What are you using as a task manager and as a people manager?

Same, I use it as personal task manager, issue and project management in various repos. Some elisp on top to create agenda like buffers

I do the same. I wish Apple Contacts was better at resolving duplicate contacts across accounts.

For task I have a text file that I edit manually (in vim) that is used both as a task manager and as a journal.

Taskwarrior (CLI task manager) helps with most of that.

I've never really felt the need for a people manager (apart from the Contacts app on my phone), but for tasks I've been on a long journey of trying to find a desktop program that fits all my requirements:

• A FOSS GUI application supporting Windows and Linux (because it'd be nice to be able to use the same app both at home and at work).
• A list-based interface (as opposed to a calendar-based one).
• Support for synchronization via CalDAV (since I've already been using Tasks and Baïkal on my phone).
• Support for priorities, descriptions and due dates.
• Support for arbitrarily deeply nested tasks.
• Support for marking tasks as done (which sounds weird, but some simpler or more exotic managers don't support this).

After not being able to find one I eventually wrote my own in Python - I wrote a post about it, as well as the journey as a whole for the Lobsters Blog Carnival - but as the updates at the bottom note, some time after, Cfait started development, which I've been a satisfied user of ever since.

I'm using Obisidan for anything atm.

I plan my day in the morning with pen and paper because for me that’s the granularity where I seem to get the most benefit from the physical act.

Family coordination and recurring contact in a computer calendar Work stuff obviously too. Increasingly using agents to use this software directly for me.

Text files in vim for intra-task tracking.

I also forget pretty quickly where I was on spikes, investigations and play that aren’t formally tracked so I no joke have an agent summarize all recent substantial trajectories.

OP mentioned forgetting to write things down when out and about. I’m no joke the weirdo having Siri add an iOS Reminder so I don’t lose those.

Not unique: lifelong ADHDer who gave up on being organized thinking it was basically impossible for me. A life threatening accident that left me post concussive for 6mos with a shattered writing hand forced me to revisit that assumption. That’s where the “weirdo talking to Siri” came from especially but also most of this multimodal approach.

The most important thing is to periodically look at what’s working and not, and jettisoning whatever is not.

I made an effort recently to switch to using org mode and I at least consider myself more organized than I was before. Org was super daunting, so I'm including my notes below as a newbie still learning org.

I owe a lot of thanks to two resources:

• Primarily, https://karelvo.com/blog/orgmode (archive link: author, if you read this you should put this post back!)
• This section specifically https://github.com/james-stoup/emacs-org-mode-tutorial#figuring-out-your-first-workflow for the mentality it inspires of "try the dumbest, easiest thing first" (not to discredit the rest of the post; I didn't read it as carefully)

If you, like me, get owned by decision paralysis, then if you want org to work: start. simple. I cannot over-emphasize this point.

After having read/tried all matter of configuration, here is what I would do if I could do it again without wasting tens of hours.

My absolutely barebones org setup (for disorganized people)

Organization schemes are deeply personal, so my goal here is to set you up with the most likely bare minimum you will use, which you can then typically easily change as you see fit. Most reorganizing is actually very simple in org (and you can probably script your way around the complicated stuff), so just don't change anything unless it really doesn't work or bothers you.

Important note: I still use a calendar for actual events, like meetings, birthdays, etc. I would not particularly recommend using org as a replacement for these. Believe me, I tried. You can get pretty far, but in my experience it doesn't quite work as well. Yes, that means you need to both check your agenda and calendar.

Start by creating files per karelvo's org schematic in your org directory (mine is ~/Sync/org):

• inbox.org - where quick thoughts go
• todo.org - where todos go
• notes.org - where notes go

Now either you have discipline (great!) or you don't. If you don't, take a second here to make adding an entry to inbox.org AS EASY AS POSSIBLE.

Here's what I do. I set up an org-capture-template for my inbox under i. On desktop, I use Doom Emacs, which includes a helper binary called org-capture (I bind C-Alt-o to /path-to-bin/org-capture -k i) that opens a new window and lets me jot down a todo or note. On mobile, I use Orgzly-revived which also lets you set up a capture to a specific inbox as an action. I have this bound to pressing volume up twice via Key Mapper.

Now here's the hopefully simple habit to build. Every time you have a thought that should become persistent, you jot it down into your inbox. This is why it must be as easy as possible, otherwise you will. not. do it.

There are two more places you need to spend your discipline credits if you're undisciplined like me.

1. Once a day (for me, this is in the morning), you open up org mode. Go to your inbox.org and for each thought

• If it is a TODO, mark as TODO (org-todo) and add a SCHEDULED field (org-schedule) if you know when you'll commit to doing it. If I'm not sure when, I'll typically schedule for some safe period in advance so I don't forget about it (rescheduling is easy). Don't leave it without a SCHEDULED field if you know it needs to be done eventually.
• Then I stick it where it belongs using org-refile. I do make use of headings to organize (e.g. notes.org/Ideas vs notes.org/Books), but getting the it down is the important bit. Don't sweat these details.

2. Immediately after, I open my org-agenda for the current day (org-agenda then a). I review just the things I said I'd do and I'll kick ones I know I won't do that day out or prioritize.

As you get more comfortable and experienced using org, you should start building the habit of checking your agenda more often. I started by checking it again near the end of the day to make sure I marked things done. I've moved on to trying to check it every time I'm context switching. Gonna open Lobsters? Let's just make sure there isn't anything I should be doing, etc. etc.

In the process of using org, you'll also find things that bother you, which you can then dedicate time to finding bespoke solutions to (perhaps you may even schedule them as TODOs).

And lastly, mobile: I use syncthing to sync + orgzly-revived (set up auto-sync for orgzly-revived and set a reasonably high frequency for syncs on syncthing) for viewing/editing on the go. I try to mostly only review my agenda and append to my inbox on mobile. I hear there are some pretty nice org apps on iOS, but I don't use that OS.

That's "it," but I have by no means figured everything out (again, I'm only more organized than my previous state of absolute disorganization). The major things I haven't figured out good solutions to are

• Handling low priority tasks that I punt/churn. I did just (re)discover org supports priorities, but there is a certain amount of mental damage I take from seeing a day with a bunch of TODOs. So far I fix this by punting tasks a certain number of days down, which is easy, but doesn't eliminate the mental damage entirely.
• Reviewing unscheduled tasks. I do have a custom agenda filter for unscheduled TODOs, but one of my goals with org was to stay on top of things I don't strictly need to do, but I might want to. I have dissatisfying solutions to reviewing these.

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Oof, this became essay-length pretty quickly even though I tried to omit all non-critical details. I felt like I would try and make it seem simple to use org, but I don't know if I succeeded. If it would be better served as a full-length blog post (I'd expand upon the details I omitted to make it more "from nothing"), I can write it up, but I wonder now whether all of these words are really any different from the resources I linked...

For work, I use a plaintext file (à la Jeff Huang), extended with a short template to track time spent during the day. Calendar for long term things that don't need attention in between, and a text file for longer term projects that don't fit into a calendar event. Pretty happy with this.

Contacts I have on Google Contacts because it has been the standard choice in the past. I want to start self-hosting Matroshka in the near future.

For personal stuff I have a text file but it's permanently outdated, which I compensate for by having a bunch of notebooks with things I need to do strewn about my desk. It's a horrible system that stresses me out and doesn't work. I'm trying to move towards using Joplin on my phone for these things but I haven't found the right structure yet. Maybe self-hosting that will help so I can also use it in the browser.

I wish there was an easy way to get an overview of who I haven't spoken to in a while. Don't think that will ever be solved...

I use 2Do, an Apple & iOS task manager. Supports projects, doesn’t states (todo, in-progress, done) but there are several ways you can “implement” that.

Helped me a great deal this summer when I had to manage the cottage renovation project which ended up being pretty complex.

The problem with task managers, as with most things, is the discipline to use them regularly.

For contacts, Apple Contacts synced with Fastmail and iCloud has been great.

I use pen and paper, following Bullet Journal patterns. I’ve gone back and forth between a paper journal and org mode, but I simply enjoy a physical journal more. For “substantive” notes I move into an org roam database but for day to day, paper is what I lean on.

Emacs is all.

I use Trilium, but that basically fits the same bill as org-mode, howm, Obsidian, logseq, etc. Definitely not always disciplined enough to go back over my outstanding tasks but it's a good way to keep notes on what I'm doing for whom: clone a given task under a project node, but also under a node for the person I'm doing the work for.

At work we use Jira. Despite what many people say it works really well for tasks which take at least a couple of days cycle time in teams consisting of more than 20 people. Everything else will be an unread e-mail (this includes requests for code review). For other small tasks outside my inbox I will just create a text document or make myself a paper note. These are usually things I will finish on the same day.

For personal task tracking I actually developed my own web app. It is very light weight, but the core idea is that you can build up a task graph with sub task (multi-tree) and dependency (DAG) relationships. The user can never execute an action on that task graph which is not valid (cyclic dependencies, closing a main task before closing all sub tasks). Tasks are scheduled in per user ordered queues. At some point I might make it generally available, but for now my partner and I are the only users.

This is something I've been using Claude Code for at work.

I open a new chat every day with an output style that instructs it not to do the tasks, but just to organize them and act like a coach. Then there is a skill that runs at the end of the day that records everything in a text file. It reads my calendar and Jira as well as the previous notes. It's not a perfect system but I personally like the "chat with your tasks" interface. For example, I report my progress and evolve my view of what is to do throughout the day, sometimes doing mid-day planning/prioritization.

Things and Apple Contacts privately and at work I use Obsidian for both. Obsidian kind of turned into org mode for people who don't want to deal with Emacs.

I use obsidian or a very simple python script for task management (here it is: https://git.bitmycode.com/sodimel/n).

just a text file called todo.txt, stored in the cloud

I have tried many task-manager app-things and it never lasted more than 2 days of usage. For software, I use the ticket tracker of the forge where the project is hosted. And for the rest, I guess I am just not organized enough to want to do that. Or maybe I should say I am aristotelician if a potential employer asks, that sounds more professional.

Thunderbird for both.