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-   -   Prioritizing tasks with ABC (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=22771)

AE Thanh 2011-11-29 12:16 PM

Prioritizing tasks with ABC
 
Hey guys,

Last week I've written an article on how you can prioritize tasks. I've looking for a solution for a long time and I think I found something that is viable.

It's based on the ABC method of prioritizing tasks. You can label tasks with either the letter A, B or C. A = most important whereas C = least important. It's actually quite easy to implement in Omnifocus with help of some flags and customized contexts.

If you are someone who likes to prioritize tasks, I suggest you check my write up here:

[url]http://www.asianefficiency.com/task-management/omnifocus-abc-priorities/[/url]

I hope that helps people who want to prioritize tasks.

Tedallen 2011-11-29 03:22 PM

I had to chuckle a bit when I saw your post last night. I had just finished reading chapter 7 of Ready for Anything in which David Allen is arguing that priority categories are bad things.

whpalmer4 2011-11-29 03:31 PM

[QUOTE=Tedallen;104549]I had to chuckle a bit when I saw your post last night. I had just finished reading chapter 7 of Ready for Anything in which David Allen is arguing that priority categories are bad things.[/QUOTE]

DA is speaking out against the notion that you can classify all of your tasks by priority; I don't think he would have any particular beef with the practice suggested here of selecting a small subset of tasks and deciding which ones you must get done today, which you hope to get done today, etc. Doing a prioritization of substantially more work than you'll get done before you have to reprioritize everything is the time waster that he suggests you avoid. If you are going to get 10 things done in a typical day, picking 15 and putting them in ABC order isn't going to waste much time if the boss comes in and tells you there is a new direction. Spending a few hours putting 100s of tasks into ABC order when you might only do 10 or 15 in a day is a completely different matter!

Lucas 2011-11-30 07:20 AM

What is the upside of this method over using focus and sequential groups to get one set of actions done before another? For one thing you don't lose the use of your contexts.

whpalmer4 2011-11-30 08:30 AM

The loss of context information was hand-waved away by saying this approach was intended for those who do 99% of their work at their computer. Fair enough, but I think I would be more inclined to toss the duration field out and use it for the priority field, which seems to me like it would be more generally applicable. My thinking here is that the tasks you've shortlisted for today are probably familiar enough at this point that you don't need the time estimate, whereas the context might still be useful if some appreciable fraction of the tasks are away from the desk.

Indyprint 2011-12-02 01:33 PM

This seems like a great system! But how one can both use the Prioritizing tasks with ABC set up AND some of the other Context setups (based on type of work, location, etc.). Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems you'd rely on one system or the other. Ideally, I'd like to implement both! Does anyone have a template of what you've described so that people like me can download and try to appropriate the layout you described? Thank!

Stargazer 2011-12-02 05:41 PM

Can't you just flag them and then order the items in the flagged view?

whpalmer4 2011-12-02 06:33 PM

[QUOTE=Stargazer;104691]Can't you just flag them and then order the items in the flagged view?[/QUOTE]

No. You can't manually reorder the tasks in the flagged view.

Indyprint 2011-12-07 10:54 AM

I'd love to see further elaboration of how to do this. Does anyone have a better graphic representation of this ABC system for Context and Perspectives? Thanks!


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