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Task Management is a world itself.
Inside the Paperless Movement® and our ICOR® terminology, we call it the “Action World”.
It’s where you do what you have to do to achieve your goals.
In this article, I’ll explain a crucial concept related to task management because I believe it’s not understanding it that people’s lives become chaotic managing their projects.
The crucial point is to differentiate between task macro-management and task micro-management.
Think for a moment about this and tell me if you feel identified:
You can define your high-level goals/projects, but… do you feel overwhelmed by hundreds of mini-tasks that appear from nowhere, constantly changing your priorities and driving you crazy?
That’s where differentiating task macro-management and task micro-management makes sense to solve this scenario.
So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
Task Macro-Management vs. Task Micro-Management
Task macro-management refers to that wide perspective, that bird’s eye view you need to know where you want to go, what you want to achieve, and where you should focus your attention.
Task micro-management refers to dealing with those “small” tasks (we call them to-dos inside our ICOR® terminology) you need to complete in order to achieve those big goals you’ve previously set.
The problem is to decide what belongs to the task macro-management world (goals and projects in ICOR®) or the task micro-management world (tasks and TO-DOs in ICOR®) because most of the time there are connections between “high-level” things and the “low-level” ones.
On top of that, many of your micro-management issues belong to your “personal world”, but many others affect your whole team.
Just by reading the explanation above, I’m pretty sure you start seeing chaos, anxiety knocks on your door, and you begin feeling lost in a labyrinth.
Don’t worry.
Right now, I’ll describe how I’ve implemented the solution to this situation so that you can get inspired, removing all those negative emotions from your life.
Task Micro-Management Implementation
It’s not easy to combine both worlds.
That’s why I do think splitting them into 2 different apps helps a lot.
I pay close attention to understanding how my brain works, and I can feel it doesn’t work the same way when dealing with micro-management or macro-management. In my case, having 2 tools helps my brain, aka, my life.
It is so because, if you think about it, each tool has been designed and developed to cover different needs. With this splitting strategy, you can take each app’s strengths, avoiding its weaknesses.
Moving forward, I’d say:
I’ve always thought task micro-management equals time-blocking. I’m a time-blocking believer because I’ve always stated we manage time, not projects, tasks, or TO-DOs.
Time-blocking clearly shows you the limitations of real life.
I bet on Sunsama to deal with my task micro-management.
The more I use Sunsama, the better I feel because it works pretty well with the micro-management issue:
- It’s fast.
- You can use keyboard shortcuts.
- Besides, it shows you a calendar to see you day or week at a glance.
Task Macro-Management Implementation
Talking about task macro-management, we trust ClickUp in the Team Paperless Movement®, looking forward to their 3.0 launch because it should significantly improve its GUI/UX and many more things.
Even with the current GUI/UX, we’re taking the best out of it to make that perfect alignment between “big” goals and “small” TO-DOs.
By using ICOR®’s Output Elements and ICOR®’s Output Priorities, knowing what you need to do at any moment becomes a piece of cake because you’re 100% sure it’s aligned with the goals you want to accomplish.
By knowing that, you feel 100% sure, feeling that sensation of control that allows you to perform at your best.
Combining Task Micro-Management and Task Macro-Management
The point now is combining both worlds.
The beauty of this story is that you can connect Sunsama and ClickUp, so all your ClickUp items appear on Sunsama, becoming part of your micro-management world.
On top of that, you can use Sunsama for personal issues or things you don’t want to share with your team.
This combination guarantees you’re always at the right spot.
Takeaways
Try these steps to radically change how you manage your projects:
- Split your project management world into 2 different areas: macro-management and micro-management.
- Try to find apps that were thought and developed to cover just one of them.
- Find ways to clearly see the needed alignment between “big” goals and “small to-dos”.
- Define workflows to clearly know where you should store and work with each item.
The moment you can easily manage the “small” actions you need to achieve your “big” goals is the moment you radically change how you work and live.
