[ams6110]

When your list comprises items of varying priorities, you tend to take care of the “A” priorities and let the “C” priorities lie fallow…until it becomes an “A” priority itself.

I had to re-read this three times to be sure I was getting it... his contention is that sometimes a "C" priority is really more important than an "A" priority???

The entire point of prioritization is that you do the most important stuff first, and if you don't have time for everything, well at least the stuff that didn't get done was not really the important stuff anyway.

[mistercow]

I had to reread it several times as well before I finally found a charitable interpretation. What he's saying is that with a to-do list, it's easy to just get all of the high priority stuff out of the way, and then when all you have is low priority stuff, just to dick around for the rest of the day.

On the one hand, there's some validity to that point; most people can't actually take care of every low priority item on a long term to-do list immediately without burning out. Balancing that with still taking care of the low priority items before they become crises can be difficult.

On the other hand, taking care of the A priorities and then ignoring the C priorities altogether is simply doing it wrong. The author suggests putting everything on a calendar instead of using to-do lists. I think this is dumb reasoning. There's nothing stopping you from using both.

Put everything on the to-do list. Get your high priority stuff out of the way, and then put the low priority stuff (or the stuff you have an ugh field around) on your calendar. This is way more efficient, and leverages the quickness of the to-do list to prevent you from accidentally forgetting something entirely.

[arjie]

I believe he's talking about some prevention is better than cure sort of thing. It's not important to get your car checked today because you have important things to do. However, if this happens every day, then one day your car is going to fail. Then, getting the car checked becomes a priority but if you'd fit it in earlier on, you could have gotten away with never having to deal with an emergency.

Essentially, he's talking about how we discount future risk when we prioritise tasks.

[allengeorge]

My interpretation was that sometimes, leaving tasks to balloon from 'C' to 'A' priority comes with a massive increase in cost. In that case it's better to schedule time to deal with the 'C' task earlier.

This is nothing new, of course, and, like any other advice, has to be applied in context.

[therealchiko]

I think what he's saying is that "C" priorities, will become "A" priorities after being left alone UNTIL deadlines (urgency) pushes them to the top of the list.