Goals

• Collect all your tasks
• Learn how to prioritize them
• Reduce the load by delegating
• Increase flexibility by adding more structure to your life

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Fuck being a grown-up! There's so much to think about, not to mention all those responsibilities... And what do you get in return? A bunch of extra rights and the freedom to do whatever the hell you want to do with your life. Well... Ok, I changed my mind. Fuck yeah to being a grown-up!

Responsibilities and tasks still suck though... Especially because they tend to multiply. As soon as you accept one, other people notice that despite your looks, you actually are a trustworthy guy, and suddenly you're drowning in tasks you've never asked for. But not just that. Imagine you want to achieve something in your life (crazy, I know). Those damn goals require hard work! There are tons of things to do, to keep track of, to research, to grind through... And god forbid you forget to plan something for your next anniversary!

(Imagine a sleazy salesman wearing the mother of cheap suits for the next section) Well, you're in luck! I have just the thing you need to solve all your problems! And even better: It's on sale! For the low price of 199.99€, you can own the latest breakthrough in task management. You would need to be an idiot not to buy it right now! And your mother didn't raise an idiot, did she?

Primer on task management

There are two types of people in this world: The ones that have a task management system, and the ones that don't. One isn't necessarily better than the other, depending on your preferences, your abilities to work with lots of dynamically changing information, and most importantly the number of distinct tasks you have on your plate. I know highly productive people that don't use any structured task management system, and I doubt they would benefit from it. But I also know from experience that scatter-brained individuals like me are basically useless pieces of garbage without them. Seriously, I have no clue how I was able to get stuff done before I adopted one into my life. Oh wait, I just remembered! I didn't. I just didn't get anything done... (cue sad violin music)

Here's a link that was partially responsible for getting me to adopt a task management system into my life: https://gettingthingsdone.com
The GTD (Getting Things Done) system by David Allen is brilliantly simple (once you've done it for a while) yet effective. Most of what I will cover is partially taken from, or heavily inspired by GTD.

Another disclaimer upfront: I like working with real-world objects. So instead of going the completely digital route (via Jira, Asana, Trello, etc.) I chose to get my hands dirty when it comes to my task management system: I'm using an actual whiteboard, post-it notes, and a pen. Ain't no power outage gonna keep me from pulling the next task from my backlog. Granted, most of my tasks require electricity of some kind. But honestly, I went analog simply because I prefer the physicality of post-its, and how you can crumple them up and toss them in the bin once you're done.

However, an analog task management system will come with certain drawbacks:

• Your backlog and task board are limited to one location. When you're out and about, you can neither push nor pull to/from it. I simply take a picture of it if I'm not in my office, usually works just fine.
• Lack of reminders. For that, I actually use an electronic task management system where I only add tasks that need to be done at a very specific date and time in the future (think dentists appointment, also your typical reminders for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.).
• Sorting, and other automation for better handling of large amounts of tasks. I honestly see that as a drawback of electronic systems. If my task backlog is too long to fit on my whiteboard, it's time for some cleanup. Also if it's hard to sort them and keep an overview, it's telling me I'm focusing on too many things at once. Thinking you're super productive because you have a backlog containing hundreds of items is a dangerous trap. In reality, it just means you either keep obsolete tasks or break them down too much upfront. Always keep overhead to a minimum!

But since everyone is a unique snowflake, your situation and personal preference might lend themselves more towards those newfangled systems powered by magical electronic elves (that's how computers work, right?). And if that's the case, you can still use all of my tips, just adapt them to whatever system you prefer.

Step 1: Gotta catch all of 'em tasks!

Take your time and write down everything that you:

• need to do. Pay the bills, clean the house, organize a nanny so you can go on that trip with your significant other. If you have a job with a certain amount of freedom when it comes to which task you'll tackle next (but doesn't come with a task management system of its own), also add all upcoming work tasks you can think of.
• want to do. Organize a fun event with your friend group, do some research for a project you're working on, plan a vacation.

Since I'm using an analog task board, a stack of post-it notes and a pen are my tools of choice for this step.

The granularity of these things can range from tasks taking a couple of minutes (if it's less than that, you should make a habit of doing it right away, to remove the cost of overhead) to big, daunting life-long missions.

The main thing is to get these tasks out of your head. You would be surprised how much load it puts on your brain if you try to keep track of them all. And a few pieces of paper are much better at this job, freeing up valuable resources that you can then use to work on these tasks instead of simply memorizing them.

Step 2: What to work on next

The largest section on your task board will be the backlog. This contains everything you want/need to work on, but are not actively working on just yet. So in other words: This is where you'll get your new tasks if you run out of stuff to do. And as you can probably imagine, it's better to work on valuable, impactful, and also urgent tasks rather than nice-to-haves. To make the process of picking these high-quality tasks more straightforward, it's best to prioritize them beforehand. No longer will you be stalling because you can't decide what to work on next.

I prefer sorting my backlog in two dimensions:

• How important is this task? This is admittedly a mix of how impactful and urgent a given task is. Fixing your roof when there's a storm brewing in the distance is probably pretty urgent, and would rank higher than calling a potential new client. Think: Given the value and urgency of all of these tasks, what should I tackle next?
• How big is this task? Getting groceries and writing a letter are considered smaller tasks, whereas starting a business is probably a larger one. The latter can and should of course be broken down, as soon as you find the time.

Organize your tasks following these 2 principles on a grid like this:

Step 3: Waiting for burning monkeys

On top of the backlog, there are 5 columns dedicated to tasks that are actively being worked on, or that you want to start working on today. These columns are:

• Waiting For
  As the name implies, you're waiting for something. You or someone else has already started working on this task, but at the moment, there's nothing you can do but wait. Either for someone else to get back to you, a delivery to arrive, paint to dry, grass to grow, whatever. These tasks serve as a reminder. It's best to regularly check them, and ask for status updates if you feel like they should have been done already.
• Delegate This column shouldn't be populated a lot and serves mainly as a reminder. If you pick up a task, always ask yourself whether it would make sense to delegate it, especially when working with a team. But delegation is also an option if you work on your own. In that context, think of it more like an outsourcing column. Do you need to edit these pictures? Maybe it's better to pay someone else to do it.

I'll go through the remaining 3 in reverse order:

• Burning Monkeys
  I can't recall where I got this name from. Imagine there's a burning monkey in your house. Jumping everywhere, throwing things, and - something that wouldn't stay like that for long in real life - it's on fire! Running around screaming, spreading flames everywhere it goes. So it serves as an overcomplicated metaphor for a task that you definitely won't ignore for long. And if you did, things would get out of hand pretty quickly. One detail where this metaphor starts to fall apart though: If you are confronted with an actual burning monkey or a comparable situation, please don't put it on a post-it. Start working on it right away!
• High Prio
  These tasks should get done today. You're not expecting a monkey-induced raging inferno if they don't, so it would theoretically not be the end of the world if you finish some of them tomorrow. But you'd prefer to get them done asap.
• NTH
  Standing for "Nice to have". If you can manage to get everything done from the other two columns, these are the next items according to your prioritization. Also good for smaller - but still important - tasks if you are either blocked on your main tasks or need a bit of diversion.

Step 4: "So, how do I drive this thing?"

There are two main rituals I suggest implementing in conjunction with this task management system:

Weekly backlog grooming

Once a week (I do it on Monday mornings) take a bit of extra time to go through the whole board.

• Are there any tasks in "Waiting For" that require further action?
• Some tasks in "NTH" that have been hanging out there for a while now and might require some additional thought and attention?
• Is the prioritization in the backlog still up to date? Throughout the week, there might have been new tasks for the backlog that still need to be correctly sorted.
• Are there tasks high up in the backlog that need to be broken down further so you can start working on them? Starting a business is definitely too large to drag into your daily tasks, there's no way you're going to finish that within a day. Doing some research, or calling a friend that knows a lot about it might be good smaller tasks to get the ball rolling.

Picking your tasks for the day

Realistically, your task board won't be empty in the morning. There might be some tasks in "NTH" or even some in "High Prio" left from the day before. But probably not enough to fill a whole day. So now it's time to go through your backlog and pick the most important tasks that you want to add to the list for today. Be realistic, but also push yourself enough to make it challenging. In addition to populating your daily task board, this is also a good opportunity to double-check if there are some new tasks that are only lurking in the back of your mind, but not yet on your task board. Get them out of there immediately! Because the main learning I got from using this type of task management system for the last few years is:

Your brain is horrible at keeping up with all of your tasks. Things will fall through the cracks, you will end up doing what's easiest at that moment instead of what's most important. And a big chunk of your brain's capacity is wasted on memorizing everything you still need to do, going over that list again and again, because you know you will inevitably forget something, and therefore can't trust yourself. Instead of fully focusing on the task at hand, there will always be this part of you that's busy looking for overdue deadlines and missed birthdays. But instead, you can just use the appropriate tools to keep track of all those tasks, without wasting any mental capacity. Imagine how much more productive you can be! Alternatively - and much healthier in the long run - imagine how much time you could save by being more effective, and then use this extra time to enjoy life to its fullest!

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