My projects and obligations outside work have grown over the past six months. Alongside my usual podcasts and writing, I started volunteering for a tutoring organization, and am looking to take on a contract role for some extra money. With everything building up, I need to reevaluate the tools I use to keep track of everything so I’m not letting anything slip by. The beauty of them being personal projects is I can use whatever system I want.
I considered going back to Notion first. I still use it for a few bits and bobs, like keeping track of books I’ve read. However, I currently find it too customizable, and not optimized for tracking tasks with timelines. It’s not great on mobile (particularly Android), and the notification setup has never worked well for me.
I considered another Apple ecosystem app, as I’m mainly using my iPad. There are many good options that I’ve heard about over the years. However, I want the flexibility of using my phone and non-Apple computer. This led me to Todoist.
Its main benefit is being cross-platform. It works well everywhere, is easy to understand, and flexible enough for my needs. It has several “views” that I find useful, including both a Today view and a more general Upcoming view; a project-based approach with no cruft; and support for sub-tasks and repeating checklists. I believe it also has templates, although I haven’t used them yet. This makes it great for tracking blog posts, podcasts, and my curriculum work as I mix-and-match for each purpose.
The one feature I’d like is start dates. It really is meant to be a “to-do” manager, where a to-do is only a task with a due date. However, to manage projects it’s often helpful to have a sense of when you can start something, and create dependencies to that effect. While it’s a small drawback, I’m not yet in the position to actually need those features. I can do without them. The important thing is bringing order to what has become a chaotic, “in my head” process for tracking everything, and it is working great for that so far.