Understanding of ToDo List Ordering

Supposing you have two projects in the root of MyLife outline which are Prj1 and Prj2. Each of them has one subtask p1 and p2 correspondently. Only tasks p1 and p2 will be shown in the ToDo list.

How will they be ordered in the list? It depends on the parameters of the tasks.

Any task marked as a Weekly Goal will be always placed on the top of the ToDo list no mater what other parameters it has. This is the way you can quickly highlight the task and bring it on the top for your attention. In this example p2 is marked as a Weekly Goal.

2.1. If project Prj1 has higher importance then project Prj2.

In this case subtask p1 will be always on the top of the ToDo list no matter what importance p1 and p2 subtasks have. This is because you specified that whole Prj1 project has higher importance then other projects. As a result all its subtasks down to the outline will have higher priority then subtasks from other projects on the same level.

Note that when you set the priority of a task in most other To Do programs you actually set the absolute priority that compares it to the other tasks in the list. In MyLife, however, you only consider how important it is to complete the task relative to completing the parent project. So, for example, when we are talking about p1 importance it is actually importance to accomplish project Prj1 but not absolute importance .

2.2. If Prj1 and Prj2 projects have the same importance.

The subtask with higher importance will be placed in the top of the list. So you will have p2 first in the ToDo list if it has higher importance for the project Prj2

Note: Importance parameter is considered after Weekly Goal parameter.

If you set a deadline for a task, the closer this deadline is the higher this task will be in the ToDo list. So if you set deadlines for p1 and for p2 and if p2 deadline is closer, this task will be higher in the ToDo list.

Please note that since Importance is considered before Time the items in the ToDo list are ordered by how important they are rather then when they are scheduled. This helps you to stay focused on the most important tasks, separate importance from urgency and overcome procrastination.

Note: time parameter is considered after Weekly Goals and Importance

The closer a project is to being complete the higher its tasks are in the To Do list.
Supposing you have additional subtasks for projects Prj1 and Prj2 (p11 and p22 correspondently). Task p22 is completed but all other tasks are uncompleted. All the other parameters (Weekly Goal, Importance, Time) are the same. In this case subtask p2 will be higher in ToDo list because project Prj2 has higher completion per cent (by completion only one task p2 you will finish the project Prj2). For completion project Prj1 you will need more tasks to complete (p1, p11).

Note: completion parameter is considered after Weekly Goals, Importance and Time.

Supposing we have the following task outline (see the picture):

1) Project Prj1 has higher importance to accomplish Goal1 then other projects.
2) Project Prj2 has deadline for Tomorrow.
3) Task p4-b has deadline for Today.
4) Goal2 marked as a Weekly Goal.
5) Project Prj5 has only one uncompleted subtask

After generating the ToDo list we will have the following order of the tasks in it (see picture):

1) Tasks p3-* are on the top of the ToDo list because Goal2 (and as a result all its subtasks) is marked as Weekly Goal
2) Tasks p1-* listed next because their parent (Prj1) has higher importance then other projects.
3) Task p4-b is scheduled for Today this is why it is next in the list.
4) Tasks p2-* are scheduled for Tomorrow so they are next.
5) Task p5-a is the only uncompleted subtask for Prj5 this is why it is higher in the list then p4-a and p4-c

1) Weekly goal
2) Importance
3) Time
4) Project completion per cent

(There is an idea to develop an interface so that each user could customize how ToDo list should be ordered using these parameters.)