Why capturing everything changed my life

For years I carried far too much in my head – ideas, worries, tasks, conversations, reminders, emotions. It was exhausting. I felt like I was always running behind, even when I worked hard.

When I discovered the system I use now, one of the first exercises was to ‘download’ my head into my tasks app. To my astonishment, I had 97 things that I was trying to remember. When I got them into my tasks list, I felt lighter, I felt relieved.

Capturing everything in one trusted place gave me space to breathe again. It turned noise into clarity. It helped me see what mattered, let go of what did not, and take one small step at a time.

Capturing is not about being more productive. It is about creating enough mental space to live with intention.

It is a simple habit, but it changed my life. I still do it every day.

If this resonates with you, you are not alone.

I will share more reflections over the next few days.

An overview of my planning and productivity system in 2021

Google Calendar, Microsoft OneNote, Trello and Todoist

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post called An overview of my planning and productivity system in 2019. I was discussing it with a couple of people last week and thought it was probably about time that I updated it to reflect how things have evolved during that time.

During the last few years, my basic tools have not changed. As I said in my last post, for a long time I tried to limit myself to using only one task management application. I would periodically switch between Trello and something else (Outlook tasks, Wunderlist, Todoist). Eventually, I realised that I could use different tools for different jobs. For me, a good organisation system should enable you to do the following, and this is what I use:

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Microsoft To Do review

Screenshot of Microsoft To Do

As many may know, I am a big fan of Todoist and have written a few blog posts about Todoist. But a few weeks ago I installed Microsoft To Do and used it exclusively for a few days to see how it compared.

Within two days I returned to Todoist. I wanted to capture a few thoughts about why.

(Note: it would appear that either there was a significant update to Microsoft To Do in the last two weeks or my laptop was only able to install an older version because a few of the niggles I had with it appear to have been resolved in the latest version, which I installed on my desktop PC.)

Continue reading Microsoft To Do review