Recently while cycling I listened to Adam Ragusea talking about never arriving in life and wondered once again about one common aspect for me: Not finding a proper task management solution and thus not getting back on top of the basics as I once were.
In the past I used Todoist, Notion and Taskwarrior before abandoning them again, and never managed to establish a working setup of org-agenda. As a team we tried Nextcloud and Vikunja, but did not follow through with either yet after originally having had a working Wekan setup,
However, I am realizing that the tools might not be at fault after all. Yes I have qualms with all of them, but will that ever not be the case?
My current pain point is quick entry. When I really use org-agenda, where do I throw an incoming task, especially in case I am on the phone? I remember a friend noting that as one of his remaining issues years ago as well.
Furthermore, I have no clear line between work and leisure, so I need my tasks from different duties integrated because I want to choose the fitting one for the current time and mindset rather than following a fixed schedule. Most importantly I need to be aware of important tasks to do when my brain is less alert, because the missing alertness also hampers my abilities to choose a proper task. This however seems better combatted by weekly plans, wherein I outline the commitments for the upcoming week.
So in the end it seems not the tool, but the routine are decisive. Unfortunately every routine I made so far got buried in life sooner or later, which is why I keep thinking about the concept of Antifragile Productivity: Harnessing disorder organically. But it seems this still needs some basic order: When I have a clean task list at hand, I can easily utilize unexpected situations like this night.