Here are a couple of options which I have been trying out for DWM, which have the aim of ensuring that you can keep the important stuff moving. You can use both of them at the same time if you wish:
1) The Current Initiative.
This is similar to the Current Initiative in DIT and is designed to be “The thing that you do first every day”. The idea is to select one project to which you want to give special treatment for a while.
The method is to write the selected project in BLOCK CAPS on your list. Every day when you start work on your list, your starting point is that project. You must do some work on it before moving on to any other task. Apart from these rules, you treat it like any other recurring task.
Once you have completed the project or got it sufficiently up and running, you can select a new Current Initiative.
2) Next Pass Mark-Up.
At present when you scan through the list you can either pass by a task or do some work on it. The “Next Pass Mark-Up” adds one further thing you can do, which is to mark the task up for action on the next pass through the list.
You then must take some action on that task on the next pass, unless it is physically impossible to do so.
Unlike the Current Initiative, under which a project remains Current Initiative until another one is chosen, the Next Pass Mark-Up does not remain with the task if it is re-entered.
This is not intended to be a method of prioritising tasks, and therefore tasks can only be given this designation as they are considered for action during a normal pass through the list.
The mark-up should be used very sparingly, otherwise the list may be slowed down and resistance increased.
The recommended method of marking a task for this purpose is to draw a small circle in front of it:
○ Call Bill Smith
This can then be filled in when you start work on the task, so that your current place on the list is marked (like the normal dot):
● Call Bill Smith
And finally the task is crossed out in the normal way when you finish working on it:
● Call Bill Smith