I am still only in the trial period of LB, but as I tend to do with these kinds of things I've thrown myself into it wholeheartedly & I'm already straying into "power-user" territory with little tricks to make it work the way I want it to!

One problem I had initially was that once I'd entered a load of things into it, I was completely overwhelmed by all the millions of things I had to do, and from reading some of the other posts it seems I'm not the only one! This is also a problem I've had with some other kinds of to do lists. It can be very demoralising as it doesn't seem to matter how many tasks you have done, there are always so many more to do! There is also the problem of being realistic about how many things you can do in a day, and making sure you've done all the really important ones.

I thought maybe having a tangible target for where in your to do list you should be aiming to be by the end of the day would be a good idea, so I added a project with 2 tasks called "* Go on, try to reach here by lunchtime! *" and "* Go on, try to reach here by end of day! *" (the asterixes & spaces help them stand out in the list). The lunchtime one is set to "essential", and the end of day is set to the high end of "rather". You may need to fiddle with the importance settings for the tasks & project a bit to get them to the right place in the list, but try to find a level which seems realistic but will challenge you a little bit. If you've got it right you should have a "doable" amount of tasks for each half of the day, and you'll have something tangible & realistic to aim for & help motivate you.

This has really helped me feel less overwhelmed by the list; I can look at it and see exactly which are the really important tasks I should get done asap, without feeling so pressured by all the other things I have to do. Obviously I don't always make it to each of these targets, and sometimes I do tasks that are much lower down on the list, but I'm already feeling much more productive & I get a real sense of achievement as I work my way through the list for today. Every so often I do check down the list for overdue & due tasks that aren't quite important enough to have made it above the marker for the day, to make sure things aren't slipping through the net, and I have had to readjust the importance settings for the markers a few times (mostly downwards as I've been working my way through "overdue" tasks).

I've got them both set to "routinely" every day with a lead time of 20 hours so they'll always pop straight back up onto the list, but initially at a slightly lower point, which encourages me to look beyond just the top section. The "project" is part of my "Keep life organized & under control" TLI, so if I manage to check them off I get credits for "keeping my life under control"!!! :). If I don't get to them, they will just sit there ready for the next day, and other tasks will rise up the list above them, but there should usually be a fairly manageable amount of tasks up to the marker.

Obviously this might not help everyone, but I thought I'd let people know what is working for me in case it was of any use!