Tips for Tracking Tasks

Keep track of your tasks

Your brain is already filled to the brim with story ideas. You need somewhere else to store tasks related to your author business. It doesn’t matter if you use an app or a notebook. It just has to be entirely dedicated to action-items, and easy to mark them as done.

Keep your task list simple

Using all the features in your task list app is a sure-fire way to get nothing done. Keep it simple. Start with only two lists: “Today” and “Maybe Someday.” No tags, no flags, no bells, no whistles. You just need to know what comes next. Nothing else.

Review your task list every day

Don’t just dump tasks on your task list and leave them there. Every day, review what you’ve got, break up big tasks into smaller ones, delete tasks you no longer need, and order them based on priority. This way, you always have an action item ready to go when you have a spare minute to work.

Break up large tasks

If you find yourself procrastinating on an important task, ask: What’s the first step? Break the task up into baby bites. Aim for every task to take less than an hour. Then get started. And if you find yourself stuck again? Break up that task too!

Cull your task list of no-go items

The hungry-eyed optimist who adds tasks to you task list isn’t the pragmatist who needs to actually build an author business. Every once in a while, cull your task list anything that no longer seems particularly important. If it turns out someday it is, the optimist will let you know. And in the meantime, you might as well keep your head clear.