If I find that I repeatedly forward a task from day to day to day, I ask myself whether it is something that I really need to get done and whether rather than being on a daily list should the item be moved to a Someday list. The process forces me to review my incomplete tasks and think about what I want to do each day. What I’ve found I like the most is how NotePlan enables you to carry forward incomplete tasks between each day, which is automation of the process I learned during those first Franklin Planner classes I attended in the ’90s. I think the main reason why NotePlan has “stuck” is that it is simple enough to learn fully and seems to fit well in my workflow. So far I’ve stuck with NotePlan for a little more than a month, which is a bit of an accomplishment. However, the description as a bullet journal is apt in that the app simply maintains a daily list of tasks either accomplished (journal) or to be done (ToDo) and it uses symbols common to bullet journals for completed, scheduled, and deferred items. The reference as a digital bullet journal is ironic given that bullet journals are considered the analog system for the digital age.
My latest tasks app discovery is NotePlan, which is billed as a markdown calendar, todos, and notes app, while others claim it to be a digital bullet journal. To me OmniFocus is overwhelming to learn, so much so that overcoming that learning curve is not worth buying the app. In my opinion OmniFocus 3, which seems very popular amongst the Mac and iOS folks, is a case in point. I use some GTD concepts, but I find that apps that implement GTD tend to be complicated by too many features. Getting Things Done (GTD) is the most popular today and therefore many tasks apps implement GTD in some manner. The problem is in part due to the variety of time/task management methodologies available. While I have found Google Calendar and Contacts to be good enough, I continue to bounce between different apps for tasks. For some of that time there were limited app options for managing this information, but since I started using Android there have been numerous options available. Being in IT I felt a computer would be much better at tracking and managing my to-do list, but this was during the early 1990s and smartphones and tablets did not exist.Įventually I bought a Sharp Wizard and have been using an electronic device to manage my calendar, contacts, and tasks ever since. I diligently used the Franklin Planner, but one thing that annoyed me was the process of rewriting incomplete tasks across each day, which I found cumbersome. Later when I started my career my company sent me to a time management class that taught me how to use a Franklin Planner, which I used for several years. Don't even have to decide what color a flag should be.My first experience with to-do lists was in college when I used a Daytimer to track my class assignments and appointments. It also uses markdown and a simple interface. One keystroke, and I'm looking at notes filtered by tags, and can make notes (and even todos) about projects. I can see what I have going on, make notes about what I'm going to do (all in one view of the day). I'm treating them as single-purpose tools. I still use Bear for longish notes that might need pictures inserted, etc., and just started using Ulysses for writing.
Bear has tasks, but they don't interface with Reminders and Calendar, nor does it show you events for the day from the calendar and reminders apps. Was going to try TaskPaper, but it's too expensive, and doesn't seem to have all the functionality that NotePlan has. Tried using the reminders/scheduling in iMindMap, Curio. I have tried and abandoned several, OmniFocus, Aeon Timeline, Todoist, Things, etc. Well, it fills a void that no app has filled.