mcogilvie;112642 said:
I find that a mind map is a great way to objectify goals and areas of focus and maybe down to projects. It's also really good for project brainstorming. I just find it's too ponderous when I try to link all those evanescent next actions to something like a 3-5 year goal.
I can imagine a mind map being instrumental in getting those things into place. I guess I just mapped it all inside my head, but an external map might have been better.
The great value of keeping it all organized by AoRs (and groups of AoRs) is that it allows me to review my list very efficiently one area at a time, and it also allows me to find stuff easily, since it also serves as a classification system.
But yes, for very short-lived tasks I also have an "unclassified" default. It saves time. And I even have a saved search/perspective to easily find such unclassified tasks, just in case, but I seldom need it.
BTW, I have defined 10 AoRs in my life - 3 in a Private group, 2 in a Not-for-Profit group, and 5 in a Business group. For the three groups I use three of the app's higher level "containers" (above projects; called Goals in my app). The "goal" here is to just maintain the status quo or perhaps improve a bit. In addition, I have two "real" goals/objectives (new territory), both of which are new business startups, so all in all I have five "containers" at the top level, which I think is just nice in my left menu.
In each of these top containers I have a bunch of project containers. The vast majority of these represent real projects that will be completed one day, but ten of them are "AoR single task containers" for stuff that does not belong in a project.
Example: Under my Private AoR group ("goal"), I use these three AoRs:
P-MTR The responsibility to look after the family's material assets and services, including housing, cars, bank accounts, electricity, phone, insurance etc
P-AMB The responsibility to represent the other family members and their interests in their dealings with other people, including their colleagues, employers, teachers, banks, authorities etc.
P-MAN The responsibility to look after myself personally, for my own personal pleasure, health and development, or for upholding my own personal interests in relation to the family members. I also include here (to avoid having too many AoRs) my personal obligations as an educator/coach/influencer of the other family members' personal behavior and development.
I think of my AoRs as "roles" ("job descriptions") rather than as "types of task" or context. There can be talking tasks, reading tasks, eating tasks, thinking tasks, cleaning tasks, outdoors tasks, indoors tasks etc etc in any or all of these roles. The AoR has nothing to do with that. The AoR is more about what "territory" I have to defend for whom, not what "weapons" I use or route I take. AoRs in this sense ("roles") is very easy to identify with and to apply consistently.
