{"id":25208,"date":"2014-02-21T05:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=25208"},"modified":"2014-02-21T05:00:53","modified_gmt":"2014-02-21T11:00:53","slug":"beginners-guide-to-task-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/beginners-guide-to-task-management\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Task Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been making to-do lists since college. In terms of physical systems, I started with the Seven Star Diary, graduated to a Day-Timer<\/a>, and then landed on the Franklin Planner<\/a>. At the time, it was state of the art.<\/p>\n\n

After reading David Allen\u2019s book, Getting Things Done<\/a>,<\/em> I decided to go digital. I did almost everything in Microsoft Outlook and then, after switching to a Mac, Microsoft Entourage. But ultimately, I switched to Nozbe<\/a>, which I have been using since 2007.
\n
\nAs you probably know, there are hundreds if not thousands of task management apps on the market. I have tried many of the most popular including Asana, Basecamp, Daylite, Flow, Nirvana, Omni Focus, Remember the Milk, Things, Toodledo, Trello, Workflowy, Wunderlist, and ZenDone.<\/p>\n

I even tried using Evernote<\/a> for task management. And though I love it as a digital file cabinet, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the right tool for the job. (Yes, I even tried The Secret Weapon<\/a>.) I always come back to Nozbe<\/a>, which, by the way, includes Evernote and Dropbox integration.<\/p>\n

But in the end, I don\u2019t think the tool is as important as the process. In fact, you can waste a ton of time experimenting with tools and not getting any work done. (Don\u2019t ask me how I know this!)<\/p>\n

Regardless of the tool you use, the process is pretty much the same. Whether you use a paper journal or the latest high-tech app, it pretty much boils down to mastering a set of five practices. Use these consistently, and you will become a task management ninja.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Maintaining a set of master task lists.<\/strong> I set up one list for each project. I also have a list for my Daily Ritual<\/a> and each of my goals. I even have a Miscellaneous list for items that don\u2019t fit anywhere else.Most projects are private, but I can also share them as needed with my teammates. I used to use Basecamp for this, but Nozbe<\/a> has recently enhanced this ability, so we are now migrating everything there.In Nozbe<\/a>, I group projects that go together with Labels. This enables me to maintain a sort of hierarchy with the lists. That way I can, for example, view all my conference projects together.\"Nozbe<\/li>\n
  2. Creating tasks as needed.<\/strong> I create tasks on the fly as I process email, sit through meetings, talk with my family and colleagues, and glean insights from various forms of media. With Nozbe<\/a>, I can do this with a single, user-defined keystroke. (I use Shift-Control-Command-T.)I always start my task with a verb<\/em> to insure that it is actionable. I then add a project tag,<\/em> even if it\u2019s just Miscellaneous, and a quick time estimate<\/em> of how long I think the task will take. (More about why in a moment.)I occasionally add a context<\/em> to batch similar tasks together (e.g., @Errands or @Home), but I don\u2019t find these as useful as strict David Allen practitioners do. I also add a due date<\/em> if it is a time-sensitive task that must be completed by a specific date.\"Nozbe<\/li>\n
  3. Reviewing your lists on a regular basis.<\/strong> This is the key to successful task management. It\u2019s great to get tasks out of your head and into a trusted collection system. But if you never review it, it\u2019s useless.I have found that it works best to have a review system, so nothing falls through the cracks. I employ a pattern of weekly and daily reviews. I do the weekly review<\/a> on Sunday nights and my daily review at the end of each day.In my weekly review, I identify the tasks I want to complete in the next week. I flag them with a \u201cThis Week\u201d context tag. In my daily review, I identify the tasks I want to complete tomorrow. I flag those with a \u201cToday\u201d tag.\"Nozbe<\/li>\n
  4. Creating a Today list for each day.<\/strong> Before I begin my day, I want a list of the tasks that need to be done. Usually, I have completed this the night before, so I simply review the list and add anything that didn\u2019t occur to me then.As I look at this list, I add a \u201c@MustDo\u201d context tag to the one to three tasks that absolutely must be completed today. (I don\u2019t include my Daily Ritual<\/a> tasks, because I assume I will do those no matter what.)Once I have the list, I arrange it sequentially in the order I intend to tackle it. With Nozbe<\/a> I can simply drag and drop the items. I always start with my Morning Ritual, then begin working on my most important task first, when my energy level is at its highest. When that is complete, I move to the next most important task.This is where the time estimate I assigned earlier comes in handy. Nozbe keeps a running total of the time it will take to complete all the tasks on a given list. I try never to schedule more than six hours worth of work a day. The reason for this is I consistently underestimate how long things take, and I want to allow some margin in my day.\n

    \"Nozbe<\/li>\n

  5. Tracking tasks you delegate to others.<\/strong> In a perfect world with perfect people, you would delegate a task and forget about it. But, unfortunately, that\u2019s not the world we live in. Most people are overcommitted\u2014even good people\u2014and things occasionally fall through the cracks.When I want to delegate a task, I enter it into Nozbe<\/a> just as I would any other task. Then I add a context with their name preceded by the caret symbol, so these tags sort together (e.g., ^James, ^Megan, or ^Raquel). This way, I can simply click on that context to see what I have delegated to that person.But Nozbe<\/a> actually goes one step further. It provides the ability to share projects and tasks with others, even if the other person is not a Nozbe user (as of version 1.9). I am just beginning to explore this feature but intend to rollout it out to my team in the weeks ahead.\"Nozbe<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    People often try to make task management more complicated than necessary. Yes, you probably need a sophisticated project management system for building a nuclear submarine or renovating a house.<\/p>\n

    But short of that, you just need to become proficient at consistently using these five practices. It\u2019s amazing how much you can get done if you master these.<\/p>\n

    What task management practices do you need to implement?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have been making to-do lists since college. In terms of physical systems, I started with the Seven Star Diary, graduated to a Day-Timer, and then landed on the Franklin Planner. At the time, it was state of the art. After reading David Allen\u2019s book, Getting Things Done, I decided to go digital. I did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Beginner\u2019s Guide to Task Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whether you use a paper journal or the latest high-tech app, task management pretty much boils down to mastering a set of five practices.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/beginners-guide-to-task-management\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Task Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whether you use a paper journal or the latest 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