Key Concepts

Day Optimizer has several key concepts that differ from other time and task management applications:

• To-Dos
  Anything that takes up time in your day, including activities most people don’t track in task managers like Eating Lunch or Exercise.

• Done Today vs Done Forever
  A task can be marked Done Today, indicating you worked on the task, but didn’t finish it. The task appears in your task flow tomorrow. This allows you to get the rush of accomplishment from checking off an item after you worked on it, but still have it around to work on again later.

• Task Flow
  Most important tasks take more than one day to accomplish. Once started, tasks will automatically flow from one day to the next until they are marked Done Forever or Won’t Do. Or you can snooze a task to hide it from your task flow until a future date.

• Time Estimation vs Allocation
  Time estimation requires figuring out how long a task will take to complete, which for complex tasks is almost impossible to do with any accuracy. Time allocation simply involves deciding how much time to spend on a task today. By focusing on allocating time, not estimating it, you can ensure you keep your important tasks moving forward, and focus your planning time on what you can control.

• Time Projections / Your Daily ETA
  Time projections show you when you’ll end your day if you attempt to accomplish everything on your list, based on the current time. They are an Estimated Time of Arrival for finishing your day. Use time projections to make real-time prioritization decisions when your day doesn’t go as planned. Remove tasks from your projections by marking them Skip Today, or by checking them off as done or won’t do.

• Implementation Intentions
  An implementation intention is an If This, Then That statement that you commit to. Scheduling your tasks is a form of time-based implementation intentions. Research indicates the setting implementation intentions increases your chances of achieving your goals.

These concepts allow you to build a more effective schedule, and then manage that schedule throughout your day as things change.