As a college student, having a visible reminder of the assignments I have and when they are due is super helpful for me. It also just feels good to erase them from the board once they are completed.

There’s a good book called “getting things done” with a lot of great organization tips. Some tasks should be on a calendar… But not all of them. Sometimes it’s helpful to have prioritization’s, not everything is time bound.

I do this. Then when the notification pops us I leave it unread because I'll do it soon. Later that day I postpone the task to a future date because I ignored it for too long and now I'm unable to do it. Then repeat.

I have tried doing that, it doesn't work for me because my to do list is not a plan for execution, i.e. I can't always set a time for stuff.

I did however start noting the estimated time for tasks on my list, because it invites to immediate planning, and exposes if something on my list is not a task but really a series of tasks or perhaps even a project really.

It also have the added benefit with giving perspective to those things not gotten done, because I can often honestly say where in the last three days did I ever really have two continous hours to do that? so I don't beat myself over the head with it.

laughs in ADHD did you just assume I'd have the attention span for that?

It wouldn't work for me anyway. I tried 😔

I basically run my whole life out of Asana now. Not promoting, just fell into that one. Different Boards for Pets, Chores, Gift Ideas, Project Organization, Things to watch, things to order, things to research etc. but then get to have it all on calendar to try and figure out how the logistics of it all.

I add tasks to google calendar as all day events. For me, adding specific times is too constricting. You don't want a schedule to be a tyrant.

A day is a fine amount of resolution for me. I use color coding and add them as red if they aren't done yet. When I complete them I change the color to green.

I can scroll back over the years and see a blur of red or green. It's interesting to correlate that with variables going on in my life.

Sometimes if I don't complete a task, I'll just drag it to the next day. Sometimes tasks start piling up red as I carry them throughout the week and I'll do them on days I didn't plan - but I at least do them.

I also track my alcohol consumption in a similar way.

One important factor is that if I go a lot of days without completing tasks I try not to get too worked up over it. The idea is that this system helps to aim me approximately in the direction of progress and I understand I'm human and will constantly slip up. I figure even if I get a +10% boost in directedness that it's a helpful practice. I think people get too worked up when they aren't perfect at stuff like this. Changing a task color from red to green gives my brain a small reward and that acts as an incentive.

A schedule defends from chaos and whim.

So... How were you using your calender if not to plan when to do stuff?

Is there some app that combines a standard checklist and an hourly agenda? As in, I would like to be able to make a checklist, but give each item a duration, and then block them out into my calendar. Everything I find either uses fixed 30-minute blocks on the calendar (Google Tasks), or has no integration with a checklist at all. All of my tasks can be in a checklist, but not all of them necessarily fit onto a calendar or need to be scheduled right away, and having the two lists separated drives me crazy.

I do this a lot-when I get an email that indicates a task or project I need to block time for, I drag the email to my calendar as an appointment. It blocks other meeting requests and reminds me of the work need without digging for the email. I’m terrible at maintaining a task list so this is more effective.

But if this gets overwhelming which can quickly happen when everything is in one place - remember you can separate the 3 main classes of "todos":

1. Calendar: time-based appointments, when something needs to happen at a specific time/date
2. Reminders: petty tasks, repeating habit prompts. Things that shouldn't drag on and on, things that repeat and don't take much time, and things that won't affect the trajectory of your life if delayed. "Hey siri remind me to Pickup soap when leaving home". "Hey siri remind me to call the dentist on Tuesday"
3. True todos: project based tasks, the meat and potatoes of progress. Use a real todo app like Things/todoist/any.do etc. These are the things that take more time, are less likely to have a specific schedule-dependent basis, or may take a while or multiple sessions to complete (notes fields in this app can be valuable to log process). Keep this stuff clear of the petty clutter from #2 to ensure they don't stagnate in the rush to keep those little chores cleared.

Dumping everything into one giant list or a single app risks overload, stuff gets lost in the growing lists and it quickly leads to notification fatigue where everything gets ignored.

I think you underestimate how often things change in an actual job.

This is also handy for jobs that need you to log headhours spent on different businesses, like a consultant. Build out the days calendar as a record of what work was done when to easily log hours at the end of the day or week

This is the equivalent of “Use your fridge to hold your food”

There is a tool called Motion that uses ai to reschedule anything that you have not done yet.

It was built by a guy with ADHD to help keep him on track while developing software.

In the end, he pointed because this id such a great product on its own .

Usemotion.com

I’ll plug an iOS app called CalAlarm for this. It’s a calendar that has snooze buttons on the alerts! Really great if you use your calendar as a todo list. I’m not connected to the app but have used it for years.

I started doing this for my work tasks, and my anxiety around work has been reduced dramatically. Rather than having a to do list that goes on forever, I’m forced to find time on my calendar for specific tasks. That means that when I’m NOT working on that task, I know it’s ok because I have time dedicated to it later. It also means that other people can see I’m busy during certain times, which has cut down on meetings taking up my entire day.

I saw someone else say they have adhd and this won’t work for them. I do, too, and it has made a gigantic difference in how I do work. It’s different for different people :)

And if you miss one or two, it only throws off your entire schedule for the day!

Isn't this just standard practice for anyone that works or has appointments??

I tried this and it doesn't work for me. If the time for the assignement comes and I don't or can't to it, it is gone and I forget.

For me a combination of google's to-do list in combination with my calendar has worked best.

I've been using a free app (for personal use) called Reclaim that prioritizes tasks based on its deadline and puts it on my Google Calendar.

Created a task that will be due 3 days from now? Automatically higher priority.

Created a task that will be due 5 days from now? Automatically lower priority.

That task from 3 days from now changed to 10 days from now? Automatically lower priority.

Repeat this for like a hundred tasks with different deadlines and it will automatically put it on your calendar based on their deadlines. No need to manually do Tetris-like calendar shuffling.

Search on Youtube to learn how it works.

This is how you end up writing the same things on every day, before ditching the calender.

I'd say the related 'x-effect' is more useful.

Scheduling things like this does not work for my neuro divergent ass. I have 'The List' it's a $0.97 USD sprial bound notepad with a line down the middle of the page.

Left column is "do today" the right column is "not today". The list lives on the coffee table directly infront of my favorite spot to sit. I keep a running list of every. single. thing. I have to get done on the right. Every day I pick what I feel like getting done today. I flip to the next page and rewrite the list with the updated tasks, including rewriting the entire right column to try to commit it to memory.

Then I go and do a dozen things that aren't on either side of The List. I add them to 'do today' and cross them out for the dopamine hit. Everything gets done eventually. The most important thing is that the list CANNOT move from its place on the coffee table. Even when it was a glass top table with a shelf underneath where I could SEE the list sitting on the shelf. If it's not on top and in it's place, it might as well not exist.

Likelihood***

But I agree! I did this throughout my bachelors when I was getting assigned tasks and readings left and right. I out every little thing in my calendar and it really kept me up to speed without stressing me out

Don't forget to make your event with a notification

Add “Learn how to spell ‘likelihood’.” to your calendar for tomorrow.

There are tools out there like motion and skedpal that do this exact thing automatically for you.

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I have a reminder widget on my phone"s home screen. Everytime I open my phone I see my to-do list. Works for ne

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I’m 35 next week and would literally catastrophically fail at life if I didn’t do this.

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And if you use Google suite you can even put a regular todo list item straight onto your calendar without needing to make an event

I recommend the book First Things First by Stephen R Covey

Use TickTick, people. It's so satisfying to tick off your to dos. It's almost like a game.

My fiancé and I do this! We also have fun stickers we can put over top the task once the task is complete. It might sound silly, but seeing dinosaur or cat stickers all over our calendar makes me feel accomplished.

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Similarly, I put all of my bills on my calendar. Most of them are automated but this helps keep track of the flow.

Time blocking is very helpful in tackling your todo list and refining the process. Be sure to schedule recovery, sleep, and relaxation as well.

Tasks that require dedicated time to complete, should land on your calendar, where you've made a commitment to complete that task on a specific date or time, or during a 'Focus Time' period where you're doing a number of tasks to completion.

Using a tool like Motion, you can have it automatically decide where the best time is to complete those tasks, so you don't have to over-think it. It's basically an AI assistant for managing your calendar.

I’m at the age where if I don’t write it down, I’ll likely forget it. Anything I need to do soon I email myself. Future stuff I create a google calendar event with email reminder. My inbox becomes my to do list.

This is also how I created my first budget. Seeing what days bills were due helped me wrap my dumb 20-something brain around how much money I needed to be setting aside from paychecks so bills got paid properly; and from there I was quickly able to actually start saving money.

I use the Structured App and its the best.

This is great, but what if you have someone in your life who you know will not respect that time you set aside for yourself? Like they think your time could be better spent on whatever impulse they conveniently came up with a the exact same time?

To add to this if you have a Calendar that pops up you can give yourself reminders on tasks rather that timebox for them although both are effective.

Sometimes you know something is important but you’re already on something important so you remind yourself about it in a few days so its not lost.

I’m going to add to this:

Don’t be afraid to move things ahead of you run into speed bumps in your current task list. You’ll get to them and there’s no shame in getting one thing done today and move three tasks to tomorrow if it’s more likely that they’ll get accomplished.

Use Todoist and integrate with you calendar so you can tell siri "remind me to do x at 2 pm" and it will auto sync to your calendar.

I pay for the premium subscription, it's great. Never be afraid to pull the trigger on a purchase that makes you more productive / organized.

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This would require me to remember to look at my calendar

FWIW the author of Getting Things Done advocates only adding time sensitive items on your calendar. In other words, only stuff that needs to get done at a specific time / day. Other stuff should be going on a master to-do list.

I cant schedule my life like that. Stuff gets dome when I feel like getting it done.

What's the point of living if everything is scheduled. Is that even living?

I would recommend something I found even better: use Google reminders and the Google calendar widget on your home screen. The undone past reminders will stay on top in and below are future calendar events. The reminder will disappear only after you manually mark it as done. If I don't do the reminder at the actual time I had it in the calendar, it will still stay and visible until marked done

When I was getting started in my career, an older coworker on mine in his late 40's shared with me some tricks of the trade, and he said to me "My calendar is what I live and die by, and if you're like me and can't remember shit, use your calendar on your phone".

To this day, any and every appointment to the most mundane tasks, goes in my phone. It's helped me stay more organized, and saved my ass more times than I can count in terms of reminding me about appointments I would've otherwise totally forgotten about.

"Use a planner" Wow, really worked hard to come up with this one huh? Lol

LPT: you can import calendar events into outlook and Google calendar. At work I've got the same workflow for each project, and with some excel, I can generate an entire year of workflow calendar events with a few clicks.

For example, in Excel, you can subtract 7 from a date and it'll spit out the date a week prior. Then you just make columns for all the calendar fields to be imported and fill it out accordingly.

Ha literally started doing this earlier this week

I’ll plug the app “structured” on iOS for this. I break down all my to do items and assign specific times to complete them during my white space of a day. I can also see what I’m doing the next day and plan ahead to make use of time! Great app

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It's called time boxing

I have a method taught by a man who went to one of Canada’s top business schools with really good grades. I create a deadline for myself, and then take a picture of myself in an embarrassing situation, which I then authorize a notary to mail to family and friends in the event that I do not provide proof of my completed task.

Physically crossing things off the to-do list when they are done is a dopamine hit.

Adds a lot of pressure :/

I actually use my calendar as my diary, too. Therefore, I can go to specific days to see what my thoughts were. The Notes app gets unorganized quite fast.

Yeah…unless you don’t do the thing at the assigned time. For me, it is lost forever at that point.

Especially good for less-frequent tasks. "Clean the dishwasher filter" is set for the 5th of every month.

I've been doing this professionally and privately for roughly 20 years. So relaxing knowing I have scheduled time to do the task.

Had a coworker once whose calendar always looked so busy. It was hard scheduling anything with him. Funny thing, we were basically a two-man team working on the same stuff. How was he so busy all the time when I didn’t have comparable busy slots? And then one day I happened to get a look at the titles of all the stuff on his calendar. He just put his own reminders on his calendar in the default 30 minute blocks. He wasn’t busy at all, just filling up his calendar with useless shit and making things difficult for me.

I let him burn a few times for it when I could’ve intervened.

Edit: Thought I’d add the guy was a piece of work for other reasons, as well. And, the lesson he taught me - don’t let full calendars make you think someone’s really busy and productive. Judge that from how much shit they get done.

Todoist is great for this. Hive for bigger projects.

This! I started doing it couple of years ago, has made life a little better. Especially canceling those free trials for subscriptions!

I have been doing this for 2 years and it really works!! Thanks for taking the time to share this OP!!

Yeah, but snooze/delete exist. Checkmate.

This works for some people. There is never a one size fits all for organization and productivity. Some people do better with open to-do lists.

not if you’re a mastor procreastinator

Outlook + MS Todo has been working splendidly

Apple's Reminders app has changed my life. I add EVERYTHING I need to do as it comes to mind - to get it out of my mind (spoiler: this is the whole point of Getting Things Done - now you don't have to read it). You can sort by priority (low, medium, high or none) AND by date. So I can make things high priority, and say it must be done today - or high priority without a date. You can also add flags, create multiple lists, etc. It's by far the best list/to-do manager I've ever used. And it feels SO GOOD to delete tasks after you complete them...

And also, if you sleep through a time band you had dedicated to a task, since it's not on a list, you just now don't have to do it anymore And will never think about it again. Bonus win!

I used Todoist app for something similar. Assign a day and usually a time as a "deadline"

I do the same thing but also make the "event" repeat daily until I delete it.

This is a excellent life pro tip. This suggestion helped me to keep my family and business interactions and appointments in line. Never forgetting a birthday or a appointment, even small task such as washing clothes or repairing something around the house was easy to remember and to complete in a timely manner.

this is why I use google tasks and the google calendar itegration

Tomorrow, 9am: Learn how to spell "likelihood" 😄

I recently started using an app called Habitica that gamifies your to do list and goddamn has it had a huge effect on my productivity. I highly recommend it if you haven't given it a shot.

I use my Calender for My bills and finances I get paid weekly so I have my bills broken down for the weekly cost so by the end of the month I've got it all ready and normally a bit more as some months with run into 5 weeks

I do this. Some of the items are overdue by 400+ weeks... someday I'll get to them.

I just use the reminders app on my phone. Set the time and whatever info I need and it’ll pop up and alert me. I won’t clear it until I finish it. That way, if I forget to do it or I’m busy when it comes up, it’ll always be on my Home Screen until I mark it as done. You can share them with anyone too.

Shit I’m trying this tomorrow, thanks

This and your alarm clock set at specific times/dates. It's super annoying and sure to catch your attention

Unless you're neurodivergent and have demand avoidance issues...

I completely agree. I’ve used around 20 types of reminders and to do apps to get more productive. But I only do things when I put them up on my calendar. And if I cannot do them at the assigned time, I just move the event to another time and get it done then. Definitely doubled my productivity!

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