Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Focusing on time with Smart Lists

We’re always interested to see how users use Smart Lists to break up their tasks into manageable chunks. This week’s tip, shared by pescacebes, demonstrates four Smart Lists that use tasks’ priorities and due dates to keep track of tasks that matter today, this week, and what else is coming up.

In order to tackle the “big rocks” in a timely manner, I have created this system:

First, I only have two input lists: Inbox and Info. Info is exacty this: things to remember and not actions. It acts as a reminder. Inbox is everything else. Most tasks have a due date and/or a priority.

My day starts by checking two Smart Lists: “Today” and “Focus”.

• Today: due:today OR dueBefore:Today
• Focus: (priority:1 OR priority:2) AND ((dueWithin:“1 week of today”) OR due:never OR dueBefore:now)

The most relevant is “Focus”. It contains everything really important and shows me what I have to do in the next week that matters most. For me, priority 3 can be overdue. For you could be also 2 or none… you may easily adjust this search.

Another helpful Smart List is “Week”: (dueWithin:“1 week of today”) OR (due:never AND (priority:1 OR priority:2 OR priority:3)) OR dueBefore:now

Notice that this Smart List also captures items that have a priority but no due date. You may prefer to give those a due date too!

Lastly, in order not to miss anything, I have the Smart List “No Date”: due:never NOT list:Info

If you add some tags and/or locations to your tasks, I think that this system is clean and clear enough to navigate through a sea of tasks quite easily.

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

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