Part of being productive is knowing what you need to do, and when it needs to be done. To that end, Sarah has coined the term “airtight task management” to describe a system where you can corral all your to-dos…and trust you will see them.
In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, we talk about how to construct such a system, and what ours both look like (similar, as you might imagine, though with a few quirks). We talk how to prioritize tasks, so the important ones get done, and things that are less important don’t eat up valuable time.
In the Q&A we answer a meta-question on how we track questions that come in! We always love listener questions, so feel free to share them.
Please give the episode a listen! Do you have a system that makes you feel on top of things?
Loved the episode! I’ve gotten very undisciplined in my task management lately, so this was a good reminder to put the systems I had back into practice. But, I have been very good at calendar manager and wanted to offer some advice for those in the corporate world managing digital calendars. After 2 decades, I think my husband and I have finally nailed it. We both use Outlook at work and we have a shared family Gmail email/calendar. Everything personal goes on the Gmail calendar and if it impacts our work day (picking up a kid early, etc.) we add our work calendar to the invite and vice versa. If a work commitment (work dinner) impacts our personal life we add the shared gmail calendar to the invite. We can see both calendars in the Outlook apps on our phones, and that’s helpful for checking for conflicts when scheduling things out in the world. It’s especially important for us both to see work and personal schedules together because we often have calls with people in other time zones so our work and family hours tend to blend together. As a bonus, the shared gmail account is how we sync all of our photos together and we use it for school forms so we both have access to any school emails/newsletters.
@Valerie – this sounds like a good system! And yes, the time zone thing can really blur the lines of when work/life happen…
Loved this episode! Here is my current for personal and work:
Personal:
1. Gmail calendar: My husband and I add scheduled events onto a shared calendar.
2. Todoist: We add unscheduled or recurring tasks on a shared account. This has been the best tool to declutter your mind. I’ve come to terms with the fact that this list will never be finished. I really liked Cal Newport’s sentiments that life admin is never “complete” so just assign a little time each day to check some things off. This sentiment has helped me not feel so overwhelmed about a long list. It is long so I don’t have to remember everything and then I can prioritize and check off a few things each day.
Professional:
1. Spreadsheet with annual/ quarterly/monthly priorities – I have this document set to open each time I turn on my computer. It keeps priorities front and center.
2. Create a weekly priority list from the annual/quarterly/monthly document review
3. Time block my week/work day
4. When action items are mentioned in meetings, emails, chat etc., add them to my tool ‘To Do’. Then configure them on your calendar based on priority. I also have this capture tool set to open when I turn on my computer.
5. Start and end each day with a review of your systems.
@Anne- this sounds good. I like the idea of having larger priorities visible – so they can influence the schedule. Sometimes there seems to be no link between the two, which isn’t exactly best practices!
I can see that we are referring to airtight task management as how we deal with all the incoming to-dos that we are often experiencing in life and making sure that things do not fall through the cracks. I do have such systems. But then, the question becomes whether or not I have actually achieved this standard. The standard that I never have any of the incoming to-dos fall through and always remember to finish them all eventually. It appears to me that we can only examine that via some 3rd-party people.
I will also need to ask Dr. SHU herself that since she works at a larger organization – a hospital, specifically – does she have a digital calendar that is mandated by her workplace, and does she have the need to avoid putting all her personal stuff on her work calendar because then her colleagues can see it. For me, I do not have a digital calendar at my workplace.
I mostly keep track of the incoming to-dos by writing them down on paper. Sometimes it’s just 1 piece of paper, and sometimes it’s a paper notebook. The conclusion that I heard you and Dr. SHU arrived at regarding records on papers, Ms. Laura Vanderkam, is that these papers can easily get lost unless one looks at them every day or one takes pictures of these records on papers.
For my corporate calendar (Outlook), any personal appointments/reminders get marked Private as well as color coded which gives me a quick visual cue. Marking something private works even if you’ve shared your calendar with others; although, if you have granted someone delegate access, that may be different.