Hey friend,

This week I want to talk about treating your task list like a suggestion list.

It sounds controversial, but hear me out.

I’m a recovering “completionist”—once something gets on my to-do list, I used to have a strong urge to get it done.

So for years, I treated my task list like a list of must-do obligations. Every day felt like a battle to get this never-ending list down to zero to feel like I’m on top of things.

The weight of this to-do list felt crushing.

And if you’re a busy individual who is juggling work and life—a manager, coach, consultant, solopreneur—you probably know exactly what I mean.

Spoiler alert: Chasing “task zero” was a loosing battle, and a one way road to burnout.

It made me feel anxious and added to my mental load.

And the kicker is when I look back through my list of 100+ tasks, some of them became irrelevant after 6 months!

Your task list is not a iron-clad contract with yourself

I finally realised, treating my task list like an unshakable iron-clad contract with myself was the wrong way to go.

A task list is simply a list of suggestions.

Take a moment to that that sink in.

Your task list is a collection of task ideas that you thought were important or relevant to your projects and goals in the moment. So you captured that onto your list.

But they’re just suggestions of what you could do—not what you must do.

Because those task ideas might change as your make progress on your projects or goals in work and life.

The key is to review your projects and goals regularly (I do this monthly), and make sure those tasks are still relevant. If they aren’t simply delete them.

After embracing this fresh perspective on tasks list, I felt the burden of having a long list of tasks lift.

This is one of my favourite quotes from Burkeman’s book.

It’s telling us to embrace the finitude of life. And instead accept the reality that we can’t do everything we want.

Instead, focus on doing what truly matters, and let go of the rest.

Here’s the exact system I use in Notion (and what I coach my clients on)

But this process can apply to any tool, including a paper notebook!

1. Freely add tasks anytime they come to mind

Don’t overthink it.

Don’t organize them.

Just capture them into Notion to get them out of your head.

2. Once a week, pull in relevant tasks into your weekly plan

Review your suggested task list.

And pull the most relevant tasks into your weekly plan. I focusing on pulling in tasks related to the projects and goals I’m working on right now in my work or personal life

✅ Be ruthless about what makes it to your weekly plan.

✅ Tasks should be aligned to your current priorities.

✅ Let the rest of the tasks sit.

I do this every Sunday evening (or Monday morning) as part of my weekly review and planning process.

I filter and sort my tasks in Notion by Goals & Projects, and then pull tasks from the list onto my Task Calendar in Notion to schedule them out for the week.

Want a detailed breakdown of how I plan and review my week? Here’s it is:

• Plan your week in Notion like a pro in 15 minutes

• Review your week in Notion like a pro in 15 minutes

3. Once a month, do a Task Clean Out

I’m ruthlessly with de-cluttering my task list.

And feel no guilt about it.

Once a month, I do a Task Clean Out. It’s part of my Monthly Planning and Review process.

I sort my Notion task database by the date the task was last “touched” or modified, oldest to newest.

This gives me a filtered view of my oldest tasks at the top of the list.

Then I ask myself: “Is this still relevant?”

If not? Hit delete button.

If a task has been sitting there untouched for months, it’s probably not a priority anymore. And that’s OK.

You have permission to eliminate it from your life.

(By the way, if you want to setup something like this in Notion but don’t know how, reply to this and I can give you some suggestions)

4. Trust that the right tasks will resurface

If a task is truly important to your life, goals or priorities, it will come back around.

Because it will keep popping into your head, nagging at you.

When that happens, just capture it back into your task system.

I use a Quick Capture page (I call it my Inbox in Notion) to quickly add new tasks, notes, ideas into the right Notion databases.

This is just a simple page containing a list of Notion buttons.

Making it easy to capture new information into Notion whether it’s in your web browser, Notion desktop app or Notion mobile phone app.

This system gives you:

• Mental space: You’re no longer burdened by 137 “someday” tasks that must be checked off.

• Clarity: You pull in tasks that are relevant to your priorities, so you’re working on what matter right now.

• Permission: You’re allowed to let go of what no longer fits into you life.

The best part?

This system and approach to task management releases you from the Completionist Trap of holding onto your task too tightly when it’s no longer serving you.

Embrace your Task Backlog

The goal isn’t “task zero”.

The real aim is to focus your attention and productivity towards what matters right now—the real priorities in your life and work.

Set your goals on a monthly or quarterly time scale, but plan and tackle your tasks one week at a time.

This avoids overwhelm or attempts to make a “perfect” plan.

This mindset shift has helped me and so many of my clients to breath better when we open up our task list.

So get comfortable with a "back log" of tasks.

Not everything needs to be done.

So I’m curious…

How are you currently managing your tasks? is it working for you or stressing you out?—Reply to let me know, I’m happy to give you some suggestions to improve how you can manage your tasks in Notion.

See you next week,

Janice CK

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