Quote:
Originally Posted by clarejulian
I am largely talking about my "Today" perspective which is derived from my planning perspectives (review of tasks and then flagging items to go into my "Today" perspective)
It's not a lot to ask: I have already narrowed down my tasks for the day (I am just talking about my active tasks that I am working on in the present - not all my multiple lists and projects) - I just want to see them in a logical order. Perhaps it's just my ADD that makes this so important to me - but surely this is logical for other people too? because I can't logically organize that list of up to 10 items, I find that I will hover over certain action items for much longer than I need to because for the 3rd time that day I am trying to make sense of it's logical order - it's distracting me, which is not productive.
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ahh..... a today list.....
I have an alternate "today" list set to the following:
Context filter: Active
Grouping: Due
Sorting: Due
Availability filter: Available
Status filter: Due or flagged
Estimated time filter: Any duration
This sorts out all of my tasks so that the tasks are sorted by:
Due within the last month
Due today
Due within the next 3 months
No due date
The Due and flagged status filter combines all available tasks with a due date and flagged tasks together.
So I try to work on overdue tasks first. The first task in this grouping is the oldest due date and probably needs addressing ASAP. Then I work down the list with a first-in, first-out mentality. The first task that has the oldest due date gets worked on first.
But if I have a group of tasks where all are roughly equal in importance, I just start working on one of them. It doesn't matter which one. I just knock it off and it helps to reduce my today list down by one.
Sorting doesn't matter when most of the tasks in the group are roughly equal in importance.
It is like trying to clean a storage room. The storage room looks impossible to clear because it is cluttered from floor to ceiling with junk. All that really matters is that you just start somewhere instead of just staring at the list and delaying the inevitable - just start... You'll find momentum and naturally look at the next item on the list to do.
I was listening to an NFL football draft podcast recently. The radio host asked the guest about how he does his Power Rankings - ranking all the teams from 1 to 32. The guest said that's difficult. He just has a group of the top 5 elite teams that can realistically beat each other and were projected to go deep into the NFL playoffs. Then He has teams number 6 to 15 which represents the second level or above-average teams. Then he has teams number 16-29 which represents the average to below-average teams. Then he has teams number 30-32 as the bottomdwellers with no chance to going any higher.
Sorting these teams beyond the 4 groups becomes pointless and is a subjective choice.
I used to be obsessive about sorting. Now I just sort things into groups
Urgent (all overdue dates)
Important (due soon)
Interesting to work on this week (flagged)
Discretionary (I can do these at my discretion. No due date and no flag).
If the urgent tasks (the Priority 1 perspective) are all important, I may as well just start on the oldest overdue task first. Or just pick one - any one - and get going.
Trying to sort past the four groups led me to just sitting in front of OmniFocus trying to "plan and sort" but not really getting anything done. I thought I was "busy" by "planning". I was just procrastinating.