How to handle projects in TickTick

Projects in a task manager. This is something that I see a lot of students and working professionals struggle with. I don't like the current dedicated project management tools that are out there. Too clunky, slow, bloated, complicated.

Here's how I handled projects in TickTick. It will not work for every use case, but for mine, it worked splendidly.

 

A list of projects

1. Make a list. You can call it "work", "school", "projects", anything you like.
2. Group and Sort by Custom through the up/down arrows icon on the top right.
3. Click the ... button on the top right to open up the menu, and click Add Section.
4. The first section will be housing recurring tasks that will be showing up in your Today view. I named mine Routine.
5. You will then make a section for each project you are actively working on (or if you're a student, for each subject or module of your current semester). This will house all the subject's / project's tasks and subtasks. Ideally in each of these sections you will have a top level task that is designated as a sub-project, like a textbook that's broken down into chapters, or if you own a business, make a list section for that business, and a top level task for each one of your clients or projects you're working on.

A recurring task for each project with a linked subproject

1. In the Routine section, make a recurring task for each project, like "study MTH101" or "renovation of _____ apartment building"
2. Inside this recurring task, type [[ and then type to find and select the project's subproject. This will create an internal link to that subproject with all its subtasks. 
3. Alternatively, right-click on your subproject, click Copy Link and paste it into the project's description.
4. To do this on the phone, inside the project's description, tap the underlined A to bring up the formatting toolbar, scroll to your right to find the button that looks like 2 diamonds linked together (as shown in the picture above at the end of the internal link).

 

Stay focused by zooming in only on what you're working on right now

• Now, instead of your Today view filled with tiny little tasks from all sorts of projects that are not easy to tell where they're coming from, your Today view only contains the big picture: study math, work on this client's website and so on.
• When it's time to work, you click on that recurring task that is your project, click the internal link for the subproject, and you'll find all the steps you need to do, in order. In this convenient centered pop-up window, you can update the subproject by marking tasks complete, rearranging their order, adding more subtasks without even leaving the Today view. 

I number my tasks and subtasks for things that don't have a date and order them appropriately so the next action is always on top. 

If your projects usually consist of a whole lot of do dates and due dates for each subtask, then you need to change this setup a bit:

1. Make 2 lists instead of 1. One that houses your recurring tasks, and one for your projects' tasks.
2. When creating the list that houses your project's tasks, enable the Do not show in Smart List option. This will prevent all the little subtasks with dates from cluttering your Today view. Instead, you will still see daily only the main project as a recurring task in your Today view.
3. Make the projects recurring in that first list that houses your projects, and link the subprojects from the other list that you populated in sections as usual.
4. Upon opening a project's internal link of the subproject in the Today view, you will again have the same focused experience, only this time with dates applied and showing on your subtasks as required, without cluttering the Today view.