💡 Tip of the Day
Set clear deadlines for daily tasks.
Tasks pile up because they land everywhere - email, chat, sticky notes, and your head. A basic list with priority, due date, and tags lowers the cost of capture and makes it obvious what to do next. This manager focuses on three essentials - add a task quickly, filter the list, and mark things done without ceremony. Everything else is optional.
Quick start - add, review, act
Write the task in a single sentence, choose a priority, set a date if it matters, and click Add. New items go to the top, open by default. Filter the list by Open or Done when you want to see progress, and use the search box to slice by keyword or tag. The list auto-sorts to put important open items first.
Priority that nudges without scolding
High, Medium, and Low are simple on purpose. You do not need a dozen levels to make a choice. If everything is High, nothing is - keep most items Medium and reserve High for work that a deadline or a person actually depends on.
Due dates - treat them as agreements
Dates are not decoration. Only add a due date if it means someone cares about that day. If you pick a date for your own clarity, review it during your daily sweep and move it if needed. The habit that matters is honesty - do not let tasks drift with yesterday’s date. For a clear explanation of timeboxing and related planning habits, Atlassian’s playbook articles give practical examples you can borrow without adopting a full agile framework Atlassian - timeboxing.
Tags that create small working sets
Use one tag for context - client name, course, or team - and one for mode - deep, calls, admin. This makes it easy to filter by where or how you will work next. The goal is to create a small group of tasks that fit the moment rather than flipping between unrelated items.
Comparison - calendar only vs task list with search
| Aspect | Calendar only | Task list |
|---|---|---|
| Time-specific work | Great | Needs calendar support |
| Flexible tasks | Gets crowded | Filters and tags |
| Quick capture | Awkward | Fast entry |
| Review cadence | Hard to group | Search and sort |
Daily habits that keep lists honest
- End of day - mark what truly moved and delete one stale item.
- Start of day - choose three items that would make the day successful.
- Weekly - export your list to CSV and archive the snapshot.
- Monthly - scan for patterns in tags that slow you down.
A short story - saving a sprint from slippery work
A small web team used to run sprints out of a long chat thread. Action items disappeared in jokes and links. We moved their decisions into a simple task list with a High tag reserved for blockers and a Due date only when a teammate was waiting. Meetings got shorter because nobody had to guess what was still open. Less drama, more delivery.
Two questions before you add another task
- Can you describe this in a single action that a person could do in one sitting?
- Who will be blocked if this slips - and should it move to High as a result?
If a tool is easy to feed, it will keep working for you. Keep your entries plain, be honest about priority, and use tags to create small focused views. For another grounded angle on personal productivity, the Eisenhower approach - urgent vs important - remains a good lens to sort a busy list without getting fancy. The National Archives has a short explainer you can skim for context and history Eisenhower matrix context.