I have tried several todo/gtd apps including Tracks and other web-based apps, OmniFocus and iGTD. While some of these make it painfully easy to input tasks they don’t encourage task completion. What I end up with is tasks properly contextualized and project-organized in a big pile. I find myself out of breath and left short of what direction to head before I even start working because there are never too few projects and things to do.

What I have found to work for me is a ordered list of what to do next in the day overall. I need to see what exactly is left for me to do in a given day. To-do apps do a great job prioritizing and setting due dates and some even clear exactly where the next steps on various projects are, but what I really need personally is a daily agenda that I can keep referencing to see what’s next on my list for today.

I’ve begun using a simple text file for my todos in order to simplify this method. My syntax (with example tasks) is as follows.

# 2007-10-22
@home
- write todos blog entry
- read feeds
@school
- schedule dentist appointment
- finish 440 lab assignment
- brush up on 430 material
@home
- catch up on info 470 reading
- catch up on info 440 reading
@before bed
- schedule tommorrows todos

That’s a very simplified set of tasks but if I create my todos the night or morning before I can guess how much time each task will take and fit it in broken up based on where I will be at that point in the day. This is flexible, of course. If I find I don’t finish something as planned I can always move it into another place or put it in a dump for scheduling on or after the # NEXT day. The contexts are a bit different than many gtd apps will suggest they be used, but they work.

I’ll revisit and reflect on my progress in a week or two.