The Traveler Techie

When my Google Pixel 7 phone got its operating system updated, the notification banners that show up at the bottom of the screen started taking forever to go away for some reason.  Now these notification banners block important elements on the screen and I couldn't just tap or swipe them away. This was especially infuriating when editing my plain text file in QuickEdit Pro app, where a notification banner shows up every time it autosaves.  To reduce the time notification banners stay on your screen, do this: Navigate to Settings and then Accessibility . Scroll down to Interaction Controls section and tap on Timing controls .  Tap on Time to take action (Accessibility timeout) and set it to Default . Mine was changed to 30 seconds for some reason. Adjust to how long you want these temporary messages to show if the Default is too short for you.  

TickTick could have been the best app for managing one's life with ADHD, but my experience with the lack of quality control and customer support made me regret paying every year. The subscription ends this July, so I was still using it until it ends (I already cancelled the renewal). I was also hoping to use the last few months of my subscription to make tutorials about it (seeing how people struggle to use it, especially now as a lot of Todoist users are fleeing after the changes in the Google Calendar integration), but now I'm having second thoughts about making those tutorials, and when I list the bugs below, you'll understand why. Bare in mind that most of these bugs have been going on for years, and my support tickets are just sitting there unanswered. For reference, I've changed devices quite a bit during the duration of using TickTick (I've been using TickTick for many many years) so it's not a device issue. MacOS, iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, web versio...

Projects in a task manager. This is something that I see a lot of students and working professionals struggle with. I don't like the current dedicated project management tools that are out there. Too clunky, slow, bloated, complicated. Here's how I handled projects in TickTick. It will not work for every use case, but for mine, it worked splendidly.   A list of projects Make a list. You can call it "work", "school", "projects", anything you like. Group and Sort by Custom through the up/down arrows icon on the top right. Click the ... button on the top right to open up the menu, and click Add Section . The first section will be housing recurring tasks that will be showing up in your Today view. I named mine Routine . You will then make a section for each project you are actively working on (or if you're a student, for each subject or module of your current semester). This will house all the subject's / project's tasks and subtasks. Id...

After heaps of experience (and wasted time) with all sorts of productivity apps (Obsidian, Notion, Workflowy, Todoist, Google Tasks/Calendar/Keep, TickTick, Amazing Marvin, Joplin, Logseq, Dynalist, Habitica and more... oh I could go on and on), this is where my ADHD ended up with as a solution to ALL my problems. Well all my note taking and task management problems anyways. No more overwhelm, no more bugs, no more performance issues, no more cluttered UI, no more clunky UX, no more sync issues, no more data loss, no more worries about privacy and security, no more need to contact customer support, no more subscriptions to be paid, no more dealing with enshitification. This post is about the structure and workflow of my OBTF (One Big Text File). I'll get into more about it in future posts, such as how to sync with all my devices, what I do for automated encrypted backups, how I use it in conjuction with the bullet journal and more. But right now, we need to get to work. And here...

Workflowy turned out to be my dream app for all-in-one productivity and note-taking. I will be posting a series of walkthroughs on how I use Workflowy for everything, so stay tuned... or you know, subscribe to the newsletter found on the sidebar. Disclaimer: The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only. You are solely responsible for verifying the information as being appropriate for your personal use.

As a busy special needs mom with ADHD, this is how I track my studies in Workflowy to help me stay on top of things and track my progress through my STUDY node. Pomodoro method and setting goals I use the pomodoro method for 30 minute study sessions. I have a bullet with today's date and I add tomato emojis as I go through my sessions. I also have a habit tracker template, which includes my desired daily goals for studying. In my mind, I also have a minimum daily goal for those hectic days to avoid the guilt trip from not meeting the written goals, but to also ensure consistency in my work. I've been questioned a lot about my 3 am study + workout ritual. I'll address it in a future post and why it's the greatest thing ever! The textbook checklist template The textbook checklist template is based on how I learn best and also how the textbooks are structured. I modify the template depending on the material I'm working with and what I need to truly learn. I check the l...

There are 2 ways you can mass delete bullets and completed tasks in Workflowy. The keyboard shortcut  Drag the mouse in an empty space to mass-select the bullets you want to delete Press Ctrl + Shift + Backspace simultaneously to delete. This works great if you are on the desktop/laptop and if the completed tasks are in consecutive lines. But I use Workflowy heavily on my Samsung tablet as well (I love handwriting everything and Workflowy works amazingly well with the S-pen), and very rarely I complete tasks in order of appearance. The Completed subpage Something I used to do in Notion for simple checklists and have transferred in Workflowy, is have a subpage in my "todo" list and after checking off a task, drag it in that subpage.  To do this in Workflowy: Create a bullet underneath your last item in your todo list. I've named it " completed tasks ". On its left side click the 3 dots, or type the slash ( / ) to bring up the commands. Select the Paragraph opti...

As someone with ADHD, I know how easy it is to get caught up with all the shiny features and capabilities of aesthetic, complex Notion setups. However, after habit tracking for years (with or without Notion), I've realized a couple of things: Once a habit has been established, tracking is no longer necessary. Stats mean nothing for the most part. Minus the symptom tracking and food journal that eventually helped me treat "incurable" diseases naturally (since doctors gave up on me), I don't really need statistics on how many days I've done yoga, or what my extended fasting record is in days. What matters is getting after it, day in and day out. I may go several weeks or months at a time without logging the habits I do, but a rough day might make my dopamine-hungry brain go "I need to check off something", or I may need a reminder of what I need to do and why I'm doing it.  Focus is everything, not just on the task at hand, but on the overall picture a...

This is a goal, project and task tracker with progress bars and counters.  Goals, Project and Task databases are connected with each other. Each goal and project by default will have a database view with their projects and tasks respectively. To connect the projects to goals, simply create a new goal, open its page, and add new projects from its already created filtered database view. To connect tasks to projects, same thing. Create a project, open it, and create new tasks inside it through its filtered database view. Duplicate the template from here. the dashboard   the goals page       inside a goal     projects page   inside a project         Disclaimer: The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only. You are solely responsible for verifying the information as being appropriate for your personal use.

This mobile-friendly template has a diary with habit and mood tracking, a task manager, gamified student center with pomodoro tracking (can be converted to goal->project->task manager), calendar, notes, book reading tracker and a trash page (so you don't have to delete pages in Trash one by one. Move the pages you want deleted to this Trash page and then delete the Trash page once a month). Duplicate the template from here . dashboard     journal entry with habit tracking, mood and symptom tracking and linked views of calendar and tasks gamified student center with pomodoro tracking subjects, courses and tasks databases are related to each other, with templates to show filtered views of tasks for each course/subject notes, Google Keep style calendar     Disclaimer: The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only. You are solely responsible for verifying the information as being appropriate for your personal use.

Start your new year with the Game of Life template.     Duplicate the template from here. Whether you're looking for a minimal and functional agenda or a database-driven gamified project management, this template has you covered. The Dashboard Quests = Tasks Quests and Notes Use the inbox toggle to quickly add tasks drag them to today's quests to assign them drag them to completed page when checked/done add notes throughout your day Calendar and Current Goals add the time in the designated property of a calendar entry for a better visual and faster entry or edit if schedule changes. Choose the appropriate tag (home, personal, work, school). calendar entries of the past are filtered so you only see the present and the future write your current goals in plain sight and add habits or steps in the action plan toggle. Unfold the action plan whenever you need a reminder of what you're supposed to be doing with your day and why. drag the goals to goals achieved page as you com...

This is the last part of how I use Obsidian as a bullet journal and task manager.  To download the vault and read from part 1, click here . Collections Grocery List This is still work in progress. The database of my online grocer takes forever to fetch my saved lists, and searching through thousands of products would take me hours as their search is messed up too. So I save the links of my favorite products in the Kanban cards to save time.  Along with the "to buy", "ordered" (ordered but not yet received as sometimes they call at the last minute for items they don't have) and "stocked", I also have categories lists (protein, dairy, fruits and vegetables etc) and "archive/rare" for items we don't buy or need often (like a USB-C cable or an epilator). Goals I keep this page simple but it gets long with subtasks and notes, which is fine for me. If the goal is too big, it has a wikilink to its own note. Adding a date to it shows up in the d...

This is part 3 of explaining my use of Obsidian as a bullet journal and task manager. For part 2 (Index and Planner) click here . For part 1 (folder structure and vault download) click here. The Daily Note template Habit Tracking I keep my habit tracking simple, without the need for complex setups with Dataview etc. I start by having a link to the Index page in a collapsible callout (the arrow next to the Index link). Inside the callout are links to notes for insights I have on the subjects (important info I want saved for the future or things I've learned) Then I have some of the habits listed with alternate checkboxes and tags. Every day I just type the data next to them, and they will show up when searched by their tag. For pomodoros, I just add a tomato emoji as I complete them. Then we have the other habits categorized into their own collapsible callouts. Habits I didn't get to do I use the - [-] alternate checkbox so they don't rollover (migrate) to the next day. As ...

This is part 2 of explaining my use of Obsidian as a bullet journal and task manager.  Download the vault from part 1 here . The Index page and Planner This is the main navigation page. The planner on the left has the main bullet journal elements. today's note will automatically open... you guessed it, today's Daily Note. This is setup with the Advanced URI plugin. todo - an inbox list of random tasks I have to do. Setting a date on these (or from anywhere else in the vault) will automatically show them to the respective daily note (explained later) future log - this one you can also see on the bottom right pane, pinned. This contains monthly logs (months separated as headings) of calendar entries or important tasks that have date and time. I use the alternate checkbox - [<] to change the icon to calendar. I then add the time in the description of the task (tasks are managed by the Tasks plugin). recurring - all my recurring tasks and calendar entries go here. They will ...