Prioritize Tasks using the ABC/# Method.

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Anonymous
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When you open a Task Details, there should be a quadrant in the corner to select A,B,C,D and a text box next to it to enter level.  
  • A: Tasks are colored with the users selected Important/Urgent color & bold
  • B: Tasks are colored with the users selected Important/Not-Urgent color
  • C: Tasks are colored with the users selected Non-Important/Urgent color & bold
  • D: Tasks are colored with the users selected Non-Important/Not-Urgent color and grayed
Users could set automatic adjustments when an incomplete task moves from one day to the next so any tasks which is moved to it's due date, it converts from Not-Urgent to Urgent.  A users would still be able to reset it to Not-Urgent or turn this feature off at a later time.

For each day, a quadrant would display next to the day showing how many tasks are in each quadrant for that day coloring the number or background with the selected color by that user.  Clicking any quadrant would bring up the list of tasks just in the quadrant.  

A user could drag and drop tasks an any list a the task priority would change to that of the task immediately below it if moving up or immediately above it if the task is moved down.  The task should receive a level exactly between the task above it and below it if the same priority, e.g. if above is a B040 and below is B100 a task moved between gets B060.

All tasks levels should show the same number of character spaces by default or as an option.  This way when a user creates a task with C999 all tasks display the level with letter and three characters.
If you want to allow users to use alpha-numeric entries for the level, then maintain the character spacing and right justify with leading spaces of periods, e.g. entering BStupid would cause the change to B...Now for users selecting periods for the leading character.

Users could look at Weekly and Monthly Quadrants showing the number and lists broken up by priority.  Each entry should show the date initially assigned, due date and the date completed.  Also, it should show the initial priority level if that changed.

Thank you for putting this up and I hope to make better use of this than my scraps of paper laying about.
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Ana Loraine
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Quote from Maggard
I was forced to add the anonymous posts as the site would not let me Reply more than once to your post.  I wanted to break things up to allow focus on the areas you want clarification and allow subjects wrapped up to remain together.

Thanks for all your work on WeekPlan.net.  This is my way of saying Thank You while trying to get some goodies for my use.  :-)
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Maggard
I was forced to add the anonymous posts as the site would not let me Reply more than once to your post.  I wanted to break things up to allow focus on the areas you want clarification and allow subjects wrapped up to remain together.

Thanks for all your work on WeekPlan.net.  This is my way of saying Thank You while trying to get some goodies for my use.  :-)
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Anonymous
Quote from Aymeric
Wow I am blown away by the depth of your feedback. Thank you very much.

In summary you suggest:

- Allow user to associate a color to a quadrant
- Show quadrant summary per day as opposed to per week (currently)
- Allow to enter a level <- I am not familiar with this concept, could explain what it is?
- User can filter tasks in a day by quadrant
- A task can have a due date
- An overdue task should become Urgent
- User can see a monthly view of his tasks too

Anything related to the level, I haven't understood well, please explain me what it is. Thanks!

1. I was considering associating a role with a color so maybe I could use the quadrant number instead.
2. I am considering removing the quadrant stats altogether. What value do you get out of knowing you have 3 Q1, 2, Q2 and 3 Q3 tasks?

Cheers,

Aymeric


Q2. Quadrants are the main way I am able to prevent my tasks from just being a list of uncontrollable items.

Q2.1 I am use to using A for Important/Urgent, B for Important, Not Urgent, and C for Not Important, Urgent.
A are things you need to get done and see a value in doing.  These are your focus area.  All things placed in this area should be your primary objectives.

B are those things you can get done between your A's or to break out of that Deadline driven focus.  This is where you want to get by planning correctly.  Anything not urgent gives your the flexibility to adjust.
C are those things nagging at you that really have no value.  If you get the A & B done you work on C.  Really look at these items to see if there is a way to automate them or delegate to someone who sees the importance.  Finally you may need to evaluate why they should be done and discover a reason to consider them important then finish them.

D are things you don't need to get done and also find unimportant.  These really should not be on your list.  If they can't be delegated, why are you keeping track of them?  

Q2.2 Please keep the quadrants.  The Franklin Seven Steps showed us how important they are but the tools have not always helped us succeed with using them.  Your tool may.

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Anonymous
Quote from Aymeric
Wow I am blown away by the depth of your feedback. Thank you very much.

In summary you suggest:

- Allow user to associate a color to a quadrant
- Show quadrant summary per day as opposed to per week (currently)
- Allow to enter a level <- I am not familiar with this concept, could explain what it is?
- User can filter tasks in a day by quadrant
- A task can have a due date
- An overdue task should become Urgent
- User can see a monthly view of his tasks too

Anything related to the level, I haven't understood well, please explain me what it is. Thanks!

1. I was considering associating a role with a color so maybe I could use the quadrant number instead.
2. I am considering removing the quadrant stats altogether. What value do you get out of knowing you have 3 Q1, 2, Q2 and 3 Q3 tasks?

Cheers,

Aymeric


Q1. Color Usage:  You could leave the color with roles and look toward font for Quadrant.
Q1.1 Users assign Bold to either Important or Urgent and the other uses Italics.
Q1.2 Underline can also be used, perhaps bringing Overdue in the mix.  
Q1.3 By default perhaps:
Q1.3.1 Important = BOLD
Q1.3.2 Urgent      = italics
Q1.3.3 Overdue   = Under-Lined
Q.1.4 Using Colors with Quadrants.
Q.1.4.1 The downside to abandoning colors is Quadrants would look so neat with shading of their color.
Q.1.4.2 Alternative for Roles: a colored circle between the Priority and Task Description.
Q.1.4.3 User then can click the role button to display only those roles

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Anonymous
Quote from Aymeric
Wow I am blown away by the depth of your feedback. Thank you very much.

In summary you suggest:

- Allow user to associate a color to a quadrant
- Show quadrant summary per day as opposed to per week (currently)
- Allow to enter a level <- I am not familiar with this concept, could explain what it is?
- User can filter tasks in a day by quadrant
- A task can have a due date
- An overdue task should become Urgent
- User can see a monthly view of his tasks too

Anything related to the level, I haven't understood well, please explain me what it is. Thanks!

1. I was considering associating a role with a color so maybe I could use the quadrant number instead.
2. I am considering removing the quadrant stats altogether. What value do you get out of knowing you have 3 Q1, 2, Q2 and 3 Q3 tasks?

Cheers,

Aymeric


6.0 Yes, Users have option to have tasks overdue automatically convert to Urgent.

7.0 Yes.
  7.1 Monthly view allows users to expand their planning horizon & review past performance.
  7.2 Yearly view might also be beneficial.
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Anonymous
Quote from Aymeric
Wow I am blown away by the depth of your feedback. Thank you very much.

In summary you suggest:

- Allow user to associate a color to a quadrant
- Show quadrant summary per day as opposed to per week (currently)
- Allow to enter a level <- I am not familiar with this concept, could explain what it is?
- User can filter tasks in a day by quadrant
- A task can have a due date
- An overdue task should become Urgent
- User can see a monthly view of his tasks too

Anything related to the level, I haven't understood well, please explain me what it is. Thanks!

1. I was considering associating a role with a color so maybe I could use the quadrant number instead.
2. I am considering removing the quadrant stats altogether. What value do you get out of knowing you have 3 Q1, 2, Q2 and 3 Q3 tasks?

Cheers,

Aymeric


5.0 Tasks receive due dates to assist planning.  
  5.1 Due dates may eventually tie into calendar programs allowing tasks to be listed on the users calendar, e.g. Google Calendar.
  5.2 Due dates also may allow repeatable tasks.  So when I create a task for Friday an option for repeat every Friday, every month on this date, yearly...
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0
Anonymous
Quote from Aymeric
Wow I am blown away by the depth of your feedback. Thank you very much.

In summary you suggest:

- Allow user to associate a color to a quadrant
- Show quadrant summary per day as opposed to per week (currently)
- Allow to enter a level <- I am not familiar with this concept, could explain what it is?
- User can filter tasks in a day by quadrant
- A task can have a due date
- An overdue task should become Urgent
- User can see a monthly view of his tasks too

Anything related to the level, I haven't understood well, please explain me what it is. Thanks!

1. I was considering associating a role with a color so maybe I could use the quadrant number instead.
2. I am considering removing the quadrant stats altogether. What value do you get out of knowing you have 3 Q1, 2, Q2 and 3 Q3 tasks?

Cheers,

Aymeric


4.0 Yes, User can filter by Quadrant. 
  4.1 q.v. 3.0
  4.2 Possibly allow users to filter by level also.
    4.2.1 User can restrict the displayed to only show those items below 50 or between 100 - 199.
    4.2.2 Users can categorize levels so those below a hundred are work, 100 levels are home, 200 levels school, 900 levels RPG.  
Avatar
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Anonymous
Quote from Aymeric
Wow I am blown away by the depth of your feedback. Thank you very much.

In summary you suggest:

- Allow user to associate a color to a quadrant
- Show quadrant summary per day as opposed to per week (currently)
- Allow to enter a level <- I am not familiar with this concept, could explain what it is?
- User can filter tasks in a day by quadrant
- A task can have a due date
- An overdue task should become Urgent
- User can see a monthly view of his tasks too

Anything related to the level, I haven't understood well, please explain me what it is. Thanks!

1. I was considering associating a role with a color so maybe I could use the quadrant number instead.
2. I am considering removing the quadrant stats altogether. What value do you get out of knowing you have 3 Q1, 2, Q2 and 3 Q3 tasks?

Cheers,

Aymeric


3.0  Level is a way to sort the tasks within each Quadrant.  Back when I taught the classes for our now gone Covey store it was included.  Tasks are sorted by Quadrant then by level when considering completion.  This is an attempt to get you to focus on one task.  

e.g. Quadrant/Level is more important than providing a due date for me. So when I went to code these into the WeekPlan.net, I'd work first on Q/L then Date.  

I encouraged people to use just numbers when providing levels, and programmaticly it is easier also.   If I have a task thrown at me, I look at the quadrant it lands in and give it a number.  As a programmer, I usually used three digit numeric with each starting divisible by 10.  So my task list looked:
A000 Review WeekPlan.net Tasks
A010 Gas for Car
A020 Post to WeekPlan.net
B000 Text wife 
B010 Write blog @ WeekPlan
B100 DeFrag System Drive
C010 Complete Timesheet
C020 Publish site requirements
C030 Schedule Summary Meeting
D010 Sort old magazines
D020 Pitch bad magz
Avatar
0
Anonymous
Quote from Aymeric
Wow I am blown away by the depth of your feedback. Thank you very much.

In summary you suggest:

- Allow user to associate a color to a quadrant
- Show quadrant summary per day as opposed to per week (currently)
- Allow to enter a level <- I am not familiar with this concept, could explain what it is?
- User can filter tasks in a day by quadrant
- A task can have a due date
- An overdue task should become Urgent
- User can see a monthly view of his tasks too

Anything related to the level, I haven't understood well, please explain me what it is. Thanks!

1. I was considering associating a role with a color so maybe I could use the quadrant number instead.
2. I am considering removing the quadrant stats altogether. What value do you get out of knowing you have 3 Q1, 2, Q2 and 3 Q3 tasks?

Cheers,

Aymeric


2.0 Quadrant summary per day would be next to the day, on the left
  2.1 Example: [] Tuesday 17 January (where [] is the quadrant.
  2.2 Yes it would be small, but just enough to let them know what is happening
  2.3 Quadrant with no task is left blank for the daily and show zero for the weekly.
  2.4 Allow users to select where the weekly quad shows, I'd like to put mine above the compass.
  2.5 Clicking any quadrant brings up the list of that quadrant.
    2.5.1 For the daily, it just shows the list in the normal page, compressing the other quadrants with an arrow.
    2.5.2 For the weekly, a new window is opened up showing the list of task with date information.  The other quadrants would show on this page also but be compressed, allowing the user to stay on the page and open and close different quadrants.  Perhaps in quadrant expanded would have the number corresponding to the weekly quadrant go bold.  In this view users can drag and drop tasks around to change prioritization, etc.  I love how your site lets me drag and drop tasks.

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0
Maggard
Quote from Aymeric
Wow I am blown away by the depth of your feedback. Thank you very much.

In summary you suggest:

- Allow user to associate a color to a quadrant
- Show quadrant summary per day as opposed to per week (currently)
- Allow to enter a level <- I am not familiar with this concept, could explain what it is?
- User can filter tasks in a day by quadrant
- A task can have a due date
- An overdue task should become Urgent
- User can see a monthly view of his tasks too

Anything related to the level, I haven't understood well, please explain me what it is. Thanks!

1. I was considering associating a role with a color so maybe I could use the quadrant number instead.
2. I am considering removing the quadrant stats altogether. What value do you get out of knowing you have 3 Q1, 2, Q2 and 3 Q3 tasks?

Cheers,

Aymeric


1.0 Yes, color per quadrant.


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