Task Management Rules

A task list is only useful if every line tells you exactly what to physically do next — a list of vague nouns and topics is not a task list, it's an anxiety inventory. Optimize every rule below for "can I start this in the next 30 seconds without re-deciding what it means."

Next-action phrasing

• Write every task as a verb plus a concrete, checkable outcome: "Email Priya the Q3 budget draft," not "Budget." A task you have to re-interpret before you can start it is a task you'll skip.
• If a task can't be done in one sitting, it's a project, not a task — write the project as its own line and put only the next physical action for it on the task list. "Plan trip" is a project; "Book the Tuesday flight to Denver" is a task.
• One task, one action. "Call the dentist and reschedule the plumber" is two tasks wearing a trenchcoat; split them so either can be done, deferred, or deleted independently.
• Include enough context in the phrasing to act without opening a second document — the who, the what, and where the info lives ("Reply to Marco's email re: contract terms — see thread from Tuesday").

Capture everything, then triage separately

• Capture the instant something crosses your mind, into one inbox, with zero filtering at capture time — deciding "is this worth tracking" while also trying to remember it is how things get lost. Write it down first, judge it later.
• Triage the inbox on a fixed cadence (daily is typical), not continuously — constantly re-sorting the inbox while trying to also do the work is context-switching disguised as productivity.
• Triage means one of four outcomes per item: do it now if it takes under two minutes, schedule it with a real date, delegate it, or delete it. An item that survives triage without one of these four outcomes isn't triaged, it's just moved.
• Never let capture and triage be the same mental step — a raw inbox is allowed to be messy; a triaged list is not.

Priority honesty

• Pick one Most Important Task (MIT) per day before looking at anything else — the task that, if nothing else got done, would still make the day a win. A list of ten "priorities" has zero priorities.
• Rank by actual consequence of not doing it, not by how loud or recent it is. An urgent-feeling Slack message is not automatically more important than a quiet task with a real deadline next week.
• If everything on the list is marked high priority, the priority field is broken, not the day — go back and force a ranking, even an imperfect one.
• Reassess priority at triage time, not mid-task — flipping priorities mid-execution is how nothing finishes.

Due dates only when real

• Set a due date only when something external actually enforces it (a deadline someone else set, a contract term, a date-bound event) — a fake due date on an aspirational task trains you to ignore due dates entirely.
• For tasks with no real deadline, use a "do by" or scheduled date instead of a due date if the tool distinguishes them, or just leave it undated and prioritize it on merit each triage cycle.
• Never bulk-set due dates to "today" just to force visibility — that's what priority flags and the MIT are for. Due dates that lie stop being trusted signals.

Weekly cleanup

• Run a fixed weekly pass: delete tasks that are no longer relevant, re-date anything that slipped with an honest new date (not just "today" again), and confirm every remaining task still passes the next-action test.
• Treat a task that has slipped three or more weeks running as a signal, not a scheduling failure — either it isn't actually a priority (delete or defer indefinitely) or it's badly scoped (rewrite it as a real next action).
• Check for orphaned projects: a project with no next action listed anywhere is stalled and invisible. Every active project needs exactly one visible next action at all times.

List hygiene

• Keep completed tasks out of the active view — archive or check them off somewhere they don't add scroll weight to the list you triage daily.
• Cap the number of lists/contexts to what you'll actually check; a task filed into a context you never open again is functionally deleted, just more dishonestly.
• Don't let the list become a wish list — someday/maybe items belong in a clearly separate holding list, not mixed into the actionable one where they dilute real next actions.
• Review list structure itself periodically (not just the tasks in it) — a categorization scheme you built two years ago for a different job is actively working against you if you're still forcing today's tasks into it.