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Originally Posted by jenniferp View Post
Any ideas for pruning and parsing OF for the New Year? Right now my to-do lists and overdue lists feel a million miles long.

I've never fully untilised the 'review' and long-term planning functions well in OF and think it's time to start! Any primers, FAQs, or good threads that might help me out?

Many thanks for any ideas....
Jennifer
This is tricky because it sounds like you're saying that you can't really DO all the stuff that needs to be done, rather than it being a lack of organization. I guess there's no magic way to handle this except to delegate things or work longer, unless the truth is that you're so overwhelmed by the tasks that you never do any of them. I do this sometimes. I spend so much time in disbelief that there is so much to do, that I never actually do anything.

Two things I do in OF in this case.

1. I use flags to mark items that absolutely must be done today, especially since I use Due Dates and often have more items due today than I can handle. This forces me to be knocking some items off the list, rather than just staring at the list. I also pay attention to contexts when possible to keep things grouped in such a way that I can save some time. If this doesn't work it's time to prioritize - putting some things on hold, or delegating, assuming there is someone to delegate to. :^}

2. I do the high-level Review on Sundays and not during the week. This way I have more relaxed time to consider where I'm going. If I trust my thinking from Sunday, then I can have more direction during the week.

The Review will probably be depressing for awhile as it tends to remind you about the things you've completely forgotten, which makes the load even heavier. But it serves to get Next Actions or Flags in place so that you have a way to get things moving.

I haven't mastered this yet, but I'll continue to work on it until I do.

Mark