seems to me that this could require a lot of tag maintenance, in that what is important is always important, but what is urgent changes from day to day. I prefer to use priorities to designate importance, and due dates/times to indicate urgency. something due in two weeks isn't urgent when I enter it, but as the due date nears it becomes more and more urgent if I haven't already done it just because it was important.

Also, if you are going to use tags for these, wouldn't you only need IMPORTANT and URGENT. Anything not tagged IMPORTANT is by default NOT IMPORTANT. Same with URGENT.

I think you'd want to tag things with all four so that you could then have a check list that hunted for things that were not tagged properly.

(I don't mean to suggest any individual item would have four, as that would be nuts; I just meant I think you would want your system to use all four.)

I have found that for my purposes, this really doesn't require any more maintenance than any other tagging/organizing method. Just the way I set it up I suppose.
Gives me a great overview of stuff. I use priorities as well, seems to work well in conjunction.

You are correct in assuming that you could set it up with only two tags, namely IMPORTANT and URGENT, the rest by default being neither of these. I did have it set that way and now am trying this method.

My next iteration in implementing this will involve combining tags and actually using the following tags:
urgent and important",
"urgent but not important",
"not urgent but important",
"not urgent and not important".

Lets see how that works, thanks for the feedback.

zak, I reccomend not combining tags. Instead, create a smart list to search for both the tags (or the absence of them)!

Also, I like Ranbarton's idea of tagging everything. I really enjoy having a "cleanup" list that searches if something isnt appropiately tagged or dated. It helps a lot to make sure you dont forget something (since when I note something down I dont remember it anymore, I need to make sure it will tell me to do it on time!).

Have you thought of using the tags q1, q2, q3, and q4 to categorize your tasks? (Tag by quadrant instead of importance and/or urgency)

In http://weekplan.net, the format is "your task !1" "your task !2", etc... depending on the quadrant of the task.

I just use "set priority"
set priority 1 is urgent and important
set priority 2 is not urgent and important
set priority 3 is urgent and unimportant
no priority is not urgent and not important

I just read the book. I kind of like kapu's idea...but I'm trying something slightly different. I have "important" and "not important" lists, within those lists I use priority to indicate urgency. If it's prioritized it is urgent, 1 is most urgent, 2 second most urgent etc... This helps me prioritize my urgent tasks.

We'll see how this works out. I was never very happy with the GTD approach. I think this is more suitable to my lifestyle.

Personally I put everything in without a tag. Then when I process everything if I can not tag it with one of my 5 priority task areas I dump it (either on an assistant, a committee, or in the trash) that way I have very few quadrant 3 or 4 items. Those few items I can't seem to get rid of, don't show up in a to do list, they stay in the "2bprocessed" list until I can figure out how to get rid of them. Why waste time doing the unimportant things? (left undone unimportant things often go away)

Further prioritization occurs with due dates. things with no due date are not urgent. Things with a due date more than a week out are not urgent.

Then, once they have a purpose tag, which starts with a "+" (+tea for teaching, +adm for administration etc...) they get a location tag which starts with a "@" (@com for computer, @des for desk) and each of the location tags additionally include contextual information for instance computer work can be done at the office or at home, so the full tag is actually @comofficehome. Phone calls can be made in several contexts so that tag is @fonofficehomeerrand (errand meaning in the car).

that way I can view a smart list that shows me all the things that can be done while I am running errands, or all the things I can do if I go home and work sitting on my deck with the lap top for the afternoon.

It sounds complicated as I write it, but it is actually a very intuitive way for me to combine 7 habits and gtd in rtm.