March 24/2012
I feel we all have three primary personal work management tools:
- the in-box,
- the 1MTD/MYN to-do list,
- and the calendar…
…and I feel that we should make sure we keep these three primary management areas clean and well maintained.
Specifically, make sure you get rid of non-useful information in these areas. The calendar is usually not too bad, but the other areas get out of control quickly.
If there is old useless information in your in-box or to-do list, you will start to get into habit of repeatedly skipping over broad portions of each, and then the tool becomes weaker, less useful. And you’ll start missing some important items there.
So file mail from your Inbox immediately after you triage it (except for deferred replies, and process those within a day or so).
And don’t let your 1MTD/MYN Critical Now or Opportunity Now tasks list get full of tasks that you skip over week after week. Instead, schedule out tasks you know you are not going to work on soon. Or put them in the Over the Horizon section. Otherwise you will just glaze over when viewing entire sections of your list, and then the tool becomes useless.
And in ToodleDo, don’t let the Significant Outcome (SOC) section get old. You’ll just stop looking at that section if you do. Set start dates ahead on those to keep it well focused.
Using 1MTD and MYN, it’s not hard to maintain these tools–just do it!
Michael
Michael,
It recently occurred to me that there is really no need for an over the horizon priority. OTH tasks are really just opportunity now tasks that haven’t showed up. So I eliminated OTH from my system and just manage the ON tasks. Instead of re-prioitizing to OTH, I either defer-to-do or refer-to-review, either to ON or CN. To me this is a much cleaner system. What am I missing?
Sam
I like that you have thought this through so well.
Here’s why I think it makes sense to use the OTH section: to clearly distinguish between Defer-to-Do (D2D) and Defer-to-Review (D2R) tasks. They are really very different priority levels of tasks and the OTH section clearly shows that. It then makes your reviews much easier since you treat the OTH section so differently.
Here’s some more explanation. My rule of thumb on that is this: if a future dated task is in the Critical Now or Op Now section, it’s always a D2D task, meaning, you definitely intend to do it on the day it arrives (if in Crit Now, you *must* do it; if in Op Now you really *want* to do it–if you read chapter nine of the Outlook book, in that terminology it actually becomes a Target Now task). And the deferred date can be any day of the week, and you want to do it on that day. Like a Friday status report that must be done on Friday, but you hide till then.
In contrast, if the future dated task is in the OTH section then it’s always a Defer to Review task, meaning, you only intend to *review* it on the day it arrives, (and are likely to defer it on again). And that date is always set to a Monday to keep their review separate. A task like “maybe redo filing system” that you just want to reconsider, but probably won’t do. So this is a much lower priority task, treated differently, and the separate priority zone helps highlight that.
Curious, did you have a way to distinguish D2D from D2R tasks in the Op Now or Crit Now sections? Maybe I missed part of your solution.
Thanks for the great thoughts on this!
Michael
Thanks, that’s a clear distinction, but at the same time very nuanced. I certainly did not pick that out from your books. Maybe I’ll rename ON to “You Can Do Now!” and re-implement OTH but rename it “Should You Do Now?” In short,”Can!” and “Should?” In fact I think I’ll use these and also re-name CN to “Must!”
BTW, I use a variant of your Toodledo implementation where I use folders for priorities instead of the built-in TD priority system. That way I can name them descriptively and sort them any way I like.
I did not distinguish D2D and D2R. I just consider D2R’s are D2D’s with less urgency, so I put a more distant starting date on them. So that’s where your explanation above is helpful. And then there are Someday/Maybe’s which get a separate priority of their own…
Sam
Well, the cool thing about MYN is you can tweak it several different ways. Just so you know, I consider the OTH section to include the role of GTD’s Someday Maybe (usually with long review cycles set on those tasks).
Best, Michael
Review management has been a game-changer for my business. By actively monitoring and responding to customer reviews, I have been able to improve my online reputation and credibility. This has not only helped me rank higher in search engine results, but it has also attracted more customers to my business, for more information visit and read online review statistics. The insights gained from customer feedback have allowed me to make necessary improvements to my products and services, ultimately leading to a better overall customer experience. I highly recommend incorporating review management into your business strategy to see tangible results in your online presence.