Most to-do management systems are highly opinionated.  The specifics of what you need to get done are what you put into it, but how you track those tasks and organize them is within the paradigm presented by the application. For example, some systems are very GTD-focused.  In those systems, you have lists, ‘next actions’, and reminders to do your weekly review.

Other systems present you with a wide variety of tools and it’s up to you to design how the system works.  Some of the elements are typically:

• Lists: one for home, one for work, etc.
• Priorities
• Date/Time Reminders
• Tags
• Projects or other dependency-tracking

Etcetera.  Even between systems, these can vary.  In some systems, priorities are a sortable field; in others they’re a color.

Apple’s Reminders app (for iOS and Mac) is one of these “here’s the toolkit” systems.  There’s a lot of functionality, but the actual system of how you’re use it is completely up to you.

Some people don’t need much of a system.  If you’ve only got a dozen things on your list, it doesn’t matter how they’re organized because you can just scan the list in a couple seconds and know exactly what you need to remember.

Then there’s people like me:

If you’re more like me, let’s talk.

General Principles

Some things I live by:

• My to-do list is a to-do list.  It’s not a place to keep lists of things like movies I want to see, books I want to read, etc.  I use Obsidian for that (though Apple Notes would be another possibility.  In fact, there are many possibilities.). One exception is my grocery list because it’s convenient to check things off in the store.
• I try to strike a balance between getting things in the system and getting it perfectly categorized.  The most important thing is getting it into the system, even if all the details of priorities, tags, etc. has to wait (or never gets done).
• I’m not a GTD guy per se but I’ve read the book and incorporate some elements of it.

Lists are Projects

In my world, lists are really projects.  For example, when preparing for Christmas this year, I had various tasks on my “Christmas” list such as find a gift for _____, wrap presents, complete artwork for _____’s card, take all Christmas cards to post office, etc.

If it’s really complicated (for example, when I was preparing to drive cross-country earlier this year), Reminders offers Sections and Subtasks.  I don’t use them very much, but did on that travel planning list, as it was convenient to segment out a few areas of preparation (everything I needed to get ready for hiking, all the tasks around getting the car ready, etc.) without having to have multiple lists that were the same project.

The exception is the Main list (which is what I call my default list).  Some people refer to this as the Inbox.  It’s where new tasks go by default.  This list is often a “kitchen drawer” of tasks that aren’t part of projects.  I don’t try to make a list for everything because projects should be projects: they have a lifespan.  All projects (lists) should eventually by deleted.

So for example, I don’t create a list called “server improvements” and categorize stuff there.  If I decided I wanted to improve security of my servers, I’d create that list as a project and put specific actionable items there, but I don’t use lists as holding areas or categories.

There are two exceptions:

• The Waiting list.  This is stuff that’s out of my control.  For example, I contacted customer service at a company about an issue.  I don’t want to forget it, so I put it on the Waiting list (probably with a reminder so if I don’t hear back within a week, I ping them).
• The Backburner list.  This is stuff that is actionable but I can’t see doing it in the immediate future.  I review this list once a week.  If something stays on the list for a long time, I move it to the Obsidian backburner/ideas/someday list, and to be honest, 90% of things that go there die.

Top of the Chart: Must Do Today

That’s flagged reminders for me.  If something is flagged, it needs attention today.  In some cases, it’s mundane stuff like take medications or remember to call my mother.  In other cases, it’s a hot task from my boss.

When you have a substantially-sized system, you can feel nervous about losing important reminders in the general pool.  That’s what flagging does: lifts the really critical, immediately-actionable items to the top of the queue.

Context Tags Slice Across All Lists

I use tags for context – when I would be doing something.

For example, I have a #watching-tv tag.  That’s stuff I can do while watching TV, such as online shopping, downloading/converting media, patching my systems, etc.  There’s other work that requires dedicated think time, so that’s the #focus-time tag.  There’s stuff I can do during #car-ride, such as calling people.  Etc.  When I find myself in one of those contexts – watching TV, alone, driving, etc. – it’s easy to find things I can cross off.

Reminders for Everything

I try to put everything in Reminders unless it’s so natural that I wouldn’t every forget.  I’m not going to forget to brush my teeth.  But I do find that some days I’ve got so many plates spinning that I get to the end of the day and realize I haven’t practiced guitar, so guitar practice is a daily recurring reminder.  Things that are truly tied to dates (e.g., friend’s birthdays) are better on a calendar.

Things I Don’t Use

I have played with priorities but don’t use them.  It’s either flagged or not flagged.  I think this stems from my discipline of regularly (every day, every other day at most) reviewing my lists, and sometimes rearranging to-dos so the things that are more urgent are towards the bottom.

If you do use priorities, then using smart lists starts to make more sense.  Smart lists are lists that auto-populate with various rules, like “is tagged ___ and is priority 2 and is flagged” or whatever.

Do You Need Reminders?

As in the app.  Not necessarily.  When I was a kid in the Jurassic era of the 1980s, I kept my list on a sheet of paper, which was quiet effective.  Put it in your pocket, take it out when you need to write a reminder down.

Today, the advantage of Reminders is convenience.  I can tell my watch to create a flagged reminder or add something to my grocery list.  I can look at my Reminders on my phone, tablet, laptop, or the web.

But at the end of the day, it’s really about discipline, not the technology.

The Best Lesson of Getting Things Done

David Allen’s book is very well-known and the GTD system has a lot of partisans.  In my experience, many people start with “base” GTD and then customize it to their needs.

But I will call out one essential lesson which I think is the most important part of GTD: get your to-dos into a system.

Doing so frees your mind from having to remember things.  It reduces stress.  It improves quality of life.  You’re no longer pinging yourself 10 times a day thinking “I need to remember X” and “wait, is X due today” and “I know there was something to do but I’ve forgotten it”.  As things come up, dump them in your inbox, and immediately you’ll relax because you no longer have to remember them.

Even if all you ever do is dump your to-list into an app (or write it on a sheet of paper if you’re a retro hipster), and you never advance into lists, priorities, flags, and tags, you’ll still be doing yourself a great service because you’ll have a lot less stress.

What is your to-do list management system?  Any tips to share with our readers?  Please comment below!

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.