In the Next Actions list you can assign to every action an estimated time of completion, the energy required to carry it out and its relative priority with respect to other actions. These three values allow you to choose the next best action to take, within the context in which you are. Remember that the context should be your first selection criterion.
We’ve added a new graphical interface to help you map these values in a more comfortable way. Simply click on the icons that represent this information and adjust the settings.
Of course, you can still type the :time, :energy and :priority keywords to assign these values as you enter the text. The difference now is that these commands will disappear from the text, once they have been correctly interpreted.
When you are choosing your next action, filter your next actions list by the context you are in and order them according to the criterion you want to use.
Questions & Answers
I take this opportunity to publish a couple of questions that some users have done on this topic. I hope they’re useful.
Why do actions that require little energy appear first when I sort my Next Actions by energy? It doesn’t seem logical.
Most times, when you use available energy as a criterion for choosing actions is precisely because you’re lacking it. The best time to use this criterion is when you’re tired or you’re having a bad day . At that time, what you mostly want to know is what tasks that don’t require much effort can be performed.
Why don’t I have the possibility of using these values of time, energy and priority in other lists?
According to GTD, it doesn’t make sense. Actions put in your Calendar should be done on that day, so not much to choose there. Actions put in your Waiting for list aren’t going to be done by you, thus it’s someone else who must apply their own criteria. The other lists don’t contain actions to get done as such.
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