Imagine you have two incredible tools before you: Google Tasks and a brand-new Everbook. They're both great productivity resources, and you can't decide to use just one. You love them both! "Can I use my Everbook to enhance Google Tasks?" you might wonder.
Let's consider how to use the two together. Google Tasks offers a wide range of to-do list functionality. Some of those translate really well to doing inside an Everbook, and some of them perhaps ought to stay in the digital realm.
What Can I Do with Google Tasks?
Task Management - Create, edit, and delete tasks. As a digital resource, manipulating your tasks list requires no cost of physical resources and a tiny bit of time.
Assign Subtasks - Have a task that will require multiple steps to complete? Create your top-level task and assign subtasks underneath it.
Task Scheduling - Assign a date to a task, to do it on or by a certain day. These will also display at the top of your Google Calendar.
Recurring Tasks - Have something you need to do over and over again? Assign a how often the task should repeat.
Completion Tracking - When you mark a task complete, Google Tasks doesn't delete it. The task will appear at the bottom of your list in a drop down called "Completed."
Email Integration - Have an important email? No problem! When you receive an email in your Gmail account that requires a follow-up action, immediately create a task within the same Gmail interface.
Task Prioritization - Organize your tasks as you want. Move them from list to list. Reorder them from top to bottom. Star the task to set it aside as a top-priority.
Mobile App - Download a dedicated app from Google Play or the App Store for a great productivity experience on the go.
Google Tasks is a powerful platform. David Allen's GettingThingsDone.com offers a guide to implement the GTD system with Google Tasks. It's a powerful, flexible system that many - like you! - find super useful.
What Processes Can I Move to My Everbook?
However, your new Everbook is also a powerful productivity tool, too. Many of the processes in Google Tasks will translate to your new analog system. Through a creative use of bundles, folders, and loose-leaf pages, create an offline system that's just as good as your online one. Before considering how it might enhance Google Tasks, let's consider it's unique strengths.
Task Creation - Your Everbook will work great for general task management. Create a bundle for your to-do lists, mirroring the organization you're used to in Google Tasks.
Create Subtasks - Many Everbook users create project plans which include tasks, subtasks, dependencies, and reference material all inside a project bundle or project folder. You might also use this paradigm in how you organize your main task lists.
Task Scheduling - In your Everbook, create a calendar on which you park tasks which must be done on a certain day. As long as you review this regularly, you won't lose track what what needs to be done when.
Completion Tracking - Because Everbook is an analog medium, easily review your completed items, enjoy the satisfaction of seeing them checked off or struck-through along side the still-open ones.
Recurring Tasks - Though a manual process, create a reference document of tasks and how frequently they need to recur. Review this list regularly to add them to your task lists or calendar when appropriate.
Though an analog medium, your Everbook includes all the productivity methods in Google Tasks, if you don't mind doing them manually. In fact, handwriting and reviewing your tasks makes you more mindful of your day-to-day responsibilities through Cognitive Disfluency.
How Can Everbook Enhance Google Tasks?
Understandably, many users may use the two systems together, leveraging the unique strengths of each. As you will see, some components belong in your Everbook while others make more sense in Google Tasks.
Scheduled Tasks & Events
Though many users create a calendar in their Everbooks, Google Tasks and Google Calendar still make a great pair. For every task that must be done on a certain date (not by a certain date), use Google Tasks to ensure it shows up then and only then. If you decide to use Google Calendar to manage your events and appointments as well, this will create a great system that you can easily manage.
For some users, though, they have multiple Google Calendars to manage: one for work, one for school, and a personal one to boot! In these cases, it might make more sense to use a handwritten calendar in your Everbook as your single source of truth. Transpose anything you need to remember from your various calendars to your Everbook calendar, both tasks and events.
Recurring Tasks
Perhaps there are tasks and responsibilities you must attend to on a recurring basis: daily, weekly, monthly, or otherwise. Many users manually manage these in an Everbook no problem. It takes some extra effort, but they're more mindful or them and have the opportunity to think about them more deeply (as handwriting encourages one to do).
At a certain point, though, this may become quite tedious. If you find yourself spending too much time managing these tasks and not enough time doing them, then you might consider keeping a Google Tasks list of recurring items. You will need to be mindful not to forget this one digital list that lives outside of your analog Everbook lists.
Project Collaboration
For projects, many users create dedicated folders and bundles to house related information. Brainstorming sessions, task lists, sketches, and outlines all get tucked away together in one Everbook home. Yet, this introduces one limitation: No one else gets to see them!
In this case, many keep a well organized system of folders in Google Drive to mirror what they've made in their Everbook. Transpose shareable or collaborative documents onto a Google Doc or Sheet, inviting the appropriate parties to make their contributions.
