Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Organizing your tasks using a variety of Remember The Milk features

Remember The Milk user stevepaulo has a thorough outline of using Remember The Milk top-to-bottom to stay organized and productive. Borrowing from GTD, the Eisenhower matrix, and using features like Smart Lists and newer features like subtasks and start dates effectively, it is both organized and straightforward.

My personal RTM system has evolved over the years (I’ve been using RTM since 2005). It has been informed by GTD, by the Eisenhower Matrix, and by all manner of other systems and tips I’ve picked up over the years.

With the new updates to the software – especially subtasks and start dates – my system got a huge upgrade, and I barely had to tweak anything. Here’s the gist:

1. Every task in the Inbox

I don’t use static lists. Everything goes into, and stays in, the Inbox. I have ways of surfacing new stuff, as you will see.

2. Locations are actually locations

I use RTM’s location geofencing usually to separate out household tasks that I can only do at home, but also for things that I need to do AT work (and not just while I’m working, which is often remote or from home).

3. Labels are projects

Simple. I have about a dozen labels I use to separate out “sections” of my life. The reason I don’t use static lists for this is because things can cross over. A project might be “dev” because it’s hobbyist development I’m doing, or it could be for work, so it’s also a “career” task. Etc.

4. Priorities

I use the High/Med/Low priorities as visual cues, but my system really only distinguishes between “Important” issues (with Priority 1-3) and “Unimportant” issues (Priority N/4).

5. Repeating tasks

Weekly/Monthly/etc. reminders. I often filter them out or make sure they only bubble up on their due date. This includes a weekly retrospective, when I will look back at the week’s completed tasks, review “Upcoming” for tasks that may need more context/subtasks/etc., and schedule things in the “! Do or Schedule” list. My retrospective usually takes 5 minutes or less, and I do it on Sunday evenings.

6. Smart Lists

The heart of the system. I use seven lists, here are their descriptions and the search terms that build them:

“Upcoming”

dueBefore:"1 week from now" OR startBefore:"1 week from now"

A near-future view of what’s coming up. I will often pay more attention to the *count* of this list than what’s in it, though it’s useful in my weekly retrospective.

“Urgent”

dueBefore:tomorrow OR startBefore:tomorrow OR (dueBefore:"3 days from now" AND isRepeating:false AND start:never)

Upcoming items that have been scheduled, regardless of whether they are important or not.

“Important”

NOT priority:none

Things I have decided are important.

“Someday/Maybe”

NOT list:Urgent AND NOT list:Important AND isSubtask:false

Not due soon, marked unimportant, and not related to other tasks. This is a traditional “Someday/Maybe” GTD list.

“Smellers”

NOT addedWithin:"3 months of today" AND due:never AND start:never AND priority:none

These tasks have somehow slid down through the months. I haven’t scheduled them or given them any importance. Essentially, when something shows up here it’s a good bet it doesn’t need to be done at all, but in case it does, this list ensures nothing completely falls through the cracks.

“! Do or Schedule” (prepended with ! so it appears at the top of the list)

list:Important AND due:never AND start:never AND (isLocated:false OR locatedWithin:"2 miles")

Important stuff I haven’t scheduled into my upcoming timeframe yet. Do these things if I can, or schedule them into my day/week/month/whatever.

“! Do Now”

(dueBefore:tomorrow OR startBefore:tomorrow OR (list:Urgent AND list:Important)) AND (isLocated:false OR locatedWithin:"2 miles")

This is the bread and butter of everything. This is the list I work off 90% of the time. These are items that I can do and ought to do at the time and place that I am looking at the list.

That’s it! Takes a bit of setting up, but when I add new tasks i really only have to describe what it is (label, location, description, etc) and decide if it is important or not, and if it needs to be scheduled or not. As long as the description is good, the importance/schedule part can come later, often at my weekly retrospective.

Thanks for sharing this tip, stevepaulo! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.

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