linkOptimizing attention with Task Score

As the CEO of Amplenote, I created this document to share my personal example of an ambitious person using Amplenote to maximize their personal productivity and happiness. The first half of this will describe the high-level thought process I use to organize my 5,000+ tasks. The second half will offer screenshots and examples of how I try to organize my complicated life, being CEO and Programmer for two growing products.

When our small team started building Amplenote in 2018, it wasn't because we were inspired to create an app with the perfect Idea Execution Funnel. That concept was years from being backfilled as our raison d'être. Like many of the people who discover Amplenote, we decided to move note apps out of frustration with Evernote. The seed for Amplenote was planted by years of uncertainty about whether I could spend more time working on important tasks, and less on urgent ones. I had only too many ideas about what to work on. The problem was that the types of stuff that could get done was so disparate. We had at least 10 projects underway at any given time, and it was both time- and willpower-intensive to choose which of them to begin with.

What my co-Founder and I noticed was that there were lots of apps that made it easy to collect a list of ideas. But, really, nobody needs that. Paper can collect a sprawling list of ideas perfectly well. What we need is to know which of the ideas were best to work on today?

It turns out, there was one source we could tap into and reliably predict which tasks seem "best to work on today?"

That source: the past selves of the list maker. By harvesting all the brilliance of your past selves, Task Score gradually picks out which tasks you seem to care about most. Many (like productivity expert Shu Omi) consider it our signature feature. The gist is that, the more times you look at a possible task, the more opportunities you have to refine it, dismiss it, or do it. Especially if the task is quick to get done or Important, it deserves consideration.

link🏝️ Pick by place, pick by mood

Task Score gives you a head start on making smart choices about which tasks will have the highest ROI. But it is an incomplete solution for choosing what to work on during a given day, because it doesn't have the context that you do. To make a truly optimal choice about "where to spend time," one must think about contextual factors like:

Some people think that "peak productivity" comes from being disciplined about what to work on. Others find it difficult to be disciplined when they're bored or tired. My experience is that it's essential to mix in 🤡 fun 🤡 tasks to bring about a good-enough mental state to exercise discipline.

Whatever your disposition, you will almost certainly find that your productivity runs highest when mixing together (over the course of a week) the "important" with the "fun," and the "pre-planned" with "spontaneous" tasks. The mix helps working from a list feel not just satisfying but even energizing, at least on a good day.

linkExample Amplenote system used by the CEO

My productivity system circa 2023 involves using Jots, Notes and Calendar every day.

linkStarting point: Check daily jot, check calendar

My daily jot is where I put the tasks that I want to stay top-of-mind at all times.

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I try with all my might not to let this list grow longer than 10 items. If the tasks are at least moderately complicated, I'll often use the Double Brackets syntax to create a linked note with more tasks and research on the topic. When possible, I will !move a task from here to my Inbox Note (more on that below) or some other project-specific note.

Checking up on the calendar reminds me if there are any events scheduled for today. On the infrequent days where I have sketched out my daily plan in advance (usually the night before), checking the calendar refreshes my memory about my prior intentions.

linkGather tasks by browsing email inbox and Inbox Note

After confirming that the calendar doesn't call for anything urgent, the next step is to check my email inboxes and my "Inbox Note," which is a note I check daily that contains all of the tasks that either 1) I haven't yet filed into other notes or 2) are small enough (1 hour or less) to imagine I could get them done on any given day 3) are important enough that I want to see them daily.

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My inbox note is a mishmash of unfiled tasks at the top, followed by up to 50 tasks that I haven't hidden or moved to another note

Since the Inbox Note is first stop for most random ideas that I have (often generated via discussions with coworkers), it is a daily battle to keep it <= 50 tasks. My top 3 tactics, aside from actually getting the stuff done, to keep the inbox note from sprawling to infinity:

linkPick the best few, get to work

Reviewing my email inbox, Inbox Note, Slack, Daily Jots and calendar usually takes around 20 minutes. With all that context loaded into memory, it's usually clear where to begin. But if I'm feeling saucy, sometimes I take planning a step further and make an explicit sketch of how my day should go. I use the Peek Viewer for this "day sketch":

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Sometimes it is useful to split the day's aspirations into 3 categories

linkProgress becomes tangible via calendar

As I'm working on tasks throughout the day, I have lately gotten into the habit of adding them to the calendar. This habit saves me brainpower at the end of the week when I need to remember what I worked on to share it with my coworkers.

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Shit, the boss is coming, look busy

I strongly suspect that the most productive people are the ones who learn to zoom out and "meta-optimize" how their time is spent. Since every week gets split into different levels of time per activity (e.g., strategizing, coding, inbox), I make it a point to contemplate how my ratios correlate with my satisfaction. For example, if I lean heavy into coding, does product growth seem to pick up or slow down?

Currently there are a few Task Commands that I use in order to schedule my day post hoc:

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The !move and !duration Task Commands make it quick to get color-coded history on calendar

Using !move lets me put the task into a note that will apply proper coloring (via its tags) without leaving the keyboard.

linkOther Details

In case your curiosity runs wild as the jackalope.

What to do when lists get stressfully long?

I try to go easy on myself, remembering that "overflowing" is the default state of any daily to-do list that hasn't been pared back lately.

I especially strive not to feel guilty about dismissing old tasks that have grown less relevant. "Which tasks can I maybe dismiss?" is a question I ask a few times per week.

Beyond that, I look for opportunities to !move tasks to my teammates to-do lists, delegating anything that doesn't require my particular blend of talents.

What's your idea capture system?

Out in the world, I rely on the Quick Task Bar on Amplenote's mobile app. When browsing web sites, I use Amplecap to make to-dos out of screenshot + url + annotations. In the desktop app, I usually just open my Inbox Note and drop new tasks there.

I also get tasks incoming from email and Slack. I discourage my teammates from sending me tasks in Slack, but since they still sometimes do, I copy them into a todo list if they can't be acted on immediately. For email, I keep a Priority inbox of up to 10 items that I will clean out at least once per week.

I don't have any system for capturing/snoozing text messages yet, which is annoying.

How do you track long-term projects?

I usually set up a flexible recurring todo when I want to make steady progress on a goal over weeks or months, making it Important and designating it to take a max of 60 mins. Knowing I only have to work on the recurring task for a max of 60 mins makes it more palatable to get started.

How much has your approach changed in the last 12 months?

Plenty! It really depends on my main project, but I go through long stretches of hardly using todo lists at all, and then using them to make the most important decisions about which opportunities our many businesses should choose to pursue next.