Why a task overview?
Your tasks live in your head, in three notes apps and in the starred emails. Every time you see one, you have to decide something. An overview moves the decisions to one place and one moment, so the rest of the day can be spent doing.
It only works if it is short and used every day. That is why this guide covers both how to build it and how to read it.
What does each task need?
- Title: a verb phrase, like “Send quote to Anna”.
- Status: to do, in progress, waiting on someone, done or parked.
- Priority: high, medium or low.
- Due date: only when there is a real date.
- Goal: which of your three to five goals it serves. If it has none, park it.
- Notes and links: to the draft, the file or the email the task is about.
Always link the draft or the file to the task, so you never have to look for it again.
Which rules keep the list useful?
- At most five tasks may be high at once. If there are six, one goes down. That is the whole point of priority.
- “Waiting on someone” is its own status. Remind once, write it down, and let go until the reply comes. Otherwise waiting takes up room in your head.
- Parked tasks have a reason and a date when you look again. Otherwise they are just hidden.
- Add nothing without a goal. It is the simplest way to keep the list short.
- A twenty-minute review each week: unanswered threads and overdue tasks. Revisit the order of your goals every four weeks.
How do I use 80/20 to choose?
The 80/20 rule is a rule of thumb: often most of the result comes from a small part of the effort. It is not a law and the numbers should not be taken literally, but the question is good: which few things give most of what I want?
- Write three to five goals for the next four weeks and rank them. One is the most important right now, such as income.
- Put a goal on every task. Tasks serving the top goal that you can do this week become high.
- Everything serving the lowest goals, or none, is parked. You do it later or never.
- Do one thing that serves the top goal before lunch.
The 80/20 ranker
Add your tasks. Say which goal each serves (1 is your top goal) and how big it is. See your top three.
- Add a task above.
A goal-1 task that is small scores highest. Anything with no goal belongs in the parked list.
How do I build the overview?
As a single HTML file on your computer that you open in the browser. It saves in the browser and exports a copy, so you can take a backup. There is a template with a field for goals, a view for today and a warning when you have more than five high tasks.
Get the template. Save the file, open it and enter your own tasks. The browser stores your data locally, so export a copy every week.
I have saved the file task-overview-template.html in the project. Adapt it to my work: replace the goals with these: [goal 1], [goal 2], [goal 3]. Add my current tasks from this list: [paste]. Put a goal on each and ask me where you cannot decide. Keep the rule of at most five high tasks. Change nothing else without asking.
What belongs in the daily briefing?
One screen, read in two minutes. Anything more becomes another list to manage.
- Today's three: the high tasks that serve your most important goal.
- Overdue: everything whose date has passed, with a suggestion.
- Waiting on: who, for how long, and whether it is time to remind them or to leave it.
- Calendar today: meetings and gaps, if the calendar is connected.
- One thing to drop or park.
Read my task overview [file or export] and my calendar for today. Write a briefing that fits one screen: 1) today's three, the high tasks that serve my top-ranked goal. 2) Overdue, with a suggestion. 3) Who I am waiting on and whether it is time to remind them. 4) Today's meetings and where the gaps are. 5) One task I can drop or park. Do not add new tasks without asking me. Write briefly and without an introduction.
What becomes possible?
When the overview is short and alive it becomes how you steer, not only how you remember.
- A weekly plan that starts from your goals and says no to what does not serve them.
- A Friday review: what got done, what you learned, what you drop.
- A briefing that also says what you should have done and did not, without judging.
Read my task overview and my goals. Which are the 20 percent of tasks most likely to give 80 percent of what I want over the next four weeks? What should I stop doing? What is missing that should be there? Say it straight.
Questions people ask
Can I use a regular app instead?
Yes. The principles are the same: at most five high tasks, a goal on each, its own status for what you wait for. What makes the file good is that the agent can read it.
How often should the agent update the list?
You update it when something changes. The agent reads it for the briefing and suggests changes for you to approve.
Sources
Who is writing this
I am Nathaniel, a commercial operator. For twenty years, across four continents and more than fifteen ventures, I have taken research and young companies from idea to customer. Two KTH spin-offs reached joint development agreements with Fortune 500 partners. An indoor farm sold its full production within about ninety days and ended in a joint venture exit. This year I am a commercial expert for the European Innovation Council's Tech to Market programme. Now I build agents, because the hard part of new technology is rarely the technology. It is getting people to want it and use it.
Want to do this together?
In two hours I can build this with you: Task overview and briefing.