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Thanks very much for this. I retired 14 months ago. At work, I used MS Outlook for task management. It wasn't great, but I survived. At home, I have been using Google Keep for years. Since I retired, though, it hasn't been cutting it, as I have more personal projects - mostly the ones I put off from when I was working. Years ago, I read David Allen's GTD book and tried to implement a system in Evernote, but it was cumbersome. Now I use Evernote where it shines: storing information in a way you can find it later. In the last day or so (before I saw this vid), I switched to Microsoft To Do. It is free and cross-platform (I have MacOS, Windows, iOS, and Android devices). I find the organization features very useful, and I love the ways that you can hide all but the tasks you currently want to work on. I don't plan to implement GTD or PARA fully in MS To Do, but some of the ideas in this vid will strengthen my system. Again, thanks. Peter from Vancouver Canada.
Sunsama was a very good task manager to me but it was too expensive . So I switched back to MS to do and I've watched with interest this video. I think I will apply the hashtags method for identifying tasks of 10 or 15 minutes. Thank you dude
Thanks for this. I was trying to figure out how to organize tasks in different lists by required amount of energy, and I learned from you that I can use hashtags! This ADHDer is excited to give it a try!
Glad you liked it. I make a few lists in a group (to act as the kanban buckets) and then drag my task through that workflow, only ticking complete in the last bucket. Not as visual as Planner/Trello but does the same job
Thanks for the great video. I like the hashtags tip. Please explain how you use the "Areas" and Projects lists. I assume all or at least most of your projects would be related to your Areas.
Check this out for more inspiration for free: fortelabs.com/blog/para/ ...or consider joining us in the MeeTime community (meetime.thinkific.com/bundles/meetime-membership) and following the Personal Productivity course (meetime.thinkific.com/courses/personal-productivity-how-to-work-less-and-get-more-done-with-microsoft-365)
At around 5:15 you say that the hashtag does not work with the PC app but I tested it and it does. Perhaps they fixed that? Anyway, thanks for pointing out the hashtag! I can see where that would be very valuable moving forward...
It meant to come across that the PC app is better than the Mac one because clicking a hashtag (or any search) doesn't show completed tasks if you have this turned off in settings (and/or by default) where the Mac app annoyingly shows all completed tasks in a search each time and you have to go and switch it off after each search. Apologies for the confusion. (P.S. if this was useful, consider supporting the channel through "Super Thanks" under the video above or via www.buymeacoffee.com/meetime 👍)
Great video, but how do you do with projects that has like ten steps, some that require you do be at home, others for example at the library, the list in projects and its next action can require diffrent resources so to speak.
Good question Marcus - I would use hashtags for context, you add as many hashtags as you want to any ToDo task or to any subtask and searching on that hashtag or combination of hashtags will filter down the subtasks too, if that makes sense
@@marcusnordlund Thanks Marcus - you can now give "thanks" on any video you found useful (next to the share button) - When I'm busy I'll go through comments with "Thanks" first (but always try to get to the others eventually 👍)
Hi, do you also adopt categories/labels in Outlook and To Do? I've got a zero inbox, w4 and to do categories (plus a couple of other essential ones) and then save as a task (all automated with quick steps) but still feel I'm 'double dipping' because if you mark as done in Tasks, it isn't linked to Outlook and vice versa, unless I'm missing something. I've just recently been diagnosed with ADHD and really trying to get a system established! :) Many thanks.
I don't personally use categories. I dabbled with them for a bit in Outlook, but search got so much better in the meantime, that I found my categories an extra unneeded step that didn't add much.
Hi, this is a fantastic video! I have a couple questions: 1) I'm curious, do you drag emails into your ToDo "Inbox" as opposed to dragging email into the built in Tasks folder? Meaning what is the difference between things sitting in you ToDo "Inbox" vs your ToDo "Tasks"? 2) What sorts of things go in your Ticker folder vs your maybe someday? Is tickler for things that must get done but you just can't plan it yet? Thanks again!
Thanks for watching. 1, I just liked the "inbox" as a place to get stuff quickly out of my head, but might not actually be a well-formed task yet so it is a place to break down or re-think about something before making it a "proper" task. Having these things live in "Tasks" folder I found just got a little messy. 2, Ticker is things that I know I want to do but cannot start immediately, such as recurring tasks - once done, I don't want them clogging up next actions as I probably can't start them yet. Someday/Maybe are things I might want to do in the future but are not definitely tasks yet ToDo and Planner are still better than just using emails for tasks lists inside M365. If you are able (i.e. not locked down by your work) I am now using Motion for all my tasks, even though this is not in the Microsoft eco-system as this automates quite a lot of concepts in this video - find out more here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eaesVelpm5c.html
Oh no😅 so I did this, dragging emails to "to do" to be able to file and clear my inbox... but now when i click on "open in outlook", it says the message might have been moved or deleted. Does it not connect with data files in Outlook?😬 i have numerous data files to organize different long term projects. Does everything need to go in the online archive? I'm worried about losing the structure of the files since I often have to go and search certain projects by keyword😱
Hi Sebastian - I am not sure 100% what you mean. If you click new task in Outlook, I think it is created in the folder you are in, e.g. Inbox. This video might help if you are creating tasks from Outlook (but not sure, let me know): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eJMyZZrCQs0.html
You're welcome (P.S. if this was useful, consider supporting the channel through "Super Thanks" under the video above or via www.buymeacoffee.com/meetime 👍)
Hi Morel, I actually use a combination of both (as well as the 12 week year). (Over) Simplifying (as they all overlap): GTD for keeping track of everything 1 Thing for doing what's most important and blocking time 12 week year for managing habits and input metrics to hit the 1 thing
Great question. I have a recurring weekly task of "weekly review" and a sub-task of that is to tag each task in inbox that is worth categorising, and has a reminder of what hastags are currently being used.
To do is pretty useless. It is not boosting productivity. As a list to remember your tasks - fine. It is not helping to plan tasks execution as has no any automation to block time in the calendar. It also has very poor prioritization, just two options important/ordinary. And you need to spend a lot of time to maintain the task list up to date. Limited functionality for planner tasks.
@@kevinjohnson3521 not really, my company is using Microsoft products only. There is Power automate, but its too complex for an ordinary MS Office user to set up for a task like that.
David Allen '" If it takes less than 2 minutes to do something, just do there and then, stop putting things off". This procrastination tip really helped me.
Absolutely. The bit I didn't internalise until re-reading much later is to only do this from your "inbox list." rather than taking the time to process it. I wasted much time doing everything that took 2 minutes that came to mind, rather than just logging it in "inbox" then doing the 2 minute rule in my processing time.
Great video - you have caught the essence of GTD without going overboard. I love ToDo but your hashtag approach has reduced my lists significantly. I hadnt really used them enough but now I think they will be the Anchor Hitch of my day
Great, glad to help. Thanks for taking the time to leave a nice comment 👍 (P.S. if this was useful, consider supporting the channel through "Super Thanks" under the video above or via www.buymeacoffee.com/meetime 👍)
Great question - just to be pedantic and for my processing brain to not mix tasks that are ready to be done but do not fall into any of my other categories (what I use the "Tasks" list for) versus tasks that I am getting out of my head or email inbox that need to be processed to see what the next action is - that I use the "Inbox" list for.
@@MeeTime ah ok, makes sense. I do the same thing too except I use Tasks as the inbox and a list called Misc. for anything that doesn't fit into the other lists. Yours is more faithful to David Allen's terminology though :)
I think adding new items in Tasks is better using this application because by default tasks are added in this folder which is more aligned with the quick capture philosophy. In android application, you cannot specify the folder you want by default so you have to process tasks in the Tasks folder to put them in the inbox folder which defeat the purpose of Inboxe folder.
Great video, some great tips in here, had no idea about hashtags or even the ability to group lists. So do you periodically check the Tickler list and move some into its main home?
Hi Seb - great question. RE: Tickler, I usually used the "planned" smart folder to review what is overdue, due today and this week and add the ones I want to do into "My Day" which will pick up anything in Tickler as everything there should have a future date attached to it - it is something that I want and need to do but I cannot start yet (good for recurring tasks). Unlike "someday/maybe" which is just for things I have thought of but I am not sure if I want to do them or it is not a concrete action - these I review periodically but they do not have any reminders as I am not sure they are to be done, just a thought. Hope this helps? Are you using GTD in ToDo?
Why do you have a separate Tickler list instead of just adding the task as normal to your Next Actions list and then adding a reminder on the task? For example, if you get an email requesting for you to give a talk in 6 months, why not add a Next Action "Prepare slide deck for talk" with a 5 month reminder? Or what do you do instead?
Good question, Piggy. Because next actions is everything that I could do right now if I wanted. Ticker are things that I cannot do until a future date. Don't want to get these mixed up so it does not take a cognitive drain, however small, when in "doing" mode.
Hi Andy - correct you cannot move these. TBH I think that tasks are the one thing worth duplicating. So assuming the tasks assigned to you by someone else in Planner are not well written or don't fit into your workflow I would just duplicate them. Although this sounds counter intuitive, it still saves time as you are splitting thinking and doing - you want granular well written actions that future you will thank you for when you come time to do the work.
Not that I know of. I have ToDo always open on either a separate physical screen or a virtual desktop so it is only a swipe away max or Ctrl(Cmd)+tab as I'm usually switching to it quite regularly
Glad you liked it! (P.S. if this was useful, consider supporting the channel through "Super Thanks" under the video above or via www.buymeacoffee.com/meetime 👍)
