Does anyone else use a "Hotlist"

[danrneal]

I've added a "hotlist" to my next actions lists. I'm not sure if this is the GTD methodology is for, against, or indifferent to this practice. In the morning I go over my next actions and put 4-6 items on my hotlist, these are items that are the highest priority things for the day. It doesn't mean they have to get done today, or that other stuff won't get done today, just that these are the things that are top of mind. If I did all the things on my hotlist, I would call it a productive day. The hotlist is my "initial vision" of what a successful day would be. Things change throughout the day and if I don't get the hotlist done, the day isn't necessarily unproductive, it's just a good starting point for where to point myself at the beginning of the day.

So what do gtd-ers think? Does anyone else do this? Is this a symptom of bad gtd hygiene? Or is this a neat idea?

 

[Murray]

Using it as a starting point as you say is fine in terms of GTD.

I use the "Today" smart list in To Do app. I enter items there both from my calendar, from my action lists and just new things that I capture during the day if it's either info I want to be reminded of or an option I want to see when choosing actions.

It's good to be able to drag them into roughly chronological order and then I have a widget on the home screen of my phone that shows me the next three that are coming up. And I delete them as I go through the day, either completing the tasks or deciding they are no longer relevant. (Or capturing the relevant info elsewhere)

The smart list functionality in To Do is also good because uncompleted items at the end of the day disappear from My Day but are still accessible. If they were from an action list then they are still safely on that list both during and after their appearance on My Day. If they were created in My Day then they appear in the Tasks list which is like the inbox in To Do.

And you can choose to see suggestions of uncompleted items from yesterday's My Day.

I've actually switched to the paper 2022 GTD Organizer for my projects and action lists and someday maybe, but I'm still using the My Day list in To Do, for quicker moving today-specific things.

 

[Wilson Ng]

I like to look at my OmniFocus app and scan for due tasks, due within the next 7 days, and all other available tasks. Then I'll write a handful on to a 3x5 index card. That becomes my hotlist. A 3x5 index card is small enough and I won't overload it with too many tasks. It's a reasonable number of tasks that I can work on. If I can finish those tasks (which is rare), I'll go back to my app and write down a few more tasks to finish the day.

 

[MichaelB212]

Love this convo. I use "Today" in Things 3 in very much the same way as described by @Murray in regard to "My Day" in To Do. In the morning, I'll scan my lists for those "hot" items and add 4-5 to the Today view to work from that day. If I get to all of them with time to spare, I can then go back to my NA/Projects lists and add more as needed. For me, the key is to keep it realistic and not add more than 5 or so tasks at a time, even if most of them are short and will get done quickly. Better to go back to my lists and re-up as needed.

What I really like about what Murray said is that it doesn't necessarily mean that I absolutely will complete those Today tasks or that it means my day is a failure if I don't get to them. Things kindly doesn't mark them as "overdue" but will roll them over to the next day if I don't clear them manually. That said, Things will auto-populate in Today any task with a deadline which help to differentiate Today's "must do" tasks from the "would like to do" tasks.

In any case, I do find this practice to be useful for me and I like the feeling of potentially getting to clear a punch list of focus items throughout my day.

 

[Longstreet]

Yes, I see a short list being an "intention list". Here is a good piece on this from Next Action Associates:

In Praise of the Short Sub-List - Next Action Associates

In their newfound enthusiasm for discovering the freedom and relief of getting everything out of their head, journeymen GTD® practitioners can fall into

www.next-action.co.uk

 

[mickdodge]

NirvanaHQ has what they call a "Focus" list that I use in the same way you use your "hotlist". I think it's a great idea!

Focusing on just a few next actions each day keeps the overwhelm away.

 

[Longstreet]

NirvanaHQ has what they call a "Focus" list that I use in the same way you use your "hotlist". I think it's a great idea!

Focusing on just a few next actions each day keeps the overwhelm away.

Yep - as an avid Nirvana user, this comes in handy. But I use it as "intentions" for me to do today, fully realizing that things may change - the 3-fold nature of work.

 

[Karen Strickholm]

I've added a "hotlist" to my next actions lists. I'm not sure if this is the GTD methodology is for, against, or indifferent to this practice. In the morning I go over my next actions and put 4-6 items on my hotlist, these are items that are the highest priority things for the day. It doesn't mean they have to get done today, or that other stuff won't get done today, just that these are the things that are top of mind. If I did all the things on my hotlist, I would call it a productive day. The hotlist is my "initial vision" of what a successful day would be. Things change throughout the day and if I don't get the hotlist done, the day isn't necessarily unproductive, it's just a good starting point for where to point myself at the beginning of the day.

So what do gtd-ers think? Does anyone else do this? Is this a symptom of bad gtd hygiene? Or is this a neat idea?

I do something kinda like that but with Google calendar (a fairly rudimentary tool imho but syncs really well in all my devices - fast, seamless, error-free). Using the "Task" option, I put the action items in caps with a colon and descriptor. Ex. CALL: UNM re next endocrinology appointment, EMAIL: Nakeisha re missing dress. I wish GC would let me number them but it doesn't. When I close out each day, I review my list and either cross done items off or roll over not done items to another day. I also have daily commitments in here like PRAY, STRENGTH TRAIN, REVIEW ACCOUNTS, VITAMINS, often with little fun emojis next to that task. I wish I could keep these separate but again, GC doesn't offer this option. More than once I've thought Google should hire David Allen to help them improve. Anyway this system works for me. Thanks for your post!

 

[Karen Strickholm]

I've added a "hotlist" to my next actions lists. I'm not sure if this is the GTD methodology is for, against, or indifferent to this practice. In the morning I go over my next actions and put 4-6 items on my hotlist, these are items that are the highest priority things for the day. It doesn't mean they have to get done today, or that other stuff won't get done today, just that these are the things that are top of mind. If I did all the things on my hotlist, I would call it a productive day. The hotlist is my "initial vision" of what a successful day would be. Things change throughout the day and if I don't get the hotlist done, the day isn't necessarily unproductive, it's just a good starting point for where to point myself at the beginning of the day.

So what do gtd-ers think? Does anyone else do this? Is this a symptom of bad gtd hygiene? Or is this a neat idea?

Oh and I always (usually) set up the next day's hotlist the night before, so I know what I'm heading into! ;-)

 

[pgarth]

I've added a "hotlist" to my next actions lists. I'm not sure if this is the GTD methodology is for, against, or indifferent to this practice. In the morning I go over my next actions and put 4-6 items on my hotlist, these are items that are the highest priority things for the day. It doesn't mean they have to get done today, or that other stuff won't get done today, just that these are the things that are top of mind. If I did all the things on my hotlist, I would call it a productive day. The hotlist is my "initial vision" of what a successful day would be. Things change throughout the day and if I don't get the hotlist done, the day isn't necessarily unproductive, it's just a good starting point for where to point myself at the beginning of the day.

So what do gtd-ers think? Does anyone else do this? Is this a symptom of bad gtd hygiene? Or is this a neat idea?

I've been testing out something lately, that appears to be working for me. It's a hybrid of the pomodoro technique and a "hot-list" based on key 20K Areas of Focus (including a couple project triggers) I have going on right now - about 8 items.

Imagine a 3 by 5 card with rows and columns. Day at the top and the 20K/10K items down the left side. Each hash-mark is 30 minutes.

End result is the pomodoro timer is keeping me focused while in action. The card gives me a nudge to address things that I'm putting off - which may require some work on defining the next actual action. There's some feel-good of doing the hash-mark.

The card (200 for $1 at DollarTree) are cheap and I slide it just under the Mac/Keyboard so it's in front of me.

Of course, this is not my external trusted system - just an additional view/prompt.

 

[ianfh10]

Using it as a starting point as you say is fine in terms of GTD.

I use the "Today" smart list in To Do app. I enter items there both from my calendar, from my action lists and just new things that I capture during the day if it's either info I want to be reminded of or an option I want to see when choosing actions.

It's good to be able to drag them into roughly chronological order and then I have a widget on the home screen of my phone that shows me the next three that are coming up. And I delete them as I go through the day, either completing the tasks or deciding they are no longer relevant. (Or capturing the relevant info elsewhere)

The smart list functionality in To Do is also good because uncompleted items at the end of the day disappear from My Day but are still accessible. If they were from an action list then they are still safely on that list both during and after their appearance on My Day. If they were created in My Day then they appear in the Tasks list which is like the inbox in To Do.

And you can choose to see suggestions of uncompleted items from yesterday's My Day.

I've actually switched to the paper 2022 GTD Organizer for my projects and action lists and someday maybe, but I'm still using the My Day list in To Do, for quicker moving today-specific things.

Also use this function in MS To Do and love it. As @Murray says, the tasks in the My Day list are just instances of the tasks on your next actions lists/contexts list.

It also retains what list the item lives in within the item itself, so in My Day you're able to see where all your tasks are from.

Because they're wiped at the end of the day, there's no coming back the next day to a list of stuff you didn't do you said you would, so no guilt!

It even suggests items for you based on their importance, due date, or if you had them on your My Day yesterday!

 

[Julie Jones]

I use Nirvana and the focus list provides that kind of functionality. Scheduled items appear on the focus list when they are due to start or finish.

I wish I could stop using the focus list, but Nirvana doesn't have a way to show scheduled items or overdue items at the top of next actions, which is what I would prefer. I find that the focus list is necessary for me to make sure I see and deal with scheduled and repeating items, but it is to easy for me to only look at it and not look at next actions at all.