Structured Goal

"Simplicity can be harder than complexity: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple."

——Steve Jobs

Achieving a structure of thought that is both simple and clear is far from a straightforward task. It requires thoughtful deliberation and effort. This process of streamlined thinking helps in highlighting the essentials, making objectives clearer and more focused.

Elisi Help: Mastering Lists & Belonging

Welcome to the core of Elisi: Lists and the Belonging relationship. This system is designed to give you the freedom to build a personal productivity structure that works exactly the way you think.

Core Concept: The Freedom of "Belonging"

• Connect Anything: Any item—a Note, Plan, Goal, Habit, Mood, or Expense—can "belong to" any other item. This transforms your isolated data points into an interconnected, organic network.

• Clear Hierarchy: To maintain clarity, we follow the "One Parent" rule: each item can have only one direct parent. This naturally helps you break down and organize your goals as you build them, creating a clear and logical structure.

New Feature: Starred Lists – Your Focus Hub

To give you quick access to your most important work, we've introduced Starred Lists.

• Your Central Hub: Designate your most crucial Goals or Lists (e.g., "Core Project," "Health Journey") as Starred Lists. They will appear prominently in the sidebar, acting as your dedicated focus areas.

• Focus Mode: When you select a Starred List, your Planner and list views automatically filter to show only the items belonging to that list. This helps you concentrate without distractions.

• Auto-Belonging: Any new item you create while a Starred List is selected will automatically become its child, keeping your workspace organized effortlessly.

• Dedicated "ALL" View: Each Starred List gets its own "ALL" tab, giving you a complete overview of every item within it, regardless of date.

• Flexible Conversion: You can easily convert a normal list into a Starred List, and vice versa, anytime your priorities change.

How-To Guides

1. How to Create a Belonging Relationship

• Find the item (a task, note, etc.) you want to link and decide on its parent (another goal, note, plan, etc.).

• Open the item for editing and click the "Belongs To" button.

• Search for and select the target parent item.

• To remove the relationship, click "Belongs To" again and select "Remove Belonging."

2. How to Use Starred Lists

• In the settings for a Goal or List, toggle on "Mark as Starred List."

• The list will now appear in your sidebar. Click it to enter Focus Mode.

• Any new content created while in this mode will automatically belong to this Starred List.

Views & Structure

• Child Item Details: For any item that has children, you can see all its subordinate content in the detail view. This means every node in your structure is part of a bigger picture, keeping you oriented on your journey.

• The Goal View: See the Forest and the Trees

  • The Big Picture (Forest): On the main Goals page, you can see your entire hierarchical structure, with no limits on depth. Plan and brainstorm to your heart's content.

  • The Focused View (Trees): Inside any single goal node, you can focus exclusively on conquering that step, protecting your mental resources from unrelated tasks.

  • This ability to seamlessly switch between the big picture and a focused view is the power of Elisi's Goal view, and Starred Lists are your shortcut to focused execution.

Practical Use Cases

• Project Planning

  1. Create a Starred List named "Product X Launch."

  2. Write a master note outlining the core strategy and action steps inside it.

  3. Belong key sub-goals like "Finalize Prototype" and "Start Marketing Campaign" to this list.

  4. Use Habits to log daily progress.

  5. Track related project expenses to monitor the budget.

• Health & Fitness

  1. Create a Starred List called "My Wellness Journey."

  2. Belong your workout goals, meal plans, and relevant notes to it.

  3. Set child goals like "Run 3 times/week" and "Daily Veggie Intake."

  4. Use the Habit tracker to log your daily workouts and diet.

• Learning a New Skill

  1. Set "Learn Python Data Analysis" as a Starred List.

  2. Belong sub-goals like "Complete Pandas Module" and "Build a Practice Project" to it.

  3. Create a habit to track your daily study time.

  4. Record expenses for books or online courses.

By using Belonging relationships and Starred Lists, you can build a productivity system that is both comprehensively organized and sharply focused. You have the power to structure and re-structure your digital life as you see fit.

Pro Tip: Use the search and filter functions effectively. You can quickly find items or filter by what they "Belong To," allowing you to see everything under a single Starred List or goal, dramatically boosting your efficiency.

 

Introducing the Goal Visualization Feature

Imagine a display logic where all your goals are laid out flat, with the capability to expand or collapse layers for a detailed view. On larger screens, this structure can be visualized on the right side, offering a clear overview of the organization.

This feature is designed to help you organize and manage your goals more clearly, essentially creating a map of your objectives. It enables you to present your plans in a more structured way and track your progress step by step.

Here's a detailed guide on how to optimize your task management experience using the structural view feature, demonstrated through a study preparation case.

1. Starting with the Goal View

   Initially, you'll find tabs for planning and goals at the top of the main interface. Access the goal view by clicking or swiping to the goal option.

   When creating your goals, you can ask Elisi AI to help you form a structured plan tree.

    

2. Creating Task Structures Within the structural view, you can create a clear hierarchy for your tasks, starting with your main objective.

    

   For example, if your goal is to pass an exam, that becomes the starting point of your arrangement.

   • Adding Goals: Click the "+" button and enter your main goal: passing the exam.
   • Adding Sub-items: Below the main goal, you can add tasks and further sub-tasks, assigning dates to each node. These will then appear on your planning page.
   • Viewing Structures: You can view all underlying structures within each node and expand them for more detail.

   For instance, under the overall plan, we add four learning phases. You'll notice that within any node's detail, you can see and expand its lower structure.

    

3. Refining Sub-tasks For each sub-task, you can add more specific activities or habits to help complete these sub-nodes.

   • Creating Habits: Under the task "Review," click to add a sub-task and set the habit of "reviewing 1 hour daily."
   • Mood Tracking: Maintaining awareness of your mood helps you persist longer, allowing for emotional logging and reflection on each node.
   • Review Records: To ensure progress tracking, you can set weekly reviews for goals and adjust as needed. Spoiler alert: AI will soon assist in this reflection, and your suggestions are welcome.

4. Daily Task Viewing in the Planning View After completing your planning in the goal view, the planning page will display current tasks. You can focus on weekly tasks or return to the structure to update your plan anytime.

   If you encounter difficulties in task execution, you can further break down tasks until everything is clear and actionable, making every day feel productive.

   • Expanding/Collapsing Structures in Planning: In the planning view, you can enter the structure through details, expanding or collapsing sub-tasks to focus on specific tasks while keeping the overall goal in sight.
   • Editing and Updating Tasks: Click any sub-task at any time to update its description or completion status, adding sub-tasks as needed. Continuous breakdown until tasks are manageable within a day is a key advantage of structured planning.

5. Simplifying Your Tasks with the Structural View The structural view makes task management more intuitive and organized. You can see at a glance your goals and their components, managing plans and activities from a macro to micro level. By optimizing the structure and tackling nodes step by step, you can genuinely feel the progress towards your objectives.

Summary

Structured task management, by breaking down complex goals into smaller, more specific tasks, enhances efficiency and the quality of outcomes. Its advantages include improved clarity, enhanced manageability, increased motivation, easier prioritization, and greater flexibility. Whether in work, study, or personal life, structured task management offers significant benefits, helping individuals and teams achieve their goals more effectively.

Start building your goal structure today and advance orderly towards your ideal life!