How I Manage Tasks: The Pipeline Method
Tags: productivity
Published: 2024-03-14 07:24:40

Modern life can often feel complicated and overwhelming, right? It's a juggling act between balancing overflowing email inboxes, ever-growing to-do lists, and managing our personal and professional lives. Bringing order to the chaos often feels like a pipe dream. You know what I'm talking about and you're definitely not alone. I too have sought to better manage my time and actually get real work done, not just busywork. Look, I'm not a guru and I'm definitely not a productivity expert. I'm a champion goof-off and procrastinator. But I've been using a system for quite a while that's evolved into its own thing that I find useful. I call it the _Pipeline Method_. I wouldn't go so far as to call it revolutionary, because it's not. But, it works for me and perhaps it might just work for you too.

## The Inspiration Behind the Pipeline Method

Roughly 15 years ago, when I really was getting started with my professional career, I started getting overwhelmed with all the things I had going on (nothing unique there). Keeping a simple to-do list just wasn't cutting it. So I did what a lot of people do -- I started looking for the magic formula to productivity. I read through a lot of blog posts and books, and tried a bunch of tools. I tried a bunch of productivity ideas the way someone trying to lose weight tries a bunch of different diets. Most stuff just didn't stick. Then, I stumbled upon a blog post that, after implementing its recommendations, just stuck the most over time. I wish I could find that blog post but it was just too long ago. It wasn't a detailed guide but it was the backbone of this method that morphed over time that's become as much a part of my daily routine as my morning coffee. In short, it's an amalgamation of borrowed ideas and a lot of trial and error. If it worked, it stuck around. If it didn't work for me, it naturally just went away. But the need to stay organized remained and ultimately shaped this method.

## Core Principles and Structure of the Pipeline Method

Simplicity is king. Any new process is kind of like a diet -- the harder it is, the more complicated it is, the more hoops you have to jump through, the less likely you are to stick to the plan. So this is designed with simplicity and flexibility in mind -- no dogma, no strict rules.

### The Structure

I usually implement this with a note-taking tool like Evernote or Obsidian, but you can use almost any tool you want. It doesn't matter just as long as you can sort by tag or property. You'll want to have a folder for your tasks. I typically call it "Actions Pending" or "Tasks" but you can call it whatever you want. Each note/file within this folder/notebook is a task.

The current status of the task is tracked by a property or tag, whatever your tool allows. I usually prefix the status with a number so when I sort by status, it'll show up in an order that puts the most important things at the top. The statuses are as follows:

- 1-In-Progress
- 2-Blocked
- 3-Prioritized
- 4-Proposals
- 5-Done
- 6-Rejected

There's a reason why I tend to use note-taking software for task management: for taking notes. Anything related to the task, I'll record it there. Sub-tasks, phone numbers, email threads, articles, links, images ... whatever, you'll want to keep it there. That way, when you're ready to work on this task, you won't need to hunt all this stuff down -- it's already there waiting for you.

## Task Lifecycle

In my experience, the life of 80% of tasks will start off as a proposal. These are all your shower thoughts or anything else gifted to you by "good idea fairy". A perfect example from my personal life is when I started considering cycling to work. I'm not sure how serious I am about the idea, or whether or not it's even a good idea. I don't know ... I've never really done that sort of thing before. But it seemed like a good idea, so I added it as a proposal that I can investigate and research later. I figured I'd need to figure out the best route to work, the best bicycle to buy, where to store it, how much time and money would I be saving, weather conditions, etc. I don't need to investigate that now, but I want to make a note to look into it later when I have free time.

Sometimes though, there are tasks that you know need a different status. For instance, you lost your passport, your car is making some funny noises, etc. You know those things just aren't optional, so don't waste your time tagging them as a proposal. Mark tasks to whatever makes sense to you. That said, most things will be proposals.

Tasks will transition to statuses that will make logical sense to you. A proposal is just an idea. Once you decide it's something that should be done, you'll upgrade it to "prioritized". That just means you looked it over and decided it's time to get that moving down the pipe. As you continue completing tasks, you'll reach into the prioritized tasks to move it along into "in progress". You could call this "Work In Progress (WIP)" but I get flashbacks to "scrum" and "agile" so I avoid that trauma. No thanks. Once you're finished with the task then it's .... well ... "done", so mark it as such. Pretty straight forward. Same thing with a task being "rejected". Not every task needs to be completed just like not every email or phone call needs a response. That's ok.

One side note I would mention is I wouldn't delete any task. You never know when you need to go back to a task and you'll need all the information related to the task like phone numbers, emails, etc. Sometime I _think_ I'm finished with a task, or I need to make a related task and I'll need to go back to my notes. Super useful.

## Key Practices for Maximizing Productivity

### The Rule of 4

Multitasking is a scam. Anyone who says they're good at it is lying. It just doesn't work and isn't the most productive way to get things done. Sometimes it's unavoidable and if your job is like that, maybe you need a different system. But I find that focusing on one problem at a time works out way better in the long run. I would rather have the most high priority task done well than multiple tasks done not so well.

That's where the Rule of 4 comes in: no more than four tasks can be "Prioritized" or "In-Progress" at any given time. This rule is key to the entire system. For one thing, it prevents multitasking. But just as important, it forces you to prioritize.

One problem that I have with most task management systems is having a "priority" category. It's way too hard and time consuming to order _all_ tasks by priority. What ends up happening? Literally everything gets marked as "high priority". I promise you, if you've worked in any kind of development work, you've seen this happen. No person or team has the discipline or the heuristics to properly prioritize things. But I promise you most people can identify the number one most important thing that needs to get done.

So, why not limit this to just one? Well, I find that in the morning, I'll figure out what I want to get done for the day, and mark them as "In-Progress". That's usually one or two things that I know I _need_ to get done today. But I'll allow myself a little flexibility to go up to 4 if necessary. When it comes to "Prioritized", I like to wait until there are no more prioritized tasks before adding new tasks there. That way, I force myself to be more decisive about what I'm going to do. It's not a strict rule, but it's a guideline I advise you follow as well.

### Embracing Simplicity

The beauty of the Pipeline Method lies in its flexibility. No elaborate process. No retrospectives required. Even due dates are mostly optional. It's not forbidden to add a due date to a task (do whatever you want), but for me, when I implement the Rule of 4 and limit the size of tasks, I know I'll get the most crucial tasks done in a reasonable time frame. Personally, I get unmotivated when setting a due date to a task and then inevitably miss it because estimating a task can sometimes be near impossible, especially for creative work. But if you live and die by deadlines, then by all means add a due date and use your favorite tool to integrate with your calendar. Again, the process is there to work for you and not the other way around. The simplicity allows you to stay in control.

## Comparison with Other Methods

You might wonder, “How does this differ from Kanban or Getting Things Done (GTD)?” The truth is, the Pipeline Method borrows liberally from these methodologies through osmosis and by convergent evolution. Good ideas tend to repeat themselves in nature. There are a number of similarities but quite a few key differences.

Let's take Kanban, for example. The one problem I have with it is that you need special tooling to get it to work, typically. These tools aren't always that great. Either you have to only access them from a web app since they don't have a dedicated desktop app, or they don't have a good mobile version either. And speaking of mobile, it's tricky to get a great visual representation of a Kanban Board on a mobile device. Personally, it's just not ideal for me. The Pipeline Method _can_ be implemented with a Kanban Board, if you want. Or not. Do what works best for you.

GTD is also a great choice but I think it's just too much ceremony. The pipeline metaphor is apt here in that there's very little ceremony -- things just move along at a human pace, without a song and dance for every single thing you want to do.

## Conclusion

Look, this isn't going to change your life. But I've been doing this for almost 15 years and it's worked when everything else just faded away. I literally live by the method (I'm using it to write this post at this very moment). And when you implement it, do what I did: make it work for you, not the other way around.