Ask HN: How do you keep checklists? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you keep checklists?

65 points_8j5083 comments

Like the title says,do you use any software or methodology to keep up with checklists?

Org-mode[0] is the best merge I've found between plain text and more powerful workflow/scheduling features.

I synchronize to android using Orgzly[1].

If I wasn't on Emacs as my main editor, I would just use plain text. There have been efforts to get Org-mode working in other editors, but I don't know how good they are.

The benefits of plain text are more important to me than the benefits of the special features. I've used a lot of todo apps, and some of them are very good for specific tasks, but most aren't adaptable enough for my needs. Eventually I gave up and went to plain text, and was happy. Org-mode is just a better version of plain text.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzA2YODtgK4

[1]: http://www.orgzly.com/

It’s interesting to note that there are very few repeated answers or “me too” type posts, which suggests that what works best is highly idiosyncratic and depends on a lot of factors (what you need to organize, with whom, and in what ecosystem).

I just use a [ ] in a plaintext. When I complete something I add an x, e.g. [x]. I haven’t found any shortcomings of this system yet.

Indeed! I keep my to-do lists in vim and have added a few lines to my syntax file to recognize/color a couple extra checkmarks like

- [?] question - [o] blocked by someone else - [~] in progress - [H] on hold - [Y] Is X true? (yes) - [N] Is Y true? (no)

The vimwiki plugin more or less incorporates this idea and gives you some hot keys to change state.

There's Sublime plugin - PlainTasks, which does this, but adds keyboard shortcuts for adding checkboxes, checking boxes, timestamps, and archival.

I tend to need checklists while I'm away from my computer, and would prefer something quicker on a phone than opening a text editor.

Trello.

I organize literally my entire life between Trello, Google Docs and Google Calendar.

Trello handles strategic planning and todos i.e. "Learn Spanish , Get new job" and a separate board handles smaller more operations stuff like "buy an electric toothbrush" or "finish reading system design books"

I even designed a system with trello custom fields, webhooks and an aws lambda that will automatically sort the task buy some weights I can assign. (Just numbers for urgency, impact, and effort)

I use Google Calendar for time sensitive todos. Stuff that is or needs to happen on a specific day.

And if the calendar event description gets too long i make a trello card for it.

Google Docs I use for long form content like keeping track of my own understanding and research of modern software architecture, techincal interviewing, or competitive fighting gaming.

For day-to-day tasks I built Natrium[1]. Other tools can accomplish the same thing, but I wanted a couple things in particular:

1. To have a single daily checklist that refreshes every day

2. Views of what I did (or wanted to but didn't) broken down by goal. This makes reflection a lot faster when I can quickly see what I did every day this week for a particular goal.

For longer-term planning (home repairs/improvements, side projects) I use Trello to organize and prioritize things.

At work I tend to use physical post-it notes to track things. It might just be an odd habit but I think it helps me compartmentalize and leave work at work. It's also really satisfying to crumple a note when I finish a task.

[1] https://natriumapp.com

For professional life: Pen + dot grid notepad - developed independently, but similar to the bullet journal technique. Dot grid plus pens make the whole thing ultra customizable. I can sketch engineering designs, make a calendar, track action items, take detailed notes, all in the same format. The key is to be strict with page numbers, dates, and index as much as possible.

Things I occasionally miss - keyword search (I can still look things up by date or subject in the index), multimedia inserts (think dragging video/photos/sound clips into one note), never ending space (notebooks run out of pages), easy backups (thinking about digitizing with photos or scans), team collaboration (if this is necessary I use Trello).

Things I like - no OS/tech stack compatibility issues, "it just works", lighter then a laptop) tablet, don't need to charge, easy to read, can bring into a secure area (where outside electronics are not permitted), travels well, hard to damage.

http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/

For personal life: add Google keep for simple lists, and then a mix of Trello and dot grid for larger projects (less strict formatting than professional life project management).

Love the link, thank you for sharing!

As a supplement, I've found the following system to be a useful way for organizing a notebook that has more consistency in categories of pages: http://www.highfivehq.com (for example, notes for different classes in school or a set of projects you're working on). The idea is to draw lines on the edge of your pages that are visible from some index page. You can combine it with a standard page indexing system for a super easy-to-navigate notebook!

I've seen this before but found it limited as you can only use it on pages facing away from the other pages. I have used it but do prefer the bullet journal way

That is very cool! I'm definitely going to see if I can incorporate that into my system.

> The key is to be strict with page numbers, dates, and index as much as possible.

May you please explain how you index? Thanks!

Sure. YMMV, and I encourage everyone to find the system that works for them, but this is what I have settled on.

Every page has a number in the upper outside corner.

Every entry into the note book has a title + subject tag, date, and the initials of a list of people linked to that entry. For easy reading and scanning I put all of this on one line. The title and subject are dark lined (thick), followed by the date MM/DD/YY, and then the initials inside a ( ). Each piece of info is separated by a ";". All of the info listed is underlined.

under the intro line, I also break down actions, notes, calendar adds, etc with 3-4 different symbols. All I all this makes it clear and easy to scan quickly as you are looking for things.

Each month I have 4 or 5 pages devoted to organization.

I have a task list. Two bulleted columns. Old tasked are migrated over from the previous month. New tasks are added as soon as they are generated. Completed tasks get an X through the bullet. Migrated tasks get an >. Tasks that are linked to journal entries get a page number and a tag.

I have a calendar page. 1 column, all dates of the month listed . Meetings, important actions and events are are listed by day, or with arrows over multiple days. Linked by tag/page number if applicable.

I have a subject index. Major tags, reoccurring subjects, get a line or two. Page numbers with those subjects are added to the index.

I realize this sounds complicated, but it's not once you get into a routine. The biggest this is it's okay to make "mistakes", and to get used to not having a delete key. Change is part of the notebook. Think of it like a change log. It's also important to be able to see what you change. Since I work in pen, I just make a single line through things I want to change.

Note: when I finish or complete something on a task list or the calendar, I'll mark or change the symbol, I won't cross something out just because I'm done with it.

Finally, I have a bunch of multi color pens I use. They are all the same brand/model, but I tend to use a different color each day. That makes it obvious as you are scanning that you are on the next day. I don't use specific colors for anything in particular, too hard to keep track of.

Hope this helps.

For short-term checklist, I use Todoist. I've tried every apps under the sun for making checklist (in my pursuit of finding the perfect checklist app), but I kept going back to Todoist, especially because I can indent each items effortlessly. While Todoist is not perfect feature-wise, its UI/UX is just perfect.

For long-term, I use plain text file and edit with Vim. I want to remember what I did and when.

For projects shared with others, I use OneNote or Kanbanflow.

Almost same here.

Todoist for lists. I live off lists, I have dozens and dozens.

.txt for longer notes. Vim/Notepad.exe/DropboxEdit depending which platform I'm on. Shared Dropbox folder of .txt for shared notes.

What do you mean by checklists? Like in an airplane pilot's safety checklists?

If yes, then in my current company I've learnt to script the hell out of them (though not too early — only once you see how the typical pattern/path is shaping up). Good automation (a.k.a. scripting) can help a lot to reduce brittleness of deployments.

Or "TODO" checklists? If yes, then personally I use https://github.com/jffrymrtn/temaki, though it has some limitations for me, so I'm trying to build a replacement/ripoff and extend it to my needs.

> If yes, then in my current company I've learnt to script the hell out of them (though not too early — only once you see how the typical pattern/path is shaping up). Good automation (a.k.a. scripting) can help a lot to reduce brittleness of deployments.

Can you elaborate on how you accomplish this? I read the checklist manifesto a few years ago and started using checklists for things like checkins, code reviews, etc. I figured these kinds of lists could be automatable, but I was never able to come up with a UI that was easier than a pre-populated textarea.

Can you try to list some example of what you have on your checklist? It'd help me understand your particular trouble, currently I don't have a good idea of it. Also, haven't read "the checklist manifesto", I understand you mean the book by the title. On technical side, there are pre-commit, pre-push etc. hooks in git, and bots like Travis-CI for github.

Checklist automation does not have to be graphical, and does not even have to look like a todo list. A list of failing checks, separated from waived checks (with clear signoffs from specific usernames), is generally sufficient.

Apple notes, seriously.

Its good if you use an iPhone, great if you use a Mac too and fantastic if you're "all in" on the apple ecosystem with a watch/ipad as well.

Organize it using a GTD like system and you'd be hard pressed to find something that is as powerful as it is while being super simple.

I fear Apple Notes, which I use religiously. The problem is, I use it to its fullest-with long notes, PDF attachments, drawings, and so on. I’m afraid at some critical point I’ll hit some undocumented wall, and find that I’ve a usage or search limit, only to be told “you’re not supposed to use it that way.”

true, and I have some of the same fears. I figure worst case its a weekend of exporting the handwritten parts to PDF and copying the text from the rest into org mode, but with all things APPL going too far outside of mainstream usage is a real risk.

yeah, reminders can also be used as todo lists, literally.

Although the "remind me at location" thing never worked for me.

Personal stuff: Microsoft To-Do, I switched from Wunderlist only recently, and there is still a few features I'm missing (i.e. md support for item notes). I also use Google Keep for groceries list.

Once a personal project becomes too big/important (job search) or requires long-term planning (personal/professional side projects), I create a new Kanban-like board in Trello, which is adapted to the specific task at hand.

At work, I use the Atlassian suite (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket), and I keep track of my day-to-days activity with pen and paper by writing what I expect to do during the day and note any issue I might encounter so I can bring it up during the stand-up the next day.

I use Gmail's new task manager, I find it super helpful to keep my emails and task list together. It's also has a notes function which I haven't used much yet.

At work: Org mode (Emacs)

Personal stuff: I just send emails to myself.

Something like: '[TODO] Do something ...' Then you can elaborate in the message body.

Pros:

- free

- simple

- no apps required (or: you can use any app/web client you want)

- easily done and accessible from anywhere

- auto sync out of the box

- search/filtering out of the box

- timestamps out of the box

- tags out of the box (via email tags/labels)

- groups/projects out of the box (via mail folders/inboxes)

- rules out of the box (via email rules)

- supports files, links, code snippets, formatted text etc.

- I can flag/unflag them, delete/restore, mark as read/unread and so on

- most clients allow you to add a reminder/follow up for an email (hence, reminders and notifications out of the box)

Taskwarrior. I really wish I could use it on all my mobile devices easily. I especially wish that I could control it using my voice and use it with all my wearables. I think a taskwarrior service with easy setup and UI through modern channels is my dream of how people change the way they get things done. Taskwarrior isn't there yet but I feel like I've got super powers when I plan with it. Unfortunately when I'm doing my plans I don't want to always have a terminal window open.

https://youtu.be/zl68asL9jZA

This video from a recent Linux.conf.au has got my brain buzzing on using Taskwarrior, but I'm yet to embark on the journey.

https://culturedcode.com/things/

I use Things on my phone. I love the app, but the price of the full suite (iPhone, Mac, iPad -- even though I don't have an iPad) is too high for me so I don't use it often enough :(

Same. Mac $50, iPad $20, iPhone $10, Too much for what is essentially a fancy list-keeping app. You can use the iPhone version on an iPad though, which I do.

Things 3 is excellent. Any fan of well-designed and well-constructed software will appreciate it.

I also like the philosophy behind Things: make it really easy to add items and make the core workflows fast. Additional complexity (tags, dates, projects) is incremental and optional. It's one of the few GUI apps that can be operated solely from the keyboard with no loss of functionality.

As far as I'm concerned, the only feature that Things lacks is shared lists.

Looks great but I don't use any apple products.

Best app I found to implement GTD so far.

I use a private github repo. I create issues there and take notes in the wiki, also have a pile of scripts and things in the repo itself.

Are the scripts related to daily tasks? If so, I'm curious what you've written scripts for, if you don't mind saying.

I use the git repo as a "scratch pad" of sorts and toss anything in there that's relevant to my issues but not yet "fully baked" so it has a bunch of crappy ad-hoc scripts, config files, patches, etc. They'll all related to the issues in my private repo and only live in there long enough to get cleaned up. Anything long-term moves into a configuration management repo, my personal dotfiles repo, a repo of it's own, or upstream.

Pad of paper and a pen next to my keyboard.

At the end of each workday, I write down the (predicted) todo list for my next workday.

It's a carry-over from my early days of using the Franklin-Covey system.

There's a missing be-all, do-all, external brain app that I've always wanted in this space. Something that aggregates data from the internet offline; something that stores all my projects and info; something that stores tasks in a useful format; something that exposes lenses on that data (calendars, task lists, mind maps); something that ties into my browser to let me store new things and find existing things (imagine if your awesome-bar searched your external brain before heading off to Google!); something that bookmarks things; something that stores all my notes. There've been a few attempts at the be-all/end-all PIM, but nothing's achieved enough of it to stick, IMHO.

In the meantime, for daily stuff I slap things into a text file in Sublime Text, for longer term stuff I schedule things into my calendar so that I'll remember to slap it into the textfile for the day on the day. I've tried so many TODO managers, paper notebooks, etc. -- nothing seems to stick, because I always get frustrated at how small the scope is and tack things on the side until the house of cards collapses.

Might see if this helps (I wrote; desktop-only; does that for me). Details elsewhere on this page, and at the web site:

http://onemodel.org

This is much needed. On iOS, you can try to glue/automate different apps via workflows and callback URLs.

Have you tried http://notebooksapp.com or http://devonthink.com?

I'm late to the party, but I heavily use a tool I wrote (after trying org-mode, collapsible outlines in other tools, etc). It uses postgres, and I hope that "sharing" data exchange features are coming (though it already does export to org-mode-like text, and to html). Best code is that in github, though a downloadable .jar is available. Currently keyboard and desktop-only (text-oriented). The most efficient/effective thing I have found for notes/lists/details of all kinds, and should be easy to learn to use, as all the essentials are on the screen. There is a tutorial.

By marking things done or "archived", it also provides a journal feature or personal log, of entries created or archived in any date range (defaulting to "yesterday and so far, today", to help with daily standup reporting).

http://onemodel.org (AGPL)

org-mode

https://orgmode.org/manual/Checkboxes.html

* TODO Organize party [2/4] - [-] call people [1/3] - [ ] Peter - [X] Sarah - [ ] Sam - [X] order food - [ ] think about what music to play - [X] talk to the neighbors

This is a similar conversation with the same confusion about checklists versus ToDo lists: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15799539 For ToDo lists, Google tasks has everything I need. There is a good app and very simple web interface: https://mail.google.com/tasks/ig?pli=1 Adding a date will make a reminder show in Android notification bar and show in Google calendar. I have it organized into lists: Today (should be cleared out daily), Queue (pull from this list when bored), Projects (collections of tasks for long-term), and subject-specific lists like Music, Home, etc.

Depends on the type of checklist.

If it's something like a grocery list, etc I tend to use Google Keep.

If it's code specific then one of GitHub's project boards.

If it's going to require managing a team, keeping up on tasks, generating productivity reports and something akin to virtual scrum / kanban / post-it's on a daily, weekly or monthly basis BusinessDay [1]. I chose it because of recurring tasks, aging of cards and private lists.

This goes into the process behind it [2]

[1] https://blog.businessday.io/

[2] https://blog.businessday.io/2016/09/04/quick-start-for-accou...

Daily taks but also reminder related like "monthly patch kernel on systems {...} ,do checklist [a,b,c...] For this group manually after."

Businessday seems excellent,I will demo it.thank you!

https://nozbe.com/

It's a software built on top of GTD methodology and I love its way of managing TODO lists.

First of all, the tasks are grouped by the projects, so you can dive deep when working on one the projects.

You can mark some tasks as "Next actions". All the next actions across all the projects will show in a"Priority" view, it's kind of a "mission control".

GTD advises you not to assign a due date for tasks unless it's essentially required (like in an appointment) and that works perfectly for me.

Another important piece of GTD is a weekly review when you plan what to do in an upcoming week. So whenever I'm in a mood to do something, I check what's left for this week.

Papier[0] for my daily checklists. It's convenient because, as a web developer, I spend all my time in chrome.

I'm still working out a system for managing longer term checklists/goals/plans/etc. To that end, Natrium[0] (which I just found out about in this thread) looks interesting.

I'm also still working out a system for managing activity-based checklists for processes like checkins, code reviews, etc.

[0]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/papier/hhjeaokafpl...

[1]: https://natriumapp.com/

We use Zenkit to keep track. It´s our own tool and simple to use. You can use the Checklist-feature in every data view. To get back to your question, we normally use the Kanban View and assign team member to each task. Once a week we meet and go through the tasks - What is done? Do we need a follow-up? What do we have to do now? Priorities? And so on... You can think of it as a mix of the methodologies of Kanban and Scrum.

For more instructions, you could have a look at our templates or the documentation: https://zenkit.com

http://quip.com/ -- It works everywhere except, unfortunately, the terminal. What I like about quip's way is that it doesn't differentiate checklists from notes -- which is exactly my style. And you can even embed a spreadsheet if you suddenly need more power.

P.S.: They also don't like Firefox for some reason (it works ok, but it works better in Chrome). Now that Salesforce bought them, I don't have my hopes too high that it is going to change...

Depends on the checklist.

At work, auditable, is online control function checklist and needs to be filled out at multiple times during the day plus weekly and monthly various check-points. Saved to a database with timestamps for any submission. Non-editable.

At work, non-auditable, a huddle board with post-it notes and quite fluid, small tweaks mean it might be the same board day-to-day but never the exact same board month-to-month. What stays constant is it's always always visible and mainly pen-based.

Anyone use the Eisenhower Matrix? A few really productive people I know seem to use it to great effect. Was wondering if anyone here has any tips with their experiences.

Todoist for personal tasks. Google Keep for checklists (like list of things to pack). Pen and paper for stuff at work. Overall I'm quite happy with this setup.

Tet ToDo on Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.aswinmohan....

for simplicity

And D Notes https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dvdb.bergn...

for longer time horizone checklists

Both free

https://www.taskade.com

Very flexible and cross-platform. Works for personal checklists and team projects.

I think I like this,cross platform is important for me.

I made a little pocketbook thingy based on a weekly "sprint" with a max of six tasks per day, to progress towards weekly goals: https://vimeo.com/252014662

I find keeping to-do items separate from my phone distractions works well.

On phone/web, I find trello is as good as anything, especially across devices. Decent checklist function.

As an ex-Pivotal employee, the best tool for the job is Pivotal Tracker. It is all about how you write the stories though (methodology). Their documentation is quite good too: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/help/articles/quick_start/

Post-its and a pen.

Me too.

I've used many different apps over the years, until ultimately settling on todo.txt. It's a standardized format similar to taskwarrior, but it's simply a text file that apps interact with and is open source.

You can get it in a terminal, mobile, web, vim plugin, etc.

http://todotxt.org/

Google Inbox reminders. Swipe them away when they're done or have them appear in a few days if I'm not ready yet

https://workflowy.com/ which I strongly suspect was inspired by Emacs Org-mode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPMVtkNrquU

I've been using YouTrack from Jetbrains for tracking my personal life. It's been the single greatest improvement to my overall life.

Need to buy something? Throw it on the backlog. Oooh this looks cool and I should learn it. Throw it on the backlog.

Schedule things out every two weeks.

I'm using TickTick (https://ticktick.com/). The only thing missing is the dependency of the task on other tasks. Is there such a thing anywhere?

Zim.

It's offline, and supports, among other things like a full-blown personal wiki and LaTeX input via plugins, also easy creation of checklists. The wiki features are useful to store progress & notes as one processes the checklists.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/things-3/id904237743?mt=8

Things 3, powerful but not bloated.

I've created Notes app for that purpose too: https://notes.sciter.com/

It allows to insert check list in any note (that is HTML under the hood)

On the computer I use treesheets: http://strlen.com/treesheets/

Out and about (mobile) I use a notebook and pencil.

Notion[0], hands down the best tool for keeping track of everything I need to do/remember.

[0]: https://www.notion.so/

A notebook on my desk for my working list - what's on today plus any ad-hoc items that come up.

Calendar for tasks tied to a specific date - Outlook for work, Google for home.

Jira for projects.

taskwarrior. command line todo list, has a sync server for sharing tasks across devices. I like it because i can just type `task` in the shell and see what i need and keep working, then if i finish something it's `task x done` it does burndown charts and stuff too, all from the shell. nice api for plugging into and of course because it's in the shell it's already very extensible.

Orgmode in Emacs.

Me the coder,

- Evernote for tasking my daily activities - Firefox for my bookmarks on internet - Google drive for finances

OmniFocus, Google Keep, pen and paper.

I just use a Google Doc for my daily planner, no todo app is flexible enough. Trello for projects.

OneNote works pretty well.

Telegram messages to myself. Super fast and always available.

Pocket notebook and small mechanical pencil.

dynalist.io is the best I've found and has some programmer features like code snippets.

simplenote. It's awesome. I have even offered to pay the company.

Google Keep

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