Thanks for your post Michael, I have found it very useful and am now changing the way I use the focus list.
On Jan 20, 4:09 pm, mmorowitz <[email protected]> wrote: > I have had some fits and starts with GTD. Most of my problems centered > around finding the right tools and filing system that fit within my > life. I've tried pen and paper, Gmail labels, Gmail Tasks, Remember > The Milk. and others. Finding Appigo Todo was something of a > breakthrough for me. It has increased the effectiveness of my GTD > system exponentially. > > Nevertheless, GTD and Todo are not a perfect match. I had to go > through some trial and error for me to get it right, but now the kinks > are worked out, I am very happy with the returns. > > Since I think others might be interested, this post is a description > of how I use GTD with Appigo Todo. Remember that everyone's style of > work/workload and way of doing things is different. What works for me > might not work for you: > > ToDo Lists are GTD Projects > ----------------------------------------- > A lot of my tasks are not related to any one specific "project". My > tasks generally fall into these "buckets": > *Small home-improvement > *Errands > *Paperwork and personal finance-related > *Work-related (My job is not project-oriented). > *Hobby/Extracurricular activities > > In Todo I have lists like: "home maintenance", "finances", two job- > related projects for the two unrelated parts of my job, etc. All of > these are open-ended "projects" with no goal, they are simply dumping- > grounds for related tasks. If a goal-oriented project does pop up, it > will get its own list. For example, I am working on replacing my cable > box with a media center PC. It has its own "Media Center" list, since > this is a goal-oriented project with multiple tasks. > > I don't really like the "Project" task type since it just shows up as > the title of the task. I haven't found a situation where it provides > me a benefit over just using lists. I suppose if I had a complex > project that necessitated sub-projects, maybe, but my tasks are very > disparate. I simply do not like looking at a list of tasks and seeing > a project name mixed in and then have to click in to find the real > task that I need to see. I prefer a flat structure. > > Nothing stays in the Inbox list for more than a day. Everything goes > into a project list. > > Manage "Next Action" with High Priority > --------------------------------------------------------- > One of the biggest problems I have with Todo (and all task managers) > is that they are date-oriented, where GTD is not necessarily always > so. In many cases, a project like "Media Center" is not tied to any > date but it's managed through the GTD concept of "Next Action". When > I'm available to work on it, I do the next action. > > In Todo, I wanted all "Next Actions" across projects to appear on my > Focus list. So, I decided to make all tasks "high priority" by default > and set the Focus list to show only high priority tasks. Since I don't > really use priorities for tasks with a due date, (if it needs to get > done, it's high), this makes it easy: > if it has a date it needs to get done by that date. I don't care about > priorities here. They're all high. > if it doesn't have a date and it's the next action in a project, it > should be the only one in the project marked "high priority" > > This makes my Focus list very useful. I see everything that has a due > date in the next couple days PLUS next actions for all non-date- > oriented projects. The onus is on me to manage next actions within > projects, but that is always the case in any system. > > I've never understood the priority fetish in task managers. How do you > differentiate between "medium" and "low" priority? For me, it's either > the next thing I have to do or it's not. It's either a high priority, > it's got a date, or it's in the background until my next review. I'd > rather there just be a "Next Action" star, on or off. But, what I've > set up here works. > > Contexts are Easy and Important > ------------------------------------------------ > The GTD concept of a task context never took hold with me until I > started using Todo. I understood the utility, but I never found a tool > that exposed the usefulness to me. > > My contexts are: > *Home > *Online (which means "at one of my computers") > *Car Errand (self-explanatory) > *Downtown Errand (something I should do on a work day when I'm > downtown without a car) > *Meeting with X (where x is a particular person that I may not always > have the attention of), > *Office (general stuff I need to do at my office). > > These contexts are really easy to use in ToDo. I can very easily flip > to the "All" list and turn on a context. If I'm in a meeting with Joe > and I have his attention (which might be rare), I can easily flip to > the "Meeting with Joe" context and see if there's anything that we > need to do. Or, if I'm taking a lunch break I can flip to my "Downtown > Errand" context and see what I need to take care of. Very smooth. A > couple days after I set up ToDo the way I wanted it, my wife and I > were in the car with a few minutes to kill before an appointment. She > said, "Can you think of any errands we need to run?" and BOOM, I had > every errand that needed to be run on a list in my hand in 10 seconds. > Oddly, it felt good. > > So, every task gets a context, even if I don't think it needs one. The > value of having intact context lists is significantly greater, over > time, than the cost of assigning contexts. It's easy to do and when > you need it, the payoff is great. > > WaitingOn & Someday/Maybe are Tags > --------------------------------------------------------- > Very simple. When something is "WaitingOn" or "Someday/Maybe", it's a > tag. It doesn't have a due date (it might be a Next Action). It's easy > for me to look at these lists at any time by going to the "All" list > and filtering by the tag. My only complaint here is that I wish there > was a way for me to highlight color or otherwise indicate these > statuses in a list of tasks. For example, when looking at a project's > list of tasks, I'd like to be able to see which are tagged "WaitingOn" > without having to click into them. A custom icon feature in Todo would > be great. > > This is probably the biggest stumble in Todo for me. My other idea > was to make all "WaitingOn" tasks "Medium" priority and then adjust my > focus list so I would see them below Next Actions. Right now I don't > have too many "WaitingOn" tasks. If they ever build up again, I may > tweak this. > > Other GTD/ToDo related stuff about my system: > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > *Daily/Weekly/Project reviews are really very easy with the "All" list > or other lists. > *I sync with ToodleDo but just for backup purposes (just in case a > CHUD eats my iPhone or something like that). > *Overall, I have four inboxes: a physical inbox on my desk at home, a > physical inbox on my desk at work, Gmail (one inbox for multiple > accounts), and ToDo's. I am vigilant about "Inbox Zero". I now have a > hard time going to sleep at night if I know there's unprocessed stuff > in my inbox. > > Best, > Michael
-- Learn more about Todo (task management made simple), Notebook (notes available everywhere), and AccuFuel (fuel efficiency tracker) on Appigo's website: http://www.appigo.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Appigo Todo" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/appigo-todo?hl=en
