# imtasks: my "immediate task queue notebook" helps me progress on my projects

nowadays i feel i have a relative good grasp on the ability to focus on a task and finish it. i achieve this via a plethora of tricks and habits. i wrote about these a lot in the past posts. this time i would like to describe another trick i'm using: the immediate task queue notebook.

# problem

"i feel overwhelmed! i know i want to work on project x but i don't know where to start! i don't know what to do now. let me quickly check my favorite youtube channel just to make sure i'm caught up with everything else!" [ ... several hours pass ... ] "oh, the day is over, i'm so lazy, such an incapable person!"

that's how i approached project work in the past. it wasn't very effective.

# solution

i bought a small, A7 sized notebook. i write some simple tasks into it, usually in the evening.

the rule: if there's a task in that notebook, i can't procrastinate until i cross that out. no youtube, no chat, no emails. just force myself through the tasklist until the task queue in the notebook is empty again. then i can relax a bit.

that's all to it.

# analysis

this no procrastination rule is quite annoying so i only write small tasks into it. i use a different system for tracking bigger tasks (@/task). given the tasks in this queue are small, it's more likely that i can just do them even if i feel unmotivated. but in the end that's all what matters for achieving stuff: make steady progress, no matter how small.

it's important that the notebook is small. when there's an active task in the queue and i'm supposed to be working, i simply put the notebook between me and the keyboard to constantly remind myself to clear the tasks. it has to be an old-school notebook because a smartphone or another digital tool can get distracting very fast.

an important bit is to regularly fill the task queue with small tasks. but i have a process for that too. for a while now i'm committed to avoid screen time after 9pm (see my 2023-06-03 update in @/reflecting). which means i'm freewriting (@/freewrite) and that naturally leads me to do some planning tasks for my next morning (@/inspiration).

i suppose it's not that different to the practice of attaching post-it notes to the monitor. but i prefer my little spiral-bound notebook. it's much cleaner. and the notebook's linear structure prevents me to keep adding tasks unless i cleared the previous ones. i don't flip to the next page to add new tasks until i ticked all tasks on the current page.

i have to admit, i haven't fully mastered this process yet. sometimes i still do end up procrastinating by checking emails before i get to my tasks. but in the end i do finish these tasks otherwise i would be annoyed that the notebook is front of me all the time. i'm doing this for a few months now and i'm getting better at is so yay.

i love that it forces me to make some progress every day. usually all i need is that i start with a little task and then afterwards i no longer need such crutches in the current work-session. this immediate task queue notebook is the ignition system for my brain.

# note from 2024-11-16 (more than a year after the original post)

i'm still doing this occasionally when i feel unmotivated to work otherwise. it's super effective. but yet another notebook is a hassle. and i don't take my small notebook to work either. so these days i just edit this list on my smartphone. i use google keep because it's already on my phone. any other text editor would be fine too. if i have pending imtasks then i drag the app's icon to the centre of the home screen and i put down the phone between me and the keyboard so that i don't forget about my imtasks. it's just as effective as the notebook version.

published on 2023-08-05, last modified on 2024-11-16

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