Calling Projects Tasks

There are things on my to-do list that have been there long enough to stop feeling like tasks. They aren’t urgent, and the business isn’t suffering because of them, but they matter. I’ve started thinking about them more consistently. I can’t tell if that’s readiness, or just the mental cost of leaving something unfinished for too long.

The most important of these items are probably more like projects. Multistep pieces of work that need proper thinking time. But I’ve labelled them as "tasks" because it feels lighter.

It also stops me from falling into a familiar rabbit hole of tooling: Should this live in Things as a to-do? Should it be in Notion as a project? Should I build a complicated automation across different systems? I like experimenting with tech, and I know these systems would add value. But using them is often just a distraction.

When I look at this list, I don’t feel stressed. I just feel slightly stuck. I’m not afraid of the work, and I actually enjoy putting the effort in, but I require a defined outcome to work towards.

And that is the actual problem: a lack of definition.

Each of these tasks has undefined edges. There is no clear start and no clear finish. Decisions are required before execution, and decisions require commitment. Labelling them as simple tasks lets me postpone that commitment.

Ultimately, it’s easier to manage a list than to define a direction.