What sort of todo system do you use?

[ShunterAlhena]

I tried many, including
-Outlook tasks (failed due to neglect)
-Weekly or monthly planning (failed due to weekends being either overstressed and busy, or spent with rest)

Current one is "battle tested", I've been using it in work for a while successfully - a simple TXT file that contains one-liners on what to do. They can be moved around, edited, deleted etc. freely, and there's a dropoff file into which I paste obsolete lines, thus it records what I've been doing every weekend (very low cost logging). I'll expand this to cover my entire life that can be tracked (so, including academic stuff, and personal stuff like "Must buy new shoe" or "Sister's birthday next Wednesday, get presents" and the like), it is flexible and has minimal overhead.

This however is "low-level". What do you use for "high level" planning, ie. long term goals? I have a 30 day trial running meaning I read some PDSP or other PD material every day, and this keeps me constantly in the "personal development" mindset, but I don't have time set apart for long-term plans (these attempts failed, as seen above). I crave the clarity it would give, but days really are full with no hours to regularly spare.

So, how do you manage?

[stayfly]

I use the "Do It Tomorrow" system created by Mark Forster

Amazon.com: Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management: Mark Forster: Books

with a sprinkle of GTD (David Allen) and RPM (Tony Robbins)

[RT Wolf]

Read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to help you with the high level stuff. You can also read 4-Hour Work week.

I seek to minimize my todos first. Eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. Then the I organize the rest using a very stripped down Getting Things Done system.

[ken nubo]

I have two text files -- "Routine" and "TO DO"

Routine is the hours I'm going to commit, each day, doing whatever (building a business, learning japanese).

The to-do is errands (Monday, collect check and go to bank, Tuesday, see girlfriend and hump her) etc

[dice]

OH my goodness!

I recently found GTDInbox for gmail, and send myself emails that i sort into "Action" "Finished" etc.

Its so useful! Especially if you like to check your email compulsively, you can't ignore it!

Its been great to get me started on 'progress-life' instead of the 'enjoy-life' mode i've been in. I think you have to decide between the two and live each fully.

GET IT NOW! I'm serious. Its so helpful. I could rave forever.

For long term usefulness, I have a finished bin (to see progress) and I titled each email with the long-term skill/project that it's going to help me with (Ie. Theatre, or University, or Project _______).

Thats as long term as I go. In 5 years I have visions, not plans or goals. Plans come at me every 5 months and change in the blink of an eye for the jobs that I do. I have to get better at preping/training for these bi-annual opportunity bursts...

[rocksupreme]

I use iCal for the hardscape. It's easy to edit when I'm at my Mac, and I keep a printed out calendar with me to write in changes.

My daily tasks are on a form I designed for my personal scheduling needs. I'm a school teacher with a different schedule each day, so I have integrated my class menu, appointments for later in the day, specific tasks, tasks that belong to ongoing projects, and space for notes on one sheet. I print out a few sheets, front and back, to keep in my desk. I begin each workday by filing in the sheet and carrying over incompletes from the day before.

It sounds more complicated than it is. I can fold the planning sheet and calendar to put in my pocket if I'll be out - or just keep them visible on my desk. It gives me a bird's-eye view of the day, week, and month pretty easily.

I've been using this system since last summer, and I see myself sticking with it indefinitely.

[Danyelle]

Nothing works better for me than pen and a pad. I write lil checkboxes next to the tasks I need to do daily and go get em. It's gratifying for me, the writing part, the crossing off....
But that's just me. Writing is a healer for me so a written to do list resonates with me.

Oh, and I have a large (5x7?) post it pad that i write it on, that way i can pull it off and put it into my planner each day and have both my schedule/planner items, and my to do list all in one place.

[Ralph]

Outcome-purpose-action Life Management System of Anthony Robbins is the best I've faced. It's definitely higher-picture oriented. Every day is built on lifetime goals, and yet the system is simple and easy to manage. Sounds like I'm oversweetening it, but boy, this system is sooo sweet. It's high above anything else I've seen, definitely better than Getting Things Done

Tony actually goes a little hard on To-Do lists, but he does have a point there. To-do list is NOT a way to manage a life.

[Matt Willard]

Right now I'm using a strange combo of Mark Forster's Autofocus system (avaliable here) and Zen Habit's Most Important Tasks methodology. It makes it quite easy to take care of what I need to do, though I'm working on accomplishing more with my day.

[magi13]

I do have a long term goal, but my short term goals are chunks of the long term goal.

I just achieve one short term goal at a time, in effect I achieve the long term goal in time.

[Lupe]

Checkvist: collaborative online outliner and checklist

[Eric Roosevelt]

The problem with keeping in it textfiles is that you have to have access to your computer. That's fine if you're very often sitting in front of a screen. However, there are some more portable todo/task-lists. Your cell phone is one example. A good old fashioned piece of paper is another. The good thing with writing on paper is that you can practise your hand-writing.

[Minsc]

A text file (with notepad always running, no word wrap) on my computer.

I mainly use it to keep track of what I'm doing throughout the day, but it's also used to schedule things in advance.

The file is split into days with the date and day of the week on one line, and many lines of indented hyphens below it. The hyphens have information about what I've been doing following them, including a start and end time and a brief description of what I did (sleep, eat, etc).

If an action is a subset of another action (for example, if I have to take a break while doing work), I add it below that action and indent the hyphen to show that it was done while I was doing work. This avoids having to write that you did work, took a break, and then did more work, and shrinks those three actions down into two.

In order to assign a task for another day, I can go down to that day in the file and add a description of what I want to do. This description is missing the start and end times so it stands out from stuff I've done during the day, and it's also above many empty hypens because I want to add things I've been doing that day without having to move the task.

I'm guaranteed to at least read that task on the day I assigned it because I have to in order to write down what I've been doing that day. I can either do it and delete it from the file, or not do it and either write it down for another day or leave it alone and have to remember to go back and do it. You can also write footnotes and interesting things that happened during the day by making a "task" and not removing it.

I've been doing this for over a year consistantly. It's easy to go back to if you stop, you can just say you did nothing during the missing days and resume at today's date. It's also effective at reminding me to do stuff and at keeping my day organised.

The format of the file looks like this:

02/28/09 SAT():
 -14:37 TO 15:58 Sleep.
 -02:48 TO 10:07 Cook food.
 --not much interesting happened today

03/01/09 SUN():
 -13:36 TO 16:50 Sleep.
 -16:55 TO 17:31 Cook food.
  -17:05 TO 17:15 Example subtask.
 -02:42 TO 10:23 Sleep.

 -other footnote format, for lots of text
 -multiple lines of text
 -many lines

03/02/09 MON():
 -16:32 TO 19:06 Sleep.
 -20:08 TO 20:51 Cook food.
 -
 -
 -
 -do homework

03/03/09 TUE():
 -
 -
 -
 -
 -
 -

(I haven't done much in the past few days)

You shouldn't log too much stuff or the file will take a lot of effort to maintain and you might give up.
If anyone wants I also have a program to autogenerate empty entries for the next month.