Prioritising Action: Understanding Urgency

Mind Dump handles Urgency, quite simply, and this is entirely by design. In many productivity systems, complex priority structures (like A1, B3, or Priority 1-5) are ultimately ignored by the user, losing their core benefit.

To keep friction low, Mind Dump uses just three clear levels of urgency:

• 🔥 Urgent: Demands immediate attention and floats to the top of your workflow.

• 🔵 Normal: The default state for standard tasks (represented by a simple blue circle).

• 🟧 Not Urgent: Tasks that are on your radar but can safely wait.

The urgency level is used extensively throughout the app to subconsciously drive you toward completing critical tasks over less important ones.

How Urgency Shapes Your Views

Because Mind Dump separates your data from its presentation, the urgency level you set acts as a powerful sorting and styling mechanism across all of your different views:

• The Standard View (Chronological): The primary sort order is date, followed immediately by urgency. This means that within any given time sub-group (like "Today" or "Tomorrow"), the most urgent tasks are automatically forced to the top of the list, ensuring you see them first.

• The Mind Map View: In the default chronological layout, each date branch intelligently separates into the various urgency levels before branching out to the individual tasks. Once again, this spatial hierarchy promotes urgent tasks visually over less urgent ones.

• The Kanban Board: Every card visually displays its urgency badge directly on the front, allowing you to scan a column of 20 tasks and instantly spot the "fires" (🔥) that need putting out.

• The Calendar Day View: When mapping out your daily schedule, urgent task cards are highlighted with a distinct border (typically red) to stand out from normal tasks, while not-urgent tasks receive a muted highlight.

Setting and Changing Urgency

Mind Dump makes it incredibly easy to assign or update a task's urgency depending on your workflow:

During Task Creation:

• Direct Entry: When using the "Enter Direct Task" modal, "Sub-task" modal, or creating a task from an email, you can select the priority from a simple set of radio buttons or dropdowns.

• AI Assistant: When typing naturally into the Scratch Pad or "What's on your mind?" box, you can simply include the word "urgent" (e.g., "Put the bin out Wednesday urgent"), and the AI will automatically apply the 🔥 flag to the new task.

On the Fly (Modifying Existing Tasks):

• Quick Cycle: The fastest way to change a task's priority in the Standard or Kanban view is to simply click the urgency icon on the task card itself. Doing this instantly cycles the task through the three states (Urgent ➔ Not Urgent ➔ Normal) without opening any menus.

• The Control Panel: Clicking the 3-dot (⋮) menu on a task opens the Task Control Panel, which includes direct radio buttons to change the urgency level.

• Full Edit Modal: You can adjust the urgency via the dropdown menu inside the comprehensive 'View/Edit Details' modal.

Filtering by Urgency

If you are overwhelmed by a massive project, you can use Mind Dump’s Unified Filter or Advanced Search systems to temporarily hide everything else. By applying an urgency filter, you can command the app to only show you tasks flagged as "Urgent", allowing you to achieve laser focus when deadlines are looming.