Remember the Milk Gets a Total Overhaul

Posted by Ken
Oct 29, 2018 at 11:17 PM

nathanb wrote:

>Same. I go through that cycle of my brain telling me I need more
>complexity to get a good handle on my tasks, then my habits prove
>otherwise as the complexity just becomes another unmanageable project.
>Looking back, it’s been the most simple tools that I’ve used more
>effectively for longer periods than the powerful ones. Wunderlist is
>probably the best example of that. I’ve been with ToDoist for over a
>year now but I keep abusing the nesting and struggle with keeping the
>right simple/complex balance.
> >Because of the desktop outlook integration, I’ve started using Microsoft
>To-Do for work tasks and I’m really digging that ‘my-day’ feature. In
>theory, it’s no different than just putting a date on a task to ear-mark
>it for today. But in practice it works much better for me. Manually
>dating tasks to force them to be on my ‘now’ list always created the
>extra task of re-scheduling the uncompleted ones at the end of the day.
>This was annoying to keep up with. I also generally have a separate
>‘now’ list to dump all the random work stuff that comes up every. Stuff
>that’s generally too small and quick to bother with putting on a master
>list. Dumping into ‘my-day’ is a pretty solid fusion of combining these
>two flows.
> >So now I’m trying to decide if I want to use it for personal tasks too.
>Generally, I try to be on one platform to minimize the friction of the
>little interface differences. I’m starting to think that’s a bad reason
>since most tools these days so learning or forgetting an interface isn’t
>much of a thing anymore. I deal just fine with personal gmail and work
>Outlook. I don’t think I want the two worlds showing up in the same
>‘today’ views anymore. So with To-Do, I think I’d have to switch
>between work/personal accounts to make that happen. That doesn’t work
>when wanting a ‘quick capture’ option for both worlds at all times.
>I’ll likely roll with To-Doist for personal, and To-Do for work and see
>how that goes.
> >The irony about that is because my home task situation is MUCH simpler
>than work. Work is a constant stream of new inputs (tens per day), home
>is a trickle (tens per week). Work projects are more numerous and
>complex. So if I try to flow work through a complex task system (like
>todoist can become), it quickly becomes just too much to manage. I can
>only manage fast and simple and can’t take the time to define and
>categorize every next step or I’ll just drive myself insane. This works
>out because I’m able to have longer times to focus on these projects.
>Personal tasks aren’t as numerous, but they are more disjointed where I
>have 15 minutes at a time a few times a week to deal with them instead
>of a whole day of work dedicated to that list. Like a medical bill
>where I keep asking for and forwarding dumb info over the course of a
>few weeks. That’s a good application for defining the next steps and
>putting in contexts because it’s not an overwhelming thing to manage and
>it’s actually an efficient workflow.
> >So yeah, feature-rich task managers for low frequency work, simple and
>dumb for an overwhelming task situation. Makes total sense. I’ll
>probably change my mind in six months.
>

Well said, and I concur. I am not sure my level of new tasks and subtasks is as bad as yours, but I would agree that anything too complicated can get in the way. That was one reason that I wanted to see about switching from MLO to RTM. I really like MLO, but the UI is a bit clunky and it creates just enough “friction” that I do not want to use it. I was hoping that RTM might be a bit more conducive to quick entry, but as I said above, all of the usual suspects seem to have a fatal flaw or two for task management the way that I like.

—Ken