The Simplest Task Management Technique I’ve Come Across

I’ve been through many iterations of my task management system. As usual, I found that the less maintenance required, the more time and willpower you have left for doing your actual work.

Hence, my current system is quite simple: capture a task and tell it when to show up. Here’s how that process looks like in practice:

1. As I go about my day, I jot down any task, idea or thought worth remembering in my Todoist Inbox folder.
2. On a daily basis, I review what I’ve captured there — whether it’s something actionable or a note to store for later.
3. For any note that has some kind of action related to it, I add a due date and move it over from my Inbox folder to a “Processed” folder, meaning I set it and forget it. Repeating tasks, such as paying bills, for example, get a repeating due date.
4. On any given day, I get a list of my tasks that are relevant just for this day. I trim it down to what’s manageable in the morning and try to get through the rest every single day.

That’s it basically — the simplest task management technique I’ve tried so far is to simply capture tasks in your task manager and add a due date for when you should pay attention to them. Nothing slips through the cracks. You never have hanging thoughts in the back of your mind. So you’re free to confidently do your best work.

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