I am fan of simple post-it sized notes that I can have in front of me in areas which I can quickly visualise and remember tasks and appointments.
Despite being a technologist there is nothing quicker, simpler and easier than taking a pencil and writing a few words, a time/date and any additional information in an ultra summarised manner on a piece of paper.
No matter how many applications I have come across, either on the mobile or the computer, they have never hit me with ease of use or a quick overview of upcoming or pending tasks. Especially when a lot of tasks are added it becomes a task in itself to manage the task list.
My main reason for jotting down tasks is that I can feel my brain having the extra overview after delegating my memory to a piece of paper. That I no longer have to keep this task tracked and I can use the freed resource for other things conveys a feeling of relaxation and inner peace. This may ring a bell for some or completely opposite seem ridiculously for others, to each his own.
Since I get a lot of ideas, thoughts and tasks popping up at random hours, and I am not always near a notepad, and even if I was, the amount of notes needed would rapidly defeat the purpose of having the most important tasks floating around to quickly see.
It is a bit like people that prioritise everything as critical, meaning that at the end there will be no priorisation. Therefore my notes are mainly for important appointments or urgent deadlines that I must not forget. All my other nice to have tasks are usually written down on an A4 as bullet-points which at the end gets messed up or saved and found months later, or if not jotted down simply forgotten to be remembered a few weeks down the line again.
The result is frustration that I cannot have my urgent tasks at hand, while still having space to just keep adding more mundane or no time limit tasks to my list, while still only having my critical tasks highly visible.
For people fighting against procrastination I would mention that having many tasks of equal priority in front of you, makes it incredible hard to select one and just start it. The priorisation chain of thought will most of the times end up consuming more than the time any of the tasks would take to accomplish, but that is analysis paralysis in a nutshell.
So I built my concept of what such tool should be:
- Easily accessible everywhere
- Quick to add a new thought, task or idea
- No to-do lists to manage
- Only a single task is ever visible
- Just a few words per task
- Priorisation, but not levels, either do now or later
- Working across one’s devices (sync)
- Overview to see done tasks, a pat on the back
- Zero gimmicks
The result is doit.ninja which I have been dogfooding over the last months and must say has done wonders to speed up task completion, offload brain resources, remember important events, and simply feel more accomplished.
Liberating old tasks from one’s mind that had been lingering around but never got done is a great sensation. I have this oddity that as soon as I sit down at the computer, I forget what I sat for, only remembering again once I turn off the screen. I assume this is due to the sheer amount of new inputs and duties on the computer to act upon taking my focus away.
To use the application simply install it and add the widget to your front home screen. The widget needs to be visible as soon as you open your device to have an effect. Everything is really self-explanatory but the concept is:
- Add a task
- Define priority if any
- Do it!
The tasks will show up in a priority defined by the application’s logic, with more weight to urgent and upcoming tasks. The principle is that once you see a task you do it and hit “Done“. If you cannot, you hit “Later” and will see the next task.
Now, go get something done… doit.ninja!
