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My System :)

richard.fox says:
With the release of the new and shiny Remember The Milk I wanted to share the system I use. It's probably not completely GTD or any other system you can find and can also probably be made better but hopefully will help someone else as it has helped me.

The main premise is that you use Smart Lists to see what you can get done at that moment in time, depending on the amount of time you have free, details are below (Including my nasty search queries which can probably be tidied up quite a lot!) and I hope it is of use to someone :)

Normal Lists Used:

Inbox - Used to hold any new tasks/projects which haven't been processed as yet
Tasks - Every task that has been processed and doesn't belong in one of the below lists
Projects - Any task which is broken down into sub-tasks, no matter how small
Someday - Tasks/Projects that are parked for the time being with nothing needing to be done

Smart Lists Used:

Can Do Now - Any task which can be done now:

(tag:anywhere OR locatedWithin:"500 m") AND (dueWithin:"1 week of Today" OR due:never) AND (startBefore:Tomorrow OR start:never) AND NOT tag:waiting AND NOT list:"Someday" AND NOT (list:"Projects" AND NOT tag:next)

5 Minutes - Tasks which you estimate can be completed in 5 minutes and can be done now:

(tag:anywhere OR locatedWithin:"500 m") AND (dueWithin:"1 week of Today" OR due:never) AND (startBefore:Tomorrow OR start:never) AND NOT tag:waiting AND timeEstimate:"5 Minutes" AND NOT list:"Someday" AND NOT (list:"Projects" AND NOT tag:next)

10 Minutes - Tasks which you estimate can be completed in 10 minutes and can be done now:

(tag:anywhere OR locatedWithin:"500 m") AND (dueWithin:"1 week of Today" OR due:never) AND (startBefore:Tomorrow OR start:never) AND NOT tag:waiting AND timeEstimate:"10 Minutes" AND NOT list:"Someday" AND NOT (list:"Projects" AND NOT tag:next)

15 Minutes - Tasks which you estimate can be completed in 15 minutes and can be done now:

(tag:anywhere OR locatedWithin:"500 m") AND (dueWithin:"1 week of Today" OR due:never) AND (startBefore:Tomorrow OR start:never) AND NOT tag:waiting AND timeEstimate:"15 Minutes" AND NOT list:"Someday" AND NOT (list:"Projects" AND NOT tag:next)

30 Minutes - Tasks which you estimate can be completed in 30 minutes and can be done now:

(tag:anywhere OR locatedWithin:"500 m") AND (dueWithin:"1 week of Today" OR due:never) AND (startBefore:Tomorrow OR start:never) AND NOT tag:waiting AND timeEstimate:"30 Minutes" AND NOT list:"Someday" AND NOT (list:"Projects" AND NOT tag:next)

Waiting - Tasks which you are waiting for someone else:

tag:waiting

Tags Used:

anywhere - A task which can be done anywhere (This assumes you always have a smart phone available)
waiting - For tasks where you are awaiting someone else to complete something
next - Subtasks of a project that can be done now

Locations

Add all the locations which you generally go to including your home and work, these can be added to as and when you come across them.

When creating tasks you will need to fill in either the location field each time for where the task needs to be done or add the "anywhere" tag if it can be done wherever you are (Assuming you have a smart phone). Also make sure you include an estimate of how long you think a task will take (Including travel time).

For all the projects, split these into sub-tasks to make it easier to add a location/anywhere tag and also a time estimate. To keep up to date with projects you will need to review them as and when you complete a sub-task with the tag "next" or on a daily/weekly basis.

In day to day use you will focus on just using the Smart Lists, picking "5 Minutes" if you have a spare 5 minutes up to "Can Do Now" for a complete view if you have a lot of free time.
Posted at 4:12pm on March 8, 2016
wesfoster says:
You have a lot of repetitive queries. This makes it hard to maintain so many smart lists. You should create a "Standard list" which holds:

tag:anywhere OR locatedWithin:"500 m") AND (dueWithin:"1 week of Today" OR due:never) AND (startBefore:Tomorrow OR start:never) AND NOT tag:waiting AND AND NOT list:"Someday" AND NOT (list:"Projects" AND NOT tag:next)

Then for each of your time estimate smart lists, the query would look like:

list:"Standard list" AND timeEstimate:"15 Minutes"

:)
Posted 8 years ago
richard.fox says:
Hi Wes, thank you for that - Will make life a lot easier! :D
Posted 8 years ago
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi richard.fox,

Great system! You're this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner, and we've added a free year of Pro to your account. :)
Posted 7 years ago
richard.fox says:
Wow! Thank you Emily, that's awesome! :)
Posted 7 years ago
wesfoster says:
Where's the love, Emily? You implemented my suggestion into the list Richard posted, making it so much more concise and manageable, but completely disregarded any credit, let alone a year's worth of RTM.
Posted 7 years ago
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi wes.foster,

I totally agree that your suggestion was a great improvement to this tip -- I actually emailed you back on June 14 to let you know that we'd incorporated your suggestion into the tip, and in recognition of your contribution, that we'd added a free year of Pro to your Remember The Milk account too. We definitely wanted to send some love your way too! :)

We really should have given you credit on the tips post for the contribution as well, and that was my bad -- I'm really sorry that I missed doing that. I've updated the tips post now with a credit, too.
Posted 7 years ago
brianmury says:
I like the "Can Do" smart list and have created one for myself - thanks for sharing! I use "isLocated:false" instead of the "anywhere" tag, it saves having to remember to tag things that don't have a location.
Posted 7 years ago
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