AAAAHH!! 🤯😩 How do you keep track of / organize your thoughts, projects, things, etc, when you feel you have a ton of stuff / things going on? 😱

[PianoPlayer88Key]

Basically, the main question is in the title.

 

I won't even begin to try to describe even the TL;DR's of the things on my mind (including IRL / physical things), whether directly or indirectly.

 

I feel if I were to try to do so, just the plain unformatted raw text (no pictures, videos, formatting, anything else) to TL;DR them would take up every single bit on every single one of these

Spoiler

 

 

 

Yes, I realize that's not remotely close to every single unit of every hard drive, SSD, flash drive, USB stick, floppy, optical disk, etc. ever produced, or the amount of storage you could hypothetically get if you crammed the entire universe full of DNA storage the density of a supermassive black hole, but still...

Okay there probably isn't LITERALLY that much, but it seems like it in my mind!

 

Sure, not everything I think of is all that "important" / critical in the grand scheme of things, but the vast majority of it has some significant interest to me personally.

 

 

Anyone have some general recommendations as for how to try to organize / keep track, or resources or whatever?

 

I feel like I can identify with the saying on a magnet attached to the side of my mom's microwave....

Spoiler

 

 

And I've thought of another thing related to that - when I pass away, anything left undone, if people still want it, they're on their own / free for all or whatever (or something like that, idk, cause even if I live to 100 which is not very likely, due to family history, 90+ seems optimistic enough - I'm 40 now, I feel I wouldn't get everything all set up in preparation for my eventual departure.)

 

 

Maybe I need to cut some things out, but how would you decide what to cut, or at least put on the back shelf?  (I could keep going but I think I'll end the post here.)

 

[Rauten]

Keep track of things?

Organization?!

 

What do you think I am, a functioning adult?! The nerve of some people!

 

I've learned to embrace the chaos.

[Anghammarad]

Usually I'm able to do my task schedule in my head... 

 

Then there are a few times a year when everythign goes nuts with additional tasks, those I just put down as TODOs with a call date. 

 

This is usually enough for me...

 

What I found out about people trying to reorganize themselfs to become more efficient, only get more efficient in finding new ways to reorganize themselfs... 

[LAwLz]

6 hours ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

Anyone have some general recommendations as for how to try to organize / keep track, or resources or whatever?

I think everyone is different and you need to find a system that works for you.

 

Here are the tools I use. Maybe it might give you some ideas on how to organize.

 

Email

Mostly use it for work, but whenever I have something I need to answer I always leave it as "unread", even if I have read it. I know that all emails I need to answer are "unread". If I don't have any unread emails, then I don't have anything to worry about.

 

Google Keep

This is a great post-it -like app. I like that I can take a note on my phone and it will show up on my personal desktop, and work laptop.
At work I use it for short-term memory things. For example I need to write down a phone number someone is telling me, or I need to remember which port on a switch I should connect to in like 5 minutes.
For personal stuff I use it as a place to dumb things I should do today or tomorrow but that aren't very important. For example "look up this article that seemed interesting". 
I never save thing that will persist for more than a week on Keep. I rarely if ever have more than 3 notes on it. It's like a scratch pad.

 

Calendar

I got two calendars. My work calendar (my company email) and my gmail calendar. Work stuff goes into the work calendar. Personal stuff goes into the personal calendar.

Whenever something important comes up I always put it in my calendar. Something I need to do at work like a meeting or assignment, something that will expire (like my month-long parking ticket) and so on. If it doesn't have a set time and date yet I try and set it as soon as possible, and once it does it goes into my calendar.

 

OneNote

This is where I document my work stuff, and I strictly use it for work-related things. Notes that requires "long term storage" but aren't time sensitive. For example I got a to-do list containing things like "Look into Oxidized for config-backups". We have a tool that takes backups right now, but we aren't that pleased with it and want a replacement. It's not time sensitive since our current solution works, but it is an area where we could improve.

So whenever I get some time over I go into my OneNote and look for things. I also write down stuff like what gets decided on meetings, and I got one page called "Good Fortigate commands" and one called "Good Windows commands", where I write down commands that might someday be useful.

 

[Stahlmann]

Using my phone's calendar and alarm clock is basically all i need for important stuff. Everything else just comes from my head. If something is really important i mostly remember. But i don't have a very busy life and it's perfectly fine by me. If i can help it at all i don't have a ton of things going on. If i need to make an appointment and it's not something important i usually space it out and not put it in the next empty spot, but rather a week later etc.

 

When i have a thought i want to keep for later i often create a text document on my desktop that is otherwise completely empty. That's a good way to remember stuff. The OCD just kicks in when some text document is right in the middle of a perfectly organized desktop.

 

I somehow hate the thought of appointments. I just cannot relax if i know i have to go somewhere later - even if it's still hours until then, so i try to avoid making them as much as possible. Of course this doesn't always work.

 

I know a few people that have the need to plan everything out by the minute. Their whole day. In the end all it does is strees them out.

 

Many people think you have to have a perfectly planned out life by the time you're an adult. I strongly disagree. I currently live from one week into the next and i get by just fine. When i was looking out for a new job 2 years ago the scariest question potential employers could ask was "where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?". How the fuck should i know? I don't even know what i'll do next weekend lol.

[Gegger]

I use my Google Calendar and Habitica (gamify-your-life site/app) to keep track of due dates (A LOT right now since it's finals month). In addition for school and school related extracurriculars specifically I use a physical planner with checklists, no idea what one it is because my school provided them, but there's the month long spread where I put huge assignments/tests and for the weekly spreads I put in the minor things.

 

It's not perfect since I do forget to write stuff down periodically but it is extremely useful.

[airborne spoon]

i only use one calendar and that's the one on my work outlook, if its important it goes on there if its not i try to remember and if i forget IDGAF because it wasn't important enough for me to remember.

I generally don't stress over things and kinda just roll with things i don't like to plan things and my job doesn't require too many meetings and shit. Most of my time is spent driving around and talking to people in person to discuss issues or teach and train them on things.

 

It sounds like you're a real type A person and you need to buy one of those notepad/calendar things you can carry around with you to write shit down and help calm your ass down

[Yoinkerman]

I don't, my brain is just chaos

[WhitetailAni]

Imagine organizing.

I live with the chaos, organize a bit. Works well for me.

[suedseefrucht]

On 1/17/2022 at 8:36 AM, PianoPlayer88Key said:

Anyone have some general recommendations as for how to try to organize / keep track, or resources or whatever?

Organization:

 

I take notes in my mobile phone.

 

There is a TODO list for the day, so I can't forget anything.

 

If there is a project running, I think about what I want to achieve exactly.

Then I plan the steps I need to get there and put them in a good order.

If needed, I split these steps into smaller tasks.

Then I do the tasks in the given order until it's all done.

 

Keeping track of resources:

 

If something is empty or there is only 1 left, I put in on my TODO list.

[Arika]

I jot it down in my Boox note air.

 

I used to use journals and small note books, but i'd have so many of them laying around i'd forget what i wrote what in.

[Imbadatnames]

Wing it. Why not  

[Zodiark1593]

If I need to remember something relatively soon, but am busy, I'll send a text to myself. Faster than setting a proper reminder.

[rrats]

If you really have a hard time organising, then don't organise

[BetteBalterZen]

I use my Outlook calendar for important things with a deadline. And then I have a whiteboard in my kitchen, that I use for general notes - lets say I suddenly see "ey I need some bread for tomorrow" or whatever, then I write it on the whiteboard and then I take a picture of it on my phone. 

[maxithefox]

i just chuck all the thing i need to remember into a note on my phone not the best method but it works lol