Intro

How do you manage your daily to-dos?

In past 10+ years, I have tried many different task management tools and methods (especially when I was in my 20's). I struggled to build a method that fits me more, I changed the tools a lot, improved my rules, and asked people to get a better idea, etc.

Whether you are a programmer or not, if you are busy everyday with a lot of works, studies, and personal schedules, the way you manage your tasks is important.

Currently, I am using Notion, Logseq, and Taskuma (TaskChute) as my 3 main tools to manage everything. And it looks working great. The roles of each are as follows:

• Notion : Used as my main knowledge base for long-term goals and plans, idea storage from daily life, memorandums, work processes, etc.
• Logseq : Used as "Daily Task List" mainly. Tasks in this task list are created based on Notion's information. Other uses include shopping lists, presentation materials, and as small notes.
• Taskuma (TaskChute) : Used as a tool to plan daily schedule, execute tasks and get logs. Tasks in Taskuma are created based on Logseq's "Daily Task List". Also, this app tracks the number of hours for each tasks by tag or project, in order to check and improve productivity and performance on a daily basis.

Here is a simple diagram of the tools in use that includes the content just described.

Today, I will dig into a little bit deeper about usage of the tools and how my "Daily Task List" works, and share with you guys the ideas.

Everyone has their own way of making a daily schedule, so I don't know if my method will be helpful to you or not. But I hope it will be helpful to someone reading this article.

TaskChute with Notion

TaskChute

Daily tasks are executed through Taskuma.

About basic usage and how to use of TaskChute and Taskuma, please refer to the official documentation. In this article, I will focus on that mostly how does it work with Logseq.

Usually you start by listing the tasks you want to execute in the day, when using Taskuma. In my method, you create all tasks based on the list of Logseq's Daily Task List - which means you can start this process after you complete the Logseq's Daily Task List (I will write about the detail later)

Personally, I feel that one of the most important factors of TaskChute is the "granularity of tasks". In the method I will introduce here, Logseq's Daily Task List is a "Rough Outline", whereas TaskChute's tasks are the endpoints of the executed tasks, and the task size should be minimal. Be careful, not to make the task larger than necessary.

Example:
Bad Example : Finish the homework | Read "The Great Gatsby"
Good Example : Finish 30% of the homework (Subject 1 and 2) | Read the chapter 3-5 of "The Great Gatsby"

Tip: Other TaskChute Tools

There are some options for running TaskChute: TaskChute (1st Gen), TaskChute 2, Taskuma and TaskChute Cloud. I have been using Taskuma to run TaskChute for many years.

TaskChute (1st Gen) and TaskChute 2, which are classic Excel-based tool and have been around since launch, are becoming a little bit outdated now. Probably TaskChute Cloud, which is still being updated, is the most accessible option for you.

I personally like Taskuma because it runs as lightweight and handy on mobile. But one big issue of Taskuma is, not able to edit directly from my PC (It works on only iOS device). I belive that TaskChute Cloud is more functional and works good on mobile and PC, but each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages. Currently, still I prefer to use Taskuma. If you are interested in to use TaskChute method from now on, please check them and compare carefully.

Tip: Repeat Task

Another one of the most important factors of TaskChute is creating repeat task. I believe that one of the strengths of the TaskChute method is the tracking of repeated daily actions and the ease of repeat tasking to make them habitual.

But, this article's topic: Logseq's "Daily Task List" does not need to list these repeating tasks, with the exception of a few (Just to be sure, please register any necessary repeat tasks in TaskChute). I think it is better not to include Repeat Tasks in "Daily Task List", because it is easier to use it as "Rough Outline" which is the original purpose of "Daily Task List.

So you can leave the necessary repeating tasks to TaskChute(But, it's my personal opinion. If you want to arrange this idea, you can try).

Notion

In a day-to-day acrivities, you may find something to keep, such as the ideas to improve your workflow, a shopping request from your wife, schedule of meeting with client for next week, etc. In my method, I leave some memo on Taskuma or anything when I find and just before the day end (probably night time) I copy and paste them to Notion. Before I start using Notion I was using Evernote instead. So if you want to keep this in different tool, it should be okay.

In my way, I use my report DB called Daily Journals in Notion, which is automatically created through Zapier every day. If I have nothing to leave behind, I leave it as blank. But if I have an idea or something that should be a task in the future, I leave a note.

And once in a week (first day of week, could be sunday or monday), I review the last 7 of Daily Journals to review and collect all things I leave in the last week and create task into Task List if it needs. I do this process at Weekly Journals, one of my routine tasks that I do once a week. This has a list of items to review once a week, but in this article I will only discuss content that is relevant to "Daily Task List".

Some of you who have read this far may be thinking, 'Why don't you just add things directly to my Task List when you notice them?'

In my opinion, you should not unnecessarily add new tasks to the list until all items scheduled for the week are completed. It is a bit like the "Closed List" concept in task management. In my way, I focus on the tasks scheduled first (Except in case of urgency).

Another benefit of this is, the provided process may gain different perspectives and improve the quality of ideas.

You will have a little time after you write down what you notice in Daily Journals until you conduct Weekly Journals the following Sunday or Monday (could be few days). For me, this "taking a little time", sometimes to develop ideas and gives me a different perspective. So I recommend you to do this way.

Tip: Alternatives

Before I start using Notion, I was using Evernote instead and doing the same process. So if you want to keep this in different tool, it should be okay.

Tip: Task List

This is a list for managing tasks. I am currently using Notion because I'm kinda trying to centralize management, but you can choose any other tools. For example, I used to use Omnifocus and it is a very good tool! Other good tools include Todoist, Google Tasks, and Trello.

To Be Continued

This is going to be a bit long, so I will continue this topic a little bit more.
Thank you for reading!