Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Using time and place to focus on your tasks

Sometimes it feels like the more organized you are the more daunting it can be to look over your tasks. Why not build in some focus to your organization? dominic.spachmann shares this week’s tip, which focuses on two Smart Lists that let you focus only on what you can do right now, both in terms of time and place.

I use a Smart List (_FOCUS), that filters just the tasks that are relevant right now and where I am currently. So it hides all the tasks that are due but bound to a specific location, where I am not right now. It also hides the tasks that are due later today. Also, I use a time estimate to start with the small tasks to get going and empty my list.

I use a second Smart List (_LOCATIONS) for the tasks that have a location and are due so that I can actively go to the locations where many tasks are due. Also I can see how many due tasks there are with locations to be alerted if necessary.

(To avoid getting lost in the current time and place there is another list in parallel with all today’s tasks, sorted by priority and estimate.)

Works fine for me, maybe it is also useful for you. :-)

Here’s the configuration:

_FOCUS (sorted by Priority, then estimate)

((dueBefore:tomorrow AND NOT dueAfter:now) OR startBefore:Now ) AND NOT list:inbox)) AND (hasLocation:false OR locatedWithin:500m)

_LOCATIONS (sorted by Priority, grouped by location)

(dueBefore:tomorrow AND NOT dueAfter:now OR startBefore:Now OR list:Inbox OR due:never) AND hasLocation:true)

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

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