117: Roles & Goals

Loved the episode. Reminded me a lot about the Stephen Covey Weekly Review of Roles & Goals and Big Rocks.

One thing I was trying to research on line was the word ā€œAriarteā€. Not sure if I am spelling this correctly, but was unable to find it. Am I looking for the right word ? @MacSparky

Hereā€™s what I found on Wikipedia

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@FrJasselin Excellent, Thank you!

First time listener to the Focused podcast. David says at one point that in the OmniFocus Library his roles are at the top of his hierarchy of folders, or words to that effect. Iā€™m looking for some clarification. I like the idea of roles rather than goals (Iā€™ve never really had the latter, and Iā€™ve been using task managers for over 40 years), but OmniFocus has Projects, Tasks and Tags, none of which are really represented by folders. Am I just being pedantic? Iā€™ve experimentally set up roles as tags, but OmniFocus structures its review around projects. It seems to me that a project can, and probably will, support multiple roles. I wonder if there are better tools out there to support this concept - other than pencil and paper.

OmniFocus does have folders at least in version 3.

Hi, Yes, Iā€™ve discovered that since. Not a triumph of UI design, in my humble opinion.

OmniFocus UI design is definitely lacking especially if youā€™ve used Things. But the powerā€¦

@FocusedBot where can I find more resources on roles? Especially the way @MacSparky keeps them front and center?

Just came to write that I listened to this episode having had multiple failed launches at GTD, 12 week year, BuJo etc. The idea of building a system on roles really opened it up for me.

Especially as it let me break down my job into smaller roles. (I have a role as a clinician, a role to meet the administration requirements of progressing in my training program, my role as a life long learner) I understand that @MacSparky seemed to have broader goals as ā€œattorneyā€ for example but for me at the moment I needed permission to separate my different roles at work so priority didnā€™t keep getting shifted to the most urgent neglecting the rest.

The idea of (and I canā€™t remember how it was described) ā€œGuest Star Rolesā€ was also useful as I have an exam in 12 weeks and can now think of myself as ā€œa person preparing for the Part A MRCPsych examā€ in weekly reviews.

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