I have tried just about every configuration of RTM features that I can think of, but never found the balance between organization and simplicity. I finally found something that does well for me in both areas at the same time.

I have four major REALMS of my life: work, home, education, and a non-profit organization. Each realm has major RESPONSIBILITIES, and many responsibilities have several PROJECTS.

E.g.
Work (realm)
Admin (responsibility)
Personnel (responsibility)
Development (responsibility)
Project1
Project2
etc.
Home (realm)
etc.
Educ (realm)
etc.
Nonprofit (realm)
etc.

I tried all kinds of combinations of lists, tags, and locations, and ended up too complicated, entering redundant data, and not having a consistent way to review.

My latest plan is this:

* Ignore locations - they are redundant for me.

* Use LISTS for each RESPONSIBILITY, without any effort to note the realm. E.g. "Admin", "Personnel", "Development", "Maintenance", "Donors", etc. (I use abbreviations in reality)

* Use SMART LISTS to create each REALM, combining together all the responsibilities for that realm. E.g. "Work" = ("list:Admin OR list:Personnel OR list:Development"). This way, I can list everything at Work, or in more detail: everything related to a specific responsibility.

* Use TAGS if necessary to specify which PROJECT, so that I can see all things related to a single project. Many tasks don't belong to a project, so they don't have tags.

* When I CREATE A TASK, I only have to enter the name, priority, due date, and responsibility (and perhaps tag). (note: Priorities and due dates are optional)

* I never have to specify the realm (or location), because the responsibility (list) automatically implies the realm (smart list). Less data entry.

* When I REVIEW my tasks, I can review them by realm, responsibility, or project. Reviewing is also when I adjust due dates and priorities.

On top of this, I have a way to focus on what I need to do.

* Priorities are: 1=next action; 2 = high; 3 = low; none = one day

* I have a "hotlist," which is a smart list of only those tasks that are either next action or due by tomorrow (hotlist = "priority:1 OR dueBefore:tomorrow OR due:tomorrow"). I can see all my important and urgent tasks together, and can easily sort by priority or by due date. But this list has all realms, so...

* I have a hotlist for each realm: E.g. hotwork = "list:Work AND list:hotlist".

* For REVIEW, I use realm smart lists and responsibility lists. For WORKING, I use the hotlists or realm lists or responsibility lists, as needed.

* How I work in Gmail-related tasks is another topic, but it meshes with this scheme.


It sounds more complicated than it actually is, but once I got it set up it's simple to use and it has reduced all my data entry.

And it's not too cluttered in the lists or in the tag cloud, especially when I use the A Bit Better RTM extension.

The key for me was using lists in "hierarchies."

I use a prefix of "_" or "+" to bring the most-used lists to the top of the order of lists.