
How I manage my todos, priorities and calendar - ryancarson
http://ryanleecarson.tumblr.com/post/22834532187/managing-life
======
Karunamon
There are a few things I'm looking for in a task management system. Those of
you who remember IWantSandy when it was still around will have a good idea of
the feature set I'm looking for, plus a few things.

Haven't yet found something that ticks all of the boxes..

* Easy task entry with natural language Do thing with Dick and Jane at Location tonight at 6:30 pm and every week on thursday (Sandy was the undisputed queen of this)

* Truly cross platform (Needs a web interface, and an identical native interface on Win/Mac/Lin, and a mobile interface which isn't tied to the web)

* A CLI would be nice but isn't super necessary (ala Taskwarrior)

A couple of my favorite systems get one or two things right _really, really
welll_ but then fall flat elsewhere. I'd use Omnitask everywhere except it's
completely mac specific, and therefore useless for my needs. Seriously. I
would give almost anything to have Omnitask on Windows. Wunderlist isn't bad
at all, but isn't terribly stable on the native client, have to enter
everything the old fashioned way though. Taskwarrior is my go-to in a *NIX
environment but, again, useless anywhere else.

I'm currently using Todoist, which has a decent web interface and mobile
client, with semi-decent NLP task entry, and it's doing okay for me now.

I'm very, very seriously open to suggestions here. Asana looks absolutely
beautiful, but it's another Mac-Web specific product, so wouldn't work for me.

~~~
amix
I am very happy to see a Todoist user on HN! Founder of Todoist here.

Unfortunately I had I detour in social networks so the work on Todoist has
been slow for some years. But about 8 months ago we started fulltime working
on it and Wedoist. I think we have some amazing updates coming up that will
solve all of your issues (ex. HTML5 enabled web and desktop applications and
native mobile apps for iOS and Android).

Stay tuned and please provide feedback of how we can improve Todoist (here or
on my email which is in my HN profile).

~~~
farslan
Please just get away from your not-native Todoist app. It's slow, it's not
pretty. It's the opposity of the awesome web interface. I used Todoist for a
long time , but with time and the increase of my mobile usage(due to iPhone) i
needed a decent iPhone app. Just make a decent, beautiful iPhone app, believe
me lots of people like me will converse and move to Todoist.

(off-topic: Keep up the great work amix. I've learned lot from you programming
blog).

~~~
amix
We learned a lesson in mobile development and we are dumping our HTML5 mobile
app. The experience is simply too limited and you need to do lots of hacks to
make simple things work. For anybody that is thinking about going HTML5: don't
do it, it's more a pain than a gain and the user experience won't be good.

We will do a public beta in the following weeks of our iOS version. We will
make it public via our Twitter/G+/FB accounts, so stay tuned ;-)

~~~
kkwok
Any plans for android in the foreseeable future?

------
dools
The take home message here is two fold.

1) build some regularity into your daily routine even if you wear different
hats

2) Systemisation will set you free

People griping about specifics of management systems aren't seeing the forest
for the trees.

~~~
josefonseca

        1) build some regularity into your daily routine [ ... ]
        2) Systemisation will set you free
    

Translation: transform yourself into a cron daemon that fires up at 4:54AM and
sleeps at 9PM.

~~~
Killah911
Easier said than done. We'd all love to just make it up as it goes. But
there's aHUGE problem with that. It's fine if you're single and don't have a
ton of responsibilities, but if you're a parent and a responsible to a bunch
of other people in your startup who are parents too, then what Ryan has done
here is nothing short of remarkable.

Call it what you will, but it sure as hell is effective and true. And if you
have to sacrifice being a "rebel" or "free spirit" for anything, your kids,
family & health are probably the right things to do it for.

Not to mention, he's already pretty out there for running a startup, working
from home and still caring for stability and the health of his families. I
know many people who work their regular 9-5's who're doing far worse & they
think they're real "rebels" for hitting the bars every night or something else
that's utterly stupid...

I'd gladly transform myself into a cron daemon and have the best of life,
family & work that I love doing.

Thanks for the post Ryan, you're an inspiration to other Dadtreprneurs!

~~~
josefonseca
Funny how extreme the views here are. So I either hit the bars and get drunk
every night or I run on a manic schedule?

The premisses here are entirely false. There is a balanced life in between
which IMHO is where we should be aiming.

~~~
Killah911
Care to expand on this view of balanced life? I thought that's what's so
appealing about Ryan's post... If you've got some thoughts on how to get a
better balance, that would be much appreciated, rather than simply critiquing
someone else's solution (which may or may not work for everyone, but may for
others)

------
brianmwang
I hate to nitpick, but I can't stand this persistent meme that eating in the
morning boosts your metabolism, or some such nonsense. It doesn't[1]. This
idea needs to die.

1\. [http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-
debun...](http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-
debunked.html)

~~~
driverdan
I hate to nitpick, but the "Skipping breakfast is bad and will make you fat"
section of that article is terrible, as are some of the others. The skipping
breakfast section doesn't actually show data either way, it's just the author
expressing his interpretation of correlation studies. I'm not saying he's
necessarily wrong, just that he needs to show real data to support his claims.

Also, the site's design is terrible and the font size is too small.

------
Brajeshwar
Here is another good read (from few days ago on HackerNews) on "How Uservoice
use Trello & Google Docs to make UserVoice better every day." -
[http://www.uservoice.com/blog/founders/trello-google-docs-
pr...](http://www.uservoice.com/blog/founders/trello-google-docs-product-
management/)

We're following this rather closely and is pretty good so far. Once you master
a decent tool, you can do lots with it. So, if you're an Asana guys, go with
it but then if you've started with Trello, make the best of it. You do not
need to get swayed here and there trying to find the best tool ready-made for
you.

~~~
vdm
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3853688>

------
mflanagan
I really enjoyed this post. I like the idea of rotating through the different
responsibilities during the week (Product / Video & Teaching etc). I could see
this helping make sure you don't neglect areas that maybe you are a little
less passionate about - for example, maybe you like thinking about product
development but not HR / Culture, having a split schedule like this makes sure
you put a little time into the HR problems each week instead of waiting for
some emergency to force you to concentrate on that.

------
mhb
Why 4:54 instead of, say, 4:55 or 5:00?

~~~
skittles
Just look at his picture, and you will have your answer.

~~~
raldi
I'm not seeing it.

------
rodolphoarruda
Asana looks pretty interesting.

I've been using TeamworkPM for 2 years now. It has been through a lot of
improvements lately, which makes it very powerfull now. It organizes
client/partner companies and projects in a matrix sort of way that allows you
to really flexibilize access to tools and documentation. I like it.

For my personal stuff I use a simple TXT file with markup.

E.g.

##House Maintenance //Project or recurring work

\+ Clean patio //task that must be done

\- Paint doors //optional task

No dates or anything. I just look at the list early in the morning and decide
what I'm doing for the day.

------
knes
Thanks for sharing.

Seems like Asana is getting a lot of love lately. Is it that great? I mainly
use Workflowy & Trello but I'm always shopping for a better tool :)

~~~
ryancarson
I found Trello too complex and WorkFlowy under-supported. Asana is just the
right mix. It's powerful and flexible but it gets out of your way.

~~~
AndrewDucker
I just had a play with Asana, which is great in many ways.

But doesn't support a hierarchy other than Project->Task. As I frequently want
to break things down into much smaller chunks and subchunks I guess I'll be
sticking with Workflowy for the moment.

Shame, really. It's got a great interface.

~~~
saturdaysaint
Exactly, I replaced Asana with Workflowy for this reason.

The other showstopper for me was that Asana's mobile site is almost unusable
outside of a fast wi-fi connection. Workflowy is extremely usable from a phone
even when I'm in an area with weak bandwidth. So I can take notes and start
planning while in a meeting and they're on my screen when I get back to my
desk.

------
adam_lowe
Decent post on his workflow. Asana looks nice enough but I would always prefer
to use open source or pay for a product rather than using a product that is
just free. Just doesn't make sense unless they are selling your info to
advertisers.

Does anyone know how/why Asana is free?

~~~
driverdan
It's freemium, free for <30 users.

------
dewiz
I registered with my Google Account to asana.com after reading the article.

The interface is nice but I want to unsubscribe now, being sure that they
cannot access my account anymore.

Is there any FAQ or page in Google listing all the enabled applications ?

Thank you

~~~
fps
You can list authorized apps and revoke authorization from Google's accounts
page.

Here's the direct link:
<https://accounts.google.com/b/0/IssuedAuthSubTokens?hl=en>

or go here: <https://www.google.com/settings/> and click "Authorizing
applications & sites"

~~~
dewiz
thank you fps! I found the same in the dashboard ;-)

------
dave1619
Ryan - how do you conduct meetings with the people you need to during the
week? Is it via Skype or chat?

Also, what are the challenges of managing others via distance?

Lastly, how do you compare Asana with Basecamp?

------
rockyleal
And yet, this makes way more sense to me: <http://zenhabits.net/how-to-live-
without-the-clock/>

------
iuguy
Asana doesn't look anywhere near as good as Wunderlist.

------
josefonseca

        Here’s my daily routine
        Wake up at 4:54am [ ... ]
        Jump in front of my iMac
    
    

IMO if you wake up before 5 AM and jump in front of your iMac then there's
either something wrong with your to-do list program or with your to-do list
itself.

~~~
JustinJ70s
First hitting his iMac at 4:54am but also finishing work at 6pm with time in-
between for his kids before school, the gym, and then finishing at 6pm.
And...a four day week. I'd say he's got it figured out.

~~~
josefonseca
That only works as long as everything works. Soon as you car breaks down
coming back from the gym, soon as your kid has a flu and you've got to take
him to the hospital and come back at 2 AM, everything has broken down. Then
the next day you can't remain on 9pm to 4am sleep anymore, you're then
catching up with the late stuff from day before. Weekends then become
compensation for the day before the day before when you had the kid flu and
then ....well I've been there, done that, and this kind of schedule simply
does not work(for me).

~~~
josefresco
I know many people who I presume like you, let chaos and drama rule their
lives.

Shit happens, it doesn't matter if you have a super-structured day or not.
Your ability to handle it calmly and with confidence is what makes the
difference in how balanced, productive and stress-free your life is.

~~~
josefonseca

        I know many people who I presume like you, let chaos and drama rule their lives.
    

So you either wake up at 4:54 AM or you let "chaos and drama" rule your life?
Aren't we missing some possibilities in between?

    
    
        balanced, productive and stress-free your life is.
    
    

Yes, because waking up at 4 AM and working till 6 PM sure sounds balanced,
productive and stress-free. Thanks for the amazing insight.

~~~
kingatomic
If you simply regard this as the prototype for a typical day, and not a script
that's intended to handle all possible atypical scenarios, then there is no
problem for it. As to 4am - 6pm, it's not like he's working solid in that
timeframe. He's got personal time (kids, gym, etc) worked in there as well.

All of that is beside the point, however, as this is the schedule that works
for HIM. If it doesn't work for you (or if structured schedules in general do
not work for you) then you are quite free to simply move along.

