Miscellaneous Monday - how do you track tasks?

[#1]

Yes, it's a holiday week for a few countries out there, but there's always time for a Miscellaneous Monday!

How do you track tasks?

Outside of work, that is. What do you use to stay productive?

I know there are folks that use Jira in their personal lives - I have a friend who actually hosts a Jira Service Management instance to accept requests from her family!

Others use Trello - what about you? Are there one or more digital tools you use to keep yourself... structured? Or perhaps you rely on pen-and-paper?

Do your tool/s of choice help with your routines, whether that's a daily or weekly reflection?

💬 Whatever you use, share in the comments!

[Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting]

Trello is by far the best tool I have found to traverse work and personal life and now it is focusing on individual productivity, its gonna get even better.

Others...

Whiteboard on the wall in the kitchen

Notes on phone

Sending Whatapp messages to the wife so she can nag me about it later

Google Calendar

NEVER JIRA!

[Amanda Barber]

I've used Trello in the past for personal stuff, but mostly keep things situated via my calendar and good old paper and pencil now. 

[Johanna Pichotka_APTIS_]

My to-do lists used to be on paper, now I've switched to the iPhone notes app. 

For scheduling I use Google calendar. 

And for weekly or monthly tasks I use the apple reminders app. That one has been a game changer for me 

[Stephen_Lugton]

I'm using a small child for reminders, she can't remember what she did at school but she remembers anything I say, even if it's 4 years later

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

Outside of work, google calendar, google docs. Sometimes an email to myself. 

Shopping lists are still little bits of paper

[John Funk]

Most things are just written down on paper. Or are in my calendar. After that, if there is an involved list, it goes into my personal Jira - like when we were planning the move back to the US to make sure everything got done as needed. 

[Tomislav Tobijas]

For me, it's mostly Jira, but I also do have some items/tasks/reminders in Google Calendar. I guess it would be easier to have everything in one place, but I'm managing at the moment.
Waiting to go on vacation or have some extra free time to consolidate everything and make one 'unique' system. 🤔

[Kelly Stocker]

I use todoist for "real" tasks, keep for easy reminders, and a whiteboard calendar on my wall at home to be able to visualize the month. 

A long time ago I got comfy with the Getting Things Done system so if it takes less than 2 minutes (phone call, text, etc) I just do it in the moment. Big fan of scheduling texts for the future instead of creating an endless text loop in the time when I don't have the patience. 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I use my Outlook calendar at work for doctor appointments, since I need to mark the time as out-of-office anyway. Occasionally, I use the calendar on my phone. 

For structure in my life, I use my Fitbit to remind me to move and track how much water and sleep I get. 

I am also in the group with small pieces of paper for grocery lists—if you mention it as I walk out the door, but it's not on the list, it's unlikely to make it into the bag. Even if you tell me on the phone while I'm standing in the store, but I'm not standing in front of the shelf with that item, chances are slim.

[John D Patton]

Love this question, Dave! I’ve definitely run the full gamut—everything from classic sticky notes (usually stuck to things I end up losing) to cloud-based tools that promise to “change my life” (spoiler: they don’t).

These days, it’s a Frankenstein’s monster of:

• Trello for longer-term and shared stuff

• Apple Reminders for anything urgent or “don’t forget to call the vet”

• Google Calendar for life logistics

• And, I’ll admit, the occasional back-of-an-envelope for ideas that feel too important for digital

Confession: I still dream of “one app to rule them all,” but at this point, I just hope my systems don’t lose my grocery list before I do.

Curious to hear if anyone’s actually found the magic method—or is this just part of being human?

Thanks for sparking some Monday reflection, Dave!

—John

[Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting]

@John D Patton 

I still dream of "one app to rule them all

I used to dream of this and thus tried desperately hard to make Trello do things it really shouldn't, pretty successfully a lot of the time but just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

I let go of the dream and I can't recommend it highly enough, its liberating!!

[Andy Gladstone]

In this order:

1. Physical notebook (actual pen and paper)
2. Confluence (Personal Space or my Dev environment)
3. Trello - my personal productivity tool

[Daria Kulikova_GitProtect_io]

I enjoy jotting things down on paper, maybe because I spend so much time typing on my laptop at work. But for bigger let's call it "projects" at home, I actually turn to Jira to keep everything organized :) I used to have Trello for tracking tasks and it worked perfectly, but then I needed to learn more about Jira, so I switched to Jira :) 

[Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting]

I noticed this theme when asking the question at Team in Barcelona last year.

Many people still love using pen and paper and I love the fact that the simplest method is still preferred by so many.  The humble pen is here to stay for sure.  

I created a prototype to capture a photo of your notebook page, converted to text and turned into Trello card/cards with AI.  Like this post if it is something you'd be interested in seeing?

[Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting]

Hiya @Kelly Stocker 

Curious whether you think the new Trello can replace todoist?

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

Trello is my goto tool for this.  However I often forget to add my tasks to trello, so I am still using my memory.