Business management – my experience
I want to share with you my experience of keeping a to-do list. I will tell you using work tasks as an example, but I also use the same method for everyday tasks. All tips are not tied to a specific tool, and everything can be done in any more or less popular task manager. For my part, I can advise TickTick. With this method of doing things, I have changed many work roles, and being a task manager has helped me in each one.
Who will benefit?
– project workers and freelancers, so as not to miss important tasks;
– people with super diverse tasks that do not fit into the standard flow of conditional development activities;
– managers and team leaders;
– for students, in order to somehow streamline the continuous flow of laboratory work and other activities.
Initially, for doing business, I was inspired by the book Jedi techniquesthen I began to apply the method described there, threw out the things that didn’t suit me, added a little for myself, and now I’ve been using the resulting result for 8 years.
Basic principles
Let's start with a set of fundamental principles, from which we will further build the entire logic of working with the task manager. The principles may seem like captain's principles, but following them has greatly simplified my life.
Record everything. Absolutely any tasks, ideas and other little things, everything must be written down. Unload your RAM, don’t store anything in your head. The head is needed to think, not to remember.
Store all tasks in one place; I suggest a task manager for this. The task manager should be a single source for everything. No tasks written down somewhere else. First of all, you yourself and your head must trust this source of information. There should be no such thing as not being sure where you wrote down the task or whether you wrote it down at all. The habit of recording everything in one place has a positive effect on the subconscious, it becomes much calmer.
Tasks need to be decomposed into small subtasks. The ideal task contains an action so you can start immediately. As a rule, poorly formulated tasks are never taken on – you simply do not know how to start this task, and this fear paralyzes the desire to start completing the task. As a result of decomposition, a large task has a small first step, after which it is easy to plan the next one.
In my opinion, priorities are usually not needed. Sometimes, rarely, you can assign priority to some task so that it can be seen better. But I propose a method in which there are not so many tasks for the day and you can easily understand what needs to be taken on. Also, if there are two high priority tasks, which one has higher priority?
How to start for the first time
You need to unload all tasks from RAM to relieve your head. Then we will digitize the whole thing. Even if you already use a task manager, using the guide below you can supplement it with missed tasks. I propose to proceed as follows.
Getting ready:
Somewhere to find a good mood, a free head and relax.
Take a pen and paper, or better yet several.
Free up an hour of time, although 15 minutes may be enough for someone.
Turn off all mobile phones, any notifications, close all equipment, remove all distractions.
We act:
We sit down in a convenient place, mark the time and begin to write down absolutely all the thoughts that come to mind: there will be tasks, ideas, reminders like “water the flowers,” everything, everything, everything. We write and write. The first time I did this, I wrote on 4 A4 sheets.
Everything recorded must be digitized. In the method I propose, we put everything into the inbox folder; I’ll tell you how to work with it below. Essentially, this is the entry point of your task manager, from where I sort out tasks on a daily basis.
If you have a work calendar with tasks, you need to synchronize it so that everything is in one place. We synchronize all tasks with a calendar or calendars, if you have several of them.
The output of this procedure is that you have a digitized list of all the tasks that previously occupied valuable resources in your head. Now you can work with it.
Space arrangement
Now let's talk about the structure of the organization of our tasks. I think this can be implemented in any task tracker. The task space consists of sections, tags, and filters.
– sections allow you to divide tasks into groups;
– I use tags to structure tasks, and tags work outside of sections;
– filters as a way to select the necessary tasks and work only with them, a central feature in my business management.
Sections, tags and filters can be quite customizable, I share mine below.
Sections:
I try to make do with a minimum number of sections: inbox for incoming tasks/thoughts/everything, work for completed work tasks, meeting for calls and meetings, and wiki for notes, thoughts and ideas. More details about the sections:
inbox is the entrance to your space. A place where absolutely everything is recorded, not processed in any way. Ideas, tasks, micro-tasks, something to think about, answer later – we dump everything here so you don’t miss it. In future work, the goal will be to empty this section every day.
work (work) – a section containing formalized, understandable work tasks.
meeting – online calls or offline meetings are a special type of task in which you are tied to a specific time and where you need to communicate with other people. Sometimes non-work matters that fall within working hours (for example, going to the doctor) can be conveniently arranged in the form of an appointment.
wiki (knowledge base) – some space for notes, thoughts, storing articles. I can’t recommend anything here yet, it comes out very individually. You can build a separate story about how to organize a knowledge base. Many people use separate applications for such purposes, for example, Obsidian with rollicking functionality or Anytype. I still store this in TickTick, but I’m looking for another solution.
Tags:
Some of the tags appeared or became more relevant when I had managerial responsibilities and people subordinate to me. Plus, I came to a convenient naming of tags in English for reasons of speed. I enter a hash and immediately start writing a tag without switching languages.
awaits_me (awaits_me) is a super-important tag, I use it to mark tasks that block someone’s work. It’s worth doing such tasks first, because someone is sitting and waiting for results from me in order to continue completing some of their tasks.
assigned_control (assigned_control) – I use it when I have assigned a task to someone and am waiting for the result in order to further use the work artifact. Sometimes I use it to control the completion of not very large tasks. In this case, immediately after setting the task, I assign myself a control task for approximately a week to check.
ping (remind) – I use it for reminders for personal purposes, for example, to remind my wife of something. At work, I expect that the employee does not need to be reminded of anything. Although there are times when the team works in tandem. Then I clearly note to myself that even though I gave Kolya the task, I need to remind him, otherwise he now has OOM (out-of-memory). Moreover, issuing a task to Kolya means: creating a task for Kolya in the team task manager, specifying its features in the task, and recording the execution time. At the same time, to control execution, we have the excellent assigned_control tag, which was above.
now (now) – this is how I sometimes mark those micro-tasks that can be done in less than 5 minutes. It is useful to do them right away so that they do not hang, and to close them quickly.
If you have several projects, it is quite convenient to create a separate tag for each of them. Obviously, you can optionally enter other tags, for example, idea (idea) for interesting thoughts.
Filters:
When the tasks are divided into sections and tagged (I’ll tell you how to organize everything below), we need to navigate them. Not all tasks need to be done today, and for some the due date is not clear at all. If you use only sections, you will end up with some sort of trash can. At the same time, tasks from several sections are often needed simultaneously (work and meetings, for example). I created several filters for myself.
Work for today. Show work and meeting sections with dates set to Today or Previously (that is, overdue tasks). This is the most important filter, in fact, it is used 90% of the time. It is convenient to start the working day with an understanding of the upcoming work front. It is also important that your eyes do not get distracted by the number of tasks. It’s very nice when everything or almost everything is done at the end of the day, you can scratch your belly and go hug your wife and children.
Tomorrow. Show work and meeting sections with due date Tomorrow. Sometimes (or very often?) you need to understand what awaits you tomorrow.
Meetings for a month. Show a meeting with a date one month in advance. I don’t use this filter very often, but sometimes you need to see what awaits you in meetings in the near future. If you also manage not only work tasks, then it is very convenient to sometimes look down on all the meetings that await you. Meeting on architecture, child to the clinic, visit grandma, etc. Here you can see if there are any random intersections, if you are going to the dentist during a meeting with investors.
Parsing inbox
Our tasks already have a structure, they are divided into sections and tagged. How to continue to work with this, what to hire and when? Whether it’s the first time or every time you view the inbox, my processing logic is something like this. Every time you look through the inbox, we distribute tasks based on your priorities. Something needs to be done tomorrow, something in a week, something needs to be written into the knowledge base, something needs to be deleted. When viewing the inbox, I also look at the clarity of the wording and the presence of details for the task; if something is unclear, I add it or set the task to clarify some details.
The main thing is to plan a manageable number of tasks per day. If you try to formalize the task of filling out the schedule by day, it turns out like this:
We arrange tasks with a fixed start time (mostly meetings/calls) based on time.
Periodic tasks (water the flowers, update the resource plan, prepare reports, …) are formatted as tasks tied to a date.
Now there is some free time left for tomorrow, roughly 5 hours. From experience, it is advisable to plan 4 hours worth of tasks for tomorrow, because additional tasks will inevitably appear that will also eat up time. I already plan these tasks without time. As soon as I have free time, I start doing the next task from the planned ones. Finished everything for today? You can take it from your planned tasks for tomorrow.
Tasks that do not fit in tomorrow are left for the day after tomorrow, but they should take no more than half of the available time. Then it is filled in the day after tomorrow and so on. If you immediately fill up the week ahead, then congratulations, you are overloaded, you need to create your own backup, like the Strugatskys, or delegate tasks. Why do we fill half? So that there is room for new tasks, plus we will have subtasks from decomposed large tasks to be rescheduled. With experience comes an understanding of how much you accomplish in a day. And the Daily Review, which will be discussed below, helps with this.
Algorithm for working with a task manager
Let's try to look at my work using an example. So, the working day begins.
Enable the “Work for today” filter, that is, tasks for the day. It’s simple, we take tasks and do it. There is no need to remember what to do, because everything is already at hand and ready. The key here, I repeat, is the number of planned tasks for the day that can actually be completed in a day.
As soon as the task is completed, we make a corresponding mark. First of all, it's beautiful. Secondly, so that these tasks do not interfere. And thirdly, it is important to see all completed tasks for motivation.
If tasks arrive through any channels during the day, then we either put them in the inbox (if the task is abstract and incomprehensible), or add them directly to the Work section (for understandable and structured tasks). However, if you add it to “Work for today”, you should think about what you have planned that will go away. Time is not rubber.
The end of the working day is coming, at least the beginning of the next one. And here we turn to the Daily Review task. What is it? This is a killer feature of the method of doing things that I use, the periodic daily task Daily Review; below I will describe the process of working with it. In the description of the Daily Review there are the following checkboxes:
Are all planned tasks recorded? If not, add it to inbox.
Disassemble inbox. Tasks from there should move to a category and optionally receive a tag and due date.
View tasks completed today. List next steps for these tasks, if any.
View planned tasks in “Work for today”, but not completed tasks. Do you need to do something about this right now/tomorrow/this week/later? If yes, then reschedule the task or create a new one.
Are there any old tasks on your “Today's Work” list that were changed more than 24 hours ago? Reframe them.
Let's go through each point in more detail.
It is important to put everything in the inbox to relieve RAM. What tasks will you need to complete tomorrow? Have you thought about everything you planned to do and put it on the list? Just sit in silence for a minute, think if you missed anything. There shouldn’t be too many tasks for the day, and it’s very easy to prioritize them after a quick glance. I won’t focus here on how to prioritize tasks; you may have your own vision and algorithm. But let me make a reservation: if you have too many tasks for the day, then something is wrong at the conservatory. You physically cannot do more tasks than fits into your working time. Unfinished tasks can snowball and become demotivating. Reality must be accepted. Tasks that do not fit into your workday should either be delegated or deleted.
As a result, a million different things accumulate in the inbox. You need to clear it out, formulate it more precisely, assign a category, tag and due date. As a result, we get an empty inbox.
It is useful to review completed tasks. It often happens that based on the results of a completed task, a new task may be required. Conventionally, we sorted out the backlog with the team. After the analysis, you need to create a new task: assign tasks to the team based on the results of grooming. And so that you don’t miss this, you need this point. We look through all the tasks completed during the day and see if we need to create any new ones. If yes, then obviously we start it.
If you didn't complete the task, why? Didn't have time, the task is unclear, or are you waiting for something? In general, this is a point of reflection that asks you to slow down a little and think.
About old tasks. From my point of view, this is a categorically important thing. Sometimes it happens that you not only didn’t complete a task today, but you end up rescheduling it for the tenth time in a row. In this case, it’s worth thinking about why you don’t do it. A fairly common reason is that the task is formulated too abstractly. You simply don’t know how to tackle it and, accordingly, you procrastinate day after day and grab more understandable tasks. Decomposing tasks can often help. But the truth is that a month-long task that you carefully carry over day after day is worthy of deletion. Accept that it will never be done and get rid of it. Although, to be honest, I have a couple of tasks that I have been carrying out for several years, and I just like it 🙂
An example of processing a work meeting. I myself am a paper freak, so during meetings I often write down some ideas and tasks in a notebook. At the end of the meeting, I almost mindlessly move everything to the inbox section. The only thing is that you can specify additional details when transferring. If among what you enter there are clear tasks with a clear start date, you can immediately add them to the Work section indicating the date. Let me remind you that it’s worth adding very small tasks. For example, tell Vasya that he must prepare a report tomorrow. Of course, you can write to Vasya right away, but then you will be distracted… It’s up to you to decide, it’s more convenient for me to first deal with the results of the meeting.
I bought TickTick premium for myself, but, in general, it is not required. A subscription costs $36 per year, gives you a calendar, clever statistics and various little things.
