A method of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging includes segmenting a k.sub.y-k.sub.z plane comprising a plurality of encoding points into a plurality of annular segments. For each annular segment, a view ordering is defined based on a polar angle associated with each encoding point contained within the annular segment. MR data is acquired for the plurality of encoding points based on the view ordering for each annular segment and at least one MR image is generated using the acquired MR data.