Traditionally scientists have managed their time and tasks using paper based tools including lab notebooks and agendas. Today we have a wider variety of offline and online tools available to organize ourselves. In our lab we use diverse tools depending on personal style. We go from minimalists, which use a few simple tools intensively, to “maximalists” who combine the strengths of several tools.
On the one hand, the minimalists such as Adam, Julia and Xiaohan use prioritized todo lists combined with occasional post-it notes or google calendar appointments.
On the other hand, there are the “strengths integrators” such as Andrea, David or Irmak. Andrea organizes his tasks with kanbanflow, stores his code in bitbucket and memorizes his appointments. David uses habitrpg for short term tasks, google calendar for appointments and his own tool to plan his time! Irmak is the one with a more elaborated system of tools. He combines six tools to organize his time and tasks: taskxp, habitrpg, rescuetime, kanbanflow, online pomodoro timers and beeminder.
The most popular online tools in the lab are kanbanflow which lets you organize and analyze your work visually and habitrpg, an open source habit building program which treats your life like a Role Playing Game.
In conclusion, in our lab we have very different ways of managing our time and tasks. All of them are very fine tuned to personal needs and all of them have been proven to be very effective! :)
How do you manage your time and tasks? Which tools do you use to manage your time?
-Arnau