Excellent post. " 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. "
I've posted a suggestion to Appigo on this as I still like the idea of having a hierarchy available when you need it. For simple projects you could use the Task Type of Project and for more complex projects, you could use the List>Project Task(as subproject)>Task approach, In many cases this is the best approach, HOWEVER, I completely agree that "Projects" should never appear together with and at the same level as a "Tasks" in any Task List even with an icon indicating it is a project. Task List are for Tasks. What they need to do is put the individual Tasks in the list with the name of the project in very small text or at least an icon indicating that "this task belongs to a project". This could be an optional setting. But right now it is very confusing and slow when you have to click on the Project to see which actual Task you are supposed to do. If they took this approach it would solve our problem. I would also like to see a List built automatically that only contains "Projects" i.e. with the Task type of "Project" just so you could quickly scan it for indicators, although I can work around that one by using a "Project" tag. I've looked at pretty much every GTD type application out there and none of them handle projects (even simple ones) particularly well although Thinking Rock comes close but it's iphone app is not really up to the standard of their desktop app. "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. " This is one area where I don't agree - I can have many Next Actions that are do-able in the context and time frame available - if they all have HIGH priority which one should I do first. I believe you need to establish some sense of RELATIVE priority and I can fairly easily classify High, Medium and Low priority items in order to filter out Low or No priority - Which brings up another wish - why can't ToDo have a priority filter so that no matter what list we're in, we can see just the High priorities, etc instead of the weaker global sort setting. Perhaps if this functionality were available, you might find prioritizing more useful. I competely agree and I think a lot of others would like to see Stars implemented like Toodledo does as a way of indicating next actions. It is the most logical approach . In the meantime I use a next action Tag but that takes longer to use. In any event, of all the apps I've looked at ToDo works best for me at this point and you've made some excellent comments On Jan 20, 11:09 am, 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
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