3 Tips for Making Task Management Systems Work for You

In the world of entrepreneurship and productivity, emphasis is placed on the best type of task management systems to use. The best ways in which to systematically handle a to-do list.

Unfortunately, for many people, task management systems and approaches just don’t seem to work the way they should. To-do lists can easily end up becoming an ongoing source of frustration, rather than a great path to enhanced productivity.

Whether the tasks you handle include sourcing red diesel or sending out emails. Here are a few tips for making task management work for you.

Find a system that intuitively feels “right,” rather than one that you are told “should” work

As you’ve no doubt noticed, there are hundreds of different task management systems, tools, programs, and methodologies out there. Most of which boast being “cutting-edge,” or “the most efficient or effective.”

Perhaps the first and most important step in making task management work for you, however, is finding a system that feels intuitively right, and that you can actually stick with and enjoy using, rather than trying to force yourself to stick with a system that you’ve been told “should” work, but that you struggle with.

For some people, David Allen’s famous Getting Things Done method will be the ideal approach. For others, something a bit more flexible such as Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal Method will be the best fit. And for others, a digital kanban board may be right.

Opt for simplicity and seamless integration as much as possible

An effective task management system is to simplify things and enables you to take action more seamlessly and reliably. The system itself adds tonnes of complexity and requires all sorts of fine-tuning, something has taken a wrong turn.

Aim instead for simplicity and seamless integration with your other tools, and with your life and general routine, as much as possible. The more streamlined the system is, and the easier it is to use, the higher the likelihood is that you will actually get something worthwhile out of it.

Have a system in place to regularly reduce redundancy

Redundancy and “noise” routinely accumulate within any business, and in the context of any task management system or approach, as well.

It’s inevitable that certain tasks that you initially thought were important end up becoming unimportant, or that things that you have noted down as potentially relevant prove not to be relevant, as time goes on.

In order for your task management systems not to get bogged down in this “white noise,” it is necessary for you to have an inbuilt redundancy-reducing mechanism in place.

This might be as simple as having a weekly review where you delete “to dos” that are no longer relevant. Also, involve something on a more moment-by-moment basis.

Either way, redundancy is likely to be counter-productive.