Task Priorities
Understanding and using the Low / Medium / High priority levels effectively
Task Priorities
Samvise uses three priority levels — Low, Medium, and High — to organize tasks by importance. Priority is one of the main signals the scheduler uses to decide what gets your time first.
The Priority Levels
High
When to use: Important work that should get your time before anything else.
Examples:
- A deliverable due this week
- Preparation for tomorrow's client meeting
- A critical fix or blocking issue
- Anything with real consequences if it slips
Scheduling:
- Placed first, into the earliest available slots
- Within High, earlier due dates go first
Guidelines:
- If everything is High, nothing is — keep this level meaningful
- A small number of active High tasks is a healthy sign
Medium
When to use: Regular work without special urgency. This is the default for new tasks.
Examples:
- Regular project work with reasonable deadlines
- Routine maintenance and updates
- Most day-to-day work
Scheduling:
- Placed after High tasks, ordered by due date
- Still gets scheduled reliably — just not first
Guidelines:
- This should be your most common priority
- Represents normal, important work without urgency
Low
When to use: Tasks that can wait — fill-in and someday work.
Examples:
- Nice-to-have improvements with no deadline
- Learning or reading tasks
- Things you'll do "when you have time"
Scheduling:
- Placed after High and Medium tasks
- May not get scheduled in a busy week — it fills whatever time remains
Guidelines:
- Don't be surprised if these move around a lot
- Review occasionally and delete items that have sat for months
How Priority Affects Scheduling
Tasks are placed in this order:
- Overdue tasks — anything past its due date goes first, regardless of priority
- High tasks (earlier due dates first)
- Medium tasks (earlier due dates first)
- Low tasks (earlier due dates first)
Within each level, tasks without a due date are placed after tasks that have one.
See How Scheduling Works for the full picture.
Best Practices
Keep a Healthy Distribution
Most tasks should be Medium. Reserve High for work that genuinely needs to jump the queue, and use Low for things that can flex.
Promote Tasks as Deadlines Approach
A task that's Medium this week might deserve High next week as its deadline nears. Update priorities as urgency changes — or just set an accurate due date and let the scheduler handle the rest.
Avoid Priority Inflation
Don't promote tasks just to get them scheduled sooner:
- If a Medium task needs to happen sooner, tighten its due date
- If you're tempted to make everything High, you probably need to reduce commitments
Priority vs. Due Date
Priority indicates importance; due date indicates urgency. A task can be important (High) but not urgent (due next month). The scheduler uses both: priority decides ordering, and due dates order tasks within the same priority — with overdue tasks always going first.
Changing Priorities
You can change a task's priority anytime:
Inline Edit
- Open the task and select a new priority
- The schedule adjusts automatically
Bulk Edit
- Select multiple tasks in the task list
- Apply a priority change to all of them at once
Via Chat
- "Set 'draft proposal' to high priority"
- "Make all tasks due this week high priority"
Next Steps
Learn about:
- How Scheduling Works - Understand how the scheduler uses priorities
- Time Windows - Define when tasks can be scheduled
- Creating Tasks - Set priorities when creating tasks