What I did: I’m new to Agenda and keen to find out how to use it to replace Things, as I like the look of the way calendar integration happens in Agenda.
Can anyone recommend videos / workflows to show how to make Agenda work more like a task manager?
Things that might be helpful to know (Agenda version, OS and model, etc): latest version not premium yet as just trying. Primarily on iPad.
I use a mixture of tagging, reminders, and marking things as “on the agenda”.
I have a bunch of projects I add notes to. The ones that require attention by a specific date get tags like #due(some date) #revisit(some date) etc. You can look for a tag where the date in parenthesis has already come. I do that regularly, and mark relevant tasks as “On the Agenda”.
When I have something to do that definitely needs done on a specific date, I link a reminder to that note.
In addition, I regularly review my not-done notes and make sure that the most important tasks are marked as “on the agenda”.
Then I work through my “On the Agenda” and only look on other notes for supportive information or during the next review.
You can, but note that Agenda isn’t supposed to take over as a task manager. So you’ll find limitations if you compare them.
That said, I do a simple combination of tags and smart overviews to keep track of things. (Note that this was my past workflow. I’m currently exploring the agenda->reminders->OmniFocus integration)
The basic concept is to add a #due(date) and one other tag for tasks. If it’s a stuff I should do, I tag it as #open. If it’s someone else’s task, like a colleague or a direct report, I tag it as #waiting.
Some examples:
Then, I have smart overviews for the open and waiting tasks. So I just look at those.
Downside is it contains the entire note.like a meeting note can be 50 lines. With 5 tasks in it. This is the limitation I was telling you earlier.
Once the task is done, simply remove the open or waiting tag and the note will disappear in the smart overview.
Additional workflow: if a note has no tasks left, and it’s something I don’t need to look at again, I mark it as done and collapse the view so it stays out of my view.
Last comment: others do copy/past of tasks and linking to original notes. I tried that but it’s very cumbersome. That usually involves having a project with all your tasks hyperlinked to other notes. In order to get context, you click on it to see the original note. Then go back to your main task list. Too much clicks for me so I abandoned that. But it’s cleaner and helps you track your tasks more like a task manager.
But again, agenda isn’t a task manager so you can’t expect it to function like a complete replacement. You’d have to adjust your workflow. Good luck!!
I’ve moved the note to the Talk section of the community, which you might want to check out for a number of other topics, like the one @arielylim also refers to: