Productivity is something that’s very important to me, so I’m constantly reading and researching the best techniques and apps available to help me stay productive. There are so many methods out there that claim to be the best, that it’s hard to decide which one will actually help you be productive. Sometimes I spend more time thinking about and tweaking my productivity tools than I do actually getting things done. Luckily though, I don’t think I’m the only one who faces that situation regularly. Lately I’ve been re-evaluating my workflow, hopefully for the better.
Up until recently, I had been using OmniFocus as my main task management software. While I still love it and think it’s an amazing app, it’s just a bit too fiddly and complicated for me. With that in mind, I went looking at some other popular apps, and finally landed on Things, which I’ve also used on and off in the past. It offers many of the powerful features that OmniFocus does, but without as many of the options that I seem to often get bogged down in. So far it’s been a nice change, and I’ve found that capturing and sorting my tasks is much faster. I see this as a win since that allows to move on to actually completing tasks rather than spending time sorting them into various projects, contexts, etc… My task list is not usually very long or complicated anyway, so those things are often overkill for me.
Hopefully this switch in tools will help me save time on the front end so I can accomplish more on the back end with my task list. I’m constantly working to refine my workflow, so I would love to hear any suggestions or advice you might have. Hit me up on Twitter, or leave a comment below.
Some people like to use tools like Evernote, cloud based so it’s accessible wherever, and it’s easy to quickly save ideas, thoughts and to-dos on the go. Personally though, I’ve had trouble getting into the routine of using any task management software/system. I tried RememberTheMilk for a bit but it never really stuck.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Tim, I know what you mean. It is tough to nail down one system if it isn’t perfect with the way you work or think. Sometimes adapting to one particular system is tough.