An In-Depth Look at My Task Management System
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Earlier last month, I penned an article about TickTick and how it transformed my daily routine. That piece garnered quite a bit of attention.
Motivated by that response, I decided to explore my TickTick configuration in greater detail, providing a clearer understanding of how I incorporate the app into my everyday life.
TickTick serves as the core of my organizational system. It houses everything related to my past, present, and future.
If an item isn’t recorded in TickTick, it simply won’t get done. It functions as my task organizer, calendar, habit tracker, and Pomodoro timer.
I use TickTick across all my devices—iPhone, iPad, Watch, and MacBook. However, this article will focus specifically on my MacBook setup, as that’s where I engage with TickTick the most.
Nonetheless, the general setup remains consistent across all platforms, with only minor variations for specific features.
Now, let's dive into the TickTick configuration I’m currently using.
Overall Setup Overview
The image above showcases my overall setup.
I realize the screenshot is zoomed out, making it hard to see individual sections, but that’s perfectly fine.
Throughout this article, I will include zoomed-in screenshots of each section as I guide you through them.
Seeing the broad setup should provide you with a foundational understanding.
Today View
I spend a significant portion of my day in this view.
The "Today View" effectively displays all my daily tasks and habits.
Each task is color-coded according to its respective list, and I can see both the list name and due time when applicable.
I have the flexibility to sort tasks by list, date, time, priority, and more.
In the task list, you’ll notice several items without a checkbox to the left—those represent my calendar events for the day!
Yes, you can synchronize your Apple or Google Calendar events with TickTick, allowing them to appear within your task view. This is incredibly convenient! I no longer need to toggle between my task manager and calendar.
At the bottom, you'll find my Habits section, which presents a clean list of my daily habits that I can check off throughout the day.
This is where having a comprehensive app for tasks and habits significantly streamlines the process. I can rely on TickTick for everything.
My Lists
Creating lists is fundamental in TickTick.
In TickTick’s organizational framework, lists are the primary building blocks. Within each list, you can create an unlimited number of tasks, and each task can have its own sub-tasks.
I utilize lists to categorize various important aspects of my life.
To start, I have divided my life into five main lists:
- Personal: This includes anything related to my personal life, errands, legal matters, and anything else that doesn’t fit neatly into other categories.
- Fitness: Straightforward—this encompasses everything pertaining to weight loss goals, meal preparation, new recipes, workout routines, and gym-related tasks.
- Finance: All things money-related are stored here! This includes managing paychecks, investments, crypto, and banking tasks.
- Side Hustle: This list contains everything work-related outside of my primary job. If tasks are part of a larger project, they will be organized in the project list, which I’ll discuss later.
- Professional: As a software engineer, this list encompasses everything related to my role at Yelp. It’s particularly useful during daily standups or weekly syncs.
Next, we’ll review the “Projects” list, which contains two sub-lists:
- Medium Blog: Writing for Medium involves a variety of tasks, from brainstorming topics to researching, drafting, writing, and finally publishing.
- YouTube: I also manage a YouTube channel where I create programming content. Each video involves considerable effort, and all related tasks are organized here.
One crucial list in my setup is the Reminders list, where most of my recurring tasks are kept. Additionally, tasks with specific due dates that don’t fit neatly into other lists are stored here. Examples include:
- Paying Rent
- Transferring money post-paycheck
- Canceling subscriptions
- Noting birthdays
- Monitoring parking restrictions
You can view additional lists in the screenshot, but I believe I’ve covered the most significant ones.
Views & Filters
The various views and filters make navigating TickTick much easier.
In addition to the “Today” view, there are a few other noteworthy options:
- All: Displays all tasks within TickTick.
- Inbox: Tasks captured outside of TickTick—whether via Siri Shortcuts, Apple Watch, browser extensions, quick add feature, or emails—automatically populate this view.
- Tomorrow: Shows what tasks are scheduled for the next day.
- Next 7 Days: Helps focus on upcoming tasks in the relative long term.
TickTick also allows the creation of custom filters based on different task attributes. While I don’t frequently use filters, I have a couple that come in handy from time to time:
- Coming Soon: Displays tasks due in the next 1–3 days.
- Priority: Shows only tasks marked with “High Priority” that are due within the week.
Calendar View
If there’s one feature that makes it impossible for me to abandon TickTick, it’s the calendar feature. It truly changes the game!
Firstly, I have a comprehensive view of all my calendar events within TickTick. This includes:
- All my TickTick events
- Events from my other calendars—Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and email invites
- Third-party subscriptions such as Formula 1 races, NFL, NBA, and Premier League events
It’s fantastic to see everything consolidated in one place!
I can easily switch between Day, Week, and Month views to get the level of detail I need.
On the right side, there’s the “Arrange Tasks” section, which displays all tasks that aren’t yet linked to a date or time.
I can effortlessly drag these tasks onto the calendar to schedule them.
Content Ideas
One list I haven’t delved into much is the Content Ideas list.
Throughout the day, I often have ideas for Medium blog posts or YouTube videos.
In the past, I frequently lost track of these ideas!
Now, I’ve established this list and a system to capture ideas as they arise.
It’s quite simple.
I always wear my Apple Watch. Whenever an idea strikes, I simply raise my wrist and say:
“Hey Siri, remind me to create a blog post about ____”
or
“Hey Siri, remind me to create a YouTube video on ___.”
The integration between Siri and TickTick ensures these ideas automatically appear in my TickTick Inbox. From there, I can easily move them to the Content Ideas list.
Over time, I’ve built a nearly endless backlog of content that I can draw on whenever I'm short on ideas.
Habit Tracker
I also monitor my habits using TickTick.
As illustrated above, I categorize all my habits into Morning, Afternoon, and Night, adjusting them as my schedule changes.
For each habit, I can quickly see how many days I've checked in and my consistency over the past week.
It’s incredibly easy to mark these off throughout the day from any device—be it my phone, iPad, or watch. I can also check them off on my MacBook, although I tend to do that less frequently.
The second screenshot provides a more detailed breakdown of my habit statistics. I can analyze my performance for each habit over the course of a month, along with my monthly check-in rate and best streak information.
Completed Section
TickTick offers a clear view of all my completed tasks.
I can easily review the tasks I’ve finished over several weeks, providing insights into my productivity.
In my setup, I’ve organized it by dates, but you could also categorize it by projects or other task attributes.
Task Summary
I recently discovered this TickTick feature, and it has since become a key component of my weekly routine.
Each week, I capture a snapshot of my weekly task summary. TickTick allows exporting this list as Markdown or PDF.
I prefer exporting it as Markdown and pasting it into my Obsidian weekly review for a consolidated overview.
And that’s a wrap! That’s my TickTick setup that keeps me productive throughout the week.
I hope you found this information valuable.
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