Anybody who wants to be successful in life and live a rich life must have this totally organizaed and set up so you have an operating system that moves you forward easily and toward what is most impactful for a good life.
Try several iterations where you see what works and then revise it each week or each month until satisfied it works.
David Allen in Getting Things Done and Sally McGhee in Take Back Your Life! used items like these. Read those two books to tie things down. Also, look at Outlook book to get details on how to do the mechanics.
This example of what I did is merely to give you a quick picture of a possibility and perhaps save you a bunch of figuring time. (I was pretty confused until I dove into all of this in detail, figuring out that I should save myself alot of future hassle and missed items by forcing myself to complete my system so that it is completely and easily used by me.
MY GOALS FOR THE SYSTEM
Be able to retrieve all tasks by
Importance and urgency (A1) system (though the importance item in outlook could be used solely by
some)
Area - So I wrote in the subject area at the beginning the area, so I could sort by that
By type of to do - Like "hot to do", "errand" or "write - in process" (so I could discover what I've left
hanging (undone, but started). I used Outlook's "Categories" for that and set them up in the drop box. Starting Date - (Also have "due date", though I hardly use that.) The items pop up in the reminders box
for me to note, although they are in backwards starting date order on the to-do bar, though I can't see
the date on that bar.
MY CATEGORIES FOR GROUPING MY TASKS
Categories (limit 15) used on Outlook, to use in the dropdown box. You can type in any number you want: These also color the appts on the calendar.
MY PROJECTS - List all my projects and use the notes section for objectives or tie to a file (see form).
Note that I put a category below, for projects. I can use that category to get a list of projects by area of endeavor.
GROUP BY ACTION OR PLACE WHERE IT IS DONE TYPE (So tracked and pulled up that way, computer or paper system.)
Recommended by the pros: David Allen in Getting Things Done and Sally McGhee in Take Back Your Life! used items like these. Read those two books to tie things down.
COMPUTER (Optional) - Place where things can be done. I didn't use.
DESK (Optional) - Place where things can be done. I didn't use.
CALLS (I didn't use.)
ERRANDS
HOME ITEMS
SOMEDAY MAYBE
MY CATEGORIES
I ended up using these as my 15 in the Categories master list box:
.Checklist/procedures/reminders
.ObjectivesGoals
.Projects
Appt. or hot to do (Color red shows up easily on calendar)
Do Just do (So I can pick off by color or by grouping by category the straight forward to dos where I have no
reason to think it is complicated or takes alot of time)
Do Regular do (Helps me pick these out from other items on the Calendar page appointments
Do vital or must (Helps me focus to this first, dark orange color stands out on Calendar)
Errands
Fun
Ideas (So I can quickly write down ideas and have a tracking place for them, by area.)
In Proc Gen'l (In process)
Someday/maybe
Writer (Group all items I am to write on)
Write – In Proc (In process and needs to be finished, as I do alot of rough drafts and go to the next thing)
MY AREAS
Within description of each to do (subject), I write first the area: So when I click on heading "subject" it alphabetizes by subject line, so these are all grouped by area. I am not limited in number here, as I would have been if I put these into the Master Category List.
. (Items with a "." before them so they come up at top of alpha listing. Mostly reminders and general lists,
such as "Weekly Checklist".)
Bus (Business)
Comp (Computer related tasks)
Fin'l
GFC (My company)
Growth
Life mgmt
LMA (My project)
Mat'l (Material items from equipment to house to insurance...)
Org (the function, what to organize)
Phil (Philosophy
Phys (Physical)
Plan K - Planning related for me.
Plan - About the subject of planning
Psych
Rel (Relationships)
Time (Time and productivity)
MY PRIORITY SYSTEM
I used the standard A1 system.
I was stuck with the three field in the to do bar: subject, the color code, and the completion or transfer forward flag (left click to "complete it"; right click to get options).
I added a "user defined" field of A1 to the to do bar, and it showed up as a field for me to use. However, it sorts if you use the importance alternative (at the top of the to do bar) by the high, normal, low urgency system in Outlook. A quick clik on the drop down menu in the "!" column makes it easy to use that system.,
A = High impact, high importance, B = Good impact, C = Minor impact
1 = High urgency, soon, where the consequences of time are important (though I might also assign a 1 to have the item come up before others., 2 = Fairly soon, but not very urgent, 3 = No urgency
To-Do Bar Outlook
I used this organized by latest start date at the top, so I can find today's and the ones I didn't do from earlier.
However, click on the "arranged by" bar at the top of the list and you can sort by categories, due date, importance (the ! one) and a couple of others I haven't figured out.
In managing tasks, I am trying to identify what is important to do, plus track and group things for when I want to do them, so I should record each one. I want to also do things by importance.
