Furthermore, large tasks are scary to start, so that large estimation may drive me to an extra procrastination circle. Large task estimation usually means that it wasn't decomposed appropriately, and estimation error, in that case, is going to be unexpectedly large. To speed up the task creation process, it has predefined values like in scrum poker: 15m, 30m, 1h, 2h, 4h, 6h, 8h, 12h, and complex.Īctually, I'm thinking about limiting the max estimation to 4h or even to 2h. It allows me to prioritize tasks and understand the workload. It shouldn't be super accurate, but even a ballpark estimation is useful. EstimationĮstimation is mandatory for every task. I find it rather useful to create tasks for everything, even household stuff like 'pay for utility bills' or 'drive the to supermarket and buy soil for plants.' Otherwise, I simply postpone those things endlessly until it becomes outdated and plants eventually die. Projects are not necessarily related to my work but can also include household, health, and any other activity. Most of them have predefined values to make task creation and management faster and effortless. Task scopeĮvery task has the following list of properties. Every time it catches my eye, it makes me remember them and probably adjust my current direction using tasks. They have predefined due dates: year, quarter, month, week, but I usually use only the first two. Usually, it's something long-term but may also be a shorter one. My time management dashboard consists of several sections.Įach goal has tags, due dates and is usually related to some project.

Photo by Mindspace Studio / Unsplash Dashboard What I like most about 'Notion' is that it allows me to create relational databases and do with them whatever I want. Luckily I didn't implement a 'proper' task management tool. What do all software engineers do in that case? Exactly! They reinvent the wheel. It's always either not flexible enough or not what I exactly wanted.

Using a paper notebook feels warm and cozy, but unfortunately, it brings a lot of extra overhead to the process and lacks automation.įinding a matching to-do list app is way harder than a soul mate. The main problem of all tasks and time management workflows is the effort required to maintain them. Every second productivity hacker's handbook says that I need to maintain a task and time management system to become a time management guru.

Notion todo template