!Today Category?

[Anonymous]

This is a trick I adopted some time ago and have found it to be helpful. I thought I'd share it and see if anyone else does likewise or can suggest further refinements.

In addition to my context lists (@Home, @Computer, @Errands, etc.) I have a list called !Today. The use of the "!" rather than the "@" means that that category will be at the top of my task list when viewed either in the Task View or in the Taskpad view.

Probably a better name for this category would be "Do Today if at all Possible" but that's too long a title! Things that have to be done on a given day go on the hard landscape of my calendar as a "Timeless" appointment. I use the !Today list for those things it would be nice to get done as well if I can.

Each morning I run through my lists and decide what discretionary tasks I want to try to tackle that day and add them to the !Today list. If it is a busy day with many client appointments, I will have only a few things on that list. If the day is more open I will add more. At the end of the day everything on this list is returned to its context list (easy to do in Outlook with a single right click on the list heading).

The goal of having this list is so that I don't have to rethink my way through my other lists as the day unfolds. I am primarily client based in my work (a therapist) and when a window opens for a discretionary task I can quickly look at the !Today list and punch a couple of items out.

Anyone else doing anything similar?

Scot Giles

 

[RLJefferies]

Outlook Tasks

Great Idea! I have been using the "Due Date/Reminder" section of tasks to set up what I hoped to accomplish & then have my Outlook Today display only "Today's Tasks". For the non-vital things reminders were a terrible pain - got advice & tips from another posting set on this site for turning them off. I'll have to give your idea a try. 8)

 

[Esquire]

Scot:

Thanks for the post and suggestion. I have contemplated this approach in the past. What I've done at times was create an untimed, daily repeating event for the week on my Palm calendar app called "Plan for week", which contains those things from my various work-context lists (i.e. @office, @phone, @computer, etc.) that would give me the biggest return if they were completed.

Recently, I've kept the items within their respective lists, but given them a priority 1, and defaulted all others to a priority 3 or 5 (so that they're always below the 1's).

I agree that this avoids the requirements of having to re-think my way through my lists everytime I open them.

 

[Ramalew]

I use this (1. Today) all the time as my 'must do today' task list. Its a good way to clarify the clutter esp when you have a lot of tasks, as I do. I tend to leave them in the 'today category until I do them, even if it takes a few days to get to them.

I also alter the list of my tasks by changing the names of the categories to (dropping the @):

1. Today
2. Call
3. Office
4. Errand

I also have other categories for project related or tasks that Direct Reports have to do as follows:

Drp Angela
Drp Bill
Drp Frank
Project - Web Site
Project - Recruit new PA

That way context tasks are on top and my DRPs and projects below. I do believe, however, that my categorised task list is a little too cumbersome and would like to move the non-contextual tasks somewhere else. I realise the non-contextual stuff (projects, DRPs) are really project support material but I need to keep them within the Outlook environment if possible. I already use Appigo's Todo list app as it syncs with exchange and don't want another app.

Does anyone know how I might better store the support tasks.