Breaking Task Managers

Something that I have struggled with for years is managing time and tasks. Not the best organized person by default, also the most forgetful one. Always having ideas, things to do in my head and no system or way to recall them. Thats how it had been all my life until around 2010? If remember correctly, when apple introduced it’s own to-do list application, Reminders with iOS 5? I might be wrong. Anyway, that was the first to-do/task manager app I have ever used.

Then I discovered Clear, a very minimal interface, and gesture-based to-do/lists app. It was amazing to use and I got by with that for a long time. Then I discovered other applications over the years like, OmniFocus, Things, Todoist, 2Do, TickTick, among others. And yes, I own and have used them all. The one that I have used the most and always seem to come back to it’s OmniFocus, something about this app that clicks with my brain in ways the others have failed. Things 3 is another one that usually works with me pretty well too.

And yet, I struggled to keep up with any of them, there’s always a mental stress about having task managers, at least for me. Sometimes I find myself serving the app instead of the app serving me. I find myself indecisive about what application to stick with and switching/trying different ones way too often. So this week I have decided to break my tasks managers. I have deleted them from my phone and I am left with just Reminders.

Having the Apple Watch , I am a huge fan of the Siri watch face and how it shows reminders/tasks that are coming up. Also been able to dictate any tasks to Siri with ease (yes third party applications do have access to Siri but I find it that it works only 50 percent of the time, whereas with reminders, it works 90 percent of the time) Because the Reminders app is so “limited”, it makes it a much simpler system. On top of that, both my personal and work life aren’t so complicated that would require a complicated system to manage them, I think. All I need is a place where to put things so I don’t forget about them later. Then again this is just an experiment to see whether or not I can survive without a more “complicated” task managing system (I say complicated in quotes because things are as complicated as you make them).

All that being said, maybe I just haven’t found my ideal system or I’m just overthinking this way too much.

We will see!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am going on a trip to Seattle this week, I’m very excited about that.

Gabz @Gabz