Forums

Discuss all things Remember The Milk.

Easily Structure Your Day

dembo says:
I am trying to move away from a two-step process:

1 - capture all tasks (RTM is great for this)
2 - complete tasks (I am not great at this)

to a more formal three-step process:

1 - capture all tasks
2 - structure tasks
3 - complete tasks

I tried only using priorities for step #2 but I keep getting side tracked. I need something a little bit more sophisticated - not a full fledged GTD system, just something that's a little bit more structured.

So here is my solution:

I created the tags 1 to 9. These are the only numerical tags in my system. Every morning I look at today's tasks (sorted according to priorities and grouped according to lists) and deceide which tasks to tackle next. Assigned the numerical tags - I never used all nine available, I typically assign 1,2,3.

I then have two smart lists with the following search criteria:

due:today AND status:incomplete AND (tag:1 OR tag:2 OR tag:3 OR tag:4 OR tag:5 OR tag:6 OR tag:7 OR tag:8 OR tag:9) called "! today"

and

due:tomorrow AND status:incomplete AND (tag:1 OR tag:2 OR tag:3 OR tag:4 OR tag:5 OR tag:6 OR tag:7 OR tag:8 OR tag:9) called "! tomorrow"

Both lists are then (advanced) sorted according to tags (ascending) and priority (descending) and grouped by priority.

Ideally I end each day opening my normal tomorrow list and assigning, say, 1-3. Realistically I do this with the normal today list the first thing in the morning.

So whenever the ! today list is empty, I look at all tasks due today and reassign 1 to whatever number I am comfortable looking ahead to.
Posted at 4:17pm on April 20, 2017
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi dembo,

Thanks for sharing! You're a Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner, and we've added a free year of Pro to your Remember The Milk account. :)
Posted 6 years ago
leo.torres says:
Thank you!
Posted 6 years ago
xtoq says:
Late to the party, but you don't need the "status:incomplete" part, that's default RTM behavior. =)
Posted 6 years ago
Log in to post a reply.