How to organize yourself as a solo founder
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Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#2I use color coded Post-It notes to track my tasks. Red for high priority tasks, yellow for medium, green for low. Orange and blue for subtasks. Stick them on a whiteboard near your workspace and then move what you want to tackle into a row that acts as your queue. Finished tasks go in a stack you can watch grow.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#3I use color coded Post-It notes to track my tasks. Red for high priority tasks, yellow for medium, green for low. Orange and blue for subtasks. Stick them on a whiteboard near your workspace and then move what you want to tackle into a row that acts as your queue. Finished tasks go in a stack you can watch grow.
Why not just use something like jira or trello at that point? Having to remember the color associations for subtasks physically seems a bit too much for me. Also, software is something you can access from anywhere and you don't have to be in one single place.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#4I use color coded Post-It notes to track my tasks. Red for high priority tasks, yellow for medium, green for low. Orange and blue for subtasks. Stick them on a whiteboard near your workspace and then move what you want to tackle into a row that acts as your queue. Finished tasks go in a stack you can watch grow.
Why not just use something like jira or trello at that point? Having to remember the color associations for subtasks physically seems a bit too much for me. Also, software is something you can access from anywhere and you don't have to be in one single place.
The physical act of writing notes, sticking them, removing them can get one in the zone more than the abstracted version on trello.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#5I use color coded Post-It notes to track my tasks. Red for high priority tasks, yellow for medium, green for low. Orange and blue for subtasks. Stick them on a whiteboard near your workspace and then move what you want to tackle into a row that acts as your queue. Finished tasks go in a stack you can watch grow.
Why not just use something like jira or trello at that point? Having to remember the color associations for subtasks physically seems a bit too much for me. Also, software is something you can access from anywhere and you don't have to be in one single place.
Software solutions are fine and I have used them before, especially with a team, but as a solo founder, I just like simple Post-Its - to each their own.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#6I use color coded Post-It notes to track my tasks. Red for high priority tasks, yellow for medium, green for low. Orange and blue for subtasks. Stick them on a whiteboard near your workspace and then move what you want to tackle into a row that acts as your queue. Finished tasks go in a stack you can watch grow.
Why not just use something like jira or trello at that point? Having to remember the color associations for subtasks physically seems a bit too much for me. Also, software is something you can access from anywhere and you don't have to be in one single place.
Eh, whatever works. Some people like the ease of working anywhere, some people are more motivated by seeing a physical representation of their progress (possibly similar to how people remember chronological events better when read from a physical book vs an e-book or on-screen: https://www.fastcompany.com/40476984/this-is-how-the-way-you...).
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#7I've never found a way that I like to integrate dealing with email into a to-do list. Reading emails is a perpetual need but it is damaging to focus and I often find that it saps my energy by reminding me of all the things that are not yet done. I've tried having fixed times of the day where I always deal with emails; adding "30 minutes of email" to my task list; reading them between each switch of tasks. None of these approaches really cracked it for me. I haven't read "Getting Things Done" - I wonder whether it has a solution.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#8I've never found a way that I like to integrate dealing with email into a to-do list. Reading emails is a perpetual need but it is damaging to focus and I often find that it saps my energy by reminding me of all the things that are not yet done. I've tried having fixed times of the day where I always deal with emails; adding "30 minutes of email" to my task list; reading them between each switch of tasks. None of the…
I've found it helpful to deliberately identify if you are being the manager or the technician (to use E-myth's terminology). The manager goes through the lists of tasks and emails, and works out what needs to be done (next, or today, or this week, or this sprint). The manager tells the technician (usually via TODO list) what that task is. Then you switch modes to technician - its no longer your job to organise, its your job to do.
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#9I've never found a way that I like to integrate dealing with email into a to-do list. Reading emails is a perpetual need but it is damaging to focus and I often find that it saps my energy by reminding me of all the things that are not yet done. I've tried having fixed times of the day where I always deal with emails; adding "30 minutes of email" to my task list; reading them between each switch of tasks. None of the…
Have you ever thought about doing the exact opposite? Instead of integrating email in your todo list you could run your todo-list via email.
I worked on a job where this was done and it worked flawlessly (emails generated from various systems and people, including those in the shift before you).
The one thing you have to make sure that your "job" communication is divided from your private communication or other non-actionable messages like newsletters etc.
Writing Emails to your self is totally okay also : )
Re: How to organize yourself as a solo founder
#10I've never found a way that I like to integrate dealing with email into a to-do list. Reading emails is a perpetual need but it is damaging to focus and I often find that it saps my energy by reminding me of all the things that are not yet done. I've tried having fixed times of the day where I always deal with emails; adding "30 minutes of email" to my task list; reading them between each switch of tasks. None of the…
Indeed it does! And the key lies in separating “defining work” from “doing work.” GTD’s “get clear” process involves going through everything in your inboxes (not just email but physical papers etc), and determining what is the actual _next action_ for this thing (if it’s actionable at all; some emails should just be referenced, delegated, or archived).
You log that next action in your system and move on to the next one, rather than doing the action t then and there (unless it’s super quick to do so).
By separating these two, you minimise mindset switching, and can be far more assured that you’re working on the right thing at any given time.