Alright, so let me tell you about this thing I’ve been tinkering with, this whole “lau rank” idea. It’s been a bit of a journey, really.
Where It All Started
See, I had this pile of tasks, or items, whatever you wanna call them, and the usual ways of sorting them just weren’t cutting it. You know, priority A, B, C, or just by due date. It felt…flat. It didn’t really capture the true, well, “oomph” or the real order I felt things should have. I needed something more, something that felt right for how I saw things.
The First Stumbles
So, I started trying to put some numbers to it. Thought it would be easy. Just give each thing a score for different aspects, add ’em up, and boom, rank. Wrong. It got complicated fast. Real fast.
- Some items would get super high scores just because they ticked one box really well, even if they were duds otherwise.
- Other times, everything would just clump together in the middle, making the rank pretty useless.
- And don’t get me started on trying to decide how much weight each aspect should get. That was a whole other headache. I’d tweak one thing, and the whole list would flip upside down.
It felt like I was trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. I’d spend hours fiddling with spreadsheets, formulas, and just ended up more confused than when I started. It was a proper mess, let me tell you.
Trying to Make Sense of It
I took a step back. I figured, this “lau rank” thing, maybe it’s not about complex math. Maybe it’s more about a gut feeling, but a gut feeling I could, like, vaguely structure. I remember trying to organize my old workshop tools once. Some tools are used daily, some rarely but are critical when needed, some are just…there. A simple A-Z didn’t work, nor did sorting by size. It’s kinda the same vibe here. The context matters, a lot.
So, I started jotting down principles instead of strict rules. Things like:
- “What’s bugging me the most if it’s not done?” That got a boost.
- “What unlocks other stuff?” That got a major boost.
- “What’s just quick and easy to get off the plate, even if it’s not ‘important’?” Sometimes those got a little bump too, just for the sake of momentum.
It was less about a perfect algorithm and more about a guided way of thinking. I started a simple document, just writing down the items and then manually shuffling them based on these looser ideas. Then I’d try to see if there was a pattern I could sort of automate, but not too rigidly.
The “Implementation” – If You Can Call It That
I did try to put some of this into a small script. Nothing fancy, just something to help me compare a couple of items at a time based on my rough criteria. It wasn’t about spitting out a final, definitive list. It was more like a helper to my own brain. I’d feed it some parameters, it would give me a suggestion, and then I’d look at it and say “yeah, that feels about right” or “nah, this part is off.”
Lots of trial and error. I’d change how I weighted things, run it, look at the output, get annoyed, change it again. It was more art than science, if I’m honest. The key was not to get too hung up on making it perfect or fully automated from the get-go.
Where I’m At With “Lau Rank” Now
So, this “lau rank” isn’t some magic bullet. It’s still a bit clunky, a bit subjective. But you know what? It works better for me than anything else I’ve tried for certain kinds of messy lists. It’s more of a personal system, a framework for my own decision-making process when I’m trying to figure out what to really focus on.
I found that trying to make it super precise was actually counterproductive. It became too rigid, and I’d spend more time arguing with my own system than actually doing stuff. So now, it’s a simpler, more flexible guide. It’s not pretty, but it gets me thinking in the right direction, and usually, that’s half the battle won. It’s a constant work in progress, this thing.
