Separate task and project management

Today I worked on answering a question that has been dragging around for months: “Why is it necessary to separate task management from project management?”

It all started a few months ago. On the one hand, I had started to notice that managing my tasks was becoming a complicated process that consumed more mental energy than I would ideally like to invest. On the other hand, I came across the following post: “Separating Task Management and Project Management”.

Finally, today, I was able to dedicate the necessary time (about five hours) to process the ideas and references of the post resulting in the following structural note.

# 202401291325 -S- Separate task and project management
# S- #task-manager #project-manager #task #project

The aim of this note is to explain:

* why it is necessary to separate task management from project management 
* how to implement this separation.

Why separate task management from project management:

  A task manager makes it easier to work with tasks.............[[202401291052]]
  A project requires different types of information.............[[202401291214]]
  A task manager cannot manage projects.........................[[202401291107]]
  A task manager is not a project manager.......................[[202401291114]]
  A Gantt chart is a project manager............................[[202401291142]]
  Merlin is an example of a project manager.....................[[202401291419]]

How to implement this separation:

  It is bad to have all tasks go through the task manager.......[[202401291127]]
  It's common to use your task manager for tasks in a project...[[202401291132]]
  Tasks that remind you to work on your projects................[[202401291318]]
  You can manage simple projects in your mind...................[[202401291340]]
  Minimise complexity in your task manager......................[[202401291415]]
  Minimise the number of projects you have......................[[202401291507]]
  Don't create unnecessary projects.............................[[202401291514]]

Now I clearly understand why not doing this separation brings problems like, for example, feeling that task management is too time-consuming. Moreover, this situation has helped me to improve my task and project management: something I am sure will be useful for my future self :-)

Today my axe is a bit sharper.