The Tasks.org android app (and Astrid, its predecessor) have been my external brain for over a decade now. Reminders which automatically repeat on a configured interval (if necessary) are just extremely useful.
I don’t use it for actual appointments with other people (dentist, game night with friends, etc.), those go in a calendar app1. But one-time reminders and everything that’s even remotely on a timed interval (household chores, paying bills, scheduling car maintenance2, “check if a new book is out in that series I like”), those live in my tasks list.
I then use the Todo Agenda widget to show both calendar appointments and tasks in a single overview.
1: Google Calendar in my case, which is not open source. But something like NextCloud would probably work too.
2: The task is to make an appointment with my car guy. The appointment itself then gets put in my calendar app.
I also use task.org and have found a nice set of customization options that works for me.
Because I’m juggling different tasks with different priorities, I sort by immediacy and importance. Anything time sensitive has dates and alarms attached to it. Any tasks I wish to do currently or the next day is always moved to ‘HighPriority’ including any appointments.
Medium and low priority stuff are things that have distant due dates or no due dates.
I also use colours to visually show priorities I set for the day as well as adding comments to help add any extra context. Keeping titles simple is important for me to keep my data visually accessible.
Most important is that I keep a widget on my home screen so that I always see what my tasks. Any step between seeing my tasks and staying on top of my tasks is a chance for something to be forgotten. It took me nearly half a year to get into the habit of using this app to organize myself but has helped me a lot.
I also have a couple more lists for shopping and repeated reminders to help me stay on track too.
Hopefully this is a good example of how someone can use these tools for themselves.
The Tasks.org android app (and Astrid, its predecessor) have been my external brain for over a decade now. Reminders which automatically repeat on a configured interval (if necessary) are just extremely useful.
I don’t use it for actual appointments with other people (dentist, game night with friends, etc.), those go in a calendar app1. But one-time reminders and everything that’s even remotely on a timed interval (household chores, paying bills, scheduling car maintenance2, “check if a new book is out in that series I like”), those live in my tasks list.
I then use the Todo Agenda widget to show both calendar appointments and tasks in a single overview.
1: Google Calendar in my case, which is not open source. But something like NextCloud would probably work too.
2: The task is to make an appointment with my car guy. The appointment itself then gets put in my calendar app.
I also use task.org and have found a nice set of customization options that works for me.
Because I’m juggling different tasks with different priorities, I sort by immediacy and importance. Anything time sensitive has dates and alarms attached to it. Any tasks I wish to do currently or the next day is always moved to ‘HighPriority’ including any appointments.
Medium and low priority stuff are things that have distant due dates or no due dates.
I also use colours to visually show priorities I set for the day as well as adding comments to help add any extra context. Keeping titles simple is important for me to keep my data visually accessible.
Most important is that I keep a widget on my home screen so that I always see what my tasks. Any step between seeing my tasks and staying on top of my tasks is a chance for something to be forgotten. It took me nearly half a year to get into the habit of using this app to organize myself but has helped me a lot.
I also have a couple more lists for shopping and repeated reminders to help me stay on track too.
Hopefully this is a good example of how someone can use these tools for themselves.