[wilsonng]

Priorities are fluid labels that we arbitrarily assign to events or tasks that reflects the current state of mind. Priorities is a relic from previous generation task management or time management systems such as Franklin-Covey Day Planner and can't keep up with today's fast changing environments.

I can put a label on a bunch of tasks that says "High", "Medium", and "Low".

I may have 3 high priority tasks that I need to get done. But then something else happens. The servers go down and your "high" priority tasks suddenly become secondary while you try to hustle and bustle to get the servers back up.

Then your kid gets into an accident at school. You know that you should drop your work and go check on your kid if there is something life threatening.

You'll have your high priority tasks all lined up today but then a natural disaster such as a sudden tornado or earthquake puts everything else on the backburner.

You're working on your high priority tasks and suddenly the boss comes in and says "stop the presses. We've got a new front page story and I want all hands on deck to work on this today!"



There is a movement of people who learned that priority labels are no longer a tool that can be used effectively.

Here's another way to use "priorities" in OmniFocus.

Assign due dates to tasks/projects that [bold]must be done by that date[/bold].

In the morning, look at the all due soon and overdue items. You should try to complete overdue items first and then try to get ahead of the game by finishing due soon tasks.

Use flags to indicate medium priority items. These items have no due date and are not high priority. The flagged items are tasks/projects that you would like to focus on in the next 7 days. You do these tasks [bold]after[/bold] you finish your due tasks.

All other items that are not flagged and due are low priority. Don't do any of these items unless you're in low energy mode or have finished as many of your due items and flagged items that you can do for the day.


In the default OF theme, overdue items will be red. This indicates a task that you should've done already. But if you ignore it, that's your choice and at your own peril. Go to the Due perspective and rename it High Priority if you wish.

Then visit the Flagged perspective to look at Medium priority items. Rename it to Medium Priority or "This Week's Focus".

Yes, I know that we all want the program to wrap around [bold]our own workflow[/bold]. But sometimes learning another system or workflow can provide new insight and a new workflow that you can adapt to your setup.

I know that I have to change modes when I switch from one language to another. It wasn't easy for the first six months of fumbling my way through Mandarin Chinese but I eventually got the hang of it.


I've learned to steer away from priority labels such as high, medium, low. Life is too fluid. What you may think is high priority is actually a lower priority to your boss/spouse/kids/whomever.

Using perspectives to show views of High, Medium, and Low priorities will do wonders. Heck even creating custom perspectives for "Summer Projects 2013" or "Kid's Activities and Ideas" or "Office Work Only" can help you narrow in on things you should or want to be doing. Using colors isn't the only way to help you classify or label project/tasks.