Hi, is there a Smart Add shortcut for "Deadline"? I can't seem to find one. That would be a helpful feature. The majority of the tasks I add are "Next" under start time, but need a variation of deadlines to help process them. Thanks!
Josh
Using deadlines for that purpose may not be the best approach, but of course this is for you to decide.
Worst of all, by using deadlines as a means to grab your attention you can no longer see your real deadlines, such as contracted delivery dates etc. Your phony deadlines look the same as your real ones. It can also become very burdensome to constantly have to change lots of deadlines whenever unexpected things happen that must be dealt with first.
I use the task Priority to symbolize the "attention" I have decided that a task deserves. My standard setting is Medium. If a task requires me to try to take every opportunity to squeeze it in as soon as possible somehow, then I mark it High Priority. If something can "sit around" my list until whenever I decide to do a batch of related tasks (usually same context, same location, with the same people etc) I mark it as Low Priority. This 3-way split helps me a lot (it significantly speeds up my reading of my lists), and it is not much work as I only rarely need to adjust the priority of a task. I tend to have about 10% High, 40% Medium and 50% Low priority actions on my Next list (and similar proportions in Waiting; for others to finish).