Getting Things Diced

If, like me, you are prone to procrastination and/or indecision, you may find the following technique useful. It’s a simple way of choosing which task to do next from a To Do list. It is based on chance, but is novel in that it takes into account your priorities.

Requirements : one or two dice, pen & paper, minimal motivation.

Process

1. Write down a list of around 11 tasks you wish to do
2. Alongside each task write down its relative priority from 1 (high) to 11 (low). If you have less than 11 items just leave out the higher numbers, if you have more than 11 items leave the lowest priority tasks unnumbered.
3. Next to the priority number, write down the ‘target’  number in the following table:

4. Roll the di(c)e
5. Do the task with target corresponding to the sum of two dice

Once you’ve done that,  it’s up to you how to proceed – maybe replace the task/target with another, maybe just ignore that target on the next roll,  maybe write out a whole new list.

On my own current todo list is the task of making a nice printable version of this.  When that happens depends on when I next get a 2.

How it Works

The following should explain:

– and in chart form :