Pick the one task to do next
Paste a messy to-do list with priorities, due dates and effort estimates, then get one focus pick with an auditable score and ranking.
Stop negotiating with the whole list
A to-do list is useful until every item starts competing for attention. Focus Picker turns a pasted
list into one next task plus a short, auditable reason. It reads common lightweight annotations such
as !p1, due:tomorrow, due:+3d and est:90m, scores the rows locally, and prints the full
ranking only when you want it.
Everything runs in your browser. Your task list never leaves your machine.
Input format
Paste one task per line:
Fix login redirect !p1 due:tomorrow est:90m
Write release notes !p2 due:+3d est:2h
Refactor settings page !p3 est:1d
You can also paste columns from a spreadsheet:
Improve onboarding | p1 | +7d | 2d
Fix billing copy | p2 | +2d | 1h
Rebuild import flow | p0 | +14d | 5d
Priority is p0 through p4, where lower numbers are more important. Due dates accept ISO
YYYY-MM-DD, today, tomorrow, yesterday, eod, eow, weekday names, or relative offsets such
as +3d and +2w. Effort accepts minutes, hours, working days, or a bare hour count: 30m, 2h,
1.5h, 2d, 4.
Worked example
With today pinned to 2026-08-21, this input:
Fix login redirect !p1 due:tomorrow est:90m
Write release notes !p2 due:+3d est:2h
Refactor settings page !p3 est:1d
Book retro room !p4 due:friday est:15m
returns a focus recommendation headed by the single task to do next, followed by the facts that made it win: priority, due date, effort, score and method. Keep Show full ranking on when you want to see the trade-offs; turn it off for a terse answer you can paste into a daily note.
Scoring methods
| Method | Best for | Formula shape |
|---|---|---|
| Balanced | Daily planning when importance, urgency and effort all matter | Priority + urgency + effort-ease |
| Deadline | Time-sensitive lists where missing a date is costly | Mostly urgency, with priority as a tie-breaker |
| WSJF | Backlog triage where small valuable work should rise | Value and time criticality divided by effort |
| Quick wins | Clearing useful small tasks without ignoring priority | Priority + urgency + extra effort-ease |
| Eisenhower | Separating urgent/important from noise | Do first / Schedule / Delegate / Drop quadrants |
The formulas are deterministic and printed in the summary so the result is explainable rather than a black box.
Limits and edge cases
- Up to 500 tasks.
- Ambiguous local dates such as
3/4/26are rejected; use ISO dates or relative words. 2dof effort means two 8-hour working days.- Blank priority and effort fields use the visible defaults. A task with no due date gets neutral urgency instead of being ignored.
- When Pin overdue tasks is on, overdue work is ranked above non-overdue work before score tie-breaking. Turn it off for strict formula ordering.
- This is deterministic parsing, not AI inference: if a line does not include
due:or a due-date column, no date is guessed from prose.
FAQ
How should I write priorities?
Use !p0 for an emergency, !p1 for high priority, through !p4 for low priority. Lower numbers
score higher. If a line has no priority, the Default priority control supplies one.
What if I do not know the exact due date?
Use relative dates such as due:tomorrow, due:+3d, due:+2w or a weekday name. If the task truly
has no due date, leave it blank; it still scores with a neutral urgency value.
Which scoring method should I choose?
Start with Balanced for daily planning. Use Deadline when calendar risk dominates, Quick wins when you are trying to clear small useful work, WSJF for product-style backlogs, and Eisenhower when you need an urgent-versus-important quadrant label.
Why did an overdue task beat a higher-priority task?
The default Pin overdue tasks option moves overdue rows above non-overdue rows before normal score tie-breaking. That mirrors the common planning rule that already-late commitments need a quick explicit decision. Turn the option off if you want pure score ordering.
Can I export the ranking?
Yes. Choose Markdown for a paste-ready table or JSON for machine-readable output. The text format is optimized for the common case: a direct focus pick plus a short justification.
Developer & Automation Access
Run it from the terminal
Same engine as this page, headless — via the gizza CLI:
gizza tool focus-picker "Fix login redirect !p1 due:tomorrow est:90m
Write release notes !p2 due:+3d est:2h
Refactor settings page !p3 est:1d
Book retro room !p4 due:friday est:15m"New to the CLI? Get gizza →
Open it by URL
Pre-fill and auto-run this tool with query parameters — the names match the API/CLI:
https://gizza.ai/tools/focus-picker/?tasks=Fix%20login%20redirect%20%21p1%20due%3Atomorrow%20est%3A90m%0AWrite%20release%20notes%20%21p2%20due%3A%2B3d%20est%3A2h%0ARefactor%20settings%20page%20%21p3%20est%3A1d%0ABook%20retro%20room%20%21p4%20due%3Afriday%20est%3A15m&method=balanced&today=2026-08-21&default_priority=p3&default_effort=2&overdue_boost=true&format=text&show_ranking=trueMachine-readable descriptor: tool.json — title + parameters JSON Schema for agents.