The first of a series of TickTick tips and tricks, as it has been requested a lot.
Regardless of the platform I use, I like seeing everything in one place, and at the same time I like dividing the tasks in that one place in sections, but not necessarily in Areas of Life. My unmedicated ADHD brain prefers this setup (and in this order), and I'll explain how it can be applied in TickTick as Lists:
- 🕰️ Deadlines (Pinned)
- 🗓️ Scheduled - I don't like separating appointments to traditional calendars. I don't know why. I like having anything with strict date, time and place as just another task visible in the same view as everything else.
- ⏳ Waiting (Pinned)
- 🌅 Morning
- 📋 ToDo (for any task, at any time of day)
- 🌞 Midday
- 🌆 Evening
Some extra lists are kept for big projects / long lists of tasks/subtasks that need to be broken down.
- 📚 School
- 🖥️ Work
- 📖 Reading List
Despite the division into sections of the day, I don't actually set specific times on the tasks. I just drop them in the "morning", "midday", "evening", or "todo" (for any time of day) buckets. This is how I want to compartmentalize my day (grouped in Today view in TickTick). Again, real events with a set time and place will go to Scheduled.
I don't bother categorize / tag them for work, family, chores, exercise, admin stuff etc. I just want to know what I'm doing now regardless of the area of life a task belongs to. I'll worry about evening's tasks, when the evening gets here.
So in essence my brain likes going by periods of time of day, but without the rigidness and complex maintenance of blocking out specific time by the minute or hour on each and every single task.
What about those extra lists?
From a student's perspective:
I will make repeat tasks based on subjects / modules, assigned to the morning bucket or midday bucket and so forth. In their description of those tasks, they will have a link (by typing [[ in TickTick) to their respective task. That task will essentially be a textbook full of subtasks with chapters, sections, exams, or series of lectures. So an example :
- Repeat task that shows in Today View : MATH101
- School list is separated into TickTick's custom sections by modules (MATH101, CS724 etc)
- Each of those sections contains all the schoolwork, exams and supplemental material for those subjects / modules as tasks with multiple levels of subtasks (for chapters, sections, etc)
- The repeat task MATH101 will have in its description:
- a link to "Matrices And Determinants" textbook (broken down into subtasks of chapters),
- a link to a supplement resource task named "Prof. Leonard's Intermediate Algebra lectures", also broken down into individual lecture videos
- a link to the exam task
- The repeat tasks will have daily pomodoro session goals (example : duration estimate for CS724: 45 minutes. Duration estimate for flashcards : 15 minutes. When the daily goal is achieved, then I can check off the recurring task, and the pomo estimate will reset for another 45 minutes of CS724 and 15 minutes of flashcards on the next recurrence).
So when I'm done with a chapter, I open the repeat task, I click the link in the description, that presents a pop-up of a long list of chapters, and I check off the chapter. This ensures that subtasks don't reset the next day, but also keeps the main repeat task in the Today view clean. This also allows for several links to tasks for supplemental readings and resources (again, all broken down into smaller subtasks for the sake of my ADHD brain), in regards to that subject.
From a working professional's perspective:
Same thing as above, but those recurring tasks are going to be the clients if you're a freelancer, or depending on the work you do, separate by different responsibilities of the job instead (like "Server Maintenance", or by big ongoing, long term projects (like "Hotel B Renovation project"). Again, link from the Work list the tasks with their subtasks to their description. So some examples:
- Repeat task that shows in Today view: "Client A" (you can make up codenames or numbers and keep a reference list in a plain text file, (for privacy reasons) instead of adding the real names of your clients in a cloud-based software)
- Work list is separated into TickTick's custom Sections by Client (Client A, client B) etc.
- Each section contains the client's projects as tasks (Project 1, Project 2 etc)
- A repeat task called "Hotel B Renovation Project" will have something like
- link to the "site prep" task
- link to the "plumbing" task
- link to the "restaurant" task
- and so on. All those tasks are actually sub-projects broken down with subtasks. Enable the "Show details" option on your lists to see the progress of your projects as a number of total subtasks / vs completed subtasks (for example : 13 / 87)
- Assign daily goals to the repeat task "Client A" for pomodoro sessions (example : duration estimate : 2 hours. When those 2 hours are complete, then I can check off the recurring task, and the pomo estimate will reset for another 2 hours tomorrow).
The end result
So in a nutshell, instead of seeing a million tiny little tasks from a dozen "areas of life" lists, you focus only on the time of day that you're currently in, and on the big picture. For example, if you're done with your morning, you will now see the "Midday" section in Today at the top, which will only list these:
- Study MATH 101
- Study CS724
- Meditate
- Work on Client C
- Cook tandoori chicken
- Pickup son from school
For "Study .... " and "Work on .... " tasks, I simply open them, click the link to the textbtook / project tasks, to see and update all work that's completed.
This way you don't have to go back and forth to each project list, assigning tags and dates for every single step and subtask of the projects ad nauseum to show up in Today view as next actions. You just put them in order and most importantly, number them (1.1 - action, 1.2 - another action, etc), so you can tell at a glance what you're doing next.
Note: For some reason, adding subtasks to the repeat tasks directly (not check items, but subtasks of multiple levels) will uncheck any completed work as soon as the next recurrence duplicates. In some cases, the Today view opens up fully expanded with a million subtasks (widgets too) which brings back the overwhelming death of executive function. Hence the use of links instead.
PS : Make recurring weekly tasks to:
- Process your inbox
- Check the Waiting and Deadlines lists.
- Plan the week by checking all your lists with the ALL smart list of TickTick, grouped by Lists in Kanban view, or through a filter that shows only the relevant lists needed for planning.