The day I started working full time. This was the before and after moment of my life. Until then, my only concerns were personal relationships, studies, and little else. I could afford to have all my tasks in my head, or at most put only the most exceptional ones on the Mac’s calendar. I couldn’t fulfill my duties in any way earrings. I was just mentally recording them.

Once I started quoting for forty hours and was now independent, it was getting harder and harder to keep spinning all the plates at once without falling to the ground, even though it could still work. But carelessness, delays and last-minute deliveries were the first signs of that. A solution was urgently needed. My partner’s sensible wake-up call Cesar Muela (“You’re complicating mine with these mistakes in your work”) was the sure sign: Having a job as a tightrope walker doesn’t mean that spending your life on the wire is ideal.

Application at least

My first choice at the time was Wunderlist, a great German app that would be purchased by Microsoft and run To Do instead; but as time went on I went through restless digital-specific alternatives. Omnifocus for a short time, Todoist for a few years, and Things for a few months. It serves as proof of this is a very simple method suitable for almost any application of this type.

Someone will say “It’s not even a method”. And you will not lack logic. Perhaps one of the best-known methods is GTD by David Allen. This is nothing more than some basic indication, not even a substantial “version of GTD” (there is no such thing, GTD is canonical and what goes beyond its dogma is no longer GTD). The bad: they’re too simple. The good thing: They’re so simple, they’re pretty quick to understand, and they work. Best of all: they’re so simple they’re simple enough to fit into an article. xataka He’s not trying to sell you a book or course. Everything can be expanded, but this is useful for anyone starting from scratch or anyone who feels it’s time to get rid of papers and notebooks. Do this for Amazon.

First you will need to decide on the task manager. Overall, I recommend Todoist as a starting point for everyone: it’s simple, versatile, and free (with the exception of some options that require subscriptions). Then we can talk about Notion for those who want to combine much more than their tasks in the same product, Things for those who keep design at the forefront and only have Apple devices, or Omnifocus for those who are looking for something very advanced and complex.

the ideal Find a task manager you feel comfortable with. The interface that encourages you to use it and is available on the platforms you use. For example, Omnifocus has a web version but no Android app. Apple’s native Reminders are not copied outside of your devices. And Notion is versatile, but it might not be that light if you need to use your mobile a lot.

hierarchical columns

No matter which task management application you choose, they all have similar principles, with the following type of hierarchy: Fields → Projects → Tasks → Subtasks, although their terminology varies.

• fields. Great collections of projects. For example, “Personal” and “Business” are often the most used pair. If there is something big in your life, you can make it such an area.
• Projects. Their own fields that fill each space. For example, in “Personal” they could be “Home”, “Health”, “Managements”, “Sports”.
• Tasks. Specific tasks that we must complete in each project. For example, in “Home” they might be “Duplicate master key at hardware store”, “Take rug to dry cleaner” or “Take duvet box to storage”.
• Subtasks. This is optional and can only be applied to tasks that make sense to split them into multiple subtasks. For example, within a task like “Weekly cleaning” we might detail subtasks such as “Cleaning the hood”, “Change the bedding”, “Sweep and mop the whole house” or “Clean bathroom partitions and mirrors”.

It is possible at this point that some readers may think this is an exaggeration. Alright. All is right as long as the size of the apps is for everyone to use it as they need and want it and benefits those who use it.

Tools to be allies, not obsessed with

Task managers, despite some differences, have more or less common features. Knowing how to use them wisely is far better than ignoring them altogether, or perhaps worse, assuming that we should use them all all the time. Flexibility.

• expiration dates. The GTD method says that tasks should have a due date only when something terrible will happen if you don’t complete them on time. Personally I’m more lax on this one, my reading is that I usually date tasks on the days I really want them to be completed, not when it’s just a matter of life and death. And if I have to carry them because that’s how life is, it wouldn’t be a big drama. It’s also important to have expiration dates that repeat in the cycles we want.
• labels. It is perhaps the most complex to implement universally. In my case, I only use them to tag any task or project I can do in a city I go to five or six times a year. When I get there and see the tasks in this tag, I know exactly what to do there, and only there. There are also those who determine them according to certain work environments, work tools or certain people. He talked about it on his Todoist blog.
• priority indicators. Sometimes they are indicated by color codes, like traffic lights. Others, by the number of exclamation marks next to each mission. This is an example of the kind of feature where being obsessed with using it is counterproductive just because its absence can be understood as “low priority” and so we don’t have to spend a lot of time configuring each task.
• inbox. Here come the tasks we want to add quickly and we will process them (subtasks, specific project, date, tags…) as we get the chance. It’s ideal to have this so you don’t miss any ideas or memories.
• titles. Ideal for making timely allocations within projects. For example, as part of the “Loop Infinito” project (podcast), which is part of the “Webedia” area (the house we live in). xataka and company), with tasks in one title, and ideas for future chapters in the other. So they don’t interfere.

Some concrete ideas

If so far it’s all about presentations and general uses, let’s move on to some specific ideas I’ve implemented in recent years, and while these are by no means specific to my harvest, they tend to surprise other people when I tell them. about them.

Some of the personal areas (and currently in Home, Health, Administration, etc.):

• Make an appointment to renew the DNI. I created this task the last time I refreshed my ID. Four years and eight months from now. Same goes for passport and driver’s license.
• Make an appointment for ITV. When I got my car, I created this mission for the three years and nine months that I would have to pass ITV for the first time in the future.
• Make an appointment for dental cleaning. This repeats automatically every year, twelve months after completion.
• Christmas menu planning. I like to spend Christmas Eve in the kitchen preparing dinner for my family. Every year on December 6, this task is given to me, just to start thinking about a menu. A few days before Christmas Eve, another task called “Christmas menu shopping” appears as a notification. The bull doesn’t even catch me long enough to think about what to prepare or buy.
• to pass foam roller. Blessed myofascial release. The effects are great but something I easily forget. By creating this repetitive task every day, I do not neglect this movement and my muscles recover better after gym or running for a while.
• Contact book backup. For what could happen.

Image: Xataka, Mockups Studio.

Now we continue with some of the professional environment:

• process the mail. It is repeated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I hope the post doesn’t get me into “kick-forward” thinking. Every time I mark it complete, it’s because that’s how I reply to or process emails that I need to read and leave the unread counter at zero.
• Responding to audience emails. Among the emails I can’t reply to right now are emails sent to me by podcast listeners, and I can only let them be collected in a specific folder so I can respond in bulk when I have time. It is repeated once a week.
• think about the topic of tomorrow. Also, thanks to the podcast, I save a lot of time and feel more comfortable because instead of looking for a topic to which the time is added every morning, I just have to prepare a script and announce it according to a pre-planned title.

Personalization 101

Of course, very few of these will help you, but I hope they help you think about what phases of your day, week, month or year are you. can benefit from automatic reminder. Maybe you think some of them are too obvious to even deserve to be created.

For example, I set the bar thinking that taking a shower or brushing teeth were such obvious automatisms that there was no point in messing up the task manager with them. On the other hand, the sometimes forgotten or “did I get this today?” taking a vitamin supplement that led to the classic. Something worth including.

Maybe someone just needs it for their job and maybe someone else has a job for which something like this just doesn’t fit, but it can help them thrive in the personal space every day.

let me also add tasks are not appointments or events. The first lives in the task manager, the second and third live in the calendar. It is important to understand the difference in concept.

And beyond that, I encourage everyone to consider how a task manager can better assist their daily lives. Maybe you only need an average of six tasks a day, or you can multiply that number by five. It will depend on the context of each; The greater the complexity (hosting, car, families with several young children, self-employment…), the more useful one of these apps will be. .

If you like this as the introductory character, you may want to complete it with much more ambitious readings such as ‘Get Organizedly’, where David Allen explains the GTD method. If you prefer a more friendly read (Allen’s might be a bit rough for beginners), ‘Personal Productivity: Learn to De-stress with GTD’ by José Miguel Bolívar is a great option. You can also choose Bullet Journal.

on Xataka | Not only does it kill productivity, notifications take up half of our day.

Featured Image | Xataka, Mockup Studio.