Recipes & workflows

Concrete, end-to-end ways to run a method with Focus First. Steal one and adapt it.

A focused workday (Ivy Lee)

The Ivy Lee method: at most six tasks, ordered, one at a time.

1. In Settings → Tags, leave the daily focus target at 6.
2. At the end of each day, tag tomorrow's six most important tasks with #focus (wherever they live in your vault).
3. In the focus section, drag them into priority order - the order is remembered.
4. Tomorrow, work strictly top to bottom. The subtle line at position 6 warns you if you over-commit.
5. Un-done tasks keep their #focus tag and roll into the next day.

Eat the frog every morning

The Eat the Frog method: do the biggest task first.

1. Each morning, make sure your single most important/dreaded task is #1 in the focus list (drag it to the top).
2. Do #1 before anything else - before email, before the easy wins.
3. Everything after the frog feels downhill.

TIP

Set the daily focus target to 1 or 3 (MITs) if you prefer a tiny, non-negotiable list over a full six.

Triage a backlog by payoff (Value/Effort)

When you're deciding what to work on next, not what's due:

1. Switch the header dropdown to the Value/Effort matrix.
2. Make sure tasks have sizes (#s/#m/#l) - un-sized ones count as high effort. Set sizes fast from each task's popover.
3. Clear Quick Wins first (high value, low effort) for momentum.
4. Schedule the Big Bets deliberately - tag the next action #focus.
5. Ignore the Time Sinks; drop or shrink the Fill-ins.

Fill a 15-minute gap with quick wins

1. Open search in the header and enable the Small size filter.
2. The matrix now shows only your #s tasks - pick one and knock it out.
3. Turn the filter off when you're back to deep work.

See Focus, size & filters.

A weekly review

1. Switch to Eisenhower and read the Schedule quadrant - this is your important-but-not-urgent work. Promote the right items to next week by tagging them #focus.
2. Skim Eliminate and actually delete or drop what doesn't belong.
3. Snooze anything not relevant yet: #hide with a start date, e.g. hide until next Monday.
4. Fix classifications: add missing due dates and priorities so tasks land where they should.

A project dashboard note

Keep a project's actionable tasks on the project note itself:

```focus-first-tasks
show-focus do
empty-text 🎉 Nothing urgent for this project
```

This mirrors Focus First's Do quadrant, stays in sync, and lets you check tasks off in place. See Embedding tasks in a note.