Time blocking by category + prioritizing tasks in each time block
My Things projects by hour
no pressure to complete a particular number of tasks
just order the tasks in that project by priority, then work on that type of task for that hour
get done what you can and then move on
✍️ Z / Post about my Things workflow: the problem with the calendar approach is that you will constantly experience failure (thought you’d complete a task in a specific block of time, but then life happened and you completed it later or had to reschedule
The idea was good = plan based on the reality of how much time you’ll have
The outcome is often bad = your day can’t be planned as linearly as you think it can be; those mini failures are discouraging; totally unnecessary;
The solution = only schedule tasks with actual deadlines (i.e. meetings and tasks with negative consequences for not completing by a certain time)
The new experience = clearing your must-do list every day (feels great) and then pulling bonus tasks from your Anytime list; far less stress; far fewer unnecessary daily “failures”
Inbox
Hidden views you can find by searching: Deadlines, Repeating
Today view organized by area/project
Areas/projects in order of doing each day
Current sequence of Areas: Morning, Meetings, Meal Plan, Shopping, Top Five Tasks, Routines, Top Five Projects, People, Health, Finances, Annoyances, Home, Writing, Coding, Tidy Up, Relax, Bedtime
A combination of calendar time blocking (e.g what to do before the day starts, before other work, before bed, etc) with PARA (separate active projects that end from areas of responsibility that don’t, break large projects into smaller ones for easier prioritization and completion of key steps)
I want to look in one place, which a list is just way more flexible for than a calendar. But I want to follow the list from top to bottom throughout the day to avoid wasting time deciding what to do. So a list in do-order works best for me.
Quick capture
Beautiful design with minimal distracting text, lines, etc. Much less cluttered than alternatives like Todoist
Con: can’t share a list with someone else, so it’s really only for solo work
Active Projects area for mini projects with scheduled tasks; otherwise all projects are life areas with unscheduled tasks organized under broad theme areas
Permanent notes go elsewhere; Things only contains tasks to be completed and then deleted
i’ve tried using the Anytime list and only adding dates where hard deadlines exist and otherwise reviewing Anytime (bump anything not for the next 2 weeks to someday) + Someday list; but in practice, I just live in my Today list and lose track of those dateless tasks
currently trying: every task gets a date
mark hard deadlines with a deadline
tasks with obvious dates in the future get scheduled for those dates (once or on a recurring basis)
tasks that need to happen this week get scheduled today/tomorrow
tasks that can wait a few days schedule for the next saturday/monday (depending on if they’re personal/work)
tasks that can wait more than a week go to the first saturday/monday of the next month
tasks I want to review occasionally but would be completing much later (if at all) get scheduled to someday
I expect a large amount to review every Sat/Mon and 1st Sat/Mon of the month (not a sign that the system isn’t working)
Be ruthless about choosing next month instead of next weekend if at all feasible
Each day, follow by hourly task category blocks and do the tasks that can least wait until later first, then bump the rest to tomorrow (or Sat/Mon if I realize it can actually wait a few days)
Bias to scheduling tasks too soon a bit unavoidable; just correct that over-optimism each day when reviewing tasks the me from yesterday thought I needed/could get to; everything feels more important when I first think of it and get excited about it than it may really be when compared to everything else without the recency bias clouding my judgment
2023-12-22: the trouble I’m finding with this
It worked really well for awhile
But gradually over time, the backlog of deferred tasks that would reappear on a Sat/Mon grew larger and larger
Within a month, those backlogs were huge
It doesn’t feel like they will be as I defer one task here, another there; but do that enough times over enough days and many dozens of forgotten tasks reappear in a big, messy clump
I’m finding this pretty unsustainable as a result of how many times I keep looking at the same tasks and making the same decision that (1) today is not the day, which leads to needing to decide yet again (2) when should I review this thing next?
So now I’m wondering if it will work better to stop scheduling tasks that fit into projects (e.g. “X app feature”, “Improve X tool workflow”) and just schedule the projects instead
That would at least just give me a single item (the project) to defer
In the past, when I’ve tried that I’ve found I didn’t love staring down the long list of tasks cluttering a project, and didn’t love either (1) spending a bunch of time sorting them into headings (which involves a bunch of scrolling) or (2) splitting those projects into a number of smaller ones (e.g. “Tool X: Y goal”, “Tool X: Z goal”) and having to then need to scroll through a bunch of mini-projects when assigning where the task should go
A single “X tool” project makes the capture process easier, but the “what should I work on next?” moment harder
Many “X tool: Y goal” projects makes the capture process less clear, and also doesn’t totally solve the “which task should be next?” question
What I’m considering now:
Not sure which project-sizing option will work best, so try a bit of both
Try only scheduling the project (not the tasks)
Try assigning tags to tasks in projects so I can filter them
e.g. 🚨 = urgent; 🙄 = annoying; 💅 = UX improvement; 💵 = makes money; 🚀 = launch requirement; etc
Aim to not have those tasks cluttering what the Today view looks like in the desktop app; I’m hoping they only appear in the project itself
In Today view…
decide which project(s) are worth working on today and reschedule the others
sort the projects in the order I want to work on them
navigate into a project when I’m ready to work on it
activate the tag(s) representing the task category I want to work on next
return to the today view when I’ve made enough progress on that project for today