Having menu items change position (options 2 & 3) seems like a bad thing to me. It works against muscle memory (the items aren't where you last used them), and they also end up in a strange order.
Option 1, where you have a recently used / frequently used area seems much better, as the main list remains unchanged and sensibly ordered.
I would even be tempted to put the popular items into a submenu with a title like "popular choices".
This would reduce the noise in the main list to a minimum, and also make it clearer to the user why these items are duplicated in a second place. It also allows your popular items list to be a bit bigger. Slightly harder to get to the popular items of course, as submenus can be fiddly, but if the submenu is first in the menu, then it almost pops itself open.
Comment
Hmmm...
Having menu items change position (options 2 & 3) seems like a bad thing to me. It works against muscle memory (the items aren't where you last used them), and they also end up in a strange order.
Option 1, where you have a recently used / frequently used area seems much better, as the main list remains unchanged and sensibly ordered.
I would even be tempted to put the popular items into a submenu with a title like "popular choices".
This would reduce the noise in the main list to a minimum, and also make it clearer to the user why these items are duplicated in a second place. It also allows your popular items list to be a bit bigger. Slightly harder to get to the popular items of course, as submenus can be fiddly, but if the submenu is first in the menu, then it almost pops itself open.