To-Dos

In Day Optimizer, a to-do is anything that takes up time in your day.

To-dos are divided into three types, each with their own special properties within Day Optimizer:

• Tasks
  Things that take up time in your day that will eventually be done, such as Launch Ad Campaign or Update Business Listing. Tasks can be marked either Done Today or Done Forever, with tasks marked Done Today flowing through to the next day.

• Activities
  Things that take up time in your day that will never be done, such as Eat Lunch or Exercise. Activities can never be overdue and don’t flow to the next day—if you miss eating lunch one day, you don’t have to eat 2 lunches tomorrow. You either ate lunch or you didn’t, and the next day is a new day. Thus, you can only mark them Done or Not Done.

• Appointments
  Fixed points in your day that you must schedule your other to-dos around. Appointments don’t participate in the task flow, since you either went to the appointment or didn’t. Thus, you can only mark them Done or Not Done.

If you only do task management, you may not currently be accounting for most activities. Few people put “lunch” on their to-do list. But if you are doing time management, you need account for this time, so you don’t overestimate what you can get done in a day.

*Use Activities for defining time blocks, where you set aside time in your day to do a type of activity, but don’t keep the specific tasks in Day Optimizer. Using activities, you can block out your day, so you keep moving your important projects forward.