About Task and Project Management

A video course about organising what you need to do

Having a neat filesystem and notes is just the start. This course shows how I use my system to manage my own life and business.

Turns out, having a highly-structured system where everything fits into a category is an amazing way to organise the stuff you need to do.

Tasks versus projects

Tasks and projects are different and so we manage them differently.

Tasks ā€“ the daily one-off stuff that you need to get done at home or work. This is keeping on top of life and it's boring, but unavoidable.

Projects ā€“ the things you want to do on weekends or that make your business better. The longer-term stuff that drives life forward. The more of this you can make time for, the happier you're going to be.

I'll show you how to use the same tools, techniques, and mindset to manage them both.

Comfortable awareness

I don't pretend to have a solution for getting it all done. I have hundreds of items in my task manager and I'm at peace with that.

But I can give you a 'comfortable awareness' of it all. Because much of what's in there is just ideas for the future. It's stuff that you'd like to do. But if it's not done, life goes on.

My process is pragmatic and practical. It ensures that you can't forget the important stuff, while helping make time for everything else. It's designed to not be overwhelming.

We stick to one of the themes of Johnny.Decimal: stress reduction. Because at least if you're aware of it all there's no nasty surprises.

I've been using this system for over a year. It's a really nice feeling.

Process overview

To present the lessons consistently we use the task manager Things. And the notes apps Bear and Obsidian.

If you use something else, the overall concepts should be transferable. But your apps' features will of course differ.

Here's a brief overview of the course ā€“ there's much more detail in the individual lessons.

After the first module you will:

  • Understand the course goals and some terminology around tasks, projects, and priorities.

After the second module you will:

  • Know how to turn your thoughts into actionable tasks in a Johnny.Decimal category, and set up a morning review routine.

After the third module you will:

  • Understand how to realistically schedule your day, assign priorities, and manage different kinds of tasks.

After the fourth module you will:

  • Know how to create, organise, schedule, and name projects, and how to cross-link them from Things to an index note.

After the fifth module you will:

  • Have learned some project manager-y terms to use in your index, and some distraction-reducing techniques for getting stuff done.