Technologically Challenged
As most of you know, I am technologically challenged. Therefore I’m very pleased to have this guest blog from Jerry Bair. Please comment on your experience with using his tech recommendations or any others.
doug
One Super Easy Tech Trick To Make Your To-Do Lists More Doable
Have you ever stared at a to-do list not knowing how you or when you were going to fit everything into your already-chaotic schedule? Are you burned out by constantly switching between your calendars, tasks, and to-do lists?
I’ll admit… Over the last six months, I’ve taken off a bit more than I can chew. I was really ambitious and took on several new adventures in my life, like martial arts, finishing my degree, and a revamp of my blog.
I felt confident that I could do it all, but quickly ran into some technical challenges – to-do lists in too many places, multiple calendars, missed meetings, tasks that seemed to disappear into a black hole… As a result, I was frequently stressed, irritable, and felt like I was always playing “catch-up”…
It’s no surprise. Having ADHD, I sometimes tend to be “too” positive and underestimate the amount of involvement or work required for new initiatives. However, being a techy, challenges like these often inspire me with ideas for potential solutions. With this particular problem, I realized I was racking up my to-do list, but not scheduling a time to do many of the tasks, which created tons of schedule conflicts and many things not even getting done. My most productive days, like most people, are when I create a task, and slot it to get done. This was an essential insight to the solution below.
My top time & task managers:
• Wunderlist – to-do list manager supported on multiple platforms Wunderlist
• Google Calendar – my preferred calendar on-the-go Google Calendar
• MS Outlook – my desktop calendar at work and home (synchronized with GCal) GCal MS Outlook
Keeping up with these seems like it would be pretty simple, but like any technology, when you focus too much on one, you tend to neglect the other. My solution: Send my Wunderlist tasks to my Google Calendar. I already have my Google Calendar visible within Outlook, so this step would essentially unify them. In short, it would let me see all to-do’s, tasks, and meetings in one single calendar view.
The benefits of this:
• instant visibility to important tasks
• easier planning at the start of your day
• a consistent view across all your personal and mobile devices
• faster prioritization of upcoming tasks and meetings
I do realize that there are some people who have twice the number of calendar feeds as I do, and therefore, may use a different approach to their workflow. However, if you’re looking for a way to bridge the gap, look no further!
Here is the specific link to synchronizing Wunderlist with Google Calendar, Outlook and/or iCal: link[Estimated time to complete: <5 minutes]
Important Note: As of June 2nd, 2015, Wunderlist has joined the Microsoft family, so expect to see a lot more functionality and feature integration in the near future!
What type of time and task management tools do you use? How do you bridge the gap and stay on top of both your meetings and to-do’s?
If you have trouble with procrastination, follow-through, or even basic time management, download the free Breaking Through Procrastination Workbook at jj-bair.com.
Comment;
I hope you liked this and will comment. @addstrategies @dougmkpdp #add #adhd
doug
Pingback: Back Again and Still Tech Challenged — ADHD Tip O the Day 748 | ADDadultstrategies
I only recently discovered Wunderlist, and am thrilled to see I can link to Google Calendar. JJ, can you recommend any tutorials on effective use of Wunderlist?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Jackie,
For the Wunderlist basics, check out http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/make-wunderlist-into-the-ultimate-to-do-list–cms-20035
For some really good use cases, you can also check out this article from the Time Management Ninja: http://timemanagementninja.com/2011/08/how-i-use-wunderlist-to-be-productive/
Soon enough, you’ll be a Wundermaster!
LikeLike
I’ve played around with Wunderlist and Google Calendar a bit. I really like Wunderlist but I’m not a fan of Google calendar. However, being able to combine the two . . . I had no idea you could do that. Thanks for sharing. I’m going to see how it works.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hey Patty,
I’m a bit of a techy, so I love it when two cool pieces of technology come together and make life simpler. I don’t know if you use Outlook, but another cool integration is the ability to save emails in Outlook 2013 to Evernote. Pretty cool if you’re an avid Evernote user as well…
LikeLiked by 1 person
homey – sounds over my head, right now struggling to understand twitter. looking forward to your guest post.
thanks
doug
#ADD #ADHD @dougmkpdp @addstrategies so there!
LikeLike
I allways feel like a child reading articles like this! My work stays at work (pastry chef) and living a single, childless life with hardly any obligations makes heavy digital planning unnecessary. I do keep track with an app for the shopping (it also has a to-do list) and for my finances (aka my only Bank account) I have an Excel spreadsheet. Bills are automatically charged from my account, but not all at once. So my spreadsheet helps me keep track of how much of my sallary is really still available at any given time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ram – doesn’t sound like a child to me. sounds like you have designed an excellent system to fit the needs of your specific situation. that’s what we all need to do. and you get credit for being able to fit in the technology! I’m impressed.
thank you
LikeLike
shannon – i think it’s fixed now. thanks for telling me and for commenting
doug
LikeLike
I use Wunderlist, GCal and iCal in a similar system, and am thrilled to find out I can link Wunderlist now! Thanks, JJ! The link you provided seems to be broken, though. Clicking on it takes me to your web page, but to an advertisement for a workbook, not instructions on linking Wunderlist to GCal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Shannon,
I’m glad you liked! If you’re a digital planner like I am, an integration like this makes a huge difference when you’re planning day-to-day stuff or even project-related work.
Per Doug’s comment, the link should be fixed now, but if not, you can check it out directly here: https://www.wunderlist.com/blog/sync-your-calendar-with-wunderlist/
LikeLike