In our last post on remember the milk best practices I walked through how I had adapted the GTD context principles to RTM. In this post we’re looking at how we use Remember The Milk’s priority features and a new context tab.
Just within the past few weeks I began using the priority rating system for work-related tasks. In the past, I had never used task priority ranking… I generally based priority on due dates and my own judgement. Like many of you, my priorities change everyday so trying to keep them current on my to do list was unmanageable.
At work, I have 3 – 4 high level strategic objectives that are key to my advancement within the company… And I often get asked to do work that’s outside of those objectives. I’m sure you can understand where I should be spending my time, and where I was spending it before I started prioritizing tasks. I have three priority levels; Red, Blue, Light Blue (1,2,3). I don’t assign priority based on what my superiors tell me is high priority at the moment – I assign priority based on what’s going to get me promoted and into a higher pay grade.
The most visible tasks that are likely to get seen by the executives who decide if and when I get promoted are prioritized Red (1). Tasks that are slightly less visible but still likely to send me some corporate publicity get the Blue (2) rating, and tasks that may not be seen by the higher-ups but would be valuable to improve perceptions with my direct superiors get the Light Blue rating (3). When you think of your tasks in terms of “What’s the most likely to help me reach my personal goals” (ie. promotion, money, status), it makes prioritizing your to do list much easier. The tasks that I don’t feel are contributing to my advancement don’t get rated so they fall to the bottom of the list.
Another great tip is to setup an “Ideas” tab. On my tab list it’s labeled “@Work Ideas” so it sits right next to my “@Work” tab (you can read about how I use the @ contexts here). As you’ve probably guessed, this tab is a repository for all of the miscellaneous ideas that float in and out of my head during meetings, sitting at my desk, at lunch, etc, etc. It’s extremely valuable and I’ve captured hundreds of ideas that eventually get turned into tasks as part of other projects. If you don’t have an @Ideas context setup… I would highly encourage it. The more ideas you get out of your head… The more ideas come in.
In the next installment of the Corporate Radical Remember The Milk Tips and Tricks I’ll work through how we’ve used the mobile version of the Remember The Milk website, as well as the iPhone and Android applications.
