Beyond Project Thinking: How to Get Things Done
Your Time, Your Way
Simplifying Productivity: Understanding Projects vs. Tasks
This chapter explores the key differences between projects and ongoing tasks in productivity systems, with a focus on insights from Getting Things Done (GTD). The host advises listeners to streamline their workflows by better managing contexts and time, avoiding overwhelm caused by mislabeling projects.
In this week’s episode, what’s the best way to manage projects?
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Script | 359
Hello, and welcome to episode 359 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show.
From time to time, something comes along that sounds great when first described but then turns nasty.
In the productivity world, that something is Getting Things Done and in particular the definition of what a project is.
This is not the fault of David Allen, Getting Things Done’s author; this is how his description of a project has been horribly misinterpreted.
At its essence, Getting Things Done is about categorising your work into contexts. That could be work you can do on your computer or phone. In your office or at home. It is, and never was about “projects”. Projects, at best, are a sideshow. A simple way to organise your work. Nothing more.
Yet for some reason, a few early readers misunderstood GTD, wrote about it and now there’s a whole generation of people believing anything that involves two steps or more is a project and must be organised as such.
And there, is the source of overwhelm, time wasted to organising stuff instead of doing stuff and huge backlogs of things to do.
Before we get to the heart of today’s podcast, it’s important that I clear this misunderstanding up.
If you ever bought one the fantastic GTD setup guides that was, and may still be, sold on the GTD website, you will notice that whatever task manager you are using, you set up the lists, folders or projects (depending on which task manager you are using) as contexts. Those contexts usually related to people, places or things. For example, your home, or office. Your computer, printer or car. Or your partner, boss or colleagues.
You then dropped any task related to these contexts into its appropriate context.
Your projects were organised in a file folder system that you kept in a filing cabinet. Current projects—the things you were working on this week or month—were kept on or near your desk for quick access.
In those folders you kept all the details of the project. Notes, documents, outlines, etc. Perhaps you also had a checklist of what needed to happen next.
Today, you can use your digital note app for that purpose.
The key thing about GTD was it was task context driven—ie, you could only do something if you were in the right place, with the right tool and with the right people. It was never about projects.
So, now you have the background, I think it’s time to hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question.
This week’s question comes from Benjamin. Benjamin asks, How do you best manage projects using your task manager, notes app, and calendar together?
Hi Benjamin, thank you for your question.
I think the first place to start is to avoid looking for a way to treat any new input as a project. Most things are not.
Theoretically, this podcast is a project. I need to choose the question, write the script, set up the studio, record the podcast, edit it, then publish it and hand it over to the my marketing manager for sharing on social media.
That’s seven steps. Well within the definition of a GTD project. Yet, if I were to treat each podcast episode as a project, I’d waste hours just organising it.
A podcast episode is something I do every week. It’s not a project. It’s just part of my work.
Usually, on Thursday I will write the script. That means I go into my list of questions which is in a single note in Evernote, select a question, then begin writing the script.
Then on Sunday morning, after my coaching calls have finished, I set up my little studio, and record the podcast. Once recorded, I edit it and then publish it.
The only tasks on my task manager are a task on Thursday that reminds me I need to write my script and a task on Sunday that reminds me to record the podcast. Two tasks. That’s it.
I don’t need a project folder for any of this.
There is one other thing I do that relates to your question, Benjamin. I have a two hour writing block on my calendar on a Thursday for writing the script and a two hour block on Sunday for recording it.
So, there in essence you have all three tools working together.
- I have a single note in my notes app with the title “podcast questions”. That makes it easy to search for.
- My task manager reminds me when I need to write the script and record the podcast.
- My calendar protects enough time each week to ensure I get each part of the process completed.
If you want to simplify things I would suggest looking at how you define a project.
In my eyes, a project is something unique, something you either have not done before or rarely ever do. Typical projects would be:
Moving house
Buying a new car
Planning a vacation
Setting up a new payroll system
Starting a business
Finding a new job
Doing the work you are employed to do is not a project—well not unless you are a project manager.
An advertising agency isn’t going to treat each new client as a “project”. An advertising agency creates advertising campaigns every day.
The graphic designer has a list of designs they are working on and when they begin their day they only need to choose which campaign they will work on that day.
Designing is their job.
The same goes for the copywriter. When they begin their day they choose which campaign to work on and that is dictated by when the next client meeting is.
What is the work you are employed to do?
A teacher doesn’t treat each new class as a project. They have a process or system for preparing their materials and when the teaching time begins they teach.
It’s possible that a lot of your work does require a place to keep meeting notes, plans and links to documents you may be working on. That’s what your notes app is for.
Your notes app has replaced the filing cabinet today. Filing cabinets were static—they never moved. Your digital notes app can go with you wherever you go.
If you do have any projects, that is where the information and resources go.
All your task manager needs to do is tell you what you should be working on today.
You may have tasks like:
Work on new payroll system project
Finish proposal for Universal Exports
Follow up Mr Oddjob at Auric Enterprises
Clear Action This Day folder
Your calendar tells you if your task list for the day is realistic. If you have six hours of meetings today and you plan to work on your payroll project and finish the proposal for Universal Exports, you’re likely being a little ambitious.
You calendar tells you if you have time to do the things you’d like to do that day.
You can go further, though and use your calendar to protect time for doing your key work.
If, for example, you want to (or need to) spend two hours working on the Universal Exports proposal, then you can block time on your calendar for doing that work. There might be some time sensitivity involved there. Getting the proposal to Universal Exports might be the most important thing you need to do that day. That would be flagged in your task manager as a non-negotiable task that day.
The daily and weekly planning is where I would decide what I will be working on that day or week.
The planning sessions are where you can step back and look at the bigger landscape of what you have to do and decide where you will put your time that day.
Right now, I do have a project. I am in the process of recording the audiobook version of Your Time Your Way. This is not something I can sit down a real off as a single task.
I need to book the recording studio and sound engineer and my voice will only last for around 3 hours before I begin sounding like an out of tune frog.
The only thing I need in my system each week is when I need to be at the recording studio. Currently that is Wednesday nights at 7:30. We record until 10:30 pm. I don’t need a task for any of that. That’s on my calendar.
The next day, the sound engineer sends me the recordings and I go through them to make sure everything sounds right. I have a task in my task manager that pops up each Thursday reminding me to review that previous day’s recordings.
I have a project folder for the Your Time, Your Way book. That contains all my notes, meeting notes and any information I may need. Right now, though, I don’t need to reference that. I just need to turn up at the recording studio on Wednesday nights, record the audiobook and review the recordings the next day.
The important thing is not to confuse your core work with projects. Core work is the work you are employed to do. Designers design, teachers teach, managers manage, truck drivers drive a truck.
All you need is a list of tasks you want to complete each day and get on and complete as many as you can. The majority of those tasks will be related to your core work.
A project, on the other hand, is something unique, often outside of your core work, that needs additional time for doing. You may need to utilise your unique skills to complete that project, you may only have a small say in the project. Either way, on a day to day basis, the only thing you need to decide is what your next task is and do that.
This year is the fifth anniversary of the Time Sector System course. I am currently in the process of re-recording and updating that course.
Is it a project or just part of my core work.
I know from experience that if I treat it as a project things will get complicated.
Yet, I’ve create many courses over the years. I know the process.
For an update, it’s to review and update the course outline. Then schedule time on my calendar for recording and editing it. There will be some additional tasks related to marketing, but I am not there yet. I’m recording, so the driver is my calendar.
Hopefully that has helped, Benjamin. The key is to simplify things as much as possible. Try to avoid creating projects and instead ask if there is a process you can follow. Most things you frequently do has a process.
Processes speed everything up.
As the Formula 1 season is about to start, I’m reminded of one of the sports best leaders, Ross Brawn’s comment on running a team.
The new car for the new season is never considered a project. It’s a process. There’s a time to begin work on the new car, there’s a time to test the new car, etc. Yet none of that is considered a project. Aerodynamicists do the aerodynamics. Engineers work on the chassis and engine and the logistics people work on the logistics. It’s what they do every day.
Yet, building a new wind tunnel, or engineering factory, that would be a project. These “projects” are rare and need specialist inputs.
Don’t forget, we’re two weeks away from the first Ultimate Productivity Workshop of 2025. This is your opportunity to take a live workshop with me where I help you to create and build your very own productivity system, A system that works for you.
Thank you Benjamin for your question and thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me to wish you all a very very productive week.
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