Work items

I use notes to track what I am working on. The notes are categorised and organised in a hierarchy¹.

Each work item note can have a log section where I keep track of work done. During the week, I keep notes in a weekly note to quickly capture ideas or things to follow up on. In my week reviews, I then try to move them to their actual work item note, and update the log.

The icons for each category help me recognise the nature of a note more quickly.

High level

The high-level categories are oriented towards my identity and the impact I would like to make.

Goal

A goal is a high-level objective, originally inspired by the OKR (objectives and key results) approach. A goal involves the creation of processes or routines.

Habit

A habit is a high-level objective, more inspired by KPI (key performance indicator) or SRE (site reliability engineering) approaches. A habit involves an ongoing/sustained execution of a process.

Engagement

An engagement is a longer-term commitment to something external: a job, a relation, volunteering, family, friends.

Focus area

A focus area is a longer-term commitment to something internal: a business area, topic, hobby, interest.

Medium level

The medium-level categories are more outcome-oriented or with bigger deliverables.

Project

A project is an externally-oriented activity. It has an agreed-upon beginning and end or scope, over a prolonged period. It typically is a child of an engagement.

Thread

A thread is an internally-focused activity with a clearer beginning and end or scope, over a prolonged period. It typically is a child of a focus area.

Content

A content item is specific piece of writing (or other type of content), that goes through a life-cycle from idea to publication.

R and D

An R and D item is a specific piece of research or development, that goes through a life-cycle from idea to conclusion.

Product

A product is usually an R and D item that is published as a product or package. It can be a software tool or framework. It typically involves additional work or maintenance, or communication and engagement.

Task level

The task level consists of individual activities to be crossed off.

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

These are notes to document a standardised approach to a process. They typically contain a checklist for me to follow, and may contain a repeating task to schedule the process (e.g. quarterly taxes for my business).

Notes will have task-level items for concrete actions, outputs, or smaller deliverables. These are the items I will schedule, and may have deadlines.

A task can involve sub-items or remarks, or refer to an external issue or work item in a team workspace.

In Obsidian, it is possible to show tasks including their sub items (show tree). This enables me to schedule a task with several steps as subtasks, and then on the day the task is supposed to be done, to show the steps involved.

My Home (overview) note groups tasks per note, so that related work shows up under a single heading for a specific work item.

```tasks
not done
happens today
group by filename
show tree
```

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1. I don't put goals, habits and SOPs in the hierarchy of work. ↩