## Ad hoc Task or Project Deciding if an activity is a task or a project depends on its size, complexity, and the resources required. If it’s part of daily work, it’s likely a task. If it’s lengthy or needs to be split into subtasks, it’s probably better managed as a project. ## Definition of a Task A long task for just one person can be managed in several steps or in small, regular sessions. Example: you want to improve your website. You know that you can’t do it all in a single day. It will require maybe 30 periods of half an hour. You can’t afford to take two weeks out of sales orders, so you spread it out over a month. Is this a project or a repeating task? A bit of both. It’s a recurrent time block, but the content may be different for each. So you might need a plan, or at the very least a list of goals. - Improve the design - Reorganize the menus - Improve the content - Improve the site’s search position Each of these objectives might, in effect, imply a lot of detail. It’s important to distinguish everyday tasks from project tasks. Every day and ad hoc tasks are generally outside the scope of a project and can be unforeseen and arise out of nowhere. They can be urgent and blocking, need immediate action and thereby disrupt the normal flow of work. You may be able to build others into projects for resolution together. > [!NOTE] Is it a task or project? > If a task requires a budget, it’s probably a project! ## Definition of a project A project is typically based on deadline (fixed time), demands resources, has more than one step, and more than one person is involved. The more people required, the more the need for coordination. A project has the potential to address multiple issues at once. But operationally, an issue might remain unresolved for longer while the project is constituted. Costs may be incurred in expenditure on physical resources but also time spent. It’s useful to be able to calculate the cost of all tasks and, therefore, the total project cost. A typical characteristic of a project is that it must be achieved by a certain date. This implies that if the resources allocated are insufficient to achieve the date, then allocating more resources will. In practice there are limits to this. Some tasks can only be done by one person or can’t be broken down into leaf nodes and unitary tasks. At other times, things just take time. In construction, for instance, there are incompressible times, such as concrete setting. Being able to cast many cement blocks may require hiring costly machinery, which means that it’s cheaper simply to extend the time. The greater cost, the more likely it’s a project, with a budget that will need to be signed off objectives: the more significant the objective, the more likely a task will be a project. A rule of thumb definition is that if many people are involved, there are multiple tasks. In practice, software requires you to be able to assign a task to a person. Many people may be involved on a task but in management terms, better to break it down and assign one person to one task if possible. But just because you have multiple tasks, doesn’t make them a project. A project is generally a set of interconnected related tasks with a common objective. ## Comparing task managers Here is a quick comparison of Todoist, Trello and Toodledo ![[comparing-todoist-trello-toodledo.png]] Ad hoc tasks, PDCA, Eisenhower. ![[mindmap-analyse-transform-repeat.png]] The characteristic of a task manager for everyday tasks is that it needs to be flexible. Todoist supports nesting tasks and due dates. Tasks can be nested or un-nested easily. Tasks can be scheduled on the calendar. For instance, Todoist is both for ad hoc tasks, and can be used by a team. Scheduling is important for any task manager, but Gantt, as a project management tool, can be overkill in task management. ### Tasks in a Trello kanban [[The many features of Trello]] and is useful in everyday planning across all GTD horizons. ![[trello inbox.png]] ### Task management in Todoist [[Todoist is an effective task manager]] and can incorporate many projects, tasks and subtasks. It provides a very efficient environment to schedule multiple multi-level tasks, and now offers a kanban view. - Todoist can be used for ‘real’ projects. - Emails can be sent directly to Todoist. ![[todoist-long.png]] #Todoist ![[todoist-planning.png]] ### Tasks in Google Tasks Google tasks tracks emails and ad hoc tasks, email follow-ups, perfect diary integration, and immediate synchronization. It allows you to click back to emails easily, but has no tags or labels. ![[google-tasks.png|350]] ### Task management in Toodledo Toodledo was a very early and effective task manager. Its mobile app was very efficient, but the online desktop tool is less user-friendly, having many columns. A task can’t be opened in its own window. ![[toodledo-desktop.png]]