using Workflowy for Project Management

[etech0]

I started a new thread, because I plan on IY"H posting tips/tricks/shortcuts that I find, and I think it will be easier if we have a separate thread. If this bothers you, I apologize in advance.

My Workflowy Setup

I've been tuning my workflowy setup over time; it's the kind of thing that you never finish . Note: if you haven't yet tried using workflowy, you might not understand this post. I highly recommend it (as you might have noticed by now) - and when you sign up you can watch a series of short (30 seconds or so) videos that walk you through it and tell you tips/tricks.

So first of all I have a separate section called "Data" for things that are not task/project related, but just things I want to store for reference (and have on my fingertips). It has a few lists within it, and will probably have more as time goes on. Workflowy is great for taking notes, as you may have noticed

Now regarding things that have to get done:

At first, I had a section for Tasks and a section for Projects, so I could easily tell what's what. Tasks were often just one line, or sometimes had a few bullets within them (if there were 2 or 3 steps to it, or of there was any data/links I wanted to store with it), whereas Projects were whole lists (or lists of lists) unto themselves, where I mapped out different steps/stages/etc of the Project. Then I noticed a problem that kept coming up, where under each project there were tasks and also notes re: the project, that I'd want to refer to. I didn't like that they were mixed together.

I then found the following idea on the workflowy blog (blog.workflowy.com - worth reading through it, and the comments, for some great tips/tricks), where under each Project I have a section called Notes and a section called Actions. Notes stay there and will be built on over time, for reference, and Actions get checked off as I do them. When the Project is "finished" (for now anyways ), the Actions section will be empty, but the Notes section will have lots of useful info I can refer back to. At that point I move the Project to an archive section.

When a Task is finished, on the other hand, I just check it off and let it disappear. And in case I ever need to refer back to it, I can always tell Workflowy to show Completed.

At some point, I noticed that because my Tasks were on top of my Projects, my Projects were getting neglected. I also wanted to drag and drop to prioritize my day, and keeping Tasks and Projects separate made that difficult, so I switched up my system a bit.

My current system:

(bear in mind that it is subject to change, and probably will, as I find ways to improve it)

Now Tasks and Projects live mixed together, and Projects are tagged #project so that I can recognize/find them. Projects still have sublists called Notes and Actions, as per above.

At the very top I have a section called INBOX, for things that I thought to write down but didn't have time to file yet, or links I want to drop somewhere and deal with later. I clear out the INBOX every week, but also skim through it every day or so, in case there's anything urgent in there.

I have a section called CALENDAR, and within it is a list for every day of the week, plus one on top called TODAY.

After the section called CALENDAR I have a section called SOONER (for tasks I'm currently working on, but not specifically on any day), and a section called LATER (for tasks I might work on in the future). I also have a section called PENDING PROJECTS for Project ideas I thought of (and maybe even fleshed out a bit) but am not currently working on.

At the beginning of each week I read through the CALENDAR, SOONER, and LATER sections, and place anything I want to work on this week either into a day, or into SOONER. Anything I don't want to work on this week moves into LATER.

I haven't decided how often I want to review the PENDING PROJECTS list - maybe every month? Or maybe when I finish a project and am decided what to work on next? Either way, with each of the Projects inside of it minimized, it takes a second or two to skim through the list.

Bear in mind that Projects are now mixed with Tasks, and tagged as #project. Often when I open a Project to work on it, I will click on the dot next to the Project name, so that I'm now just looking at that Project without any distractions. When I finish working on a Project for now, I like to tag something as #nextaction - that way when I come  back to the project I can zero in on what I'm up to / what I want to work on next.

At the beginning of each day, I move everything that I want to do that day into TODAY. Items might come from my yesterday's list (chas v'shalom), or from the SOONER section, or the INBOX, or they might be in there already. Then I drag the whole day (empty) to the bottom of my calendar list.

Now as far as recurring tasks...

Recurring tasks are tagged as #recurring. Most of my recurring tasks are Weekly, so they live in that day's CALENDAR list. EG: if there's something I do every Monday, it lives in the MONDAY list. On Monday morning, I will move it (along with the rest of my Monday todos) into TODAY, and drag MONDAY (now empty) to the bottom.  When I do a regular task I just check it off, but after completing a recurring task I drag it down to MONDAY, so that I'll see it next Monday. (It's not foolproof, but so far it's been working).

If you want, you could expand on the Calendar idea to have a list for every date of the month, or even year. For me, weekly works.

I have a few recurring tasks that happen once a month or year - and I don't have a good way to keep them in Workflowy, so for now, I have them in Wunderlist. UPDATE: I just switched to Todoist for those tasks - as it can handle two types of recurring dates (see my post upthread - someone recommended Asana for that purpose, but I don't love its interface). Todoist is great, very smooth and it's easy to see what's what and what's due.

As it stands, due dates are the feature in Workflowy that I miss the most - and hope they come out with it soon.

I hope all this makes sense and is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions!

[whacked1]

I have been using workflowy for a few months now. I am not sure what you are referring to with your calendar. I find everything needing too be done manually. For example: in your calendar when something is marked for today (I'm assuming you use #today?), how does tomorrow's items change to #today?

[elit]

I started a new thread, because I plan on IY"H posting tips/tricks/shortcuts that I find, and I think it will be easier if we have a separate thread. If this bothers you, I apologize in advance.

My Workflowy Setup

I've been tuning my workflowy setup over time; it's the kind of thing that you never finish . Note: if you haven't yet tried using workflowy, you might not understand this post. I highly recommend it (as you might have noticed by now) - and when you sign up you can watch a series of short (30 seconds or so) videos that walk you through it and tell you tips/tricks.

So first of all I have a separate section called "Data" for things that are not task/project related, but just things I want to store for reference (and have on my fingertips). It has a few lists within it, and will probably have more as time goes on. Workflowy is great for taking notes, as you may have noticed

Now regarding things that have to get done:

At first, I had a section for Tasks and a section for Projects, so I could easily tell what's what. Tasks were often just one line, or sometimes had a few bullets within them (if there were 2 or 3 steps to it, or of there was any data/links I wanted to store with it), whereas Projects were whole lists (or lists of lists) unto themselves, where I mapped out different steps/stages/etc of the Project. Then I noticed a problem that kept coming up, where under each project there were tasks and also notes re: the project, that I'd want to refer to. I didn't like that they were mixed together.

I then found the following idea on the workflowy blog (blog.workflowy.com - worth reading through it, and the comments, for some great tips/tricks), where under each Project I have a section called Notes and a section called Actions. Notes stay there and will be built on over time, for reference, and Actions get checked off as I do them. When the Project is "finished" (for now anyways ), the Actions section will be empty, but the Notes section will have lots of useful info I can refer back to. At that point I move the Project to an archive section.

When a Task is finished, on the other hand, I just check it off and let it disappear. And in case I ever need to refer back to it, I can always tell Workflowy to show Completed.

At some point, I noticed that because my Tasks were on top of my Projects, my Projects were getting neglected. I also wanted to drag and drop to prioritize my day, and keeping Tasks and Projects separate made that difficult, so I switched up my system a bit.

My current system:

(bear in mind that it is subject to change, and probably will, as I find ways to improve it)

Now Tasks and Projects live mixed together, and Projects are tagged #project so that I can recognize/find them. Projects still have sublists called Notes and Actions, as per above.

At the very top I have a section called INBOX, for things that I thought to write down but didn't have time to file yet, or links I want to drop somewhere and deal with later. I clear out the INBOX every week, but also skim through it every day or so, in case there's anything urgent in there.

I have a section called CALENDAR, and within it is a list for every day of the week, plus one on top called TODAY.

After the section called CALENDAR I have a section called SOONER (for tasks I'm currently working on, but not specifically on any day), and a section called LATER (for tasks I might work on in the future). I also have a section called PENDING PROJECTS for Project ideas I thought of (and maybe even fleshed out a bit) but am not currently working on.

At the beginning of each week I read through the CALENDAR, SOONER, and LATER sections, and place anything I want to work on this week either into a day, or into SOONER. Anything I don't want to work on this week moves into LATER.

I haven't decided how often I want to review the PENDING PROJECTS list - maybe every month? Or maybe when I finish a project and am decided what to work on next? Either way, with each of the Projects inside of it minimized, it takes a second or two to skim through the list.

Bear in mind that Projects are now mixed with Tasks, and tagged as #project. Often when I open a Project to work on it, I will click on the dot next to the Project name, so that I'm now just looking at that Project without any distractions. When I finish working on a Project for now, I like to tag something as #nextaction - that way when I come  back to the project I can zero in on what I'm up to / what I want to work on next.

At the beginning of each day, I move everything that I want to do that day into TODAY. Items might come from my yesterday's list (chas v'shalom), or from the SOONER section, or the INBOX, or they might be in there already. Then I drag the whole day (empty) to the bottom of my calendar list.

Now as far as recurring tasks...

Recurring tasks are tagged as #recurring. Most of my recurring tasks are Weekly, so they live in that day's CALENDAR list. EG: if there's something I do every Monday, it lives in the MONDAY list. On Monday morning, I will move it (along with the rest of my Monday todos) into TODAY, and drag MONDAY (now empty) to the bottom.  When I do a regular task I just check it off, but after completing a recurring task I drag it down to MONDAY, so that I'll see it next Monday. (It's not foolproof, but so far it's been working).

If you want, you could expand on the Calendar idea to have a list for every date of the month, or even year. For me, weekly works.

I have a few recurring tasks that happen once a month or year - and I don't have a good way to keep them in Workflowy, so for now, I have them in Wunderlist. UPDATE: I just switched to Todoist for those tasks - as it can handle two types of recurring dates (see my post upthread - someone recommended Asana for that purpose, but I don't love its interface). Todoist is great, very smooth and it's easy to see what's what and what's due.

As it stands, due dates are the feature in Workflowy that I miss the most - and hope they come out with it soon.

I hope all this makes sense and is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions!

Nice.  Tons of useful info here. Thanks!  Dunno but I feel if I had that much time to research and work on my to do lists I wouldn't need a to do list
You have a very creative way of dealing with the lack of due dates but I can't see myself doing that.  I need a list that automatically updates the day due etc. .. I can't constantly manually move everything.  Which is why for now workflowy remains my general long term tasks and project lists. It is such a shame though bc every other aspect of it is great.
Also I love the idea of using it for notes for the future I think that's a great idea and maybe I'll start using it for that also.

[elit]

I have been using workflowy for a few months now. I am not sure what you are referring to with your calendar. I find everything needing too be done manually. For example: in your calendar when something is marked for today (I'm assuming you use #today?), how does tomorrow's items change to #today?

It doesn't etecho manually switches it

[whacked1]

It doesn't etecho manually switches it

Thats crazy. I tried just using dates ie #11/30/15 but it just got confusing.

[etech0]

It doesn't etecho manually switches it

Right. Most of my tasks are not date-centric, so I don't mind. I used to use Wunderlist for tasks, but I found that I would give myself way too many tasks each day, and then end up having to do most of them the next day, and then the next... so it was just discouraging. With workflowy it's easy to drag things from today to tomorrow etc.

Workflowy is MUCH better for organizing info (project-related or otherwise) than a wunderlist-style app. I started out using it just to map out projects, and now that I got the hang of it, I enjoy it so much that I think the benefits outweigh the things it's missing (namely, due dates).

I have been using workflowy for a few months now. I am not sure what you are referring to with your calendar. I find everything needing too be done manually. For example: in your calendar when something is marked for today (I'm assuming you use #today?), how does tomorrow's items change to #today?

I used to use #today tags, but found that annoying, so I switched to my calendar style setup. Basically it's a list of MONDAY - FRIDAY, and under each day is what I want to do that day. It's very easy to drag things from one day to another, and at the end of the day if anything's left, I move it to the next day's list. (Or move it somewhere else if I decide not to do it the next day)

Again, if I had lots of specific deadlines/tasks that had to be done on certain days, I'd probably go with todoist. But for me, I like workflowy. It makes it much easier to, as their tagline states, "Organize your brain".

Remember, I stopped using Wunderlist because it wasn't working for me. But everyone's different, and that's why there are so many options out there.

Nice.  Tons of useful info here. Thanks!  Dunno but I feel if I had that much time to research and work on my to do lists I wouldn't need a to do list
You have a very creative way of dealing with the lack of due dates but I can't see myself doing that.  I need a list that automatically updates the day due etc. .. I can't constantly manually move everything.  Which is why for now workflowy remains my general long term tasks and project lists. It is such a shame though bc every other aspect of it is great.
Also I love the idea of using it for notes for the future I think that's a great idea and maybe I'll start using it for that also.

You are right

What happened to me, though, was that I realized that my current system wasn't working, so I was listening out for something else. Workflowy appealed to me, so I decided it try it out, and the rest is history . (Though it's hard not to fall into the trap of thinking you're being productive because you're in the middle of figuring out how to be more productive. I guess the key is balance.)

The more I use workflowy, the more tips/tricks I find and the more I like it.

[etech0]

Thats crazy. I tried just using dates ie #11/30/15 but it just got confusing.

Some people like using tags for dates, but I didn't like that so much, so instead I have a list for each day of the week, with tasks within those lists. It's very easy to drag a task from one day to the next.

If you're just doing tasks and not projects, you might be better off with something like Todoist, though.

[etech0]

If you need to use due dates you might want to check out checkvist or moo.do. They are supposed to be similar to workflowy.

I haven't tried either of them yet.

[whacked1]

If you need to use due dates you might want to check out checkvist or moo.do. They are supposed to be similar to workflowy.

I haven't tried either of them yet.

It would be great if it can sync with my exchange calendar.

[elit]

It would be great if it can sync with my exchange calendar.

+1

[Ez]

As it stands, due dates are the feature in Workflowy that I miss the most - and hope they come out with it soon.

Looks like it's coming, they're asking for ideas on how to it should be implemented.

https://medium.com/workflowy-design/dates-reminders-in-workflowy-2b1c6e0a057b#.er7as4hns

[etech0]

Looks like it's coming, they're asking for ideas on how to it should be implemented.

https://medium.com/workflowy-design/dates-reminders-in-workflowy-2b1c6e0a057b#.er7as4hns

Ooooooh, thanks for posting!

[Thingywingy]

How does Todoist compare to Wunderlist?

[etech0]

How does Todoist compare to Wunderlist?

They are actually pretty similar. The best way to figure out what works for you is to try both. I used Wunderlist for over a year, and found that over time it got slower and slower, and took a long time to navigate. Todoist is much smoother and easier to use. I also like that it has two types of recurring due dates (eg: repeat every sunday, VS repeat 1 week after I finish the last one). Workflowy only did the first

Another couple things I like about Todoist over Wunderlist: they email you every day with your task list for the day, and they have a browser extension so you can a) quickly open your list without opening a new tab, b) notice the icon where it tells you how many tasks are due, in case you forget to open the app, and c) "clip" web pages to Todoist to create tasks. I'll even "clip" a workflowy list to todoist if I want to make sure to include it in my schedule.

[Thingywingy]

So you use todoist and workflowy...can you expand on how you use them differently? You mentioned that you include a schedule in workflowy...

[etech0]

So you use todoist and workflowy...can you expand on how you use them differently? You mentioned that you include a schedule in workflowy...

It's a little complicated. At work I just use Workflowy, because I'm pretty scheduled - every day I check my list, etc etc.

At home I use Workflowy for almost everything. Projects, lists, etc. Most of what I do is not deadline based, but rather gets worked on as I get to it, so I am fine. I don't have a strict schedule in there, it's kind of on the fly (eg: I had a Before Pesach list). Sometimes I'll throw together a quick list for Today, or This Week, or something like that.

Then there are things like CC close dates, annual fees, rent, etc, which are very deadline based and often recurring, so I use Todoist for those. I (officially) check Todoist every day, and take care of everything on my list for the day, as they are usually all quick things.

Therefore, if I want to make sure to get to something on a certain day, if it's already in Workflowy, sometimes I'll clip it to Todoist so it's in there, and I can use the link to reach the Workflowy list. I don't do that too often, though. I like to keep Todoist uncluttered so I don't miss the important things that are in there.

[Thingywingy]

Hey etech0 or anyone else...ever try Trello? moo.do? checkvist?

[DP7]

Hey etech0 or anyone else...ever try Trello? moo.do? checkvist?

I use Trello.

[etech0]

Hey etech0 or anyone else...ever try Trello? moo.do? checkvist?

I used Trello a few years ago when collaborating with a few people on a project. It's great at what it does, but falls in a completely different category. It's good when you have a number of tasks, or any kind of items, that all have to follow the same process/sequence of steps.

I tried moo.do and checkvist, and couldn't get into either of them. They were frustrating to use, and just couldn't compare with the experience of using workflowy. It was a while back so I don't remember exactly what each of them was missing.

With all of these apps, you'll have a much better handle of what they do and how they fill your needs, or don't, by taking a few minutes and trying them out.

[CreamofSoup]

@etech0/anybody else, are you still using workflowy? I used etech0's link yesterday when I got fed up with outlook/gmail flags and calendars and I love it so far.  I've found that the yearly format for scheduling works better for me as I know something need to be scheduled months in advance. I tried tagging dates but that was too much effort and wasn't very easy on the eyes.

Anyway, does the workflowy month roll over on the 1st or is it based on when you signed up? I've got some large lists that I'm holding off on copying in until I know the month is almost up to avoid running out of items.