Prioritization on overdrive

[jroachgit]

I saw this on Amplenote: https://www.amplenote.com/help/tasks_and_todos_task_score
It has a dynamic scoring system to determine the priority of tasks.
From a front end perspective, we need:

1. Urgent (tickbox)
2. Important (tickbox)
3. Estimated duration (15min, 30min, 60min, 90+min)
4. generated score (that is dynamic and updates if, 1) the task is modified and 2) when each day goes by).

Backend: a creation date of the task
ability to use the 'score' as a task ranking function.

What we have already: if its due today.

The blog post above goes into various calculations etc on how to generate the 'score':

IF this is something that you're keen on, I'm happy to pull together a more succinct scoring algorithm.

Let me know!

[schemar]

Thank you @jroachgit, I really love the idea. I also really enjoyed how Taskwarrior's ranked tasks. The issue simply is time. I won't be able to add this soon, I'm afraid. I hope you understand.

[jroachgit]

To assist you @schemar where should I start?
there's the :

1. front end task creation components
2. how this looks once the task is created
3. created date
4. algorithms to create the 'score'
5. computation for the score
6. visualisation of the 'score' - inline of the task
7. visualisation of the 'score' - on the task query.

[schemar]

I am planning on adding scheduling and prioritization next (when I have the time). With those two and the existing metadata of a task, an urgency could be calculated and become the default sort. I want this myself, but it will still take a while due to time constraints.

[jroachgit]

Yes, I was just looking at Taskwarrior, and the urgency & coefficient section is probably the perfect boilerplate for some of the next steps into Task prioritisation https://taskwarrior.org/docs/urgency/
Default doesn't contain durations being a factor, but I suspect that can be added into their UDC.
IMO, the 'Estimated/Actual duration' component that I mention below is a needed piece, and serves a number of requests.

[htyeim]

I think this is a great idea to make tasks better.
I am not sure if it is possible to add some properties first. For example add duration (similar to OmniFocus' estimated-time ref1 ref2 ). Maybe use ⏱️ as signifier. When users find half hour time, they can query some tasks to do with a simple duration filter.

[BluBloos]

⏱️ seems like a good idea

[jroachgit]

TLDR: next step in task detail IMO should be 'Estimated duration' & 'Actual duration'. Estimated duration can help in task sorting/ prioritisation (P1) while actual duration can work for task logging (P2) (and I saw some other posts about it also). Further the difference between can aid in improving estimation (P3)

It's been a few years now, time flies! I just came back by googling 'task management obsidian' and ended up back here. It's great to see a number of options now available in the create task screen, so we are definitely on the way to being able to implement this sort of feature.
What I think would be a great next step would be an estimated duration which can drive prioritisation, eg knocking off some quick tasks first.
Beyond this with an estimated duration, tasks with calendar could start to mould into a task scheduling application.
Then, with 'actual duration' being recorded, which can aid in task time logging/task tracking, and also the difference between the estimated and actual can be calculated to determine accuracy in estimation, (or inaccuracy and a step toward personal improvement with task estimation).

I'll try and make time myself to look into obsidian-tasks to get my head around the code - definitely no promises!

[jroachgit]

@schemar oops, Sorry Martin, I just saw the notice that all new ideas need to go into issues. I suppose my comment isn't a new idea, just some additional commentary associated with this larger feature. Cheers.

[claremacrae]

@jroachgit, no it's fine - at the point that you created this, Discussions/Ideas was the right place to add feature requests.

I think a problem with request, though, is that it is just too large to ever be realistically likely to be worked on.

So for now, Tasks urgency or custom filters are the best bet.

Also, there are no plans to add estimated duration, currently.

[jroachgit]

Yeah, thats okay re the size of this.
But stop for a moment and think how far you've brought this plugin from a few years ago! Great work!

I think time estimation or duration would be one of the next logical additions to task management, and with that, then large tasks can be separated from small tasks.. filtered, sorted, organised etc. And I'm not the only one wanting duration. But maybe that could be done with an inline field already?? "[dur::15]" as long as the base unit is kept the same, it should work. eg. either 1 = 1hour, or 1 = 1min.

Also, this popped up: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/nautilus-for-obsidian/77617/5
(How I learned to plan better (and what to do when your head doesn’t get lists) | by Tomáš Baránek | Feb, 2024 | Medium 25
GitHub repo is here: GitHub - tombarys/roam-depot-nautilus 13
Summary:

It’s Roam Research extension for stress-free task planning, visually representing tasks and calendar events in the Roam Daily Page, and recognizing task duration variabilities. It uses the present moment as a threshold to dynamically push unfinished tasks into the available time until tonight while keeping them in a user-defined order with user-estimated durations.

This visual approach reduces the feeling of being overwhelmed, enhances task-effort estimating skills, and clearly shows what the feasible tasks are for the rest of the day. The spiral shape mirrors one’s diminishing energy for creative tasks over a given day.

I don't care too much about the graphic, just the logic.

[claremacrae]

But stop for a moment and think how far you've brought this plugin from a few years ago! Great work!

I would also ask you to stop for a moment to consider the impact on my personal life, and that of my loved ones, at the sheer number of hours I have been spending on the Tasks plugin, and yet the requests for large features keep coming.

At some point, we have to say No to expanding the scope and instead focus on improving what we already have.

I think time estimation or duration would be one of the next logical additions to task management, and with that, then large tasks can be separated from small tasks..

No, it needs to be documented, but we have explicitly decided not to go down this track.

Please see:

• Document that time-tracking, productivity tracking, pomodoros, notifications etc are out-of-scope for this plugin #2721

The most we might do, at some unknown point in the future, is to add some customisation or extension points to Tasks for other plugins to add time tracking and similar.

[claremacrae]

I'm closing this, as it is too large an ask for free software maintained by volunteers...