To be honest, I don’t really like to rest in my free time, so I always try to look after some things to do: personal goals at work, home projects, contributions to open source libraries or voluntary organizations.

After I realized this, I was able also to develop my custom-tailored workflows to keep these todos on track in a way that I never have to be bored because of the lack of projects or goals, or stressed about things I could forgot.

This post is about this workflow of mine. Probably there is nothing new in it, but I strongly believe that for each someone a slightly different approach works the best, and I think it may be useful to share mine.

Different todo lists for different purposes

Each project has some kind of shared issue-board I can pick new tasks from. I open these boards only when I really have time to focus on one single project. (In work-related stuff this is easy, because I use these boards during working hours, but this is also true for my personal projects, more on that later.)

For the most important tasks I really don’t want to forget I also create a reminder in my google calendar. My other not-so-urgent personal goals (which I don’t really want to share with others yet) are tracked in a dedicated Google Keep note. I check these during idle times, for example on the bus. This routine helps me to keep my most important tasks in mind.

The todo heartbeat

Well, actually this is just a fancy word for a very trivial stuff.

Probably you all experienced that some discussions are much more fluid if we dedicate some time for it (eg. we organize a meeting). I think this is also true for the personal tasks. Instead of constantly freaking out of forgetting tasks I regularly dedicate an hour for having a peaceful overview on all my tasks.

I’m really serious about these dedicated hours. I decline all other event offers and make sure that I can spend this time focused without any interruption.

Summary

Well, this is how it is right now. Off course nothing is perfect, but still, these routines help me to do more in less time, among a decreased stress level.