Using DoneIsGood with Your Favourite Productivity Method

Quick Reference

1. The Eisenhower Matrix: Urgent vs. Important (Our Principal Framework) ⊞

The idea: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower observed that "what is urgent is seldom important, and what is important is seldom urgent." By evaluating tasks on two axes—urgency and importance—you stop reacting blindly to noise and protect time for deep, strategic progress.

In DoneIsGood:
The Eisenhower Matrix is the default layout for your collections. Every task is categorized into one of four quadrants:

1. Protect Q2 Focus Time: When you schedule work in your day, prioritize Q2 items. Q1 items will always demand your attention, but Q2 tasks are the easiest to neglect without intentional planning.
2. AI Task Advisor: The built-in AI Task Advisor evaluates your quadrant distribution across your collections. If your Q1 is overloaded, it alerts you to burnout risk and suggests delegating or deferring tasks.
3. List vs. Matrix View: Switch between the visual 2×2 grid and a clean priority List view using the toggle at the top of your collection.

See the complete playbook in How to Use the Eisenhower Matrix to Multiply Productivity.

2. Eat the Frog 🐸

The idea: Each morning, pick the hardest, most important task (your "frog") and do it first, before anything else.

In DoneIsGood:

1. Open your collection in Matrix view. Your frog is almost always in Q2 (Important, Not Urgent). Q1 tasks have deadlines pushing you to do them anyway. Q2 tasks are the ones you'll put off.
2. Drag your frog to the top of Q2 so it's the first thing you see.
3. First thing in the morning, open the task menu (⋮) → Focus Mode and work on it before you check email.
4. If your frog is too big to start, use ⚡ Generate Steps so the first step is small enough to get going.

3. MoSCoW: Must / Should / Could / Won't

The idea: Sort work into four priority levels so it's clear what can be dropped when time runs short.

In DoneIsGood: You can switch any collection to the native MoSCoW Matrix layout in Collection Properties (⚙️ → Board Layout & Methodology → MoSCoW):

For a release or project, create a dedicated collection (for example "v2.1 Scope"), set its layout to MoSCoW, and open the Planning Studio. Budget your available sprint hours with the Cognitive Capacity Gauge. When the gauge turns amber, move tasks from Could Have down to Won't Have until you are back within budget.

See the complete playbook in Requirements Planning with MoSCoW & Brainstorming.

4. Kanban Board Flow

The idea: Move tasks across workflow columns (e.g. To Do → In Progress → Done) and limit how much work is in progress at once.

In DoneIsGood: You can turn any collection into a native Kanban Board in Collection Properties (⚙️ → Board Layout & Methodology → Kanban):

1. Choose your workflow preset:
   • 5-Stage Full Sprint: Backlog → To Do → In Progress → Review → Done (complete agile sprint cycle with backlog staging, work in progress, and peer review).
   • 4-Stage with Backlog: Backlog → To Do → In Progress → Done (ideal for direct development sprints).
   • 4-Stage with Review: To Do → In Progress → Review → Done (great for editorial or pull-request workflows).
   • Standard 3-Stage: To Do → In Progress → Done (great for simple delivery flow).
2. Work-In-Progress (WIP) Limits: Set a limit on the In Progress column (such as 3 or 5 tasks). When your team exceeds the limit, an amber warning reminds everyone to finish existing tasks before pulling in new work.
3. Smooth Drag and Drop: Drag task cards horizontally between stages or reorder them within a column to set priority. Moving a card into the Done column automatically marks it completed.
4. Planning Studio Native Kanban: When your destination collection in the Planning Studio is a Kanban board, it renders full native Kanban columns on the right. You can toggle the board to full-screen width, batch move backlog tasks into any lane with one click, assign collaborators using the interactive assignee dock, and filter tasks by team member.
5. Permanent Methodology Adoption: Once converted to Kanban, the collection permanently keeps this layout so your column positions are never lost or mapped back into arbitrary quadrants.

5. Checklists: Linear & Procedure Execution

The idea: Not every workflow needs a 2×2 priority grid or multi-column pipeline. When executing standard operating procedures (SOPs), release verifications, packing lists, or daily routines, what you need is a clean, ordered list where you can check off items one by one.

In DoneIsGood: You can switch any collection to the native Checklist layout in Collection Properties (⚙️ → Board Layout & Methodology → Checklist):

1. Clean Linear Focus: Tasks display in a focused, single-column vertical list with prominent checkboxes for quick completion.
2. Order of Execution: Reorder items easily to match the exact sequence required for the procedure.
3. Full Task Power: Each checklist item is still a complete DoneIsGood task—meaning you can add sub-steps, duration estimates, due dates, assignee delegation, linked documents, and time tracking.
4. Ideal Use Cases:
   • Launch & Deployment Checklists: Verifying staging health, environment secrets, and smoke tests before a release.
   • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Client onboarding checklists, monthly bookkeeping reviews, or equipment handovers.
   • Personal Routines & Packing: Travel packing lists, morning routines, or event setup inventories.

6. SMART Goals

The idea: Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

In DoneIsGood: Each part of a task covers one letter:

Use AI Assist on a vague task to rewrite it and break it into measurable steps. See Creating Meaningful Tasks.

7. Time Blocking & The Time Planner

The idea: Give every important task its own slot in your calendar, rather than working from an endless list.

In DoneIsGood (Available on all tiers: Free, Pro, Project, and Enterprise):

1. Open the Time Planner: In the sidebar on desktop or the mobile menu, select Tools → Time Planner (located right under Planning Studio). You can also open it from Views → Scheduled Tasks and switch to Time Planner in the top view bar.
2. Review your week at a glance: The Time Planner displays a 7-day view showing daily scheduled hours and estimated 🍅 Pomodoro focus blocks (e.g. 2h 15m • 5 🍅) alongside your connected Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook meetings.
3. Slot tasks from your backlog: Open the left-side drawer to view all unscheduled tasks across your collections. Drag any task directly into a day column to schedule it instantly (defaults to a 25-minute Pomodoro block).
4. Choose Pomodoro presets: Click the duration tag on any scheduled card to adjust time blocks quickly (15m, 25m 🍅, 50m 🍅🍅, 60m, 75m 🍅🍅🍅, 90m, or 120m).
5. Zoom into the Hourly View for micro-management: Click the Hourly button on any day header to expand into an hour-by-hour timeline.
   • Drag backlog tasks or move cards directly into specific hour slots (such as 9:00 AM or 2:00 PM).
   • Fine-tune start minutes (:00, :15, :30, :45).
   • Shift tasks earlier or later with quick ↑ 1h / ↓ 1h buttons.
   • Filter and reassign tasks for team collaborators using the Assignee dropdown.
6. View & edit full task details in-place: Double-click any scheduled block or unscheduled task chip in the Time Planner to open its full task detail window—so you can read notes, check off subtasks, log time, or adjust dependencies without leaving your schedule.
7. Block Q2 work first: Protect deep work blocks on your calendar early in the week before meetings fill your schedule.

See Connecting Google & Microsoft Calendars and Tasks.

8. Pomodoro Sprints 🍅

The idea: Work in focused 25-minute bursts with short breaks in between.

In DoneIsGood:

1. Focus Mode Timer: Open any task's menu (⋮) → Focus Mode (or click the Focus button directly on a task card in the Time Planner). This starts a distraction-free 25-minute countdown timer for that specific task. When it ends, take a 5-minute break, then start your next sprint.
2. Weekly Pomodoro Budgeting: The Time Planner automatically tallies your Pomodoros across each day and the entire week. A 2-hour work block equals roughly four Pomodoros. Seeing your daily totals helps you pace your energy and avoid unrealistic planning.
3. Log your time: When you complete Pomodoro blocks, log your hours (see Time Recording) so future estimates become even more accurate.

9. GTD (Getting Things Done)

The idea: Capture everything, decide what each item is, organise it by context, review it every week, then do it.

In DoneIsGood:

10. Mixing Methods

The methods work well together. A common daily routine looks like this:

1. GTD capture into an unmanaged Ideas collection throughout the week.
2. Weekly Review in the Planning Studio, sorting tasks into Eisenhower, MoSCoW, Kanban, or Checklist layouts.
3. Time Block your high-priority tasks in the Time Planner.
4. Eat the Frog first thing in the morning by tackling your top Must Have or Q2 task.
5. Work through it in Pomodoro sprints using Focus Mode.

Next Steps & Related Guides

• Introduction to DoneIsGood: Tasks, Collections & Workflows
• How to Use the Eisenhower Matrix to Multiply Productivity
• Requirements Planning with MoSCoW & Brainstorming
• Planning Studio: Brainstorming, Task Batching & Sprints
• Creating Meaningful Tasks
• Connecting Google & Microsoft Calendars and Tasks