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	<title>Swift To-Do List Blog &#187; arbitrary due dates</title>
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		<title>How to use Due Dates in your to-do list correctly</title>
		<link>https://www.dextronet.com/blog/how-to-use-due-dates-in-your-to-do-list-correctly/</link>
		<comments>https://www.dextronet.com/blog/how-to-use-due-dates-in-your-to-do-list-correctly/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Sep 2013 16:20:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jiri Novotny</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Swift To-Do List]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Time Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arbitrary due dates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[calendar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[due date]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[expired due dates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organizing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prioritizing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[swift to-do list]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[task management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dextronet.com/blog/?p=2984</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you use Due Dates correctly in your to-do list?<p><a href="https://www.dextronet.com/blog/how-to-use-due-dates-in-your-to-do-list-correctly/">How to use Due Dates in your to-do list correctly</a> is a post from: <a href="https://www.dextronet.com/blog">Swift To-Do List Blog</a></p>
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When should you set Due Dates for your tasks?</p>
<p>Well, I have 2 recommendations:</p>
<p><b>You want to use Due Dates when you have a task that must be done on a specific day</b> &#8211; e.g. it&#8217;s an appointment, event, or it&#8217;s an important deadline. I also recommend you to set a reminder for all such tasks.</p>
<p>And -</p>
<p><b>Unless you are 100% determined to do something on a specific day, I think that you shouldn&#8217;t use arbitrary (made up) Due Dates</b> in most situations. It is usually more efficient to prioritize such tasks accordingly.</p>
<p><strong>Start Dates</strong> and <strong>Due Dates</strong> should therefore be used sparingly. If you use a <strong>Start Date</strong> or a <strong>Due Date</strong>, it should be absolutely necessary to do the action on that particular date, or, you should be 100% committed to doing it. </p>
<p>So in practice, most of your tasks will probably have no <strong>Due Date</strong>. In fact, you don&#8217;t have to use <strong>Due Dates</strong> at all and just use reminders for the few tasks that are date-critical.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s an exception to this rule. If you believe that you prioritize your tasks correctly, but still discover that you seldom do what you actually want to do on any given day, you might consider utilizing arbitrary <strong>Due Dates</strong>, especially if you are fairly self-disciplined. Arbitrary <strong>Due Dates</strong> can act as a secondary (or primary) prioritizing method. Here&#8217;s how it works -</p>
<p>You can use <strong>Due Dates</strong> to mark (plan) your tasks for today and tomorrow. I don&#8217;t recommend planning things too far ahead (more than a week ahead), because you probably won&#8217;t be able to keep the &#8220;schedule&#8221; up-to-date.</p>
<p>Advantage of planning your tasks for a given day beforehand is that you will tend to get more done. You will try to get the scheduled tasks done, because you know that tomorrow, you need to do other tasks. Also, when planning with <strong>Due Dates,</strong> you are less likely to get distracted by new incoming tasks in favor of your planned tasks.</p>
<p>So, in practice, you can choose the tasks that you want to do today and set today <strong>Due Date</strong> to them. Then pick the tasks you want to do tomorrow, and set tomorrow <strong>Due Date</strong> to them. Etc. But don&#8217;t plan more than a week ahead.</p>
<p>Inside each day, you can then prioritize the tasks using your current prioritizing system. In Swift To-Do List, click the <b>Due Date</b> column, then hold the <b>Ctrl</b> key and click the <b>Priority</b> column. That way, your tasks will be sorted by <strong>Due Date</strong> first and by <strong>Priority</strong> second. You can also use the small calendar below the to-do list tree to quickly view only today&#8217;s tasks with 1 click.</p>
<p><b>Beware this trap though:</b> When you use both necessary and arbitrary Due Dates, the tasks that really must be done on a specific day might get lost among the tasks you would just <em>like</em> to do on a specific day. As a possible solution, insert a &#8220;[DATE CRITICAL]&#8221; prefix into the task names of tasks with the non-arbitrary <strong>Due Dates</strong>.</p>
<p>One final tip: If you want the expired <strong>Due Dates</strong> to be automatically set to current date, you can use menu <strong>File &#8211; Options</strong>, and in the <strong>Task-View</strong> section of the <strong>Options</strong> window, check &#8220;<strong>Roll-over Due Dates</strong>&#8220;.  With this option enabled, when you won&#8217;t finish a task you&#8217;ve planned for today, it will automatically move to tomorrow.<br />
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<p><a href="https://www.dextronet.com/blog/how-to-use-due-dates-in-your-to-do-list-correctly/">How to use Due Dates in your to-do list correctly</a> is a post from: <a href="https://www.dextronet.com/blog">Swift To-Do List Blog</a></p>
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