I adore Carl. I've mentioned it previously, I need to listen to Carl at 1.5 speed to accelerate him just above the normal speed.

For me, there are 1-3 priorities heading into a week. When I think of planning, It's inside of a project and not across my calendar. I'm with Carl in that trying to add tasks at the calendar level is just adding noise.

Simply put, this is one of the best advices I have heard of late. Block times in the calendar for categories of tasks, and then pick up tasks from the task manager. Simple, sensible, and effective; thanks a ton!

You have described my problem over the last couple of years after looking at lots of productivity hacks. By trying to be too slick with task, project management, and my calendar I have felt overwhelmed and confused. The separation of task, projects, and events was simple and I think much more effective as long as a stick to regular weekly planning. Thank you! I

I used to put my tasks into calendar many years ago and it was so overwhelming. I totally agree with you that task manager is the real place for tasks and a calendar fits well for events.

thanks. your work is very useful for me. Greatings from Spain.

I am convinced! Thanks!

I tried adding Todoist tasks to Google calendar a couple of years ago. What a confusing mess. Ever since I’ve kept tasks and calendar entries totally separate for all the reasons you’ve explained.

I think what Carl described is my beef with any.do, the task manager use. Whenever I want to add a date to a task, it wants a time too, and then sets a reminder, and considers it an event. Which it is not. So then I always have to turn it off! I was glad to hear Carl say this because I have a hard time putting all my tasks in a time spot for the very reasons he described. Where I still struggle is how to categorize my many tasks in my task list (Microsoft To-Do for work).

A great video ... I work the same way.

You've cleared up so much for me with this video. I had an a-ha moment! Can't wait to put it into practice this week!

That really makes sense, sir. I personally use Google calendar o my android phone. On the Google calendar you can also set either Task or an Event. By default the calendar offers to set a particular time and period for a new Event whereas the task is offered for a whole day (you can set a specific time here as well if you prefer however). But the point is, if I fail to complete the Task in that day, it stays as uncompleted task on the top of the following days as long as I don't delete it. Which is a good discovery for me, especially after watching this video. With that, at least as a beginner it seems I could be more content with calendar alone, since the variety of tools overwhelms and it gets worse then :/ Thank you for you great insights, Carl, you help us a lot!

I really appreciate this video. I appreciate all of your videos lol. But I've been lamenting for a long time about how impossible it is to find one good app that is a calendar/to do list combo. You helped me realize why it's better to keep them separate, and why I need to be thinking about tasks versus events as two entirely different things.

Carl, I think this a right-headed approach and was an 'a-haaa' moment as it put a piece of the task management puzzle in place for me. The idea of making time on a calendar for categories of tasks is a really good idea, and I realized while watching the video that if I have given my tasks a 'priority' (in Todoist) I can easily see which are most pressing. This simplifies everything. Thanks!

Thanks Carl. I think you went over this in a previous video, maybe not as in depth. But that's where I Got It. And I am soo glad you explained it, because my calendar was a mess. It was so crowded looking ... I had tasks I made in the calendar, tasks in Todoist, and if I didn't assign a time for a task in Todoist, it they would piled up on the top of my calendar. Ugly. Separating the calendar and Todoist for different functions helped me a lot. And for a person with ADHD it was huge. Thanks again Carl.

Very interesting, I fully agree however in my role as a recruiter, I constantly move between events and tasks. Events are geared around specific times a candidate interviews for ecample, but there are tasks scheduled either side of these events. The productivty tool we've developed let you manage tasks separately from events, however there is visibility of the task's deadline in the calendar and a trigger should be set for this in a way that will make sure you don't miss the deadline of the task. Crucially, most task management software doesn't provide effective real time task prioritisation and thats because tasks aren't associated to an "outcome", for example... A CV to be submitted to a client, is less important than sending an offer to a candidate and that is because the outcome of sending an offer carries a higher reward and has already surpassed the previous task of having sent that CV previously so carries much greater opportunity cost if the outcome is unsuccessful, which automatically prioritises that task higher. Having a model where the next task is automatically generated from the previous task and having pre-defined rules for task prioritisation means that your focus is always geared towards the task that carries the maximum reward potential.

Completely agreed Carl

I use Asana and when I process my email -- tasks get sent to projects and then assigned to persons. This way my email is always processed and I eliminate the potential for bottlenecks. From there I schedule projects and process tasks that have been assigned to me in blocks. It's functionally the same thing, but it combines the tasks of reaching out to team members for status updates and processing tasks that I need to do.

Great. I want to add that I finally understand now your labeling system. I always tried to label tasks based on some kind of category, and it was mainly an organizing method and that's why I didn't understand why you can have only a few labels. But after this video, I feel like the need for categories a less important for getting things done. It's very similar to spending time organizing things in a calendar which takes time on it's own, but not very beneficial for getting it done. So if I use a labeling system similar (in idea) to yours, I can then put some time in the calendar for that "label" and it is basically not a category of some project but more like a category of work. Thanks.

Love, 100% agree. I'm very spontaneous though, so even time blocking is hard for me. Tips? To further back you up: I recently tried some app that consolidated all todo app tasks to a calendar, but it was simply overwhelming to try and think about scheduling my huge backlog.

I agree with Carl. Don't put tasks on your calendar. - - - If a task needs to be done on a particular day/time, then I. put it on my calendar, but then Carl would now call that an "event", which is fine.

This is by war your best video, Carl. And I disagree with the approach of having separate tasks and calendars, but it was great food for thought.

Carl, this video was super helpful as were the definitions of tasks and events (even added to my PKM!). My question to you is - is there a way to compile or export everything into one location so that if I wanted to see everything I accomplished in one day - in one location? That would be amazingly helpful in terms of accountability, and even historical memory. Thanks for all your help with these videos Carl, as always super interesting! (GOAT) greatest of all time!

Good video, I liked this system and will try to implement it. Thanks for the video! One thing, I have tasks at work that take more than a day to do even if they are divided into smaller parts. Do you have any tips for organizing this so I have time for other things too?

I agree with everything said. Everytime I try to put tasks in my daily schedule, I keep dragging blocks down in my calender til the last one appears on the next day! It’s almost impossible to fit everything in one day.

Completely agree with you Carl. However I do have a google Cal of my todoist, but that is because the majority of my tasks don't have deadlines, but do use priority order. Where the calendar comes in handy are when there are things that are tasks AND an event. For instance tickets needed buying for Glastonbury, they go on sale at a specific time I have no choice in, but it is a task as we have a project shared that others need to use and there are sub tasks involved like spreadsheets and registration. Maybe you need a third definition for these task/events and how to deal with them? Would love to hear.

So, are you against TimeBlocking methods and also against the use of TasCaLy?

Hello, Carl. Would you consider marking folders with WEEK1, WEEK2, and so on, rather than THIS WEEK or NEXT WEEK? What would this enable us to do? 1) A week has passed. You can archive your WEEKN folder and quickly access completed tasks from previous weeks for evaluation. 2) Because the majority of tasks will already be in the right folder, you will not need to transfer them from the NEXT WEEK folder to THIS WEEK folder.

Totally agree with you here. I'm wondering: I notice you have a system for tasks in Apple Reminders. You also have a whole Todoist setup. Do you actually use multiple task managers for your personal business/life? Or do you just do various setups to show how your system works with various applications? Great videos! Have helped me a ton!

Great insights, Carl. One question: Why do you have all those tasks in Today (in your Todoist)? Why wouldn't they just be in This Week?

The reason to put it in the calendar is to allocate time for the task. This way you see that it‘s impossible to do 36 tasks a day. ;) Do what works for you.

I agree it's better to keep my Todist tasks and events calendars separate. I tried at one time to combining them into one calendar but I felt overwhelmed.

Happy disagreeing, I love that!!!!

Super clear, but I'm still confused about for example a (business)meeting. It's not on regular times. This is an event right? And I put that in my calendar, so you keep checking both? Or do you sync the one time events to your Todoist?

where's the wig Carl? 😆 good vid as always

Hi Carl. I’ve always been confused about bills. Paying a household bill is a task. But the due date is a calendar item. So I’m confused about where to put it. On my calendar? My task manager? Or both? Thanks for your input.

Need to do a video on the Eisenhower matrix

I was working for MONTHS with TickTick’s mixed task/calendar, but it just made me so stressful and now I can understand why. I’ll separate tasks and events again, your argument it makes totally sense to me! Thank you so much for this video ❤️ (sorry my bad English hahah)

Hi Carl! Me again, haha! Thanks for the responses you've given! Do you have any tips for money management, not just task management without stress? I've seen your Medium articles, and they're very on point, but what are the routines/processes you're using for that? I'm a freelancer who needs to pay off debts, get more money, and synchronize very quickly. I was thinking about YNAB, but it looks overwhelming to me. Would be very happy if you could give some tips, thanks!

Hi Carl, on a broadly related note, should I see, for example, time spent working on my music, or my fiction book (two things I am actually doing) as tasks or events. They’re both activities that I, currently and for the foreseeable future, do alone. They’re both things I can do at any time in the day, although one might say there are certain mild preferences as to preferred times. They’re also both daily activities all through the working week.

4:40 No time to eat or rest

Hmm, I think the real problem here is that you have way too many tasks for the day in the first place. After you schedule the tasks that are possible for today you know exactly what's possible and can reschedule the rest for other days. Also for the problem that you don't know how long a task takes, you guess it and multiply it by 1.5 or double it, and then you are really safe.

I love your videos but I disagree. I like everything in one place (all in the same app) so I don’t miss something. I do use google tasks and google calendar though and when I don’t need to see my tasks I just uncheck the task category. I create my tasks as all day tasks just so I can see my list in the same app as my calendar. I recently was trying todist after watching a bunch of your videos but I was really missing the calendar view so I switched back ( I did however come up with a priority system and sort of label system after using todist bc that is extremely helpful). It’s not perfect, but it works for now lol.

What do you think about the new calendar view in Todoist? Honest answer? Could we get rid of a normal calendar, like Fantastical, etc.? I don’t know because I like to have my tasks separated from my calendar/schedule.