Stepping Away From My Task Manager

As much as I love my task manager, I have arrived at the realization that the less time I spend in it, the better I feel. I get anxiety when I look at all of these checklists and projects. My bucket list of things to do keeps growing and I can’t stop to stop it from growing! I have these great intentions of fixing things up, taking on more responsibilities, and handling more than I could ever reasonably handle. But all of my projects and checklists were giving me a lot of stress with its overwhelming content. Perhaps it’s time to step back?

I started to do a lot of procrastinating and pretended I was doing productive work by visiting my task manager and staying there. I would obsessively stare at my projects and checklists to make sure I’m up-to-date. I would tweak a couple of projects here and there. I dreamt of what “finished” looked like when I checked off the last action item but I wouldn’t take the next step of starting the project. I was stalling for time by starting at my task manager. I would nod approvingly when my MacOS Screen Time stats showed that I spent a lot of time in my task manager. But I actually got nothing done.

I started to analyze where I was spending my time in my task manager. I wanted to eliminate any time that was spent wandering in my task manager.

How To Reduce Screen Time In My Task Manager

Maintain a simple folder and project structure

It is easier to review my projects and checklists when my folder structure is simple. I grouped my project according to my Areas of Responsibilities.

Keep relevant projects and checklists

It’s easy to start adding projects and checklists. It’s time to start clearing some old cruft out of our task manager. Delete projects that no longer have any meaning or purpose to our lives. Delete or consolidate our checklists. If a checklist has not been used in the past 3 months, consider it as a candidate for deletion. Why have a checklist if we’re not going to visit it and use it?

Each folder has a group of projects related to an Area of Responsibility. All of my Home projects goes into the Home folder. My Work folder holds all of my work-related projects. I have a Maybe folder that holds a variety of ideas or projects that are still in the planning stages.

I keep my folder and project structure as flat as possible. I never like to have sub-projects. If I have a large project, I’ll create a folder and populate it with projects that represent a project stage.

Sub-projects can group similar tasks together but it just makes my main project longer. It is easier for me to see a large project as a series of smaller projects inside a folder. A huge project with an endless series of sub-projects makes me dizzy when I have to scroll endlessly through it. I can select a project inside a project folder to focus on a particular project stage.

Keep relevant smart lists or custom perspectives

Many task managers such as OmniFocus, 2Do, and Todoist have the ability to create a smart list. It is a saved search that can be easily accessed with the click of a button or a shortcut key. The smart list allows us to quickly create a view that shows the desired tasks at the right time. I don’t need to wade into the deep waters of my Projects view or Tags view to find a group of tasks. I can just jump into the desired smart list and see what I need.

Delete any smart lists that are no longer used. I often take a screenshot of my smart list settings and save it into a folder holding these screenshots. It’s easier to access your smart lists when you have a small handful to choose from. Friction occurs when I have to skip past smart lists that are no longer relevant.

Once a month, I like to update my smart lists. If I haven’t used a smart list in the last 3 months, it might be time to archive it and remove it from my task manager. There are some smart lists that I keep for the summer. When summer season finishes, I archive that smart list. I don’t need it for the rest of year and I don’t want to add more noise to my task manager by keeping it when it’s no longer needed.

Keep My Tags structure simple

Once every three months, I like to go through my tags and consolidate or delete tags when needed. I used to have several tags (contexts) such as:

• Mac

• Mac: Online

• Mac: Offline

• Mac: Excel

• Mac: Ulysses

• Home

• Home: Desk

• Home: Backyard

In my Mac tags, I had multiple tags for the various apps that I was using. But I’ve consolidated everything under a single Mac tag. I don’t worry about a specific app or condition when I’m using my Mac. The only time I’ll consider a sub-context such as a specific app or online status is if I need to break down a long Mac list into smaller groups.

In this example, I don’t frequently use Excel a lot. I can delete the Excel context and assign those tasks to my Mac tag. I do use the Ulysses app a lot and have many writing ideas captured in OmniFocus. I’ll assign the Ulysses tag to any tasks that I want to send to Ulysses.

If you haven’t used a tag in a long time, consider deleting it for now. You can always add a tag back in the future when you will be frequently using it more.

Go Analog when I am in “Action Mode”

Action Mode is the time I spend throughout the day getting actual work done. I’m not staring at my task manager during this time. I transferred a handful of tasks from my task manager to the BuJo and work from that list. The only time I actively engage in my task manager is at the end of the day when I do my end of day daily review and plan for the next day. I call this time block my Planning Mode. This is the only time I actively engage in my task manager. I check off completed items, process new inbox items, and update any projects or checklists. When I finish with my Planning Mode, I am confident that I no longer have to look at my task manager until the next Planning Mode time block.

For more discussion about using a BuJo with a task manager, here is a post about that discussion:

The Dynamic Duo: My OmniFocus and Bullet Journal Workflow

Keep It Super Simple (KISS)

My task manager is easier to browse when I do the following things:

1. Keep a simple project and folder structure.

2. Maintain a simple tag structure with as many tags as needed and with as few tags as needed.

3. Update my smart lists (saved searches) by eliminating unused smart lists and keeping the smart lists I will frequently use in the next month or so.

4. Use my task manager only during my Planning Mode phase when I am performing a daily review at the end of the day.

5. Use my BuJo as a way to stay out of my digital task manager.

I feel so much better when I’m not spending so much time in it. It means I’m actually working on something instead of planning. My task manager is a planning tool. I understand that there are many users who need to refer to their task manager on their smartphone, tablet, or Mac. But it’s too much of a distraction when I am chasing shiny squirrels in my task manager. Keeping my task manager database super simple allows me to browse effortlessly through.

What makes you stay in your task manager? What do you do to keep you task manager simple? Do you have it open on your desktop all day long? Can you get your work done with all the distractions that a task manager gives you? I’d like to hear about how and when you are using your task manager!!