Gettin' it Done

With two kids, a business to run, and a second book on the way, I'm juggling a lot of stuff these days. Maybe you are too (anybody, I don't know, planning a wedding perhaps? Prepping your house for a newborn?) So here are some apps that I'm using to keep on top of things.

1. Any.do

I'm basically the worst at sticking to any kind of reminder app. I've tried pretty much all of them, including old school paper and pen methods, and none of them do it for me. This one, though, I like. It's a phone app that also syncs to a web app, so I can add to or check things off from either. I can organize tasks into different categories, set up recurring tasks, and schedule things as far off into the future as I need to. Plus any tasks I don't tick off for the day just get automatically moved to the next day for me. There's also a "someday" setting for all your big ideas that you totally plan to implement, but you're not sure when you can get started on. I set this thing as my homepage, so when I boot up my computer in the morning, I can see everything that needs to be done.

2. Tomighty

This little guy is used for something called the Pomodoro technique. It's basically splitting your time to avoid getting burned out on working. I used to have to set alarms to remember to eat lunch, because I'd get so immersed in whatever I was doing, so this has been a huge help. (Actually, getting a record player has also helped, since I have to physically get up and move to flip or change an album.) You can set the preferences to whatever time frame works for you, but it defaults to 25 minutes of working followed by a 5 minute break. After four of those, you've completed a pomodoro and get a 15 minute break. It also works wonders for people that are easily distracted and are just gonna check twitter "real quick" - usually my 5 minute breaks go toward getting water and putzing around on social media. You can totally do this with a kitchen timer, or the timer on your phone, but it's harder for me to lose a digital timer that's right in my taskbar.

3. Evernote

This is where things live that aren't on the to do list. I have a notebook to keep track of photo reference things, another for books I want to buy, one for my reading list, even one to keep ideas for blog posts. I have a few newsletters that I subscribe to that are full of things I want to read, but probably don't have time to right this second. And I don't want them to sit in my inbox. So I add them to Evernote, and when I'm stuck at the mechanic's later on, bam. I have stuff to read. You can upload text, photos, or audio, so it's a handy place to keep track of ongoing projects.

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