I want a todo list that lets me add tasks, and then break those tasks down into smaller tasks, to an arbitrary level.
That will let me add goals, add concrete achievements that will help me reach those goals, and break those achievements into actionable steps. Of course, some actionable steps will themselves require multiple actions, so they can be broken down, as well.
The idea that I'm really reaching for here is that I want all of my tasks to be connected back to my goals. That way, whenever I look at my task list, I don't have to convince myself to do something, I only have to ask myself, "Do you want to achieve [goal]? Because this is the next step towards that." This also lets me much more efficiently (and ruthlessly) vet things that I "have to" do. For each task, I would look for a goal to put it under, and if it didn't fit, I would either (1) add a new one, or (2) tell myself that I don't actually "have to" do it.
The other thing that this helps with is breaking down tasks and driving towards actionable steps. The GTD method advocates breaking tasks down until they are next actions, things that can be done in a few minutes or less. For tasks that can be broken down several times, I think it makes sense to retain the full hierarchy. It would also let you track progress at every level.
There's actually a nice tool for this, that I think I'm going to try and see if it meets all of my needs: Dynalist. It seems like a great tool for notes and planning, although I'm not sure it has scheduling and roll-up reporting.
I want a todo list that lets me add tasks, and then break those tasks down into smaller tasks, to an arbitrary level.
That will let me add goals, add concrete achievements that will help me reach those goals, and break those achievements into actionable steps. Of course, some actionable steps will themselves require multiple actions, so they can be broken down, as well.
The idea that I'm really reaching for here is that I want all of my tasks to be connected back to my goals. That way, whenever I look at my task list, I don't have to convince myself to do something, I only have to ask myself, "Do you want to achieve [goal]? Because this is the next step towards that." This also lets me much more efficiently (and ruthlessly) vet things that I "have to" do. For each task, I would look for a goal to put it under, and if it didn't fit, I would either (1) add a new one, or (2) tell myself that I don't actually "have to" do it.
The other thing that this helps with is breaking down tasks and driving towards actionable steps. The GTD method advocates breaking tasks down until they are next actions, things that can be done in a few minutes or less. For tasks that can be broken down several times, I think it makes sense to retain the full hierarchy. It would also let you track progress at every level.
There's actually a nice tool for this, that I think I'm going to try and see if it meets all of my needs: Dynalist. It seems like a great tool for notes and planning, although I'm not sure it has scheduling and roll-up reporting.