Action Journaling (Tasks & Projects)

Richard Rathe, July 2022

AJ focuses on Action Items defined as discrete activities that can be performed, decided, or otherwise resolved (aka a todo list). This is the lowest level of organization—a shopping list for example. The higher level Task is to go shopping. The shopping list is an aid to complete this task. If you are planning a party with food and quests you must complete several tasks to ensure a successful event. Let's call this top level outcome a Project. As an outline it might appear something like this:

• Henry's Birthday Party (Project)
  • send invitations (Task)
    • Billy
    • Bob
    • Franny
    • etc…
  • go shopping (Task)
    • meat for barbecue
    • potato salad
    • soft drinks (some diet)
    • paper plates
    • etc…
  • pick up cake (Task)
    • call first
    • pick it up

This can be expressed as a series of AJ todo lists…

• Send Invitations
• ☐
  Billy
• ☐
  Bob
• ☐
  Franny
• ☐
  etc…

• Go Shopping
• ☐
  meat for barbecue
• ☐
  potato salad
• ☐
  soft drinks (some diet)
• ☐
  paper plates
• ☐
  etc…

• Pick Up Cake
• ☐
  call first
• ☐
  pick it up

The project is the sum of all three tasks!