Due dates and what is overdue

How Rhazes groups tasks by when they are due, and why a task with no due date is not the same as one that is late.

Updated

The grouping

The list is grouped by when things are due: overdue, today, then the days ahead. That is what makes it usable at the start of a shift, because the top of the list is what actually needs attention.

All day or a specific time

A task can be due on a day, or at a time on that day. Use a time when the task genuinely has one, such as calling a department before they close. Use the day for everything else, so your list is not full of arbitrary times you invented.

Tasks with no due date

A task does not need a date. Something you will get to today does not benefit from one, and dating everything makes the overdue group meaningless.

The trade-off is that an undated task will not chase you. If it matters and it is not going to happen today, give it a date.

Overdue is information, not failure

An overdue task means the date has passed, nothing more. Some are genuinely late; others were optimistically dated. If a task has been overdue for a fortnight, the useful move is usually to re-date it honestly or to decide it is not going to happen, rather than to leave it accumulating at the top of the list.

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