Brief Summary
This video is about task management and how to adapt a system for Craft, a versatile application for documents, journaling, projects, and collaboration. It covers capturing, organizing, and actioning tasks using areas, projects, and a structured review routine (daily, weekly, monthly). The video also discusses scheduling, due dates, and project organization within Craft, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses for task management.
- Capturing tasks in one place (inbox) is crucial for mental clarity.
- Organizing tasks by areas and projects makes the system actionable.
- Regular reviews (daily, weekly, monthly) prevent chaos and keep the system alive.
- Craft is a solid tool for task management, despite some clunky aspects.
Why Craft? First Impressions
The speaker, Robert, introduces a discussion on task management and shares tips for approaching it with a fresh perspective, demonstrating how he has adapted his system for Craft. He was invited by the Craft team to try their app due to the new Readwise integration. Craft is presented as a powerful application capable of handling documents, journaling, projects, and collaboration. Robert, who previously used Things for task management, found that Craft had features that could make it suitable for task management. He decided to integrate his system from Things into Craft to consolidate his work in one place for better integration with project files and other functionalities.
Overview of Task Management Tools
Apps like Things or Todoist offer a structured approach to task management, while Craft provides a blank canvas, allowing users to set their own rules. Robert finds this personalization appealing and wants to determine if Craft has the necessary features for his setup. He emphasizes that the key is finding a tool that matches your thinking style and workflow, rather than focusing on the number of features. He learned a lot from GTD (Getting Things Done), but one article changed his perspective and made everything more practical.
Capturing Tasks
The first core element of the task management framework is having a single place to capture all incoming tasks, whether from emails, chats, or meetings. This serves as an inbox. Craft has a built-in inbox in the tasks tab. The speaker created a shortcut to add multiple tasks at once. If an app lacks a built-in inbox, a simple note or document can serve the same purpose. Moving tasks out of your mind frees up mental space.
Organizing by Areas and Projects
After capturing tasks, the next step is to organize them by areas and projects. Areas represent aspects of life (e.g., home, content creation), and projects are tasks requiring multiple actions. A single action, like "connect with John," is a task, while a larger undertaking, like "produce this video," is a project. Initially, projects can be noted as single big tasks when sorting from the inbox. In Craft, tasks can be turned into pages to expand on projects. Alternatively, a separate document can be created for project tasks, with a link added to the task list for better organization.
Making Task Management Actionable
The system becomes more actionable when tasks are organized not only by project or area but also by when you want, can, or have to tackle them. This approach reduces overwhelm. Tasks are organized into "Someday," "Anytime," and "Today" lists. The "Someday" list contains all tasks organized by area. A smaller batch of tasks planned for the next week or two is moved to the "Anytime" list. From the "Anytime" list, a few essential tasks are chosen for the "Today" list to maintain focus and reduce stress. Craft's calendar view filters tasks scheduled for the day. This structure provides clarity and focus at each step.
Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Reviews
To maintain clarity and prevent chaos, regular review routines are essential, broken into daily, weekly, and monthly cycles. The daily review, taking a few minutes each morning or evening, involves building the "Today" list from the "Anytime" list and emptying the inbox. The weekly review, done on Monday mornings, involves building the "Anytime" list by promoting tasks from the "Someday" list. The monthly review involves assessing the bigger picture, reviewing notes and documents, re-evaluating the "Someday" list, and making decisions about what matters. This loop keeps the task management system alive and prevents tasks from falling through the cracks.
Scheduling and Due Dates
Scheduling tasks for the future and setting due dates can be tricky. Scheduling too many tasks ahead of time can overwhelm the daily review. Scheduling for future dates should be reserved for tasks that cannot be worked on until that specific moment. Craft's daily notes, found in the calendar view, are useful for tasks that need to be done on a specific day. Due dates allow tasks to show up in the "Today" view while remaining in the "Anytime" list, providing flexibility. Daily notes should be reserved for tasks that can only be actioned on a certain day to avoid confusion.
Projects and Tasks Organization in Craft
Craft allows projects to be placed in multiple locations, such as documents and daily notes, and nested within pages, which can become messy without a system. The speaker created a "Tasks" folder containing the "Someday" and "Anytime" lists. Documents with tasks within this folder structure appear in the tasks view. The "Anytime" and "Someday" lists are pinned for quick access. Projects not planned for immediate work are linked in the "Someday" list. When a project is ready to be tackled, it is dragged from "Someday" to "Anytime" as a parent task. Next steps are turned into actual tasks for the week, showing up in the tasks view. This setup helps manage projects and stay focused.
It Could be Better
Craft has some clunky aspects. Repeating tasks sometimes have unnecessary automatic reminders. Some actions require too many clicks, and parts of the interface can be confusing. For example, moving tasks to existing documents is inconsistent. A workaround involves opening two windows side by side and dragging tasks between them. There is no way to hide completed tasks within a document, so the speaker deletes them and uses a habit tracker to keep track of finished tasks. Alternatively, tasks could be moved to daily notes and crossed off there.
Wrapping Up
Craft is not perfect, but it is a solid tool for the task management workflow described. The Craft team listens to feedback and is continuously improving the app. The speaker likes Craft, especially considering its other features. He is happy to make it part of his day-to-day routine and plans to share more about using the app in the future. He is still using Bear for note-taking and is considering making a comparison video. He encourages viewers to share their thoughts, questions, and insights about Craft or their task management systems.
