My ADHD Brain: Task Management with Toodledo and Notability

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'll tell you about the system I use for task management.  This is part of a series on my ADHD brain and all of the systems I use to compensate for a lack of internal structure and organization.

Okay -- so, I have a video that gives an overview of my organizational processes and apps. Then I have a video that describes how I use Gmail to funnel all of the digital information coming into my life into a single stream. 

This video discusses one of the core elements of my organization system -- task management. I am a list keeper -- always have been.  One of my weaknesses is in working memory, which is the ability to keep more than 2 things in your head actively.  I was a waitress for a couple of summers and I was a perfectly good waitress if I had a pad of paper to write everything down.  But things really fell about when customers asked for things as I was rushing though the dining room with plates of food in my hands.  I just did not have the ability to remember anything that I didn't write down. So, I have always written things down to free up working memory. 

Paper lists are great, but they have drawbacks. I won't bore you with all of the electronic solutions I've tried over the years, but I've settled on Toodledo's website and app. It's not pretty, it definitely not super simple, but it addresses my requirements and gives me a couple of nice to haves as well. 

So, here are some of my requirements that are fulfilled by Toodledo:

• Cross platform - this is one of my main requirements. I want a system that works on my computer, my phone, and my iPad. Again, not pretty, but it works!
• Schedule tasks in advance - this is crucial for me. I need the ability to schedule a task in the future -- like reminding myself to call for a grooming appointment for my dog (I can only schedule 2 months in advance but they fill up quickly).   I also like the ability to push things off to a different day if they aren't pressing. For example, I know I need to take my son's bike in to get tuned up. I don't have time to do this today, so I look at my schedule for next week and schedule it for Wednesday, which is the day that I will be running errands.
• Recurring tasks - my use of recurring tasks borders on the bizarre. You are really getting to see how the sausage is made here.  Embarrassing, but here goes.  I'll give you some personal (non-work) examples of how I use this: 
  • Annual - reminders to schedule well appointments for my kids, schedule flu shots, change the batteries on the smoke detectors, cars safety inspected, buy cards for certain birthdays, schedule spring and summer gardening
  • Every several months - reminders to reach out to specific friends for dinner dates, go through photos quarterly, do quarterly financial chores, file receipts
  • Monthly - reminders to change heating filter, give my dog flea and tick medicine, wax my eyebrows (yes, I need to be reminded), family budget report, send photos to family
  • Weekly - reminders to pay bills, do laundry, call my grandma, renew library books, plan meals for the coming week, respond to emails in outstanding items folder
  • Daily - Meditate, check my son's sticker chart, homework planning with my son, daily log, practice guitar
  • I told you it was bizarre and embarrassing to share. But I forget to do things!  And I hate that feeling that I'm forgetting something. I don't like getting tickets for forgeting to have my car safety inspected. I don't like having to pay library overdue fees.  This is the best way to make sure all of this stuff gets done and gets done in time. 
  • Hotlist - the last of my requirements. This Hotlist view allows me to only see the tasks that are overdue or due today.  Meaning that I can hide tasks that have been completed or are in the future. 

Here are the "nice to haves":

• Tags - I like to have the ability to tag tasks based on project. Some projects are big and need to be broken down into smaller tasks. I list each individual task and tag them each with the project name. For example, I have a bunch of tasks throughout the year that I used to do for my job as Membership Coordinator for the PTA. The tasks included marketing membership in meetings and on the website, doing reports, and paying dues 3 times a year to state and local PTA organizations. I do the same tasks each year, so I have them set to recur annually. If I need to see all of the Membership Coordinator tasks, I can filter by this tag. 
• Goals - if I look at my hotlist for the today, Toodledo lets me sort my list using a bunch of criteria: due date, alphabetically, by tag, etc. Unfortunately, none of those correspond to the way that I actually work through the tasks. Basically, what I really want is the ability to sort manually in order of when I'm going to accomplish them. Toodledo doesn't offer this. Instead, I use the "Goal" field for this. I assign Goal 1 for things that are 5 minutes or less and I can do right away, 3 for things that require more time, 5 for things that require me to get up or can't be accomplished on a computer, 8 for things that I need to do outside the house and 10 for things that need to happen once the kids get home. I know this sounds a little nuts and I don't always assign goals, but it does help to group things if I have 25 things on my list for the day. 
• Email - this is not necessary, but it is cool. I can email a task into Toodledo by using my personalized Toodledo email address. I have Toodledo set up as a contact in my phone and this allows me to use Siri to add a task to my task list. Like this: "Hey, Siri -- Email Toodledo about Take my car to get the oil changed".  The next time I go into the app, I wait for it to sync and Voila -- there is the task.  

Notability

Okay, so even with my elaborate goal setting system, when I'm looking at a 25 task day, I have a hard time working off of this list without getting overwhelmed. Also, I love the tactile feel of marking off tasks by scribbling on a list. So, I use the Notability app on my iPad to bridge that gap.

Notability is a fantastic app for handwriting and drawing (and believe me -- I have tried many).  Maybe I'll do an entire video on all my uses for Notability, but for the purposes of task management, it's great because it allows me to write directly on an imported photo. Here's why that is important. 

I take a screenshot of my task list from Toodledo on my iPad. Sometimes 2 if the list is particularly long. Then I open Notability, create a new note. Name it -- let's call it Monday Tasks. Then hit the plus sign to add media. Choose photo, find my photo and bring it into Notability. Then I edit and crop the list to just the part I want to see and place it on the page. Now what I usually do is estimate for each task how long I think it will take. Then I number them in the order I want to do them. Or, on more elaborate days, I pull in a hourly schedule and write the tasks by number on the schedule. Then I race against the clock to get stuff done. For my ADHD brain, this is the best way to be super productive. Can't stop or procrastinate or it will throw the whole schedule off. 

It's a little amazing to me that some people don't need all of these systems to remember things and get things done, but I've got the brain I've got and this is the best way I've come up with to stay organized. 

I'd love to hear your thought and experiences in the comments section.  And thanks for watching!