Scoring points for an 'agile' approach to task completion

OmniFocus
#1

If only Omnifocus had a way of scoring each task and giving a total score for the tasks completed each week.

Imagine being able to assess your efficiency, not just on how much work you’re getting done, but how much work you’re completing relevant to your priorities. It’s great to see that I’ve ticked off lots of tasks, but some of them are tiny and easy to do. If find myself putting off really important stuff, just so I can tick off “get shoes mended”. Omnifocus could help us achieve our goals in life by adding a points rating to each task and a total score.

Anyone else think this is a good idea? I’m wondering whether I should just go back to using a spreadsheet.

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#2

ToDoist “gamifies” (horrible word) its task completion by having Karma points for number of tasks completed against a predefined set target.

I have to say it is addictive but ultimately pretty pointless. A weekly review should show you if your moving goals forward, and then it’s really down to you. For example I have a lot of admin and client support tasks each week, do thy move forward bigger goals? No but they put food on the table and keep existing clients happy so they are just as important as anything else in my opinion.

Life goals are often just wishes, life consistently throws all sorts of surprises and opportunities at you, good and bad so being able to react or sometimes just “tread water” can be a positive thing. Be careful not to miss out on experiencing life today for the illusion of chasing something maybe better in a future which may never come to pass.

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#3

Yes indeed, measuing the number of tasks like ToDoist does, doesn’t tell you anything in terms of difficulty or priority.

Re Life Goals – the reason they become “just wishes” is because they are not prioritised and never get started. I have my life goals in my to do list, and they are being worked on.

#4

You could use duration to put in some kind of scoring system, or tag with stars/points or something?
I think the perspectives and options are there?

2 Likes
#5

Thanks. It would mean adding up totals manually but yes, it’s a start…

#6

think you can count the totals with a script
Example:

#7

I already use estimated time to help prioritize tasks based on duration of availability. I’ve never used it as much as I’d like to, but that’s already some level of work effort estimation. It’s such a habit now that I always include the estimated time when creating tasks or cleaning up the inbox.

@gabscoll I don’t think I would take time to assess story points to a task on a regular basis, mostly because it’s just one more thing to add to the task rather than actually working on it. That said, it’s no different (in terms of effort) than my assignment of minutes of duration, so if you aren’t doing both, it’s kind of a wash. It does seem like a script that produces an output of completed tasks by day and their associated minutes might be a better measurement than arbitrary (albeit relative) points. The concept of using story points suggests you’re going to measure velocity in relative points as opposed to minutes of work in your productivity. The latter just seems more beneficial.

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