Task management help.

Posted by Jack Crawford
Jan 5, 2009 at 10:17 PM

Jim

I’ve found out the hard way that (for me at least) a successful task management implementation must start with understanding the wider context i.e. where your tasks are coming from. Are your tasks coming from another person (e.g. your boss) or from yourself? How do they usually get to you - by email, verbally, your own ideas etc etc.

Once you understand the context, the trick is to design a hardware/software solution that best fits the context. Too often I tried to implement a task management approach because I liked the look of particular software. This usually involved moving data around between applications. Unsuprisingly, I soon stopped doing it - and felt guilty for doing so.

After I realised that most of my tasks were coming out of emails, my personal solution was to make more effective use of Outlook using the Linenberger approach. I haven’t looked back.

So it’s horses for courses. Build something that works for you and your situation.

Jack