Patent ID: 7809599

Claim:
A method for use on a computer executing computer executable instructions for selecting a plurality of heterogeneous items of various types for display in an immediate view in a user interface of an information management application, said immediate view capable of displaying a preset number of heterogeneous items of various types, said user interface displayed on a computer display device connected to the computer, said method comprising: a) establishing user defined headings for the immediate view according to chunky time, wherein chunky time is a general time of day corresponding to when items should be completed and wherein each heading indicates when the items listed thereunder should be completed; b) storing items in a database, each item associated with a creation date, a due date, and a priority level, wherein the priority level is based on previously user defined priorities and further wherein not all items in the database have values for each of the due date and the priority level; c) selecting from the stored items in the database N items for display by: analyzing each selected item based in part on a present date and a comparison of creation date, due date, and priority level to determine a relative importance of each selected item; ranking the selected items based on the relative importance to form a ranked list; selecting N items from the top of the ranked list based on the preset number, wherein the preset number is the maximum number of items capable of being displayed in the immediate view and further wherein the selected N items may be less than or equal in number to the preset number; d) displaying the selected N items in the immediate view under the user defined heading corresponding to the chunky time based on when it is determined the item should be completed, wherein: i) if the selected N items are equal to the present number, then displaying the selected N items in the immediate view, wherein the displayed selected items in the immediate view include at least one task, at least one list, and at least one calendar event, wherein in each item is displayed according to its corresponding chunky time; or ii) if the selected N items are less than the preset number, then displaying the selected N items in the immediate view, wherein the displayed selected items in the immediate view include at least one task, at least one list, and at least one calendar event, wherein in each item is displayed according to its corresponding chunky time and additionally displaying in the immediate view one or more items not having a due date; e) repeating c and d on a predetermined basis in order to update the immediate view.