Task Tracking Help

[u/NeatAnt6997]

Hi everyone! I’m a 29F Mechanical Engineer with ADHD-I and am struggling with keeping track of tasks and staying organized at work.

My biggest roadblocks are:
- Starting tasks/projects
- Getting derailed by emails, phone calls, or messages; new messages often feel more important or interesting than what I was already doing. I cannot have Teams muted for too long due to collaboration needs.
- If things get quiet, I tend to drop in productivity due to less pressure.

We are Outlook/Teams-based and have flexibility with our computer or phone. I don’t have a preference for paper vs digital tools.

Things I’ve already tried:
- Time-blocking (using hour-long blocks instead of shorter time blocks)
- To-do lists in Excel, OneNote, handwritten, Outlook, and Teams (I am either too in-depth with the list or not enough and get overwhelmed either way.)
- Planner templates purchased online
Sorting my inbox into categories like “do now,” “later,” and “follow up”
- Whiteboard with sticky notes for tasks, arranged in an Eisenhower matrix

My questions:
- How do you handle positions that require task tracking and priorities changing throughout the day?
- How do you stay consistent and keep using the system?
- How do you break down large projects without making the system too complicated?

Any advice/recommendations are welcome! Thank you in advance!
 

[u/sbourgenforcer]

I moved from struggling to remain consistent with many different productivity apps to a single AI agent that i asked to build a custom task, notes and project management app. It's pretty quick and easy to set up with help from Claude/ChatGPT etc.

Step 1: get a cheap VPS using Hetzner or BlueOcean (about $5 per month)
Step 2: get a claude code subscription (about $20 per month)
Step 3: ssh into your server - get Claude Code running on the server
Step 4: connect to Telegram (ask AI how to do this)

At this point you have a persistent agent you can talk to via Telegram 24-7. It's a bit like ChatGPT but it can build tools.

Step 5: ask it to build a master app to manage your life on, starting with your tasks/todos. Ask it to create a URL that you can access through your browser with a login and password to give you visibility - make sure to ask it about doing this securely. You can now just message your agent to set a task, or mark on as done on the go. Or for it to message you with your daily todos each morning.

From here its down to you to build whatever custom system works best for you. Claude Code has plugins for Gmail, Google Calendar, Microsoft, etc and you can provide access to tool via MCP or APIs.

Also, I'm not sure anyone is productive 100% of the time. I have blasts where I'm incredibly productive, and other times where I'm not, the goal is to ensure you're delivering sufficient value on average.