seven tools to master task management and maximize your time by Jay Clouse
You are a product. That means that you are also a product manager. And as long as you re going to be a product manager, you might as well learn how to be good at it. We all get the same amount of time: 24 hours a day. How are you using that time? How does it seem that some people are able to do ten times the amount of work that you do? How do they do all the things? It has nothing to do with being a skilled multi-tasker as you may think. It has everything to do with task management. Once you become familiar with the ideas behind task management, and leverage the tools that can put those ideas into practice, you ll start getting more done. Over time, this yields a compounded effect through the aggregation of marginal gains. Thank you for being here. You re on your path to becoming a master of your own time and creating a larger body of work to share with the world.
about me // Jay Clouse
I m Jay, former product manager and current writer and community builder. I once ran a popular media organization into the ground. Early in my college career, I undertook the challenge of leading Ohio State's long-running satirical newspaper, The Sentinel. My team failed to print or distribute a single issue, and The Sentinel has completely ceased to exist. Armed with the lessons and scars of this experience, I ve gone on to successfully lead several organizations serving entrepreneurs and community leaders, including Startup Weekend and the Create Columbus Commission. Meanwhile, I was following my calling to entrepreneurship. I helped start a technology startup, Tixers, which was sold in 2015. This is where I began learning product management. After a stint in product management at another startup, I now spend my time helping high-performers go from Point A to Point B. Unreal Collective is a community of ambitious individuals working on extraordinary projects. Through a 12-week intensive fueled by peer-learning, individuals accelerate their projects. Additionally, I write a daily newsletter that you can sign up for here.
Tool #1 http://www.trello.com
Trello Trello is where the bulk of task management happens. Trello allows you to unburden your mind from remembering what needs to be done and instead set a personal timeline for delivering results. As a product manager, I used Trello to manage different aspects of my job, e.g. marketing, sales, engineering, design, etc. Now, I ve adapted the same framework to fit different aspects of my personal and professional work. This framework is perfect for managing multiple projects and seeing continued progress on each one of them. Your success with Trello will come down to how much you respect your own self-determined timelines and deadlines, but this framework puts you in a position to succeed. If you read nothing else in this guide, I recommend you watch this video guide of how I utilize Trello.
Tool #2 http://www.evernote.com
Evernote Whether your memory is as bad as mine or not, you are putting unnecessary cognitive strain by trying to remember things. I also find that the search function within Evernote is very well done so I can easily find information that I m looking for very quickly. Instead of trying to remember thoughts or ideas, I put them into Evernote (or Trello for tasks) immediately. This way, I can always refer back to them and they sync across devices. I organize my notes into several notebooks that are very closely related to the buckets that I create within Trello. Evernote has a beautiful and fast interface so that you can create notes on the fly in a very minimalist environment. And, for frequently-updated notes, you can create shortcuts to navigate back to them quickly. Evernote is free to sync across 2 or fewer devices. For me, that s enough for my personal computer and cell phone.
Tool #3 https://meet.google.com/
Calls over meetings Phone and video calls (Google Hangouts/Meet or Skype) have been a big upgrade to my productivity. When you schedule an in-person meeting, not only are you setting aside the time for the meeting itself, but you have travel/commute time to and from that meeting. Often, that can even creep into the task you re doing before that travel time, convincing you to wait until you get back from the meeting to get to work. Phone and video calls allow you to seamlessly drop in and out of an appointment. And they only need to last as long as they need; if you cover what you need to cover in 30 minutes, you can jump off the call and not feel like you wasted a trip. And video calls don t require you to buy a cup of coffee or something similar to avoid feeling like a jerk at a coffee shop. A word of caution: There is certainly something lost in terms of personal touch and connection when you talk on a call vs. in person. I find that video calls allow for maintaining that connection for the most part, but it is wise to meet with someone in person from time to time to maintain that relationship. Lastly, I don t answer incoming calls unless it is a possible emergency. An incoming call is a demand on your time right now, and if I m in the middle of something, I don t allow that demand. Especially if I don t know what the call is about or how much time it may take. If a call is important, you can bet that the caller will leave you a voicemail or send you a message which you can then screen for importance. And then if necessary, you can call the person right back.
Tool #4 http://www.gmail.com
Gmail I use the default Gmail web and mobile applications to manage my email inbox. For personal use, I use a simple free Gmail account. For my business, I pay for a G Suite account to give me a branded inbox, Drive, Calendar, and more for my business. Gmail allows you to manage multiple accounts at one time in all of their applications, so I prefer to keep my personal and work email and files completely separate. It s almost assured that your current business will not always be there, whether you shut it down, sell it, or something else. Having that separation makes for a much easier path later, even if you need to go back and find something. Gmail allows for customization of your inbox tabs, custom filters, a profile photo, email signature, and more. The mobile app works very well and the various plugins and add-ons from Google Labs make this as functional as any inbox I ve found.
Tool #5 http://calendar.google.com
Google Calendar Google Calendar, like many of the G Suite applications, is extremely well integrated and works great as a mobile app as well. I keep my personal and professional calendars separate here as well, but share access across accounts so I can see a total view of my day from either account. Those separated functions have different colors on the calendar. A calendar application can serve as a great companion to Trello and your To Do list by taking the 3-5 tasks you need to do the next day and time-boxing times of that day to accomplish those tasks. In spaces of time that you want to protect for yourself, whether for work or personal enjoyment, I recommend blocking those areas out explicitly as MY TIME so that in order to create an appointment in that time, you physically have to remove some of MY TIME to do so. This is a great reminder of what you re giving away when you take an appointment.
Tool #6 http://www.calendly.com
Calendly Calendly allows you to manage your calendar and set appointments without all the back-and-forth of email. How many times have you sent someone via email a list of dates and times for an appointment, only for them to respond days later with at time that is no longer available? Calendly lets you send a link to your schedule that shares your availability in real time. It integrates with your calendar (I recommend Google Calendar) to constantly check for scheduling conflicts, and only allows individuals to sign up for open times. In addition, you are in full control over what time windows you make available. I only allow meetings to be scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays, which I control in Calendly. I can ask someone to schedule any length of meeting that I pre-define, such as 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes. And if I want Calendly to leave a buffer between meeting times, say 10 or 15 minutes, I can control that as well. Lastly, I send a Google Hangout link with my Calendly meeting confirmations. You can predefine physical locations you d like to meet, ask for custom fields of information (like the individual s phone number) and more.
Tool #7 http://www.slack.com
Slack Slack is an incredible tool for group collaboration and communication. The magic of Slack is that it works incredibly well simultaneously as both a synchronous and an asynchronous form of communication. We leverage Slack in Unreal Collective as a community collaboration tool, but it s truly built for professional teams. You probably see a pattern, but Slack also has a phenomenal mobile application.
Bonus
Bonus tools + tactics The pomodoro technique Deep Work by Cal Newport Creating habits to get 1% better every day Change your phone to grayscale Product Management 101
Take this a step further You ve taken the necessary first steps to stepping up your time management game. Using these tools and frameworks, you ll be able to accomplish much more. If you want to take this a step further, I recommend peer learning. Peer learning is working with or around a group of other high-performers. By being around other driven, ambitious individuals who are doing extraordinary work, you will level up. This is the core of what I do with Unreal Collective. If you want to learn more about Unreal Collective or join the waiting list, learn more here. If you want to work with me personally, learn more here. I generally only work 1-on-1 with individuals who are going or have gone through the 12-week intensive with Unreal Collective. However, sometimes I open up opportunities to outsiders who exhibit drive and generosity. If this sounds like you, visit the page above or get in contact. I d love to hear more about your project and how we may be able to work together. Email: jay@jayclouse.com
Now get out there and kick some ass!