Has anyone written a guide on how to use Joplin well for task management? I realise that different people will have different views on how to use Joplin well for task management - so if these guides existed they should be tagged with "This works well for me, doing the stuff I do." disclaimers.
I have just picked up Joplin and would really like it to help me with task management. I tend to have quite a few projects on the go simultaneously and hundreds of little things that I should do. So my problem tends to be one of organisation - how can I make sure that tasks don't get lost and that the things I could do at any point are likely brought to my attention rather than being hidden in the hundreds of others. There is a bit of hierarchical structure in my tasks, in that most of the actionable tasks are necessary components of some larger task which might be a component of a project, which might be a component of a work stream. This task organisation is only for my benefit - I'm not expecting to have to get anyone else to use my task management system.
I have started to enter some tasks into Joplin and organise them with tags, but I don't want to spend ages entering hundreds of tasks then later deciding I need to completely re-organise them. So I was hoping there might be some written guidance on what other people have found works for them.
I have searched the Joplin forum and generally googled for Joplin and task management, and everything I have found so far has been rather fragmented: "I do x" about some specific Joplin feature rather than a description of their complete workflow and philosophy of task organisation.
Any pointers you could give to extended descriptions of ask management philosophy and workflow i Joplin would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Ross
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Joplin as a tool is configurable to your style of task management, such as the ABCDE method, or Getting Things Done method. I read all of them and adapt them into my current Joplin style, which right now looks like this: Use subfolders, organize your tasks by time, with years at the root level, months at the second level, then weeks, and days. I can't do more than 1 task per hour, so I can't fill a day with more tasks than I am awake. After that its just constantly parsing your tasks vs. your time. HTH
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Thanks for that. That's very interesting. And thank you for mentioning the ABCDE method - I wasn't aware of that (Probably because I hadn't looked very hard).
Are you saying that you allocate tasks to specific one-hour time slots some duration (possibly weeks) in advance?
I think that wouldn't suit me, because a lot of my scheduling is opportunistic - something external happens which makes it convenient to work on a particular task ata particular time.
Your reply has prompted me to think more carefully about what I want out of task management to suit my needs. I tend to be simultaneously working on multiple long-running projects without deadlines; one medium-term project with deadlines; and a large number of relatively small tasks (like domestic maintenance tasks). The project work tends to be hierarchically deep with nested subtasks and dependency structure, so that one thing needs to be finished before the next can be started. In that context, what I want from task management is to ensure that no task is forgotten and that all the projects continue to make progress, while getting enough of the small free-standing tasks done to keep \my house standing and stopping the garden from turning into jungle.
So I might schedule tasks to be worked on some time in the next week or some time today, but it generally doesn't matter specifically when it happens. The more important thing for me is that the different categories of tasks are all selected at an adequate rate and that tasks which naturally support each other get scheduled together (e.g. tasks that require me to be at the same place or require the same tools).
Again, thank you for sharing your task management workflow because I find it very helpful to see the range of what people value and do, and the range of what it is possible to implement in Joplin.
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Other documented processes that you should consider are:
UML Ripple model
UML Sequence Diagrams
UML Dependency Diagrams
Agile Methodology
Scrum Methodology
Mind-mapping (I am using SimpleMind)
OODA
Kepner Tregoe Decision Analysis
Scientific Method
Another tip is that all or most of my tasks contain a table of meta-attributes which have True or False values. They will be useful when the JavaScript plug-in is enabled, so I can build scripts to return subsets of tasks based on these as parameters. For example,
Personal? // or Work
Temporal? // how often does this task have to be revisited, daily, monthly, quarterly, etc.
Financial? // involves payments or income
Important? // satisfies one of my own goals
Urgent? // satisfies someone else's goal
LOW? // Level Of War, ie. Strategic, Operational, Tactical
Product? // if TRUE, what is the product.
@markrenier thank you again for that.
I can see I have some more reading to do.
Also, I agree with your point about using a JavaScript plug-in. It looks like the notebook structure and tags should provide enough static data structure to make the distinctions that are important to me. So having the ability to programmatically sort on the tags and move tasks between categories (rather than by manual editing of tags) would be more reliable and a better UX.
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If you have any specific questions or need assistance with using Joplin for task management, feel free to ask!
Joplin is a versatile tool that can be customized to fit various task management styles. Since task management is a personal process, it's helpful to find a method that works well for you.
To manage multiple projeccts and tasks effectively in Joplin, cinsider using tags and notebooks.
