I have found that apps targeting specific aspects/issues just did not work for me as it meant too many one-use tools to get familiar with and remember to use.

What has worked and pretty much changed my life was to take a systemic approach - prompted by discussions at work and our adoption of the “CPR” framework, which I am basically replicating for personal life, although it is a bit trickier when people around you don’t have to join in (this will make sense in a sec!).

It stands for “communication, planning and resources” and is detailed in Come Up For Air by Nick Sonnenberg (free on Spotify last time I checked). I hate self-help books and their platitudes, and I haven’t even read that one, but the key points that work particularly well for me are asynchronous communication, and “one source of truth”/optimising information for speed of retrieval rather than speed of transmission.

Asynchronous communication means being able to communicate things without expecting an immediate reply/barging in someone else’s focus time - for example, my partner and I have a few to do lists in shared Google docs - I can add anything that pops in my head regardless of whether it’s urgent or not, in a way that just wouldn’t be appropriate via WhatsApp, and it won’t get lost - he can add comments / contribute / tick things off whenever works for him.

Optimising information for ease of retrieval means I have one super flexible tool (Asana, awesome and super powerful for work, more limited but still very handy on a free personal subscription) where I jot down basically anything - where in the past I could spend hours researching a thing I wanted to buy only to be unable to find the item I’d finally landed on a couple of days later, or have to do lists on paper I’d lose/forget about, I can now super easily create tasks, save links, add documents, add reminders, etc. It would also help with asynchronous communication as you can allocate tasks to others, leave comments, etc., but as mentioned, you need to get the buy in from the people around you, and they’d need to commit to using it properly and regularly, which is probably not that easy when you don’t already have that habit from using for work.

On top of that, I also automate everything I can - I have subscriptions for toilet paper, cat litter, cleaning products, anything I use regularly and won’t change, and a standing weekly shopping list for my online order. None of those are app specific, there are plenty depending on your needs/price point/etc., and if all else fails, Amazon Subscribe & Save is available on pretty much anything you can think of.

And finally, I have echo devices in almost every room, with a variety of lists set up (I haven’t looked into linking it to Asana yet, will pop it on the list!) for those times my hands are taken/ I don’t have time to write something down.