What's the best way people keep track of their thoughts and obligations? A physical to-do list? An app? My system is showing strain and I have a lot of psychic weight I'd like to unload. I'm all ears and eyes to your recommendations. Tomorrow marks the first day of the spring soccer season for the men's club team at my school. I can't wait.
The main thing is to keep the obligations in one place, wherever that place is. You get in trouble if you have an app, an electronic notepad, a steno pad, a teeny tiny notebook, and a journal. But thoughts! Thoughts - that's something else. Keep your thoughts somewhere safe so you can find them later. I don't know about you millenials, but writing things out tends to lighten that psychic weight for many people.What's the best way people keep track of their thoughts and obligations?
A steno pad. 
This really resonates with me. I have too many disparate places for stuff. Like three apps and a physical pad. The physical pad is for redundancy because I don't trust my system and can't relax unless everything is in one place in front of me. Thanks Lil, I'll start condensing.
Org is great! I've been using it for several years now: Sadly, it a massive pita to interface with other platforms. I have like 4 intermediate steps to get scheduled items to show up on my phone, and even then it drops birthdays events with non-standard time ranges =/
Directory tree of .org files, version controlled with automatic commits every hour. by cron. .ical snapshots are created every hour using (org-icalendar-combine-agenda-files) and exported to a location accessible by private URL. Then google / windows live consume that URL to create calendars that show notifications on my phone / windows lock screen. It's a mess tbh.
Oh my goodness. Yea, the screenshot alone has me balking. Formatting text in hubski is the extent of my coding skills. That's only half a joke. But it looks cool! Props to you.
I'm a much bigger fan of physical lists for things that aren't mundane, such as grocery lists, doing laundry, things of that nature. For bigger ticket items, obligations involving others, goals, and other thoughts I'm a fan of keeping a journal in something like a Moleskin and using something like a white board for physical to-do. The tangible nature of writing and having to put in that thought creates a stronger connection to whatever that thought or obligation is, and allows me to better digest it bit-by-bit.
Even though I rarely lose things these days (knock on wood), I feel nervous having everything in one place that's not backed up. That said, I make so many physical lists on these 7x3 inch legal pads that I have a zipper envelope to carry them all around. I love writing and indenting and making arrows and crossing things out. But it'd kill me if I lost it midway through the semester.
How's Google Keep? Is it easy to organize with? I used an early version a few years ago and I didn't take to it. But I'm open to trying again. I use simplenote (nvALT on my mac desktop) and it's too basic. A scrolling list down the lefthand side of the program without a good way to organize further.
They added a bunch of features since then. You can now change the color of notes, add labels to them or 'sticky' them, which means they'll stay at the top. It's also possible to draw now in the app. You can also insta-keep web pages with the browser plugin. It can also use pictures, so you can just snap a picture of whatever you want to remember or keep. And you can switch between having checkbox or not. All features that I don't use regularly, but they're there when I need them and make it a good tool to use for me.
Rather than recommend an app or a thing, can I recommend a book? GTD is a cult that has waned in popularity but still has zealous proponents that ascribe far too many powers to it but there's a kernel of truth to it that can be gleaned by reading the book in an afternoon. The trick isn't in finding the best way to track your obligations, the trick is in finding the best way to complete your obligations and what works for someone else may not work for you. For me, the simple, kitschy stuff really does work - having a label maker makes me more organized. Having a file with 12 months in it gives me power over my receipts. Etc.
blackbootz The key insight that I think kb refers to and that I got out of GTD is that it is essential to develop some kind of system first and foremost. Whatever site / app / book you use should fit that system best. For example, my approach to email is that I make a Todoist to-do out of everything that asks me to do something. I archive all the other emails and only archive emails with actionable items once I did that task. Simple system + Gmail + Todoist = clean inbox. Might be a good idea to reflect on where your obligations come from and what systematic way you can tackle them - e.g., when you get a text with something to do, where does that thing go?
You know I hate books :p So I actually own a copy. The top review in Amazon nailed the issue on the head for me: The book is 80% filler. Page after page of rehashing detracted from my motivation to finish it when I picked it up last year. But I'm a lot more motivated to glean its lessons now that I'm roughly 10 times busier. I'll crack it open.
bigass, long notepad paper post-it note thing I stick over my desk. Writing will always be better than an app, because it's right there in front of your face wherever you work and you can do things like make your "To-Do List" into "Fucking Shit to do Today:"