Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Automatic prioritization with dates and priorities
Having your list just so can help you keep organized, productive, and stress-free on top of it all. However, sometimes keeping your list organized can feel like a job in and of itself. This week’s tip comes from martingchapman, who lays out a straightforward setup using just dates and priorities to keep things automatically prioritized.
Use the four priorities (P) and due dates to categorise your tasks, as follows:
Priority and Due Date
• P1 – MUST complete by due date (mandatory deadline)
• P2 – WILL complete by due date (mandatory set/postpone due date as required)
• P3 – WANT to complete someday (optional start/due dates)
• P4 – MAY complete one day (optional start/due dates)
(note: in RTM terms P4 is “no priority”)
At the end of this post is an explanation of why I think a mandatory due date for P1 and P2 tasks is so important.
Start Date
Start dates are entirely optional but should be used to define when a task will appear on the Action Now Smart List (see below) so you can start working on it at the appropriate time.
Due dates are mandatory for P1 and P2 tasks, whether they have a start date or not. Due dates and start dates are optional for P3 and P4 tasks. No task can have only a start date, if it has a start date it must also have a due date.
When a task is postponed, RTM increments the due date only, the start date does not change. However when a task with a start date, repeats RTM uses the repeat interval to compute the new due date. The new start date will be set by decrementing the new due date by the number of days the original start date was offset from the original due date.
Smart Lists
Use the following three Smart Lists to manage your tasks.
Action Now
Shows P1/P2 tasks that are overdue, due today or not due yet but are on/past their start date (as a “catch all”, it will also show P1/P2 tasks that do not have a start and due date).
These are the tasks you must be working on now.
A P1 task due date is the deadline, you must complete it by then, only change the due date if the deadline changes.
A P2 task due date is not a deadline but is the target for when you intend to complete it.
If a P2 tasks reaches its due date and you have not completed it, or you know before the due date that you will not complete it by the due date, then you must postpone it to a future due date that is more realistic (in RTM web use the “P” keyboard shortcut to postpone tasks).
In this way, you are dynamically reviewing and managing your tasks as an ongoing process. You do not have to put time aside to review your current task list, you are doing it every time you view the list.
Smart List parameters:((startBefore:tomorrow OR dueBefore:tomorrow) OR (startBefore:tomorrow AND dueAfter:today)) OR ((priority:1 OR priority:2) AND (start:never AND due:never))
View settings:
• If you are not RTM Pro - “Sort by Priority”
• If you are RTM Pro - Sort by advanced “Sort by Priority: Added Date: group by Due Date”
Action Next
Shows all P3 tasks, with and without start/due dates.
These are the tasks you want to do NEXT when you have finished the current P1/P2 tasks, or have the capability to take on some more work. They are the “roundtoit” tasks that live in the back of your mind, to do when you “get around to it”, but they are not your current focus which is the Action Now list.
When you are ready to do one of these tasks, change its priority to 1 or 2 and set a due date, or start date and due date as appropriate.
P3 tasks can have start/due dates as indicators of when you think they could be done, but they will not appear on the Action Now list until you change them to P1 or P2.
Smart List parameters:priority:3
View settings:
• If you are not RTM Pro - “Sort by Due Date”
• If you are RTM Pro - Sort by advanced “Sort by Due Date: group by List”
Action One Day
Shows all P4 (no priority) tasks. These are the tasks you dream about doing but may never ever get round to.
If you decide you do want to complete one of these tasks someday, change its priority to 3 so it goes on the Action Next list.
If you decide to complete one of these tasks now, change the Priority to 1 or 2 and set a due date or start date and due date as appropriate.
Smart List parameters:priority:none
View settings:
• If you are not RTM Pro - “Sort by Due Date”
• If you are RTM Pro - Sort by advanced “Sort by Due Date: group by List”
Why P1 and P2 tasks should always have a due date
A due date is mandatory on P1 tasks because it is a deadline date, P1 tasks must not be postponed.
Why do I advocate always setting a due date on P2 tasks, when it is not a deadline?
When managing your work it is very easy to procrastinate and put things off to another day, so to reduce this tendency all my P2 tasks have due dates. In reality, these are the dates by which I will complete the task or postpone it to a later date.
They then become “Complete/Postpone” dates and provide an automatic mechanism for reviewing my P2 tasks as an ongoing process.
You may think giving tasks “Complete/Postpone” dates generates unnecessary overhead, however, it forces me to look at them and think about when I will do them, or when I will look at them again in the future (postpone) or even, if I still need/want to do them now.
Having a “Complete/Postpone” date keeps them popping up and encourages me to action them. I can either work on and complete them, or postpone them to a later date when they will pop up for action/review again.
I have tried working with and without “Complete/Postpone” dates and I am far more productive when tasks have them because they “nag” me into doing them, eventually I get fed up seeing the same task pop up again and again and this forces me to complete it.
It is so easy to postpone selected single/multiple tasks using the “P”+”X” keyboard shortcut (web interface) where “X” is the number of days/weeks/months or even years to postpone, I do not see it as a burden. Also, if you are constantly postponing certain P2 tasks then you should consider if these tasks should be P2, maybe they are really P3 or even P4 tasks and you should re-classify them.
A P1/P2 task without a start and/or due date will appear on the Action Now Smart List, this is a safeguard in case a P1/P2 task gets added with no dates, however I also have the RTM default set so any new task automatically has the due date set to today, so this should not happen.
To use my setup you do not have to use “Complete/Postpone” dates for P2 tasks (undated P1/P2 tasks will appear on the Action Now Smart List), but I strongly advise you try and use them from the start to get into the habit of fully managing your tasks.
Thanks for sharing this tip, martingchapman! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.
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