Years ago, I read David Allen’s Getting Things Done. It’s a great system for task management, but I’ve always had trouble finding the right tools for the job. At the core of GTD, or at least what it has meant for me, is to capture everything quickly that you need to do, and then to find ways to organize, review, and prioritize your tasks on a regular basis.
The problem is, when I capture everything that crosses my mind, I quickly fill up any system I try to use with hundreds of tasks. And on a day to day basis, it’s really overwhelming.
In the past, I used Todoist for personal task management. I developed some systems and filters to give me some more focused views, and that worked pretty well for me for a long time. I have since shifted to Asana because I’m building my own business, and as I do that, I’ve been working with contractors and someday will bring on employees who will all need to work together on projects.
Asana is really great for its project views, but the MyTasks view is really lacking. So the result is yet again, a long list of hundreds of tasks that have been assigned to you, plus hundreds more buried in projects unassigned and forgotten.
I recently have been studying the zettelkasten system as a way to manage personal knowledge. I’ve been trying to shift into more of a content writer in order to grow my business and add value to a broader audience. Notion was okay, but it was a little clunky, and it always felt like it was doing a little too much.
So I found Craft Docs and have loved the entire experience of using it. It’s not a task manager or a project manager, but it’s an excellent note-taking system that I’ve been using to develop my ideas, products, and business at a high level, as well as a place to store research notes and process my thoughts. It comes with a daily note section, so I’ve bridged the gap between high-level thinking in Craft with the Project Management jungle in Asana to give myself a clean, focused daily plan in Craft.
Here’s my daily note template:
🏁 Goals
Large Business Goal Here…
☀️ Daily Startup
- Read the Bible
- Read a Book from my Reading List
- Pray for Prayer Requests
- Write 400+ Words for Writing Index
- Publish Something Daily to Publishing Channels
- Craft Inbox Zero
- Asana Review list of Open Projects
- Intercom Messages Inbox
- Support Tickets
- Project Huddle
- Email Inboxes
🎨 Weekly Themes
Monday: Administrative Monday
- Team Huddle
- Review Open Projects
Tuesday: New Release Tuesday
- Publish Blog Post
- Social Media Syndication
Wednesday: SEO Wednesday
- Check SEO Rankings
- Optimize a Post
Thursday: YouTube Thursday
- Record a Video
- Publish to YouTube
Friday: Financial/Follow-up Friday
- Financial Review
- Email Client Follow-Up
📋 This Week’s Objectives
- Objective One
- Objective Two
- Objective Three
✅ Top Tasks
1 Large Task
- Large Task
2 Medium Tasks
- Medium Task
- Medium Task
3 Small Tasks
- Small Task
- Small Task
- Small Task