While I’m really not someone who sees redemption in the next great tool (app, diary, organising tool, book, etc.), I do have a few things that certainly help me to plan and prioritise so I get enough time in my day.
People have asked me many times over the years which my favourite organising and productivity apps are…. and I say, “I’m a paper gal, not an electronic one”.
Granted, I’m very much in love with my iphone but I’m still not a big app user.
However, I did see the need for a place to “hold” all my lists in one place, especially one I could use on the go.
I downloaded a ton of apps (both free and paid) and tried them out for a bit but ultimately they’ve all been deleted except this one.
Ladies and (4% of you are) gentlemen…. Any.DO
I love it! It’s very friendly and welcomes you with a little message every morning at a set time, or when you go in.
Those dots are all my tasks – it brings up each one and you can then schedule it. Or ignore the whole scheduling bit which is my style. Except for actual appointments.
I was looking for something where I could add a gazillion tasks in a number of categories. A lot of the apps I looked at had free versions where you could only add x number of tasks (kind-of useless for my purposes, because I always have a long master to-do list) and had to pay to get unlimited tasks.
I know I’m only using about 20% of the app’s capability but even that’s enough for me. Matter of fact, I would have paid for even this level of functionality.
- Shopping lists
- To do this weekend
- To blog…
- Socials
- Personal “master” to do list
- Decluttered items (my latest little project)
On the app description, they have categories for today, tomorrow, someday… which is nice too, but not how I think 🙂
Lists I probably should add:
- my lovely things to do this year
- talk to _____ about….
- recurring goals for the month
I used to be a big Franklin Covey girl (when I first started working). I evolved from that at some point into a big planner format that many people in our company use (and the company pays for!)…it has two big pages for every day.
I sorta-kinda, on and off, maintained a calendar when I left work. I was definitely more organized when I used one, but I didn’t always take the time. (Just keeping it real.) 🙂
I’ve struggled to decide what works for me now that I’m back at work. I ordered a new planner for next year…we’ll see how it goes. In general, I’m scaling down considerably from prior days. I’m making a weekly list and using post-it notes for my daily to-do. I’m not sold on this method yet, but it’s worth a try…
I doubt I’ll go digital, at least not in the near future. Just not my style…with the exception of my work calendar for meetings/travel. I love my pens and highlighters! 😉
ooh, I’m with you – I also love my pens and highlighters, but I think I’ve found a way to do both, and my Any.Do is not for the daily must dos, only for the “master list” type of things.
I will be blogging more next month on diaries for next year – please chime in again!
I use my digital calendar a lot both at work and for personal things. I like that on my iPhone I can set two reminder alerts so usually I set for it to remind me a day before and one hour before the event on the day! I’ve not thought of downloading a productivity map, guess I should check and see if I would find one I like and that works for me
If you don’t normally use a notebook for lots of lists, don’t complicate your life 🙂