My Best Getting Started Strategy

Published: 2023-06-21 9:05 AM

Category: Productivity | Tags: task management, tools, tips, reflection

I work a reduced schedule during the summer and one thing I constantly run into is not really knowing where to start when I come into work after several days off. It's often to a fullish inbox and several other items which need addressing. On top of that are the long-term projects and tasks which need some attention during the summer months.

The problem is I don't really want to wade through several dozen emails (ok, not always dozens, but they do pile up) or dive right into a project. It takes me a little warmup time to really feel like I can get into a flow at work, particularly when my working days are spaced out irregularly.

My best trick is to keep some no-thought tasks on my todo list. These are things like filling out my time sheets for the previous week's work or signing off on reimbursement receipts. They are tasks which just need to get done and take very little effort other than opening up the calendar or the expenses spreadsheet.

Once I do those things, my blood is flowing a little more freely and I'm able to put more mental energy into other tasks.

On a side note, I'm a fan of the Getting Things Done mentality for task management. There's a great CLI tool - todo.txt-cli which keeps a standard-formatted text file for tasks and completed projects. On top of that, I use a TUI called pter to interact with the tasks. The todo.txt-cli has great tools and a plugin system for creating extensions, but pter is super well-built, offers intuitive tooling, and has great documentation. I generally have a terminal window open with pter running and then I'll hop into the CLI to run some stats every now and then. Give those a try if you're looking for a lightweight, customizable todo system.