Task Engineering

Summary

• This is not about managing project tasks but rather personal task management
• Task management is an "essential skill for working autonomously"
  • Without the ability to work autonomously, one cannot master the "solitary focus" crucial in engineering
• I am proposing a new field called Task Engineering
  • Despite its importance, it has not been structured properly. Perhaps the word 'management' carries a negative connotation, thus necessitating a new term
• Structuring Task Engineering has been my major undertaking in recent years, and I have organized it in book form
• In this article, I'll provide a brief introduction to the components of Task Engineering, based on the book

Background

Task Management is Underdeveloped

Task management is a crucial soft skill, yet it remains largely undeveloped.

※ This is about personal task management, not project task management, where you manage your own tasks independently.

The word 'management' may not be suitable. It might be better to consider it with a different term. As engineers, why not perceive it as engineering? Thus, Task Engineering.

Why Task Management is Important

Why is task management so important, you ask? Because it's a skill necessary for autonomous work.

Those who can't work autonomously are unfortunate. They're stuck in a Reaction Driven mode, driven only by the atmosphere or suggestions from people around them when they physically congregate. While this works for some, it usually doesn't. As I mentioned in Online Meeting Sucks, the essence of engineering lies in focusing intensely in solitude. Collaborations and meetings can refine what you've made with that focus. Socializing or retreats are okay occasionally. Still, the most crucial is solitary focus.

To concentrate in solitude, personal task management is necessary. You have to discipline yourself. It's work, so there will be opportunities for communication. You'll need to switch between focus mode and communication mode, which also requires self-discipline.

Just as you need skills in editors or terminals to program, you need the skill of "task management" to discipline the "human known as an engineer" who conducts engineering.

Task Engineering

Let's dive into the topic. Task Engineering is the engineering approach to effectively handling the concept of tasks.

There is no clear theory or system yet, but I've organized it into an online book.

• English version: Breaking Down Task Management
• Japanese version: タスク管理を噛み砕く

I believe the necessary concepts are roughly in place.

From here, I'll pick up the components of Task Engineering, based on the above online book. Try to grasp the kind of concepts required, and consider how you might implement them, especially as an engineer.

3P of Task Management

Although the focus of this article is personal task management, I believe there are three categories at this perspective, which I've organized into 3P.

Name	Target	Main Characteristics
Project	Project (Team)	Assignment, coordination, overview, and detail
Partner	Partner (Couple, Parent-Child)	Task sharing and messaging
Personal	Personal (Individual)	Unique to each person

Each genre is entirely different. Particularly, project task management and personal task management need to be distinguished.

When you hear ‘task,' you probably think of project tasks. But the main field of Task Engineering is personal tasks. You can leave project tasks to project management or development methodologies. Instead, we are severely lacking in the perspective of individuals seeking their ways of handling tasks, and I believe it should be strengthened as Task Engineering.

Athlete and Applier

Personal task management resembles the activities of an athlete. Ultimately, it involves visualizing tasks, determining priorities while observing them, and tackling them one by one. Though visualization and prioritization are crucial, what is even more important is the power to "actually execute the tasks written down."

Programs operate as per the coded instructions, but humans don't work that way. Yet, one must operate that way. It's physically and mentally demanding, hence I liken it to being an athlete. Maintaining a healthy body and a sound mind through habitual practices is essential.

Conversely, there's another type. For those inherently restless and unable to remain still, the concept is apparent. They can't become athletes (hence personal task management doesn't suit them inherently), but they perform highly because of high mental processing power. I refer to this as Applier—skilled at applying creatively.

To summarize:

• Athletes can build and maintain their task management system suited to them.
• Appliers cannot do that, hence they rely on the power of the environment.
  • They might find working fully remote challenging; those who manage often have several online meetings. It's common to have pets or methods that dispel boredom or introduce randomness.

It's a lengthy explanation, but I want to convey the central point in this section. In personal task management:

• Athletes should create systems that are by them and for them. Constructing your system is better than relying on environmental power.
• Appliers should readily immerse themselves in an environment and depend on its power. Creating your own structure is implausible, so better concede.

Thus, avoiding mismatches such as athletes relying on environmental power or appliers attempting to build their systems is advised.

Task Management Strategy and Stance

The strategy in task management refers to the approach or mindset utilized. It's categorized based on "what to rely on."

Here are some main strategies:

• (Time-based Division)
  • Dailer: View tasks on a "daily basis." Separate into "today" and otherwise, and finish the day once today's tasks are done. It allows for clear distinction and easier deferral.
  • Calendarer: Cram everything into a calendar, becoming a "calendar robot" and functioning accordingly. Busy individuals like managers and executives frequently use this approach.
  • Slotter: Create time slots of 30–60 minutes and consider filling these slots. It's akin to a real-time box approach.
• (Topic-based Division)
  • Issueist: For instance, stuffing everything into GitHub Issues.
  • Topician: Handle "topics" (including tasks) as one page per topic. Obsidian is currently famous for this, and a classic example is Wiki. Due to heavy reading and writing, local and plain text is a must.
• (Centralization)
  • Richild: Like a wealthy child, tuck everything into a toy box. Storing everything in one reliable "single source of truth" strategy. A typical example is having a messy desk or desktop.
  • Monolith: Enlist all tasks in one place. For instance, writing everything in tasks.md. Think of it as conducting Topician in a single file. It might be more common among relatively older engineers skilled in text editors.
• (Revolving on Repetition)
  • Robot: Break your life into dozens of "routine tasks" and abide by them daily. Wake up → bathroom and curtain and face washing → boil water → bring coffee and bread to desk → open the "daily" folder of bookmarks in tabs... In terms of tools, Todoist is close.
  • Tracker: Perceive all tasks as daily practices (to be done that day, but not specifically when). Robot delineates execution order and timing; Tracker merely decides "what to do today" with freedom otherwise. Essentially, it's habit tracker-ization.
• (Brain-based Justification)
  • Inboxer: Uses merely an inbox (something to collect unsorted items) as task management. Doesn't practice organizing or note-taking. Relies mainly on everyday tools like email, chat, or browser bookmarks, and sometimes not even those.

Next, the stance in task management refers to the handling pattern of tasks, like a mental model. Strategies were about "how we manage," while stance concerns "how we handle."

Here are some main stances:

• (Reducing Load)
  • Deligator: Delegate tasks to others.
  • Sprinter: Handle tasks immediately without going through task management.
  • Skipper: Further defer those tasks determined not to be done today.
• (Streamlining)
  • Automaton: Systematize (standardize, and ideally automate).
  • Rejecter: Define a pattern for refusal and deny requests that fit.
  • Focusist: Determine what to address imminently and ignore others.
• (Off-Course Strategies)
  • ※ Off-course strategies entail focusing more on task occurrence and possession rather than task processing itself.
  • Slackist: Secure and preserve extra time zealously. Time-boxing aligns with this.
  • Contexton: Emphasize understanding the context of tasks.
  • Mixer: Aim to process tasks collectively. Attempt to orchestrate processing related tasks together deliberately or seek opportune occasions for it.

What did you think? You're likely resorting to some of the above strategies and stances. Employing multiple depending on circumstances is also normal. Though I haven't introduced radically new concepts, articulating and understanding them holds significance. Like engineering, it too begins with articulation and design.

Altasks: Tasks That Aren't Really Tasks

An Altask is something that resembles a task but isn't handled as one. Unlike tasks, different handling strategies are necessary for Altask.

Examples of Altask are:

• Container: A means to categorize tasks.
• Event: Schedules. More specifically defined as "a matter that requires either the start time or start location and the timing of the end to be specified or adjusted."
• Motto: Things to keep in mind. Various from life's philosophy to reflections from yesterday's observations.
• Memo: Temporary notes intended for later processing. Ideas also fall here.
• Task Source: The ongoing source of task generation.
  • Target Items: Milestones or directional elements with associated attainability.
  • Maintenance Items: Things to maintain consistently. Motto may fall under here.
  • Recall Items: Used as a hint to recall or remember something. Trigger lists, etc.
  • Inspiration Items: Sources of creativity or ideas, and inspiration foundations.

Events are straightforward examples, likely managed via a calendar. No one would attempt to manage events via a task list. There exist several Altask instances beyond events.

(Column) Are Matters Unrelated to Tasks Minded, or Is That Your Imagination?

Ans: No, it's not your imagination.

In fact, it's crucial.

Task Engineering is not only about confronting tasks. Just facing tasks alone doesn't achieve task completion. One must pay attention to Altask, the cause of task occurrence, and the nature and upkeep of oneself executing tasks.

These surrounding areas are included in Task Engineering. Thus, seemingly unrelated-to-task matters appear addressed.

Workflow and Reminders

It's impossible to retain all tasks inside your head, completing everything without procrastination or indecision. Realistically, it'd be best to rely on remembering when necessary. While you might know reminders, this "system to remember" is incredibly vital.

There are workflows and reminders.

Workflow

Workflow (Waypoint) refers to places one frequently traverses in everyday life. If your PC desktop is cluttered with icons, it's touched daily, and that becomes your personal workflow. A Slack channel seen daily in a project could also be a workflow. There are dashboards or daily notes, and lately, “workspaces where AI resides” like ChatGPT Projects are also observed.

By having a workflow, keeping tasks there means they'll eventually be seen and remembered. I call this Trap Remind—the nuance of setting a trap to catch or ensnare yourself later.

Reminder

Next, Reminders refer to systems that make you recall "the previously planted elements" at "a future timing."

A simplest example, an alarm clock informs (indirectly) waking time by sound at a specified time. We usually use calendar-based reminders, receiving alarms or pop-ups a few minutes prior.

Also, physically gathering for work permits the good or bad atmosphere, informing naturally (or forcibly) what to do next—another type of reminder I dub as Atmosphere Remind.

Regarding reminders, it's simple: The more you know about reminders, the more possible it becomes to plant detailed reminders. Reconsider it. If an alarm clock was your sole reminder, how inconvenient would life be? Inevitably, many appointments or things to do later are forgotten....

Interruptions and Tangents

Interruptions are an engineer's nemesis—I assume there are no objections. Some might accept them as a necessary evil, but they can be reduced, perhaps eradicated. To achieve that, understanding "what interruptions fundamentally are," "what mechanism causes them," and "the alternative mechanisms to create to avoid them" are essential considerations.

Another concept distinct from interruptions is Tangents. While interruptions are forced upon you externally, tangents are when you yourself get distracted, like momentarily checking upon a smartphone notification.

Task Engineering treats interruptions and tangents comprehensively. For instance, utilizing the SWAP matrix I developed divides them into 4 patterns for easier handling.

	Strong (Delayed Strongly)	Weak (Delayed Weakly)
(Active) Interruptions	Pattern 1	Pattern 2
(Passive) Tangents	Pattern 3	Pattern 4

※ Delayed refers to the situation when Task B arises while working on Task A, necessitating either to delay one. Delays for Task B indicate "Delayed Strongly" due to self-strength, while delaying Task A signifies "Delayed Weakly," losing to Task B.

Literary Task Management

Literary Task Management (LTM) refers to literature-based task management. Abbreviated as LTM.

This concept is under development in Japan, inspired by literary programming. Traditionally, tasks were treated like tickets as mechanical data.

In LTM, journaling, planning, and researching are initially documented as texts. Task information is also inscribed as required. If extraction of tasks is necessary, it will be performed effectively from the text. Thus, it's phrase-first.

Why so? Because it allows a focus on context. Blindly proceeding with visible task processing without context is unwise. Generally, tasks have logical contexts without correct answers, requiring optimal strategy planning in their context. LTM permits easier contextual awareness, also benefiting subsequent analysis through generated AI data feeding.

Although it might be less familiar to engineers, some already utilize Obsidian or similar tools to establish personalized text stations locally.

Conclusion

Personal task management is an essential skill for autonomous work. Despite its significance, it remains unstructured—probably due to the word ‘management,' hence the new term 'Task Engineering.'

As a Knowledge Architect and Soft Skills Engineer, structuring the fundamental concepts of task management has been my major work in recent years (as referenced in the online book at the beginning). In this article, I provided a brief overview of the characters in Task Engineering based on the book.

What do you think? You might now understand that managing personal tasks is not so simple after all. It's still in the developmental stage and requires your trials and discussions. Please consider stepping into the world of Task Engineering!