11.3 Tasks, flags and following things up
Nothing you agreed to do is remembered only in your head.
Before:00. Getting Your Footing
Things you agreed to do should live somewhere better than your head, and this topic covers flags, the to-do list, turning an email into a task, keeping a list of what you are waiting on from others, and a fifteen-minute weekly review that keeps the whole system honest. It sits after mail and calendar because tasks are what mail generates. The common confusion is treating the inbox itself as the task list, which means the oldest commitments sink out of sight exactly as they become urgent.
Work through these
Flagging for follow-up and the to-do list
Flagging a message puts it on a list you can work through, rather than leaving it to be remembered. The list is the point; the flag is only the gesture.
Turning an email into a task
Converting a message into a task separates the thing you must do from the conversation about it. Otherwise the commitment lives in a thread you will not reopen.
Waiting-on tracking
Keeping a record of what you are waiting on from other people is what stops things falling silently through. Most dropped commitments are somebody else's, unchased.
A weekly review that takes fifteen minutes
A short weekly pass over everything outstanding is what keeps the system trustworthy. A system you do not review becomes a place things go to be forgotten.
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