"Remember the task you missed" – a phrase I often repeated to my team. My work involved managing a flood of correspondence across social media, emails, phone calls, WhatsApp, and in-person meetings. Every interaction spawned 1–20 tasks with deadlines ranging from today to two months from now. With 100+ threads running concurrently, relying on memory was impossible. So, we captured everything using tools that worked for us: to-do lists, flagged emails, calendar reminders, digital notes, and even good old pen and paper.
But capturing is just 20% of the game. Juggling tasks and overlapping responsibilities meant things could slip through. Enter Cal Newport's 3C task management, which transformed how we worked:
➊ CAPTURE: We noted everything – action points from meetings, tasks from conversations, even fleeting ideas. Jot it down immediately, wherever you are.
➋ CONFIGURE: We organized tasks into their proper “boxes.” Urgent to-dos went to a shared team tracker, recurring tasks became reminders, and long-term goals (e.g., 6 months out) were parked in calendars. Color codes and prioritization kept us focused.
➌ CONTROL: We built rituals to plan our days, weeks, and quarters. Instead of reacting to urgent pings, we set weekly deliverables in advance.
Of course, emergencies happen. When chaos hit, we would tackle the critical things to just survive. But here's the magic: our 3C system meant nothing was lost. When stability returned, we revisited our trackers, calendars, and lists, pick up the missed tasks, and adjust. (Pro tip: I even kept a separate "Not Possible" list for those impossible promises that dissolved into nothingness upon follow-up. This saved me from so many troubles as it had the last updates noted with dates, meaning I could clarify why this was not being done, even if it suddenly came up at a meeting randomly.)
A quick intro to this approach: think about what was the most important task or goal you missed pursuing last year? Maybe a weekly repeating reminder in your calendar would help. Check-in with yourself regularly, and the momentum will soon follow.
Radi
Dhaka
April 2025
But capturing is just 20% of the game. Juggling tasks and overlapping responsibilities meant things could slip through. Enter Cal Newport's 3C task management, which transformed how we worked:
➊ CAPTURE: We noted everything – action points from meetings, tasks from conversations, even fleeting ideas. Jot it down immediately, wherever you are.
➋ CONFIGURE: We organized tasks into their proper “boxes.” Urgent to-dos went to a shared team tracker, recurring tasks became reminders, and long-term goals (e.g., 6 months out) were parked in calendars. Color codes and prioritization kept us focused.
➌ CONTROL: We built rituals to plan our days, weeks, and quarters. Instead of reacting to urgent pings, we set weekly deliverables in advance.
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| A photo of me from 2019, with the wonderful students of a Friendship school... on a river island in Bangladesh |
Of course, emergencies happen. When chaos hit, we would tackle the critical things to just survive. But here's the magic: our 3C system meant nothing was lost. When stability returned, we revisited our trackers, calendars, and lists, pick up the missed tasks, and adjust. (Pro tip: I even kept a separate "Not Possible" list for those impossible promises that dissolved into nothingness upon follow-up. This saved me from so many troubles as it had the last updates noted with dates, meaning I could clarify why this was not being done, even if it suddenly came up at a meeting randomly.)
A quick intro to this approach: think about what was the most important task or goal you missed pursuing last year? Maybe a weekly repeating reminder in your calendar would help. Check-in with yourself regularly, and the momentum will soon follow.
Radi
Dhaka
April 2025