How to Plan Your Day (with Things 3)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ส.ค. 2024
- To get the most out of your day, you need a plan. Here’s how I plan my day and how I recommend you plan yours. I demonstrate with my favorite to-do app, Things 3.
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hello, can we sponsor your videos?
Something that really helps me is to plan my day in the evening. Then the next morning I review that plan and make changes if I feel like it. But on days when I don't feel like making changes, which is plenty of days, it's nice to be able to get going with my day more quickly. And more importantly, on days when I don't wake up energetic or productive, it's *easier* to get going with a task list ready-made.
I also do it this way, plus preparing some note templates/layout (in Bear) with sometimes a few thoughts in bulletpoints for the meetings of the next day. That helpt me a lot.
Great video! Something I find helpful is to find my "Top 2" tasks or projects for each day and tag them. These "Top 2" are not necessarily the most time consuming ones, but the ones that if I get done today, I would consider this day to be a win. It can be making a TH-cam video or doing an errand or making a phone call I've been putting off for a while, anything goes. It's a way to help me filter the list and give myself permission to ignore everything else until I get those 2 done.
Honestly switch back to apple reminders. The today view is so much better with it splitting it into morning afternoon and evening.
I noticed that; was pleasantly surprised. Except it doesn’t have the concept of scheduled dates.
@@rb.x It does in the scheduled button (main page). Or do you me something more specific?
Although I’ve been using task managers (and Things 3) for a few years now AND did your excellent course, I still fall into the trap of letting things roll over to the next day … and the day after …and the day after that. This video has been a great reminder I need to smarten up my approach.
Another great video Peter. I love the steady pace. The single frame advance trick in YT (arrow keys) is nice for seeing things that I missed. One request: When you use a hot-key, please call it out as you do it. eg. When you switch to the Deadlines view, call out "using Apple-F to bring up Quick Find and select Deadlines" Otherwise, as a new Things3 user, I am left behind trying to figure out how you got to Quick Find.
Thanks Tim. I’d love to show keyboard shortcuts on screen visually, so that I don’t have to remember to spell them out. I’m looking for a video editor who can add those little touches.
My gosh - I feel so silly; this is exactly what I needed. Empty my today list! It’s become overwhelming with recurring habits and old important things. This is why I’m attracted to a blank sheet of paper; I can start clean. Thanks for this!
Also Peter, I’m interested in the spiritual/mental aspects of productivity and it seems from your language that you are focussed towards this somewhat - I’d love to see a video about creating a mindset that fosters productivity and ease.
I don't think it's a bad thing to let tasks roll over to the next day as long as you're making it a point to review those tasks when planning your new day to determine if they actually do need to get done on the new day or if they can be rescheduled for later, in which case then you would remove them. Blank slates can be intimidating, but having a reminder of what your plan was yesterday and seeing if any of it might still fit into today can give you a head start.
I agree, Tricky Vixen. It comes down to the same thing, really. My point is that you don’t want to put things on today’s list without thought.
Great video! I’ve been using Things for 4+ years and I’d love input on two challenges 1) my days are wildly variable and I am really bad at predicting what I’ll get done today 2) my anytime list is extremely long and it’s hard to use without some organization
Add simple bigger tags to areas', Like Personal or Work. And then filter your anytime view. based on those tags.
Happy Easter, Peter!
Wow, that makes sense! The "Anytime" list is the key for planning with Things 3!
Peter, do you use Things 3 in combination with Timeblocking in Calendar or maybe even in combination with a Daily Journal like "Day One" or the Daily Notes in Craft?
This was very helpful, thanks!
I wish we could pin “deadlines” to the side menu
Yeah that would be cool
Hello
Please help me I started with things 3 like million times and i always add everything on it and plan everything and than i end up not going through it and i see myself alot of time I don’t even open things 3 on daily basis and i end up not doing anything or sometimes not even add stuff on it and am just always behind because life happens and i don’t do the stuff i planned to do, even though sometimes i took ur advice and started small and yet i see myself that i huge gap and see myself that i just keep on starting over and over again every once and a while, so any advice? 😔
You need a system! Did you take my Things 3 course? And after you have the system, you need to build the habit of using Things every day. For example, make your to-do list for the day right after breakfast every morning. You can do it.
Excellent.
Hello. If I import my data from Apple reminders to Things 3, will those reminders disappear from Apple reminders or will they remain there? Additionally, what happens with those reminders that have attachments and images when they are imported to Things 3?
Greetings. Considering that your to do list is quite thorough, I am wondering whether you also use a Calendar app to plot out your life, or whether the To Do list is enough by itself. Thanks for the video.
Excellent question and I just recorded a video on this the other day. Should come out next week.
@@PeterAkkies Great. Look forward.
Cool , thanks!
Great Video Peter! Thanks! I wonder if there is a way to set due day on different subtasks? or different way to do it
No, subtasks (checklist items) don’t have their own due dates or “when“ dates
Thanks!!
can you please do a comparison video between Things 3 and Dynalist ???
I never knew there was a Deadline view! 🤯
I usually assign dates for my task and projects during the weekly review, but that doesn't go well. I constantly run into not getting to some task because life with 3 kids can get in the way. Would you say that a weekly review makes planning your days easier?
The weekly review is key maintenance for your system, but I recommend not scheduling too many tasks ahead of time for exactly the reason you describe! It’s fine to schedule some tasks ahead of time (eg pick up package on Tuesday), but if you go overboard, you’re just setting unrealistic expectations and you will “fail” to follow your plan.
You the man brother! Thank you!
Nice one !
Is it possible to organize today view by categories like you have in the video but on the iOS app? Great video btw!!
Yep, in the settings. And thank you!
Hola
Felicitaciones y gracias por el video. Muy bueno
¿Los cursos contienen videos pero no me queda claro si tienen la opción de traducir con subtítulos o traducción al español
Desde ya gracias y buen fin de semana
Sorry Carlos, unfortunately my courses are only available in English for now.
Great video Peter. Question: I often leave my to do's grouped by project or area. I feel it decreases the amount of context switching. What are your thoughts on this?
Ps. Thanks for emphasizing not to plan too many to do's on a day. Definitely guilty of letting tasks rollover to the next day
Thanks Gilbert! I see what you mean and I often use that view too. But for planning my day, I find it helpful to list to-dos in the order I’ll work through them, so I don’t have to decide again and again what I’ll work on next. Of course, with the sortable list, I still try to keep related tasks together to minimize context-switching.
Peter: I've seen your great videos on Apple Reminders. Do you use that AND Things 3?
Hey Guy. I use Things 3 for almost all of my task management. And I use Reminders as an addition for lists (e.g. shopping lists) and location-based reminders. But you certainly could use Reminders for all of your to-do needs-it’s really quite good.
When getting rid of undone tasks where do they go? “Anytime”?
Yep!
Hi Peter, I wonder how you get to have the gray tabs that say: ALL, Podcast, TH-cam, ... above your todo's (under the calendar events)?
Hey Nahdin. Those are tags.
@@PeterAkkies Do you have a video on how to use them? I'm looking but no luck so far on what is the thinking process behind assigning tags and how they are different from areas and projects and how they can improve my workflow.
@@nahdinsabla Not on TH-cam but I do cover that in my course
Is there no possibility to prioritise tasks in Things?
There is. There is a setting that lets you manually sort tasks in the Today view.
Pro tip: never do today what you can get other people to do for you tomorrow 😊
😂