I started creating tasks in Obsidian using the tasks plugin and at first it was amazing. It really helped me lower my stress levels because I knew that I could just write something down in my notes and Obsidian would remember it for me. I could quickly scan through my task list and make sure I wasn’t forgetting something important.
This went fine for a few weeks, until my pile of incomplete tasks started to stack up. Then I’d wake up on a Saturday morning to look at my list of outstanding obligations. My failure as a husband, friend, and homeowner were standing in clear definition right in front of me.
How could I possibly sit down and relax if I had all this stuff to do.
Let’s look at my problematic solution. I was using a simple query to easily pull together all of the incomplete tasks from every note.
```tasks
not done
```I’d see something like the following when that query was executed.
Stuff I Haven’t Done Because I Suck
Then my amazing sister had a great idea. What if on the weekend I cut myself some slack? What if I just looked at the high priority stuff on the weekends and let everything else go for some other time?
This has been a treat and has really lowered my blood pressure.
Now my query is:
```tasks
not done
priority is high
starts before tomorrow
short mode
group by tags
```And my list looks something like
The key is really filtering for the high priority tasks. That’s the priority is high line. Then hiding anything that hasn’t started yet starts before tomorrow is great too. Anything that I would have to do next week, or next month, doesn’t need to wreck my Saturday.
The short mode and the group by are just there for a little more structure.
Thanks technology for helping me prioritize. Also thanks to my sister!