Thanks to a few posts in here, I am switching up my daily procedure to “prevent tasks from falling thru the cracks”! I first started out flagging a ton of tasks which turned out to not work as well because I become overwhelmed. On the other hand, my psyche couldn’t handle not looking daily at (not due) tasks because it felt like I was not doing something “important, but not urgent”. With that said, I was reviewing my extremely large list of unflagged, not due items and found I simply didn’t have time to review them daily. The solution: do a daily review and be vigilant in setting manageable review dates! My not so important projects that I still want to see on a regular basis, I would set to 2-4 weeks and no know they will be reviewed when the time is right! My projects with due dates, I set to review on a more frequent basis to keep tabs on them, every few days or daily if needed! What this means? Just spend 5-15 minutes each morning doing a daily review with only pertinent information, projects coming due sprinkled in with some not urgent projects that pop up from time to time to see if I’m ready to start working on them!
I apologize as this has become very long winded. I think it will be a game changer for me as I was always reluctant to scan the never ending list of unflagged, undue tasks each morning. I now do not have to defer 100 tasks out another x days/weeks/months but simply click “REVIEWED”!!!
Anyone else using a similar process?
I do place a lot of my projects’ status to “on hold” instead of deferring to a random future date.I set up my review cycles as well. Projects that are far off into the future will have a longer review cycle (1-3 months) or i’ll set a review date manually to some time into the future.
For my single actions lists (SAL), I have one group of SALs set to “active” status. These are miscellaneous one-off actions that pop up in my daily life.
Personal Single Actions
Office Single Actions
House Single Actions
Then I have another group of SALs set to “on hold” status. These are miscellaneous one-off actions that I’m not quite ready to work on yet.
Personal Someday/Maybe
Office Someday/Maybe
House Someday/Maybe
Most of my new actions will go into a Someday/Maybe SAL first. I already have enough active one-off tasks in the Single Actions group. I will add a new one-off action into the Single Actions group only if I need to work on it now. Otherwise, everything else goes into Someday/Maybe.
I set the Someday/Maybe review cycle to once every 3 or 4 days. When I see the Someday/Maybe SAL in my review perspective, I can decide to move it to the Active Single Actions group and get to work on those.
Using the “active” status and “on hold” status of a project or SAL has lessened the need to use defer dates. I’ll put a defer date on a task or project if I actually intend to start it on that date. Otherwise, it will go into the Someday/Maybe/On-Hold pile.
Your post in a recent topic led me to this realization so thank you for that and this response!
