Tasks, messages, and artifacts are the backbone of knowledge work.

Tasks, messages, and artifacts are the backbone of knowledge work.

Tasks are things that need to get done.
As tasks get more complex or involve others, we group them into "projects".

Messages are things to communicate.
- Messages to ourselves are "notes".
- Messages with others are "conversations".
- Messages with AI are "sessions".
- Live conversations are "meetings".

Artifacts are what persists.
- Documents
- Spreadsheets
- Slideshows
- Images
- Videos
- Code

Most work is a symphony (or calamity) of these elements coming together.

A product review meeting (messages) creates action items (tasks) which produce a mockup (artifact) that gets reviewed in another meeting (message)... and the cycle continues.

Now, let's look at our tools through this lens...
- Asana, Jira, and Todoist manage tasks.
- Slack, email, and ChatGPT manage messages.
- Google Docs, Figma, and GitHub manage artifacts.

The old model was: "Put everything in one place."
The emerging model is: "Work however you want. We’ll keep everything connected."