Request: Please share your prioritization methods here

[erikts]

3. Then, I use a special formula to calculate the urgency of tasks (processed in IQ) depending on their :

• duedates
• Planned Start and End date
• % Done
• time needed to complete them
• numeric priority (1-9)

Of course the formula takes into account whether the task-project is late or not, etc.

-Armando (June 13, 2010, 12:47 PM)

Would you mind showing me the formula? Can it be implemented in spreadsheet (Excel or Calc)? TIA.

[Armando]

Thank you for your interest.
It's a VB function. At the moment it works but  it's a bit sloppy. I'll have to clean it up a bit before I share it with others.
I intend to "design" a projects and tasks management IQ database and so I'll make it public at this point.

[Paul Keith]

Same as my last post but in more detailed software form:

http://www.osaka-gu....Opt980607/eTR-1.html

Note: I didn't really test the actual program.

[IainB]

@Paul Keith: Sorry for very belated response. I think I had notifications turned off.

Could you provide some examples as to what specific labels and character string you had that gave the feature a much needed place in your priority system?

Descriptions like these often make sense until I try imagining what specific string I would use.

Well, the example would be anything you could imagine, I suppose.
For example, suppose that you had (say) 500,000 records (notes) in your database, and wanted to be able to flag any notes that contained any reference to "caffeine".

You set up a sub-category in the hierarchical category tree under "Hot drinks", and set the rule that any future occurrence of "caffeine" in any new note will be auto-assigned to this category.
Then you realise that you might want to do this for all 500,000 records in your database, so as not to miss any references to "caffeine", so you set a rule that this category association is to retrospectively run once.
Then someone asks how many such references have we had in notes created after 2010-05-02, so you set a conditional "date >2010-05-02" category, and retrospectively run it once, and add the rule that this category is to be auto-assigned in any new notes.

You then do the same for "Milo" and "Hot Chocolate".
And you can individually view the filters for "Caffeine", "Milo" and "Hot Chocolate" after 2010-05-02.

Then you might want to see how this is consistent with the parent "Hot drinks", so you view that list of filtered records, and it shows all records created since 2010-05-02 which are assigned to "Caffeine" and "Milo" and "Hot Chocolate".

As well as doing this, you might want to now set an action priority, so you set up a parent group called "Priority", with subgroups A, B, and C. You then go down the list of records assigned to "hot drinks" and flag them as A, or B, or C. Then you notice that one of the C flagged items should actually be a B, so you change it. That record pops OUT of the view of the C items, and INTO the B list.

By the way, I spoke to soon about GTD for Gmail. It's all good. The improvements have not reduced the functionality. All you have to do is set up what you want via the GTD Preferences section.

[Paul Keith]

True IainB but it becomes more complicated as you are trying for your personal needs.

Hot drinks may not mean anything to the person but as an example it seems legit.

Yet "Milo" may have relevance and the only way for someone to see...ahh yes, that tag could work for my mindset is to share each other's specific terms of categorizing an item.

See the crucial use of a topic like this is to share what you actually bookmarked for example (or what tags) rather than what one can input into their tags because they know they can do that but many unproductive people don't know which tags can be suggested to them based on having an overview of the person they're talking to.

It's like with Twitter or Facebook. You can scroll down and keep searching and find people but you often can get better information if the person you're following just notifies you who they have just followed.

In priority systems, the only "culture known" template that is familiar to all that is into GOE is the GTD terms or maybe Mark Forster's system. We each don't know each other's specific labels and hierarchy.

[IainB]

@Paul Keith: If it helps, then here's a screenshot of part of my old Lotus Agenda category tree.
They are a bit like nested labels in Gmail, except that the latter seem rather limited by comparison.

[Paul Keith]

Thanks IainB, could you give at least some hint on the context of the blurred category?

Btw yeah it helps.

Some other things:

What is DOB, DOW and DOD.

Also do you have an image for ones that is less contact based? It's a bit too reliant on categories pertaining to an addresss book but it seems like the meat is below that image.

Btw as an aside, have you looked into this application?

I was curious if that's synonymous to how you name your categories.

[Paul Keith]

Good work, bad work, great work

http://changethis.co...show/68.03.GreatWork

[IainB]

@Paul Keith:

• Could you give at least some hint on the context of the blurred category?: It was a person's name.
• What is DOB, DOW and DOD?: Date of Birth/Wedding/Death, respectively.
• Do you have an image for ones that is less contact based? Yes. The category tree was several hundred category lines long, with many parent/child nested categories. I shall put up some more screenshots later when I have the time.
• Have you looked into this application? No. But I just did. Looks like an interesting system.

Update 2010-07-06: @Paul Keith: Here you go - two more screenshots of my Lotus Agenda category tree.



Update 2010-07-08: @Paul Keith: The lines between items in the category tree represent mutually exclusive relationships. No lines = NOT mutually exclusive. The musical notes: the solo one means there is a note is attached to that category item, stored in the database. The twin one means that a note is attached to that category item, but it is in a separate .txt file.

[Paul Keith]

professional, extracurricular, personal:

http://calnewport.com/blog/?p=115

[IainB]

@Paul Keith: Sorry, in case you had not noticed - I have updated my post above with 2 screenshots (you had asked for more) and some notes.

[Paul Keith]

Thanks IainB.

Those things look interesting.

Preferably:

-analysis of goals

and

-superannuation

Could you clarify those?

[IainB]

@Paul Keith:

-analysis of goals

This was the parent category that would be assigned by default to any record that related to an analysis of my own life goals, according to the mutually exclusive child sub-categories - which would have records assigned deliberately by me, as the user.

-superannuation

This was the parent category that would be assigned by default to any record that related to an analysis of the subject of superannuation, according to the mutually exclusive child sub-categories - which would have records assigned deliberately by me, as the user.

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure if this helps you. These were logical structures which met my own peculiar needs, not necessarily anyone else's.

[Paul Keith]

Thanks, these does help very much.

Peculiar needs is what's most important with a thread like this - chances are few people will find them via Googling.

Would you say that those names have no known quality other than a label?

That is, unlike say the inbox label, these parent labels don't really have any special purpose other than being parent labels?

[IainB]

@Paul Keith:
Well, yes, their quality might be simply that of a label - but not necessarily exclusively that. They are "categories" - e.g., some of them, like Entry, When, Done, DOB, DOW, DOD, have a data type characteristic (see first screenshot below). Those are date formats, and can be whatever date you want and on which you can set rules for assignment conditions/actions. All other categories similarly can have rules for assignment conditions/actions (see second screenshot below).

I suppose the purpose might best be described as: to provide a logical context, a logical structure, and the logical rules (if necessary) for assigning them to a record.

It was only when you started to get the hang of these categories that you could start to realise the flexibility and power of Lotus Agenda.

[Paul Keith]

I apologize for the misphrasement in my last post IainB, I was specifically referring to your explanation for "analysis of goals" and "superannuation" only.

That said, I still don't quite understand the difference between labels and categories but as far as my last post goes - I only had your two parent categories in mind.