Learn weekly.
Work towards career growth.
Manage my time daily.
I write down all tasks so I can free up my working memory to focus on the current task. I trust that I will review other tasks periodically. Inspired by the book Getting Things Done.
I use Google Keep for notes. It is convenient to edit on laptop and phone.
I have multiple lists: Inbox, Next, Weekly, Monthly, individual projects.
Inbox lists unprioritized tasks. For example, if I have an idea outside of working hours or during a meeting, I add it to the Inbox.
Next lists tasks ordered by priority. They can include extra information such as deadline or what is blocking the tasks and by which date I should recheck.
Daily / Weekly / Monthly list tasks I do every day / week / month.
Individual projects have their own Inbox / Next lists. For some projects I use Google Docs for such lists, which is more convenient to collaborate but less convenient to edit on the phone.
I start every work day going over the Daily list. Then I go over the Inbox list, do the quick items immediately, and move others to the prioritized place in the Next list. Then I go over the Next list. If the next task is to work on a project I go over the Inbox / Next of the project.
I use analogous lists for my personal life on my personal Google account.
I read my e-mail inbox only on the phone during the commute, when waiting in line, at the toilet, etc. I classify e-mails so I can deal directly with the important ones when I’m at my laptop.
I use 3 Gmail labels: ‘u’ for urgent, ‘w’ for waiting and ’n’ for next.
I put the ‘u’ label on e-mails I want to address as soon as I get to my laptop. One of the tasks in my Daily list is to address all e-mails with the ‘u’ label.
When I send an e-mail that needs an answer, I mark it with the ‘w’ label. One of the tasks in my Weekly list is to go over such e-mails and decide if I should ask again or give up.
I put the ’n’ label on e-mails I want to address later (e.g. watching the video of a tech talk). One of the tasks in my Monthly list is to process all e-mails with the ’n’ label.
On my laptop I keep one browser tab with ’label:u’ Gmail search results to see when someone replies to one of the important e-mails. I don’t look at the Inbox from laptop, only from the phone, to use the laptop time for the more important tasks.