This page exists to document my planning and organization methodology.

I prefer to do the same thing every day. The exact content of my time blocks will change to meet the current needs of my projects, but I follow the same pattern every day. I have found that this helps me be in the right frame of mind when approaching tasks.

I use Kanboard to organize my tasks. I have used a lot of different methods over the years, but have finally settled on this. Each 'client' gets their own project. This allows me to easily keep my tasks siloed so that I know what I am supposed to be working on in certain contexts. When I am at my day job, I just open that project and know exactly what I am supposed to be doing. I prefer this to having each project be a board because I have a lot of concurrent projects that I like to see in a single view.

Inside each board, I use swim lanes to separate out my actual projects. Since the swim lanes are collapsible, I can easily tune out the noise of other projects if needed while still being able to see my tasks all in one place. For each project I keep it pretty simple. I have Backlog, WIP, and Done columns. If it is beneficial I will add a Wait column so that I can keep track of what I am waiting on other people for.

One of the great things about Kanboard is the automation. I have a lot of recurring tasks that are created and scheduled automatically. This is super useful for reminders to order tools or for weekly meetings. I also have my Done column purged of tasks completed more that a week ago. This allows me to quickly reference old tasks without having to scroll through an endless amount of them.

Another feature I love is that I can estimate time for a task and then compare my performance. This has been useful on getting better at giving realistic timelines. If I need to know how long something will take, I can always go through my completed tasks and find something roughly equivalent to base my estimate on. This also helps me prevent my tasks from ballooning and taking up way more time than they should. Instead of going on a tangent, I can create a new task and address it later.

My basic philosophy on creating tasks is that they should take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. Anything more than that and they should be broken down into smaller tasks. Anything shorter than that and it should be a sub-task. The exception to this is one-off tasks like meetings or placing orders. I use sub-tasks in all of my tasks. I try to keep sub-task times to around 30 minutes and no less than 15. This means that each task is made up of 2-12 sub-tasks. Sub-tasks have a nice feature that when they are started, they automatically log time toward the main task. This allows me to effortlessly keep track of my time as I progress though my task list. I open the current task and then just start ticking off sub-tasks until the task is done.

I follow this same basic structure every day. The advantage of simply having tasking time instead of work time, is that I can be very flexible with what a task is. If I need to do laundry or run to the store, that can be a task. Even if I want to have some time off and go fly drones, that will be a task. I find that by combing work tasks, life tasks, and fun tasks into one structure that I dread work tasks less. Other people might prefer some more work/play separation, but this works well for me. Obviously some things just do not fit into this framework. I do occasionally take days off where I do not worry about the structure. This is usually when I go out of town. To keep a balance, I try to stay around 95% on plan.

When I start a new project, I sit down and try to outline everything I am going to need to do. At this stage I do not worry about sub-tasks at all. I just look big picture and think about the one or two things I am going to need to get done each day to finish the project. I usually do not create sub-tasks until the day or week I plan to do them. The task give me a roadmap and the sub-tasks give me specific direction. Creating sub-tasks is what the task planning block of each day is for.