Capturing ideas and tasks and executing on them

Note: Tasks should be in one central location

Good tools to capture ideas and tasks

Tools used.

1. emacs org-mode

Pros - Source code controlled

Cons - Not web based. Cannot edit it on the fly. We always need a computer to manage the calendar.

Ways to organize your life

Keep a notebook around

1. Always keep a notebook with you. Keep jotting down thoughts, ideas about the things you are currently doing in the notebook.
2. Why?
3. It will bring structure to the work. Often times, there is a list of things that are related to the task that I am working on at the moment. These things need to be done one after the other - or in a particular sequence. The chance that all of them can be done in parallel is not high. That usually never happens. So jotting these things down in the notebook helps with focusing on the one little thing that I am currently doing and not forgetting the things that I am supposed to do after the current task is complete.
4. This helps my brain by offloading some of the management to a notebook.
5. I can keep working on things without anxiety.

Sticky notes

Advantages

1. After a task is done, the joy of ripping a sticky note, crumbling it, and throwing it in trash is priceless.

Using Sticky notes

1. If there is a task that needs to be done right away (e.g. send a message or a question to someone on your team), and it doesn’t take too long to do that task, and it is not worth spending too much time on the task, sticky notes are great for it.
2. They are great for sorting quick knock-off tasks that need to be knocked off (at work).
3. If used correctly, they can help with focus and priority for quick-knockoff tasks.

Sticky notes vs Notebooks

1. Keep in mind that if there is something to learn from a task, something to take away and saved in your repository of notes for perpetuity, using sticky notes for those tasks is not a good idea.
2. Notebooks give us a chance to keep notes in a ‘journal’ fashion. There is more room to elaborate on the ideas. This is not possible on a sticky note. These ideas can be later moved into sync.com and they will be available there for future reference. Ideas written on sticky notes are lost forever as soon as the sticky note is thrown away.
3. Its ok if tasks start on a to-do list. But very quickly, they have to move into a more permanent location - the centralized location where you maintain all your tasks. Preferably, the calendar.

Don’t write more than one task on a sticky note. No matter how big or small it is.

1. Writing more than one task on a sticky note does not align with the S.M.A.R.T way of doing tasks.
2. It gets in the way of tossing that note out when that task is done. Lets face it. That feeling we get when we toss a note out is priceless.

Online kanban board

The online board that I tried (Asana.com) was not all that useful. I realized that it is one extra place (in addition to my phone, my notebook, sticky notes, etc.) where I am jotting down ideas. It just added to the confusion instead of removing it. I decided to get rid of the account and stop using it.

Different places where todo items/tasks can be entered

1. noting down ideas in a notebook
2. noting down ideas in a note taking apps in the phone/computer
3. emacs agenda
4. online calendars that are not synced with any of the other systems (gmail or google calendar is not synced with anything else)
5. putting tasks/ to do lists in documents in sync.com

Drawbacks of not having one central location for calendar and task management

I should get better at maintaining my to-do ideaas. They are scattered in multiple places. If I use a strategy where I use a combination of all the places to enter todo lists, it is not going to work.

1. Keep all your ideas in one place. Why is this important? You can get an overall picture of the things you would like to do or things that you need to do. Take stock of the to do items first - plan and prioritize later.
2. Things get lost because they are written down in silos. e.g.
   1. When I am using the computer, I don’t remember about the things written down in the notebook.
   2. When I am using the notebook, I don’t remember about the things written down in the computer.
   3. When I am looking at the calendar in the phone, I don’t remember the things written down in the notebook or the computer.

It is easy to add notes to the list in the phone and to the list in the notebook (if it is readily available - if we need to jot down something when we are outside, adding it to the list in the phone is the only option). But how will I reconcile them? I don’t look at all these various places often. If I cannot look at them, I cannot plan for them and they get forgotten.

Things to do to fix the problem

1. I should stop using multiple to do lists in multiple places and instead, try to use calendar (org-mode?) for each new task that is going into my to do list.
2. I should move all the items from the to do list can be slotted into calendar using org-mode. I should do this on a periodic basis. Plan and do this on every Saturday.
   1. The list in “Standard Notes” app should be empty.
   2. The list in personal notebooks should be empty.
   3. There should not be any stickies on the wall that are not accounted for in the calendar

My entire list of todo items should be in only one place. I should not keep them in multiple places like apps in phone, other devices, notebooks and emacs agenda. It is ok if the tasks start in notebooks and on sticky notes. Use notebooks for jotting down ideas. But as soon as I have a good understanding of what to do and a roadmap to do it, I should move it to the central note taking location. And this central location should be visible in the calendar. If the central location is emacs agenda, that is fine. But, it needs to be synced with a calendar.

If I need to note down something when the computer or the calendar is not handy, I could do it using notebooks, sticky notes, the app in the phone or whatever is handly at that moment. But as soon as possible, all of them need to be reconciled and they need to be copied to the emacs agenda + calendar system (on a regular basis; weekly schedules are great for this).

Ideally, the calendar should be used to look at all the todo items. But it is not easy to work with a calendar as an entry system. So, how do we get all of the todo tasks into the calendar?

The answer is: emacs agenda synced with a calendar. Two-way syncing is absolutely important.

1. Make emacs, NextCloud and the calendar in the phone work together.
2. I am using Nextcloud as the backend server
3. Sync emacs agenda and calendar using org-caldav
4. Items entered in the calendar on the phone should be synced with emacs agenda files and shown in emacs agenda
5. I don’t find much value in email notifications. They are not important if I can open an app on my phone and look at the (most up-to-date) agenda/calendar with tasks on it.

Planning time for tasks in my tasks lists

1. I should not create random tasks and put them in places like notebooks, notes apps, etc.
2. Instead, put them on your calendar. Each new task should go into a specific time slot on your calendar.
3. I need to assign how much time I am going to spend on that task and when I am going to spend it.
4. The goal is, eventually, my to do list and my calendar are one and the same.
5. I will know (need to know) when I am going to do a specific task.
6. I should not put tasks on a random to do list without having a plan for accomplishing it.
7. When a new item is added to your to-do list, make a note of when exactly you plan to work on that task. Also, note down how much time you are going to spend on that task.
8. Time-box the tasks. It is not a big deal if you take longer than the planned time to do that task. You will get better at it with time.
9. This will help with keeping track of how much time you are spending on a given task.
10. You may/may not be spending time on tasks without realizing it.

Things to remember when entering tasks in the to do files

1. I should set an estimated scheduled date for each task
   1. If a task isn’t done in three months time, re-evaluate your priorities.
   2. Does the task still needs to be on the list?
   3. If it needs to be on the list, should we assign more priority (and time) to it?
2. In the org files, I should list the tasks in the order of their priority. That way, if I open the raw file and look at the entries in it, I will have a rough idea about the ones that I need to pick up first.