Kategorie: EN

Today I’d like to show you how easy it is to make good decisions using Prio Cards.

In this example, let’s choose a training course.
Learning something new is always a good idea.

First, we create a new project, give it a name, and select a color and an appropriate icon.

Then we select this new project and create individual tasks for the courses that interest us and are worth considering. For now, we’ll use the project’s color.

Now we define the evaluation criteria. These can be renamed or reordered at any time. I always like to have the criteria that matter most to me at the top.

Once the criteria are set, we open each task and evaluate the individual criteria. Text notes are also possible, but they don’t currently factor into the evaluation. But I’m already planning something for that – stay tuned!

Sometimes it makes sense to compare individual criteria across all tasks. To do this, select “View by criteria.”

By the way, in many views you can change the order by holding and dragging, like the criteria here, for example.

This is what it might look like for you. Want different colors? Tap “Edit” and then “(i)” and set the colors that work for you.

It looks like I should sign up for the rhetoric course. So let’s go!

That was easy, right?

Another use case would be, for example, buying a new MacBook. Here’s how you can go about it:

• Project name: New MacBook
• Tasks: MacBook Neo, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro
• Criteria: affordable, enough SSD storage, fast, quiet

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Try it yourself? Get Prio Cards here on the App Store:

I always have a lot of ideas I want to turn into projects.
Most of my ideas come when I focus on the here and now.
That works best while hiking or on long walks.

Back to my idea management:
Because I really have many ideas, I constantly have to decide what to start next.
Often several projects feel equally important at the moment of decision.
Then I might begin one and, after a while, find another one more appealing.
As an indie developer I have the privilege to change my mind at any time — with all the resulting pros and cons.

It’s not that I can’t concentrate on a project.
On the contrary: I work very consistently and persistently on one thing.
Still, sometimes there’s a nagging feeling that I’m not doing the most important thing.

Somehow all the decisions we make are emotional and subjective.
Even when we think we decided rationally, gut feeling is decisive.
Think about whether your last important decision was really made purely rationally.
Wasn’t there perhaps that little feeling?
And are you now trying to rationalize your emotional choice?
Think about it for a moment …

That’s why I came up with a simple tool: small index cards.
The project title is on the front, sometimes color-coded by category.
On the back I note pros and cons — and, where possible, time required and relevance.

This is how I used the cards:
All cards are laid out face down on the table.
Then I sort them into an order of descending priority.
I worked with this method for a while.
It was a great help.

However, prioritizing didn’t always happen entirely without emotion — which isn’t necessarily bad.

So I developed a variant:
The title stays on the front, as do the pros and cons on the back.
New is that I define common criteria that apply to all projects, for example:

• Importance / relevance
• Fun
• Complexity of implementation
• Time required

I then phrase the criteria so that meeting them is positive.
For the terms above that means:

• important
• fun
• simple
• quick

Now I can indicate for each criterion how well it’s met:

The interesting question is:
How do I sort these cards by priority?
With many parameters, that’s not easy to do manually.

This is where my new app, Prio Cards, comes in.
It models the entire card-creation process.
Sliders let you set the fulfillment level for each criterion — which will probably remain the emotional/subjective part.
From all criteria the app calculates a score and sorts the “cards” accordingly.

Interestingly, just writing this post gave me new ideas for extensions to Prio Cards. Stay tuned.

Get it here on the App Store: