Organize Google Tasks like THIS! (Urgent/Important/Fun Method)

Tired of your to-do list controlling you?  Learn how to take back the reins with Google Tasks!

​In this video, Scott Friesen will walk you through:

• Setting up the "Important, Urgent, Fun" lists within Google Tasks
• Strategically moving tasks to boost focus
• Integrating starred tasks with Google Calendar for time-blocking
• Tips for staying on track with this powerful system

Video Transcript

- Are you tired of staring back at a to-do list, which isn't working for you? Well, in this video I'm going to show you how to set up Google tasks so that your to-dos are more organized, more prioritized, and even more fun to accomplish. Here I am within my Google tasks view and I'm using the desktop version of calendar so I can easily toggle back and forth. And one of the things that we always want to remember is that we have the ability to add multiple lists. We don't have to deal with just a single list. One of the things that harms our productivity so much is by coming back to such a lengthy list, it not only takes us a lot of time to sift through all of the things we want to accomplish, but it also adds an increased level of stress as we review all of these tasks. But in the method that I'm going to show you, we're not just going to create a different list for a different type of task, such as personal or such as the weekend. We are going to use it in conjunction with our master list. So this first list here, I'm going to rename it and I always like to add an emoji in front of it. Our first list is actually going to be our key goals. So I'm going to select this bullseye emoji, and I'm going to call this important. You're probably familiar with the important urgent matrix, and we're going to use some of that terminology here today. Now I'm going to go ahead and create another new list. Once again, I'm going to bring up my emoji menu and I'm going to use this little clock icon. And this I'm going to designate for my urgent tasks. These are the things that need to be done soon or have a short due date. And then I'm going to go ahead and create one more new list. And this one's going to be a little different. I'm actually going to use this party popper emoji here, and I'm going to label this one fun. In fact, I might even put it in all caps. These are the tasks that I love to do. Not only do I need to accomplish them, but I actually get enjoyment out of it. So now you can see we have three new lists here that we can drag our existing or our master to-do list into. Let me show you how it works. Rather than trying to manage this long list of tasks, I can go through each of these items or at least a good chunk of these items and say that you know what? Track marketing data is an important task. I'm going to put that over here. Scheduling that phone call with Brett, that's more urgent. Writing this script is urgent. Connecting with other coaches, I actually enjoy that a lot, so I'm going to put that in my fun list over here. Joining online communities, it's not only something I need to do, but I actually enjoy doing that. Planning the email sequence is important. You get the idea as I drag and drop and add things to these different categories or these different lists on the right hand side once I've added things over here. The other nice thing about Google tasks is that we can hide or minimize any of these lists. So now I'm just going to focus on these three lists, but to make it that much more enjoyable and also to help me be that much more productive, I'm going to do something different. I'm not just going to tackle all of my urgent tasks first because I realize there are things here that require my time. And although I may not see the benefit of accomplishing these important tasks this day or even this week, most of these are actually a lot more important than anything else here on this screen. And then lastly, I want to make sure that I'm doing something that I really, really enjoy. I may want to save it till a little later, but that's where this next step comes into play. I'm going to select something that I want to do out of my fun category, and I'm going to put a star beside it. I'm going to pick something here that I want to do out of my important category. What do I think I need to do next? I'm going to select this one here. And then lastly, I'm going to select something out of the urgent list. And scheduling this phone call is really the most urgent thing I need to do there. Next, what I'm going to do is one of two things. I can come over here and select the starred view where I'm only going to see the tasks which I have starred. So now I only have three tasks to deal with. Three things that are important, urgent, and fun. And I'm going to commit to accomplishing these three things first before I go back to all of my other tasks. So I'm going to stay in this view and accomplish these tasks. But if you use tasks in conjunction with Google Calendar, it gets even better if you use the Google side panel here, we can choose to view just those starred items. So now I can go about my day, I can attend my particular meetings. I can even incorporate some time blocking and only see my three most important tasks. And if I want to go one step further, I can even drag and drop them directly onto my calendar. So if I want to make time for these particular tasks, I can do so here as well. Once I've gone ahead and accomplished these three tasks, well that's my Q2. Go back to the well, so to speak. I'm going to enable my to-do list here. I'm going to go back to all tasks. And here I can either select the next three, one from these three categories here, or I can continue to drag things over into their respective list. And remember, you don't have to create your tasks here under your Master to-do list. You can create them here directly under your list here as well. So if you're feeling overwhelmed with your to-do list, consider using - The important urgent fun method right here within Google tasks. And if you have any further questions or tips that you'd like to share with me, be sure to let me know in the comments down below. Thank you so much for watching. And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.