TASK MANAGERS, ANXIETY AND ME

Task managers give me anxiety! There, I’ve said it.

I know we all struggle with finding the best way to manage our lives. Always searching for that tool that’s going to be our second brain and remind us of all the things.

I have struggled a lot with task managers, I have bought them all, tried them all, and loved and hated them all. Always going back and forth between them and failing to stick to them too.

Now, in the job I have now, for the past year or so, I’ve got many plates to juggle with. Too many things to track, many projects if you will. I know I can be very forgetful and easily distracted, so it was obvious I needed a system. Without a system, things fall through the cracks and if things fall through the cracks, I get in trouble. I love my job, I don’t want to get in trouble. I have a Windows computer and both a personal and work iPhone. Obviously, I need something that can work and sync between both platforms.

For the past few months, I have been playing around with both Todoist and TickTick, both having a Windows app and an iOS/macOS app — duh 🙄 I have two main areas, Work and Personal with different areas or categories within. All good and dandy! I am using a big widget on my home screen that shows me all my tasks and to-dos for the day. Well, this started to give me some anxiety, I was seeing all my personal things along with all my work things. My “Personal” area only had a few simple tasks, whereas Work, are the bulk of them. It was mostly my work things that caused me anxiety, though.

Having realized that, I think what I am going to do is, not use any particular task manager for personal things, just Reminders. I have already been using Reminders for reoccurring things, like meds or taking the trash out every Monday night, etc. Just leave my task manager and anxiety at work. Use TickTick for all my work-related things, still have it installed on my phone in case I need to reference something but not front and center.

We shall see how this goes.