Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Categories of lists to organize everything
This week’s tip comes from mkpolkowski, who outlines a few types of lists and Smart Lists that come together as a comprehensive setup! Projects, general-purpose lists, and Smart Lists to help cover all sorts of scenarios—check out the tip for all the details. :)
I have created my own task management philosophy that I call OPRS that I would like to share with you today.
OPRS stands for Ongoing, Projects, Running, Smart and reflect the type of lists that I create. OPR lists are regular lists while S lists are (obviously) Smart Lists.
Ongoing lists
Ongoing lists are named “O [list name]” and are basically projects that do not have an end date. (For example “O Home” or “O Dog”). These projects don’t really end because they are ongoing. Ok, you might be a minimalist that gets rid of your house and your dog will probably die before you, but you get the idea.
Project lists
Projects are the David Allen definition of a project. If it has a due date and is composed of at least two tasks, it’s a project and is named “P [list name]”.
Running lists
Are lists that you run through when you’re in the right place to run them through. I have the following running lists:
• R Movies
• R Books
• R Articles
• R Games
• R Presents
• R Repeating
• R Bucket list
• R Buy
• R Groceries
You get the idea. If you find a movie you want to watch just pop it in like “Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) #R Movies”, and when you want a movie night you know where to look.
My Article running list is special. I use IFTTT that sends an email to RTM with an article I have tagged “Read Later” in my Feedly, so I can check them out later. The email that is sent has this in the title:
“[article title] ~now !4 @Computer #R Articles ^after 24 hours =15m [article url]”
If the article expires I usually consider it wasn’t interesting enough to read and I drop it from the list.
Smart Lists
Smart Lists are awesome. What I do is use them to see an overview of my day and to catch loose ends.
My main Smart List is called “S Next” that shows everything that is overdue, due today, that has started or is in the Inbox.
I have an “S Plan tomorrow” Smart List that shows me all the tasks that I have for tomorrow, so I can plan my day a night before.
I have “S Done today” and “S Done yesterday” lists that are self explanatory. This gives you good vibes of accomplishment.
“S Set time” and “S Set priority” are there to catch all of the loose ends. I believe all tasks should have a time estimate and a priority.
FYI, my priorities mean this:
1. Not doing the task will have heavy consequences.
2. Not doing the task could have some bad consequences.
3. Not doing the task will not have any bad consequences.
4. Not doing the task will not have any bad consequences.
Wait! What’s the difference between 3 and 4 then, you may ask? I don’t use 4 outside of running lists. However inside running lists I separate things by marking them 3 or 4. For example in the “R Books” running list I have all my books that I want to read and own marked as 3’s, while books that I want to read but I haven’t bought yet are 4’s. This way, I know what to look at when I’m in the store.
My last Smart List set is the “I fail at life” lists that are called: “S Postponed 10”, “S Postponed 30”, “S Postponed 60” and “S Dead”. As you can imagine these are tasks that were postponed 10, 30, 60 and >90 times respectively. Don’t judge me. It’s helpful to see what is going through the cracks.
I hope my system was interesting to read and you found it helpful in improving your own task management system ideology. Cheers!
Thanks for sharing this tip, mkpolkowski! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.
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