ThinkingRock Forum

Hi there, Does anyone know how one can extend (or create a new one!)the concept of the Today Screen that vauha27 posted to just
include the Most Important Tasks for the day ?

In other words, I have lots of projects and asap action items in these. However every day, I want to decide a collection of action items
spanning several projects that I want to work on for that day. This collection of items is the definition of Most Important Tasks for
me.

So a view similar to what vauha27 posted in the tutorial for
"Today view" springs to mind except that it's called "Most Important Task".

The problem is, I only want to include in this view, a cherry-picked selection of action items from different topics each day and polish them off.

I sense the need for creating a topic called "MostImportantTasks" and inclusion of actions items from other topics in this, but this is not supported yet is it

Another way to accomplish this would be if the Project category was included in the Selection Filter criteria. This would enable user to include on a view, only a project called "MostImportantTask" and of course this project could contain action items from different topics.
Oh, this seems to be perfect solution! I just tried it out and only if Project category was included in the selection filter criteria!

Update: Yeaaaaah! It's solved! I just created a new priority category called "MIT-0" and any new action in this project called "MIT" gets assigned this category. Voila!

I also want this in my setup and your way seems to be the best way posted as to how.

Would you mind explaining this a little bit more?

Thank you.

First let me re-state the problem (a bit clearer this time!)
I want to create an Action Screen which has a view titled "Daily Important Tasks"
This view should contain tasks from several contexts that I have marked as important for me to complete by the end of the day.
So this "DIT" screen will be open in front of me throughout the day and I'll keep polishing items of this.

[I also have extended this concept to have a screen called Monthly Important Tasks that gives me a larger view. ie: This MIT screen contains tasks that I have decided must be completed by end of the month.]

Ok, that was the problem. Now someone could ask why not just schedule the tasks with a "due date". The answer is it's a different mode of operation. The tasks are not "due" in the traditional sense of the word by that date. IT's just a personal goal to get done with these tasks by end of the day so you come away feeling good. Plus it's ok to have some of them carry over to the next day. (If using "due date" one would have to re-schedule and that's a pain)

Solution:
First create a priority for the Daily Important Tasks. I call them "DIT-0".
as seen below:

Next create an action screen just for the daily important tasks by going to
Tools--> Options --> Action Screens
Next create a filter that only shows what you want. In the example below,
I only included filters: Done, Context, Priority (which is set to only use not show)

And that's it!
Now I have a screen that shows me only the Daily important tasks. I can add tasks to this list by adding an action item which has a priority of "DIT-0" as seen below

I enjoy this tip... and use it for my day, week, and month objectives... thanks

But actually, a task should be simple and clear... it can be good as objective for the day, but not really for a week or month: it would be more natural to have a project. But in a way getting things done is more about trying to understand how your project will actually be processed: what is the next action... so showing a project as objective could be confusing in a way!

I'm thinking aloud:
- we can affect a priority to project, but it won't be printed in the action review... maybe if changing the priority of the project could get all the actions inside to get the same priority ?... (that may not always be wanted).

- If a colour is associated to the priority (as suggested in another post), than by showing to project priority with each task, it could help to notice what actions are to be done to meet that objective.

- As the priority for the project is urgent and important, let say that we just finished the "next action" for the project. it seems to me that it would be preferable not to wait for the next review to decide what action to do next.
Do you agree with me on this point, all of GTD gourous ? If yes, have you any idea to implement it? If not, how would you do to be efficient still for such a project ?

Thanks anyone for your interest...

You guys are hunting the wrong deer,

go buy the book, read it, read it again.

There is no such thing as priorities for projects, or daily important tasks. Show me a quote in the book where DA says anything about adding a priority information to any item or says something about daily important tasks.

Do your weekly reviews weekly and do your daily reviews daily.

Put things you are commited to on any given date onto your calendar. That's it.

Anything which can stay without harm in a next actions list until the next weekly review goes there. Anything else into the calendar. Only begin looking at your next actions lists when all of your calendar workload has been done.

If there are too many things to do at any given date you are overcommitted and have to renegotiate your calendar with those you owe (maybe yourself too). Just don't break your promises (most important, don't break the promises you made to yourself).


Volker

It is a great idea to be committed to things on a given day, but sometimes you find during a day that you have more time to get a few of those little tasks done than you had anticipated, and if you don't have a list of them to work on, you'll be at a loss or will waste that time. The order they show up in your "Next Actions" list is not necessarily the order you should work on them; some do have an inherently higher "priority" in human terms than others, and you might want to do them in that order. The reality is many of us, though not "overcommitted" on a day-to-day basis, have a huge list of things we would like to get done when we have the time. So I see prioritizing as a helpful way of making a list of things to tick off when you have some time to be working on Next Actions. Though it doesn't follow GTD to the letter of the law, being legalistic about it isn't always the best way to use it for all people. Some degree of legalism is helpful, but if it constrains your creativity in finding ways to be more productive than even Dave the Man could imagine, then that is a problem.