Task Prioritizing software

[salilsurendran]

Hello,
I was wondering if there is some kind of task prioritizing software. As a simple example, you have a goal and you then drop in tasks with a value that specifies how much it contributes to the goal but also how much time it takes? The software then prioritizes the task based upon the provided parameters, something like a thread scheduler in operating systems.

 

[Folke]

I konw that MyLifeOrganized has plenty of that kind of stuff (but this kind of automation feels a bit alien to me so I never examined it closely).

 

[TesTeq]

you have a goal and you then drop in tasks with a value that specifies how much it contributes to the goal but also how much time it takes? The software then prioritizes the task based upon the provided parameters, something like a thread scheduler in operating systems.

IMHO this approach can't work because in most cases values of goals and tasks change. And it is very difficult to assign a value to a task (is it 36% or 44%?).

 

[Oogiem]

Hello,
I was wondering if there is some kind of task prioritizing software. As a simple example, you have a goal and you then drop in tasks with a value that specifies how much it contributes to the goal but also how much time it takes? The software then prioritizes the task based upon the provided parameters, something like a thread scheduler in operating systems.

LifeBalance did that. I tried using that program from June 2008 until March 209 when I got totally frustrated with it changing things on me and stuff falling through the cracks because it didn't get "high enough" and it couldn't handle the faster pace of my own changing needs. I switched to Omnifocus and haven't looked back. I decided that for me I am a much better thread scheduler than any Software will ever be for my own stuff and that the time to enter in the details to make a program do it properly was not worth it.

 

[notmuch]

What Oogiem said.

I had a fling with Life Balance as well. You would enter the importance of the task to it's goal and/or project, the time required (and context, etc), and then LB's magic black box would tell you what to do. I credit Life Balance with teaching me two valuable lessons regarding productivity apps:

#1 Never trust a black box to make decisions for you.

#2 Directly related to #1, pay attention to the number of "required" fields in your GTD system. The more required fields, the more your resist entering stuff completely or at all. The more incomplete your system, the less you trust it. And that is bad.

Make things easy to enter so you can trust your system. Trust your brain to make the right decisions.

 

[tom]

I agree with "notmuch" who wrote about number of required fields. You can try TREE-IT! (for Android) which supports tree structure of your tasks, displays task count on every (sub)level in format /. You can select color for task priority and than use complex search functionality or sorting by that color. In search result you can see in every moment just that tasks which corresponds to your desired condition. (Ability to hide checked tasks is commonplace)