in some form, keeping them visible and under control makes all the difference working them into a task management solution. If you are going to introduce subtasks into your lists I recommend trying them on just a couple of tasks first before diving into the deep end with them.

60 Second Productivity, Workflowy

Add a Todoist project to your calendar

Todoist has a nice feature of allowing your projects to be displayed on external calendars such as Outlook or Google Calendar. From within Todoist, click on the three dots to the right of the project name and select “Project Calendar Feed”. Now follow the directions for your preferred calendar tool to see your project tasks represented on your calendar with your appointments and meetings.

Check out other 60 Second Productivity tips!

Strategy

Turning your to-do list into a to-done list

Whenever we think about to-do lists or task lists we’re always thinking about ways to tic those checkboxes and feel like making progress. Here’s a question though…have you ever put items on your list you’ve already finished just to check them off?  Is this wrong?

I use Todoist to track my task list and one of the nice features is the ability to mark tasks with a tag to tie it to a specific project. I’ve taken to using the tagging option to go back and identify work I did during the course of the day to get a better understanding of where I’m putting my time

Each project in Todoist can have a color assigned to the project and any tasks assigned to the project also receive that color marker. By doing this when I look at the productivity chart it shows the number of tasks I’ve completed each day and color bars representing the number of tasks completed for each project.

For example, if I’m doing chores around the house I may also do a little car maintenance and decluttering. If my task is “house chores” for Saturday, it doesn’t give me a perspective as to if I’m keeping up with the auto maintenance or is the decluttering getting away from me. There’s a side benefit from capturing things after they’re done.

A sense of accomplishment often eludes us when we’re hard at work. Taking time to look back and appreciate the amount of productivity we’ve had rather than what we think we should have. Taking time to account for work we’ve done even if we haven’t captured it in advance is just as valuable to our productivity as making that list first.

Do you put done items on your to-do list? Does it help or hurt?

Strategy

Turning your to-do list into a to-done list | Productive Professionals

Whenever we think about to-do lists or task lists we’re always thinking about ways to tic those checkboxes and feel like making progress. Here’s a question though…have you ever put items on your list you’ve already finished just to check them off?  Is this wrong?

I use Todoist to track my task list and one of the nice features is the ability to mark tasks with a tag to tie it to a specific project. I’ve taken to using the tagging option to go back and identify work I did during the course of the day to get a better understanding of where I’m putting my time

Read More…

Tools

Using Todoist to manage reminders for OneNote

One of the recurring complaints about Microsoft OneNote is it’s inability to handle reminders on tasks. (Yes I know Evernote can do this…but we’re talking about OneNote right now.) I needed a way to create action lists in OneNote and then be able to track and follow up on items to do in the future without having to remember to check the OneNote task list frequently. Fortunately one of my favorite tools comes to the rescue…Todoist. 

Here’s the process I use to generate multiple tasks in Todoist from OneNote so I can ensure everything gets done on schedule: 

Step 1 – Create your action list in OneNote 

Type in your list as you would normally in OneNote. You don’t even need to use the To-Do Tag, just put in a return at the end of each line. 

Step 2 – Use Todoist syntax in OneNote 

For example, if I have something on the list to do on Friday at 3:00 p.m., I would enter: 

Call the vendor Friday 3pm 

Todoist can leverage this format to turn the last part (Friday 3pm) into a scheduled reminder when the item is added to a list. If we expand the example a little we get: 

Call the vendor Friday 3pm 

Follow up on meeting action items Next Monday 8am 

Follow up on vendor action items Two Weeks 

Step 3 – Copy and Paste 

Creating the Todoist tasks from the OneNote list is nothing more than a matter of copying the list from OneNote and then pasting the list into a new task field in Todoist on the web. Todoist is smart enough to recognize you are pasting a list AND will read the date formatting to create reminders for each task it loads. (It’s pretty impressive to watch the first time.) 

From this point you can complete the tasks in Todoist, get reminders, and know nothing is falling through the cracks. 

Pro TIP: 

If you add in the label and project syntax on an item, Todoist will assign the task automatically as well. For example: 

Call the vendor Friday 3pm #cloudhosting @Art 

Finding ways to make the tools in your productivity toolkit work together can make all the difference between just getting things done and truly being productive. 

Coaching, Techniques

Regaining your momentum with @kickstart

Regaining your flow when you’ve been interrupted or have lost focus can be an almost herculean effort if you haven’t planned in advance. There’s a hack I recommend regardless of the system to get your momentum back with some quick wins in being productive.

It’s all about preparation

Personally I use Todoist to track my tasks but this hack works for almost any system. The hack is a simple one. When reviewing my tasks if I find one that can be accomplished in under five minutes but doesn’t need to be done right away, I tag it with @kickstart. I usually have anywhere from 5-10 @kickstart tasks in my lists waiting for me. Where the hack comes in is when I realize I need to get back on track.

Using the hack

Part of regaining momentum comes from a few small successes to act as a positive motivator. By filtering my list for @kickstart I can find a few tasks I can knock off the list right away, have a sense of accomplishment, and get back in the being productive flow so I can move on to bigger and better things.

Being productive is about more than just checking off task boxes.  It’s about putting yourself in the right state to continue to be productive again and again in a constant and predictable manner.

Pro tip for analog people

If you’re not a digital person but rather an analog one, you can duplicate the same type of effect. Create a list in your notebook of @kickstart tasks and then just refer to the list when you need to restart your flow.

Another article you may find helpful is Regaining your momentum.

 

Tools

Todoist tip – controlling natural language dates

Todoist has a great method of scheduling reminders through a natural language interface when you create a task. Sometimes though you’d rather not have Todoist grab the date you just entered because it’s part of the task rather than the reminder. If you want Todoist to ignore a piece of text as a date or a schedule prompt, just press Esc right after the text to make Todoist to ignore the real language recognition. You can continue to add text and have a reminder added later on the line so you get the best of both worlds.

Todoist – one of my favorite tools for being productive.

Uncategorized

Finding the best digital task manager

After changing task managers yet again I wanted to know if others go through the same churn as I do when it comes to finding a tool that works for them. Out of curiousity I reached out to the Productivity Springboard group on Google Plus and posed the question: “Do you use a task manager and if so which one?” My hypothesis was the majority of people in the group would respond in the positive (it is a group based on productivity after all) and one or two task managers would take the landslide response in usage by the group. Well…one out of two isn’t bad.

As expected almost every person who responded indicated they use some form of digital task management tool. Is this required? Not at all. There’s a strong argument to be made on both sides of the digital / analog task management discussion. What caught me more off guard is the number of variants in what people are using to track and manage their tasks. This also focused for me a couple of the key issues people run into when trying to find the “right” tool for them and some significant thoughts around how others can choose the right task manager for them.

Here’s a list of some of the tools the group reported as using:

  • Todoist
  • Remember The Milk
  • Checkvist
  • Trello
  • Wunderlist
  • Workflowy

Now this came from a very small sample size so by no means is scientific. One of the things I found interesting is the number of people (myself included) who have transitioned from application to application in search of one best targeted to how they work. When thinking about selecting a digital task management tool there are a few strategies you can apply to help the process:

How do you capture tasks?

Understanding what YOU need to know to be able to successfully execute a task is a bit of introspection many people don’t do. We expect the application to ask the right question in the right way to work for us and get frustrated when it doesn’t quite work. I recently changed tools and started with “what do I need to know about a task to be able to execute?” I came up with:

  • What is the task?
  • When is this due?
  • When do I have to start this task to finish on time?
  • Who else is impacted?
  • Are there other tasks related to this one?

These seem to be pretty common pieces of information for any task but on closer review I found some more complex relationships and requirements:

  • I want to be able to capture tasks in as few steps as possible
  • I want to be reminded when tasks need to be completed
  • I want the experience to be equally as usable on the desktop, browser, and mobile (Android for me)
  • I want some reinforcement (positive and negative) about my completion of tasks to motivate me

It turns out the last one (reinforcement) is a bigger factor for me than I initially anticipated. So now I have a basic overview of what I need to know on each task, it’s time to scale up the thinking. How do the tasks relate to each other, other people, and between work and personal life?

When capturing my tasks in many cases they’re follow up items for other people and being able to not only see what I need to check on with a person as well as track those items is a significant aspect for me. This doesn’t apply to every task but it does apply to many of them. Finding a balance point between the two that doesn’t impact the first of the wants became a deciding factor between tools for me.

Based on what we’ve learned so far let’s realign the needs and wants:

  • Need to capture a task in as few steps as possible
  • Capture needs to include what to do, when to start, when to finish, and if there are other people or tasks involved
  • Needs to work on mobile and desktop equally well
  • Want to be informed when I am being productive and when I am not

With this summary in hand I could then start to assess task management applications based on their ability to meet these requirements. What I find most interesting about this is (and I’m just as guilty of this in the past) is most people work backwards through this process. We typically will take and application and look at the features and say, “That’s cool, I may be able to use that” or “Hmmm, that’s not going to work for me.” Working through the features we often miss applying how we work and try to adjust our natural tendencies to match how the tool works.

As with any solution strategy when it comes to productivity it is critical to understand your needs before you begin the process of evaluating tools. If you have taken the time to capture and refine your requirements a great deal of time and effort can be saved by determining if your identified needs are being met before you even begin working with the deeper functions of the tool.

What if you find more than one tool meeting your needs and wants? This happens more often than you would think. There are so many options for task management in the productivity space the odds are good you will find multiple ways to meet your needs. (For reference, the more general your definition of your needs and wants the more likely this is to happen.) If you’re in a situation where multiple tools are in play, I recommend looking at some additional criteria:

  • Usability and user experience
  • Scalability
  • Collaboration with others if needed
  • Interoperability with other services (files, images, etc.)

As you can see the deeper the comparison gets the harder it can become to determine what is the best fit. There is no magic solution nor clear winner to this contest but if you take time to figure out what you want, you have a much better chance of finding what you need.