Patent ID: 7536652

Claim:
In a computer system including a display device, a method for presenting personal information at the display device so as to indicate both the importance and the urgency of the personal information, the method comprising the following: storing a document containing a plurality of hierarchically arranged nodes that represent a corresponding plurality of data items, wherein the hierarchically arranged nodes include at least a first node having at least one subnode and at least one leaf node, wherein said first node includes an importance attribute and an associated importance attribute value corresponding to a respective data item, the importance attribute value comprising a numeric importance value within a first range of numeric values, and wherein said at least one leaf node includes: an urgency attribute; an urgency value that comprises a numeric value within a second range of numeric values; and a reference to an urgency calculator that is used to calculate the urgency value; and an act of displaying the plurality of data items at the display device by displaying the personal information along with the urgency numeric value and the importance numeric value for each of the plurality of data items wherein each of the plurality of data items is displayed in such a manner as to reflect a relative importance and a relative urgency of the data item with respect to the other displayed data items such that the display of each of the plurality of data items is dynamically and automatically modified to reflect the relative importance and urgency of the corresponding data item with respect to the other displayed data items.