From the Productive Indie Fiction Writer:
You can always spot someone who says they have a task manager, but doesn’t actually use it.
They’re the ones squinting at their inbox at noon, suddenly exclaiming, “Oh crap, I was supposed to do that yesterday.” Or they’re scrolling through a digital list where every third item has a little red flag and a due date from last month. (You know who you are.)
I watch this happen up close all the time. My husband, Mark, technically has a task list. He just doesn’t look at it until he’s halfway through the day, by which time it’s less “organizer” and more “archaeological record of forgotten ambitions.”
This is not a call-out post. (Okay, maybe a little.) It’s a public service announcement:
You can’t half-ass your task management. It just won’t work.
And if you’re an indie author? It’s not optional. The indie publishing life comes with a stupid number of moving parts—drafting, editing, covers, formatting, uploads, newsletters, promos, backlist maintenance, ad testing, reader magnets, podcast pitches, beta reader follow-ups, bookkeeping, launch strategies… and that’s just Monday.
There are simply too many things to remember. Unless you have the memory of an AI supercomputer and the discipline of a Navy SEAL, you need a system.
The Tool Doesn’t Matter. The Habits Do.
It doesn’t really matter whether you use ToDoist, TickTick, Notion, Trello, a stack of index cards, or a bullet journal duct-taped to your cat. The specific tool is not the point.
The point is you need to use it—consistently, completely, and without cheating.
That means:
- Writing down everything—not just the urgent stuff.
- Checking it every morning (preferably before you get distracted).
- Updating due dates instead of letting them fester like expired milk.
- Breaking tasks down so they’re actually doable (not “write book” but “outline act one”).
- Reviewing it regularly so it reflects your current reality, not your past optimism.
My System (Loosely Based on Getting Things Done, With a Side of “Whatever Works”)
I use ToDoist, and my system has evolved over years of testing, tweaking, and staring down my own procrastination. It’s loosely based on Getting Things Done by David Allen—capture everything, sort it, review it, do the next action—but I’ve layered on some indie-author-specific adaptations.
Here are a few things that actually work:
- A “Today” filter that only shows me what I actually intend to do today.
- Calendar-driven buckets. My calendar blocks match my major project areas: writing, side-gig work, and what I call “MAPP” time (Marketing, Admin, and Post-Production). Those same buckets exist in ToDoist as projects—so what’s on the calendar and what’s in the task list are always aligned. When I hit a writing block, I look at the “Writing” section. MAPP time? That’s a different headspace and a different set of tasks.
- Rolling over tasks with intention. Yes, I bump incomplete tasks to tomorrow. But I don’t do it mindlessly. If a task keeps rolling over for more than a few days, I pause and ask myself: Why am I avoiding this? Is it unclear? Too big? Pointless? That little moment of interrogation often reveals more than you’d expect.
Why It Matters (A Lot)
Once you start managing your day-to-day tasks with a real system—and sticking with it—you stop putting out fires every damn day.
Those tiny undone tasks that pile up and turn into problems? They get handled before they ignite. You stop waking up in chaos mode. You stop forgetting important stuff.
And here’s the real prize: you get to operate from a place of calm and control.
Which means, finally, you can start investing your time in the important but not urgent quadrant—the space where deep work lives. The space where writing happens.
Because that’s the work that builds your long-term author career.
Tracy Cooper-Posey
SRP Author and owner of The Productive Indie Fiction Writer
