So in principle I'd like to encourage "eating the biggest, ugliest frog" someone has by picking the highest priority, highest energy, highest time estimated tasks first. However, what I'm finding is this has the opposite effect on off days, even with the option to filter by energy, just seeing what high priority items are in front of you that you're not willing to face yet will add friction to the experience and disincentivize checking the app.
I recognize that sometimes I'm not feeling great, but I want to: A. do something productive or B. be given self-care advice by my past, higher-spirited self when I knew better of what I'd need when feeling low. I'm considering something like a check-in before seeing any next actions, a mandatory filter of sorts. I'm also considering a greater distinction between "productive" tasks and self-care tasks. I would think self-care tasks would be an arsenal of repeatable tasks aimed at alleviating specific conditions, e.g. meditate when feeling mentally unwell and take a bath or get a massage when feeling physically exhausted. I'd like to build up a library of these on behalf of users, but users would also be free to add their own.
I might also consider a third middle ground sort of "mode"/option when someone is in a "I want to be productive but just feel pretty drained at the moment" rut, and they could use a foot-in-the-door/snowball effect to build momentum toward bigger tasks. In this case, it'd make sense to start with quicker, low effort tasks, and after knocking one out, check in with the user to see if they're ready for more. While eating the frog makes sense for some people, it'd be better to at least get something done and help build a habit + some self-confidence vs demand that a user face their "wall of awful" right away.
So in principle I'd like to encourage "eating the biggest, ugliest frog" someone has by picking the highest priority, highest energy, highest time estimated tasks first. However, what I'm finding is this has the opposite effect on off days, even with the option to filter by energy, just seeing what high priority items are in front of you that you're not willing to face yet will add friction to the experience and disincentivize checking the app.
I recognize that sometimes I'm not feeling great, but I want to: A. do something productive or B. be given self-care advice by my past, higher-spirited self when I knew better of what I'd need when feeling low. I'm considering something like a check-in before seeing any next actions, a mandatory filter of sorts. I'm also considering a greater distinction between "productive" tasks and self-care tasks. I would think self-care tasks would be an arsenal of repeatable tasks aimed at alleviating specific conditions, e.g. meditate when feeling mentally unwell and take a bath or get a massage when feeling physically exhausted. I'd like to build up a library of these on behalf of users, but users would also be free to add their own.
I might also consider a third middle ground sort of "mode"/option when someone is in a "I want to be productive but just feel pretty drained at the moment" rut, and they could use a foot-in-the-door/snowball effect to build momentum toward bigger tasks. In this case, it'd make sense to start with quicker, low effort tasks, and after knocking one out, check in with the user to see if they're ready for more. While eating the frog makes sense for some people, it'd be better to at least get something done and help build a habit + some self-confidence vs demand that a user face their "wall of awful" right away.