Task Decomposition Builder

"Write the final report" is not a task. It is a wish with a deadline attached. Break the work down until every bottom-level item is something you could start tomorrow morning without deciding anything first.

How to use this tool

Name the deliverable at the top — the whole thing you owe someone.
Add the major pieces. Use Add sub-task to break a piece into smaller pieces, up to three levels deep.
Put an hour estimate on the bottom-level items only. Parent rows add themselves up.
Watch for the flags. Anything over the threshold gets marked too big — that is the tool telling you it is still a project, not a task.
Set "blocked by" where one item genuinely cannot start until another finishes. The suggested order at the bottom respects those.

The test that matters: could a reasonably competent stranger pick up this item and know what "done" looks like? If not, it needs breaking down further — or a clearer name.

Every control is a button or a form field. Nothing requires dragging or a mouse.

How this maps to Jira and similar trackers

Mapping between this tool and common tracker vocabulary
Here	Jira	Asana / Trello / Linear
Deliverable	Epic (or Initiative)	Project / Board
Top-level item	Story	Task / Card
Sub-task	Sub-task	Subtask / Checklist item
Hour estimate	Original Estimate (or Story Points)	Estimated time
Blocked by	"is blocked by" issue link	Dependency / Blocked-by

The vocabulary differs; the thinking does not. Teams argue about hours vs. story points constantly — the shared idea is that work you cannot size is work you do not understand yet.

The deliverable

What do you owe, and to whom?

Due date (optional)

Flag anything over (hours)

Four hours is a common rule of thumb: if a bottom-level item is bigger than about half a working day, you probably cannot picture it clearly enough to start it.

The breakdown

No items yet. Add a top-level item to start.

What the breakdown says

Add a few items and observations will appear here.

Suggested order

Bottom-level items only, ordered so nothing starts before the thing it is blocked by has finished. Items with no dependencies keep the order you entered them.

Nothing to order yet.

One more question

Which item are you least sure how to do? That is where the schedule will break, so what is your plan for finding out — and by when?

Keep your work

This tool remembers your work in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Autosave is on.