Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Keep track of what you're not doing by discarding tasks

Keeping track of projects or keeping a record of tasks can be helpful, but how do you handle those tasks that don’t ultimately get completed? olliebaum’s tip may help you: keeping track of what you’re not doing can be helpful too!

If you’re anything like me, then maybe you don’t always want to completely delete a task without a trace. Sometimes it’s useful to have a record of that task – perhaps it was a good idea that you simply didn’t have time for. Or maybe you just like having some record of ideas you considered when completing your project.

In this situation, I tag the task as #discarded and complete the task. This will effectively “delete” it from view, but allow me to see it again should I need to. It’s also easy to distinguish from tasks I’ve actually completed because of the discarded tag. (I use the muddy green colour because it reminds me of Oscar the Grouch and his trash can. 😄 )

I also add a note beginning “Discarded:” - it allows me to give a reason for why I decided against this task at the time. This can be really useful when reflecting on projects.

Creating a Smart List based on the search “tag:discarded AND status:completed” lets you review your discarded tasks easily in case you want to reinstate one of your discarded tasks.

I like being able to look back on projects and see what approaches I considered and ultimately discarded. Some good ideas might get deleted simply because I didn’t have time for them, but discarding tasks instead allows me to preserve them. There may be something I can take from it for a similar future project.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for sharing this tip, olliebaum! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.

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