Sorting TO-DO list according to its importance and urgency

[ahmetk]

Dear Excel gurus,


A TODO list is smth that I have been using for quite some time both for my personal and business life.


In my TODO lists I don't rank TODOs as "high" "medium" or "low" but instead sort them all. Meaning if there is 15 things to do in my TODO list depending on the importance and urgency I rank them all from 1 to 15.


As I finish a task in the list I remove it and re-rank them all.


Example:


Rank TODO

1 Brush your teeth

2 Wash your face

3 Dress up

4 Wear your shoes


Say you have dressed up that means TODO in sorting 3 is done so I remove it from the list and re-sort the list as follow:


Rank TODO

1 Brush your teeth

2 Wash your face

3 Wear your shoes


"Wear you shoes" is now sort 3.


Lets say you have realized that Between brushing your teeth and washing your face, flossing is also important so I add flossing in rank two.


Rank TODO

1 Brush your teeth

2 Floss

3 Wash your face

4 Wear your shoes


But when I do that I again have to manually change the sorting for "wash your face" to 3 and "wear you shoes" to 4.


Now my question is: Is there a way that I can set table where when ever I erase a task it automatically ranks the TODOs or add a new TODO in between with a new rank, it automatically corrects the TODOs rankings that comes afterwards.


Kind regards.


Ahmet.

 

[Luke M]

I think I'm a little confused as to how you maintain your list. Since only you are able to determine what the importance of a task will be, and this is the only factor needed to create the list, there's no work left for XL to do.


For instance, let's say you start with just a list of numbers

[pre]

1
2
3
4
5

[/pre]
You then populate it with tasks for each one. When a task is done, select that cell and hit Ctrl and the - key. Shift cells up. Task has been removed, and all subsequent tasks attain new rank number. Conversely, if you need to add a task, select where it needs to go, hit Ctrl and the + key, and shift cells down. Type new task. All subsequent tasks have now moved to a lower task number.


If you are using some othe rmethodology for inputting what your tasks are, could you explain further? I'm probably just not visualizing correctly.

 

[ahmetk]

Dear Luke,


Thank you for your kind reply.


Especially my TODO list for work consist over 30 tasks. Some with high importance some with low.


During the day I also get new assingments which may be urgent or not. Depending on the urgency of pending issues I place them in my TODO list where I believe it suits. But when I do that I have to manually chnage all of the following TODO rank(number) manually.


Or vice versa; when I complete a task from the list and erase it, again manually have to re-order the list.


This list basically tells me what to do in what order. Task number 1 is usually the most important task and needs to be done asap however sometimes these tasks require additional information from different parties which delay them. During those waiting periods I move on to next task number 2, if I can complete it, I erase it from the list and task number 3 becomes number 2. But now all of the list has to be resorted as number 4 has to be marked as 3, and so forth.


I tried to write some "if" formulas but when ever a line is erased or added the formulas generate error? Plus a line may be erased or added anywhere with in the list. For instance a new task such as "clean your desk" can be task number 24.

 

[Luke M]

How exactly are you adding/removing items from the list? Do you have a master list somewhere of all tasks and you mark ones that you need to get done, thus providing a baseline for what importance to do, or do you assign (mentally at least) as you go.


Going back to my first idea, lets say your list is this:

[pre]

1 Brush your teeth
2 Wash your face
3 Dress up
4 Wear your shoes
With the list being in A2:B5. If you complete "dress up", select cell B4 and use the Ctrl + "-" command to delete that cell, and shift up. This will cause the list to become.

[pre][code]1 Brush your teeth
2 Wash your face
3 Wear your shoes
4

[/pre]
Now, let's say you need to add a task at number 2. Select cell B3 and hit Ctrl + "+" which will cause cells to shift down like so:

1 Brush your teeth
2
3 Wash your face
4 Wear your shoes[/code][/pre]
And you can type what you want into the #2 spot. Does this make more sense? I guess my point is, you're already doing the work mentally to put things in order. Just need a better way to manipulate the cells as you work.

 

[ahmetk]

Dear Luke,


OK I see what you mean.


CTLR + "+" and "-" did it.


Thank you very much.


Kind regards.


AK

 

[Luke M]

You're very welcome AK. Hope my response didn't sound curt, I was just trying to "keep it simple". =)

 

[Ashish]

Just wondering how the numbers will change on their own, cos when I delete a row by pressing ctrl + "-" the numbers do not follow a chronological order, the deleted row is skipped.

 

[Luke M]

Hi Ashish,

Don't delete an entire row, just the cell. As shown in my example by just inserting/deleting a single cell, the tasks will move down/up in relation to the numbers.

 

[Ashish]

Ok I get it now, Thanks for responding