Task Management

[newms]

This is something I've thought about for a while and haven't come up with a satisfying solution for myself. So I'm asking the Grad Cafe community, how do you keep track of tasks that need to be done in relation to your school work and your research? Ideally I'd rather not use something with pen and paper, but I'm open to all suggestions. What about your schedule? Do you use a daily planner or an online calendar?

[fuzzylogician]

I use google calendar to keep my schedule -- I could never remember everything I have to do without some kind of calendar! In the past I used to have a small moleskin I would take with me everywhere but now that I switched to the online variety I have to admit that it's much more convenient.

I love to-do lists so I keep several of them. There is nothing more satisfying than crossing off something I've achieved, and I don't know of a better way to keep track of all my chores. I maintain a long-term to-do list on a dry erase board near my desk, and I also use a small legal pad for my day-to-day chores. Recently, though, I've taken to simply keeping lists as gmail drafts. That way they go with me when I switch machines and when I go away from the office. I've tried some fancy notes software but in the end I keep going back to simple documents.

[ktel]

I'm a pen and paper kind of girl. I have a hard-copy agenda for deadlines. I use a small notebook for anything else (notes for my research, to-do lists, etc.), which I find is a very engineer thing to do. It's something that was recommended to me by a variety of sources so you can keep track of the work you do to help when registering as a P.Eng or if facing some sort of lawsuit or liability over work done.

[hejduk]

This is something I've thought about for a while and haven't come up with a satisfying solution for myself. So I'm asking the Grad Cafe community, how do you keep track of tasks that need to be done in relation to your school work and your research? Ideally I'd rather not use something with pen and paper, but I'm open to all suggestions. What about your schedule? Do you use a daily planner or an online calendar?

If you're a Mac person, I recommend the app "Things". Great to-do list application. I have a good memory, so I'm still just keeping things my head. I know that my doctoral program will overwhelm my yet-to-be-feeble mind, so I'm searching as well. Thanks for starting this thread!

I use google calendar to keep my schedule -- I could never remember everything I have to do without some kind of calendar! In the past I used to have a small moleskin I would take with me everywhere but now that I switched to the online variety I have to admit that it's much more convenient.

I love to-do lists so I keep several of them. There is nothing more satisfying than crossing off something I've achieved, and I don't know of a better way to keep track of all my chores. I maintain a long-term to-do list on a dry erase board near my desk, and I also use a small legal pad for my day-to-day chores. Recently, though, I've taken to simply keeping lists as gmail drafts. That way they go with me when I switch machines and when I go away from the office. I've tried some fancy notes software but in the end I keep going back to simple documents.

I'm paranoid personally about giving Google too much of my info, but google calendar is really useful. I personally can second the thought on using Gmail drafts as simple lists too.

[rising_star]

Google Calendar (for things like classes and appointments), Google Tasks (for to-do lists), and paper. I like crossing things off and email drafts just wouldn't give me the same level of satisfaction. I also keep a monthly calendar in my office and at home and I write important deadlines on them (green for grants/fellowships; red for articles/CFPs; black for conferences and other things).

[newms]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Google calendar sounds like it's something I should be making more use of. I guess what I'm looking for with task management is a way to have more important tasks being prioritized rather than having a regular to do list. So I'd want to keep track of things that need to be done, as well as when they should be done by and how important they are. Does anyone know any system that can do that?

[cogneuroforfun]

Google calendar. Talks, events, meetings with people, all get added. I also use it for short-term to-do lists, for example making sure I remember to do something before leaving the lab for the day. Edit: To clarify, if I find out in the morning I need to do something before leaving work, I'll put an event in the calendar for 6pm or whenever so I'm sure to see it go off before I leave for the day. Is that the kind of function you need?

As far as keeping track of your to-do list, I'm not sure exactly what you need. Do you need to remember when a paper or something is due? Put a reminder in Google calendar for a day, week, month in advance, whichever is relevant. Do you really have difficulty forgetting something like "reading this paper I'm interested in is cool but low priority, finishing these slides to give my advisor tomorrow is less fun but higher priority?" I totally understand needing to keep track of deadlines for things, but shouldn't you know how important different tasks are just by looking at the task?

Edited June 27, 2011 by cogneuroforfun

[newms]

Google calendar. Talks, events, meetings with people, all get added. I also use it for short-term to-do lists, for example making sure I remember to do something before leaving the lab for the day. Edit: To clarify, if I find out in the morning I need to do something before leaving work, I'll put an event in the calendar for 6pm or whenever so I'm sure to see it go off before I leave for the day. Is that the kind of function you need?

As far as keeping track of your to-do list, I'm not sure exactly what you need. Do you need to remember when a paper or something is due? Put a reminder in Google calendar for a day, week, month in advance, whichever is relevant. Do you really have difficulty forgetting something like "reading this paper I'm interested in is cool but low priority, finishing these slides to give my advisor tomorrow is less fun but higher priority?" I totally understand needing to keep track of deadlines for things, but shouldn't you know how important different tasks are just by looking at the task?

Thanks. I guess what I'm looking for is a way to keep track of long term things that need to be done that might not be important to be done right now, but are important to get done at some point in the future. So for example, in working on a project, I may get an idea of something to look into, but doesn't have to get done right now, or this week, or even this month. However, exploring this idea might lead to a big payoff later on in terms of finding a solution that I wouldn't have otherwise thought of. How can I keep track of these things that I want to eventually do, but aren't pressing or have a firm deadline - like the date for a paper?

I also want to incorporate some aspect of importance of tasks. I guess I'm getting this idea from Randy Pausch's Time Management lecture and talk. One of the important points I took from his talk was that a lot of people tend to focus on 1) important tasks that are due soon and then on 2) trivial tasks that are due soon, while he was suggesting that we should focus on 1) important tasks that are due soon and then on 2) important tasks that are due in the long term while using any time we have left for trivial tasks. I guess I'm looking for something that can help me best make use of my time, so that I can prioritize important tasks (whether short term or long term) over trivial tasks that also need to be done, but that I shouldn't spend so much time on.

[Gelpfrat the Bold]

I keep a traditional planner and scribble everything in there. At the beginning of each semester I write all my due dates (in order) on one sheet of paper and tack it up above my desk, so I have a good idea of what my semester will look like. It's surprisingly easy to forget about due dates, or for them to be buried in such weird places in the syllabus that it's a pain to have to look them up multiple times. Also, then you get to cross off each due date once you've handed things in, so when the end-of-semester crunch hits you you have a visible list of things to feel accomplished and confident about.

Anyways, when it comes down to how I spend time within each individual day, I'm terrible about staying on track. I'm really bad at setting specific times for working and not working, and sticking to them. I'm "working" on a paper right now, but clearly I am not very focused at the present moment. I'm hoping taking time out of academia and working in a more normal setting will help me fix this tendency of mine!

[ktel]

Thanks. I guess what I'm looking for is a way to keep track of long term things that need to be done that might not be important to be done right now, but are important to get done at some point in the future. So for example, in working on a project, I may get an idea of something to look into, but doesn't have to get done right now, or this week, or even this month. However, exploring this idea might lead to a big payoff later on in terms of finding a solution that I wouldn't have otherwise thought of. How can I keep track of these things that I want to eventually do, but aren't pressing or have a firm deadline - like the date for a paper?

I also want to incorporate some aspect of importance of tasks. I guess I'm getting this idea from Randy Pausch's Time Management lecture and talk. One of the important points I took from his talk was that a lot of people tend to focus on 1) important tasks that are due soon and then on 2) trivial tasks that are due soon, while he was suggesting that we should focus on 1) important tasks that are due soon and then on 2) important tasks that are due in the long term while using any time we have left for trivial tasks. I guess I'm looking for something that can help me best make use of my time, so that I can prioritize important tasks (whether short term or long term) over trivial tasks that also need to be done, but that I shouldn't spend so much time on.

It sounds like you could use some sort of project management software. I'm not terribly familiar with them, but for recent projects we had to use Liquid Planner, where you could rank tasks and outline the approximate time window in which you plan to accomplish them. One of the drawbacks of this particular scheduler was that is assumed you wouldn't work on more than one thing at a time. Which in theory sounds good, but in reality isn't so true.

[goldielocks]

I've tried to utilize electronic-based tools, but I have found that a good ol' fashioned planner works best for me. I use this one this one ($15, free shipping with Amazon Prime). I like it because it leaves me plenty of room on the calendar side of each spread to write out appointments/assignments/etc, and an entire page on the other side (a big one at that) to write out notes, reminders, etc.

For me the most important part of learning to cope with the massive workload in grad school has been learning to break up tasks. At the beginning of each course, I look through the syllabus and write down deadlines for each assignment/reading/presentation. Then I break the larger tasks into smaller, more manageable ones. For example, for a term paper, I'll set deadlines for a working bibliography, first draft, second draft, etc. I also break up my reading goals this way. It helps a lot and makes assignments seem more bearable. This has been especially helpful in writing my MA thesis.

Good luck!

[newms]

If you're a Mac person, I recommend the app "Things". Great to-do list application. I have a good memory, so I'm still just keeping things my head. I know that my doctoral program will overwhelm my yet-to-be-feeble mind, so I'm searching as well. Thanks for starting this thread!

I'm paranoid personally about giving Google too much of my info, but google calendar is really useful. I personally can second the thought on using Gmail drafts as simple lists too.

I don't have a Mac, but I'm planning to get an iPad sometime in the next few months, and just looking at Things it looks promising for what I want. I'll have to try it out. Thanks.

[newms]

I've tried to utilize electronic-based tools, but I have found that a good ol' fashioned planner works best for me. I use this one this one ($15, free shipping with Amazon Prime). I like it because it leaves me plenty of room on the calendar side of each spread to write out appointments/assignments/etc, and an entire page on the other side (a big one at that) to write out notes, reminders, etc.

For me the most important part of learning to cope with the massive workload in grad school has been learning to break up tasks. At the beginning of each course, I look through the syllabus and write down deadlines for each assignment/reading/presentation. Then I break the larger tasks into smaller, more manageable ones. For example, for a term paper, I'll set deadlines for a working bibliography, first draft, second draft, etc. I also break up my reading goals this way. It helps a lot and makes assignments seem more bearable. This has been especially helpful in writing my MA thesis.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips! I was actually looking at that Moleskine planner yesterday, but I'm a little hesitant to use a system that has my information stuck in one place (ie the pages of a book). Maybe I'll have to try a hybrid approach.

Edited June 27, 2011 by newms

[newms]

It sounds like you could use some sort of project management software. I'm not terribly familiar with them, but for recent projects we had to use Liquid Planner, where you could rank tasks and outline the approximate time window in which you plan to accomplish them. One of the drawbacks of this particular scheduler was that is assumed you wouldn't work on more than one thing at a time. Which in theory sounds good, but in reality isn't so true.

I've tried a couple project management systems, but I haven't found any that I particularly like - the one's that I've tried seem a bit too complex for regular use (at east for me). I haven't seen Liquid Planner before so I'll look into it. Thanks.

[newms]

Does anybody use Remember the Milk?

[natsteel]

I tried multiple ways to do this and what I've settled on is:

BusyCal - I use this instead of iCal because it does an instant 2-way sync with all my calendars (Personal, School, Financial, etc...) to Google Calendars more easily. Like newms, I don't feel safe unless I have multiple copies of stuff like this but the extra copies are useless if they're not up-to-date. This way if my computer died, I have all my up-to-date calendars on Google.

Things - My favorite task manager. Besides the GUI, which is both nice and effective, it syncs my tasks with BusyCal and the iPhone app, which I also have. I create a project for each research paper or project I am working on and break them down into the smallest tasks possible. All of my tasks from Things show up in BusyCal as well.

So basically I use BusyCal and Things with Google Calendar as my cloud backup.

Edited June 28, 2011 by natsteel

[hejduk]

Does anybody use Remember the Milk?

Haven't used it, but know it's gonna rave reviews. Apple is including a To Do list in the iOS5 update this fall that is supposedly quite similar to Remember the Milk.

[blackshirt]

If you're a Mac person, I recommend the app "Things". Great to-do list application. I have a good memory, so I'm still just keeping things my head. I know that my doctoral program will overwhelm my yet-to-be-feeble mind, so I'm searching as well. Thanks for starting this thread!

Things - My favorite task manager. Besides the GUI, which is both nice and effective, it syncs my tasks with BusyCal and the iPhone app, which I also have. I create a project for each research paper or project I am working on and break them down into the smallest tasks possible.

Mac user here!

I just downloaded the 15-day trial of Things and it looks great. Did you guys shell out the $50 for the full version or is there an Education discount or something?

I used to use Stickies on my laptop, and then I upgraded to a (free) To-Do list app for my iphone but I wanted something that would sync between my laptop and my phone so I started using Evernote. But, I think I prefer using it for more general list & note purposes than for tasks. Haha, apparently I'm very picky about my to-do lists! All that said, I do agree with the previously mentioned value of good ol' pen & paper; soooo satisfying to whip out a sharpie and cross that business OUT.

I use iCal for general calendar stuff and I like how clean it is on both my laptop and my phone (though I DISlike how rough the syncing with Google Calendar is, so I don't do it); MyCal seems too busy to me but I'd definitely like a cloud backup of my calendar and my to-do...hmmmm.

Edited June 30, 2011 by blackshirt

[hejduk]

I just downloaded the 15-day trial of Things and it looks great. Did you guys shell out the $50 for the full version or is there an Education discount or something?

Never ponied up for the actual program, but I just know after toying around with it, I was sold. It's gotten rave reviews, and the people that I know that do use it absolutely love it. I'll get the full program in a few wks once $$ comes my way!

Ditto as well to Google Calendar. I usually stick with OEM software (Apple software) unless I can find awesome third party software, and haven't had luck just yet with calendar apps.

[nehs]

This is so relevant to what I was thinking a few weeks back!! I tried google calendar and outlook calendar too. Unforunately, I found it hard to keep up with such programs. Finally I got myself a nice small notebook that I purchased at my local walmart and I use it now . Works great for me:) . I note down my to-do list with the date , whenever I need to and then strike off a particular task as I complete it.

[LJK]

I just downloaded the 15-day trial of Things and it looks great. Did you guys shell out the $50 for the full version or is there an Education discount or something?

I'm on the last day of my trial so I haven't made the purchase yet but: http://sites.fastspring.com/culturedcodeedu/product/main

[natsteel]

Mac user here!

I just downloaded the 15-day trial of Things and it looks great. Did you guys shell out the $50 for the full version or is there an Education discount or something?

I used to use Stickies on my laptop, and then I upgraded to a (free) To-Do list app for my iphone but I wanted something that would sync between my laptop and my phone so I started using Evernote. But, I think I prefer using it for more general list & note purposes than for tasks. Haha, apparently I'm very picky about my to-do lists! All that said, I do agree with the previously mentioned value of good ol' pen & paper; soooo satisfying to whip out a sharpie and cross that business OUT.

I use iCal for general calendar stuff and I like how clean it is on both my laptop and my phone (though I DISlike how rough the syncing with Google Calendar is, so I don't do it); MyCal seems too busy to me but I'd definitely like a cloud backup of my calendar and my to-do...hmmmm.

You should try BusyCal. It syncs multiple calendars effortlessly with Google Calendar, thus giving you a cloud backup. Things syncs with your iPhone/iPod Touch on its own (i.e., you have to have both on the same wireless conncection), not in the cloud.

[juilletmercredi]

I use Remember the Milk! I was surprised it hadn't come up yet until you mentioned.

The things I love:

-It has tabs for different kinds of tasks - work, study, personal - so I can sort my tasks by what I want to do. I think you can add new types too.

-Seamless syncing across the website, an iPhone app, and my Gmail. So I can add tasks on the website and then look at them and check them off on my phone. They have an Android app too. If you don't have a phone that uses apps, you can send an email to your custom RTM email and the server automatically converts it into a task for you.

-Due dates. Instead of just "tomorrow" "next week" whatever (which you can also use) you can put it an actual date. I tend to make my to-do lists at the same time, one long list as opposed to adding compulsively when I think of something. So this helps because I can organize my thoughts and I don't have to put them in in any order, just add the date.

-They have 3 priority levels that you can set.

-Set reminders - this is important to be because I tend to write down tasks and forget them, which is why pen and pencil doesn't work for me. On the app, you get push notifications; you can also set it so that you get text message, email, and/or AIM reminders sent to you by the website. You can set when you want to be reminded (an hour, a day, whatever, before the task)

-You can search your tasks.

-You can tag your tasks.

-You can create "Smart Lists" that allow you to create custom lists based on certain attributes. So a list for everything that's due this week or this month, or everything tagged "dissertation."

-There's a way to sync your tasks with your Google Calendar. I don't use this because I hardly ever use Google Calendar, but I'm planning to get back into using GC this academic year and having that cross-platform usability will be nice.

-IT'S FREE! I don't think the iPhone app cost me anything, but if it did, it was worth the price (and wasn't more than $3). I NEVER remember to do things, but having Remember The Milk helps me...when I check it, lol.

I love this app/service, I think it's great.

[newms]

I use Remember the Milk! I was surprised it hadn't come up yet until you mentioned.

The things I love:

-It has tabs for different kinds of tasks - work, study, personal - so I can sort my tasks by what I want to do. I think you can add new types too.

-Seamless syncing across the website, an iPhone app, and my Gmail. So I can add tasks on the website and then look at them and check them off on my phone. They have an Android app too. If you don't have a phone that uses apps, you can send an email to your custom RTM email and the server automatically converts it into a task for you.

-Due dates. Instead of just "tomorrow" "next week" whatever (which you can also use) you can put it an actual date. I tend to make my to-do lists at the same time, one long list as opposed to adding compulsively when I think of something. So this helps because I can organize my thoughts and I don't have to put them in in any order, just add the date.

-They have 3 priority levels that you can set.

-Set reminders - this is important to be because I tend to write down tasks and forget them, which is why pen and pencil doesn't work for me. On the app, you get push notifications; you can also set it so that you get text message, email, and/or AIM reminders sent to you by the website. You can set when you want to be reminded (an hour, a day, whatever, before the task)

-You can search your tasks.

-You can tag your tasks.

-You can create "Smart Lists" that allow you to create custom lists based on certain attributes. So a list for everything that's due this week or this month, or everything tagged "dissertation."

-There's a way to sync your tasks with your Google Calendar. I don't use this because I hardly ever use Google Calendar, but I'm planning to get back into using GC this academic year and having that cross-platform usability will be nice.

-IT'S FREE! I don't think the iPhone app cost me anything, but if it did, it was worth the price (and wasn't more than $3). I NEVER remember to do things, but having Remember The Milk helps me...when I check it, lol.

I love this app/service, I think it's great.

Thanks for the review! The 'Smart list' feature sounds pretty helpful. I'm trying it out now (I actually signed up for an account about 3 years ago but never got around to using it) and I've been impressed with it so far. The gmail and Google Calendar integrations are definitely a plus.

Edited July 4, 2011 by newms

[PastHistory]

I have my regular pen and paper datebook that I use, but this past year, I also used Google Calendar synced with my phone for assignments and readings for classes. As I am never without my phone, it was helpful to have it all there. (I have an Android phone which syncs my emails through Google). I also use iStudiez Pro on the iPad to keep track of assignments for classes and set deadlines/reminders for myself.