Managing academic life with productivity software

Hi, dear fellows,

To keep up with the various obligations we have as postgraduate students, it is imperative to be well organized. In this post I would like to introduce you to 2 softwares I use to manage tasks and stay productive.

1 - Github Projects

After testing various task management tools, Github Projects was the one that best worked for me to manage research activities. In this post We'll cover the simplest features of this tool which I am using now. In the future We'll cover tags, deadlines and more.

First, create an account on github.com.

Then, once you log in, access your Projects page.

Now, create your project. Let's create a traditional Kanban board project, which organizes your tasks in three columns: To do, Doing and Done.

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Then, create cards for the activities you need to to accomplish. Notice you can annotate text using Markdown notation and write bold text, create bullet lists, etc.

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Finally, drag-and-drop cards accross columns as you work on your tasks.

2 - Forest

This app helps you focus on each task you begin by growing a forest for you. After picking up a task from you Github Project, setup Forest with how many time you want to focus on that task. Keep in mind: while you are working on your task, it's like you're growing a tree in a Forest.

Growing a tree

If you succeed in not getting too distracted while working on your task (not opening social media apps, etc), a nice tree is added to your forest. If your tree dies because you couldn't focus tough, you're gonna have an ugly dead tree decorating (to not say the opposite) your Forest.

Your forest

This tool is like a gamified pomodoro which really helps me focusing on my tasks, simply because I want my forest bigger and more diverse, without dead trees.

Conclusions

These are the 2 software I've been using to keep up with my activities over different projects, like the PhD research, studying for the subjects and writting of papers. I hope they help you stay productive as much as they help me.

Best regards,

Jefferson Cavalcante