My Productivity Machine

Efficiency is an important thing for me, so how exactly am I as a productive person? 

My To-Do

I use the to-do list app "Wunderlist". The app is free, has features like sharing, adding notes, multiple lists, a prioritization feature, due dates, and reminders, as well as links and has nice simple backgrounds. Although all of these are important to me, the most important factor is that it would be at the very least viewable on my iPhone, my MacBook, and my Apple Watch. 

I use my to-do list often, it's the only app I always have open on both my Mac & iPhone. Wunderlist is where I put stuff I need to do, but as tasks; If I have an event, that goes into my calendar, as well as when I plan my day, but I will get into that a little later in this post. 

I have tried many many different to-do apps and more of them either start you off with a bare-bones app and make you pay for anything other than adding to-dos and checking them off, or they were perfectly good apps that didn't have a functional app on all the platforms I need it on, and Wunderlist actually goes one farther by having a web client. 

I have a different to do list for each major facet of my life where I need to optimize, my lists being each class at school, a general school list, a list for personal things, and a work list. 

My Task Manager

For a task manager I actually shift away from a to-do app because even though it is a very effective way to deal with projects, I learned of the app/web client "Trello" which has more functionality in terms of team sharing, and using what they call boards and cards.

I find Trello to be most effective when I have three boards; one to do, one doing, and one done board. This way I can put each card as a major individual step on the project such as create a website, and then on each card, you can add notes, a description, or a checklist, as well as attach items, put due dates, labels, and so much more.

It is a very extensive free project management tool that goes across computer and phone so all the major bases are covered. There is a small learning curve but it is definitely beneficial to all the projects I have taken a part of from personal projects to school projects to work. 

My Calendar

I know I will get some slack for this, but my calendar is actually the default apple calendar app. I use it every night to plan my next day, checking it against my to-do app so that I can plan times to do each thing I need to do.

I find that with the tools it provides such as travel time, easy event input, if the time is busy or free, adding notes, and my different calendars, plus how it is available on both my Mac and iPhone. 

I have given a try to a couple other calendar apps and all in all they work fine, but the ease of use in apple calendars just seems to sell it for me because its almost a no effort spent to use it. 

My Note Taking App

Each week at the start of the week I will lay out a new document with three sections, events, tasks, and maybe. I then will go through my calendar and input any events into the events area, I will put my tasks I have to complete into my tasks area, and my maybe gets filled with things I would like to go to or like to do but don't necessarily need to. 

My reason for doing this is because it is very good to make sure I have everything together at the beginning of the week, and am aware of what my week will approximately look like. 

My Time Tracker

So when I start a new habit like reading 25 pages of a book every day, or go to the gym, and I want to make sure I have time to do it every day, it helps to know how long it will take me for when I am building my day. I use the app because studies have shown that humans tend to think on the optimistic side when they are estimating time, so getting an average is really useful. 

I use to app Toggl because it has a web client, and an app which is really what I want out of a time tracker. I know some people will go overboard such as CGP Grey and time track every minute of every day, however I find it more useful for the things when I need to figure out how long something takes me, not to figure out how much my time is worth like him. 

Music

A lot of people talk about listening to music when they work to be productive. Personally I also find it useful, but in certain circumstances. When I am trying to write or read something, I typically listen to some kind of piano or guitar instrumental because I find that lyrical things will tend to distract my attention. I will also often use the sound generator "Noisli" to generate nature sounds because they also are a nice backdrop in my mind. 

All in All

I find that paired together my to-do app takes a big part of my day to day with what small or large things I need to do, and serves as a way to remember and remind myself of tasks. My task manager is used for when I have a project I need to get working on and want to know what to do and have it very clearly outlined. And the calendar is used to keep myself finding time for my habits, and streamlining my day planning as I have it all set and ready to do at latest the night before.

So what do you use? do you even have seperate apps for these or care about keeping yourself so in line? Let me know in the comments!