Running a Project
Breaking a project into tasks
Adding tasks, assigning them, due dates, and keeping the list honest as work progresses.
Last updated September 2, 2026
Tasks are the project broken into pieces somebody can actually pick up and finish. Each has a name, an owner and a due date, and can be marked done.
Writing a good task
- Start with a verb. "Draft the homepage copy" beats "Homepage".
- One person, one task. A task assigned to two people is assigned to nobody.
- Small enough to finish in a sitting. Anything that takes three weeks is several tasks in a coat.
- A due date you mean. Everything dated today forever sorts nothing.
Do not plan the whole thing on day one
Add the tasks you can see. A hundred tasks written before the work starts is mostly fiction, and rewriting them is how a project team learns to ignore the task list.
Keeping it honest
Mark tasks done as they are done, not at the end of the week. Completed tasks can be hidden or shown, so the working list stays short while the record stays complete.
A TASK LIST NOBODY UPDATES IS A DOCUMENT, NOT A PLAN
The moment the list stops matching reality, people go back to their own notes and the project loses its shared view. Five minutes at the end of each day keeps it alive.