Hi Nick, Most programs tend to group priorities in batches, A, B, C, 1, 2,3, High, Medium, Low. This is in effect what MLO does, so to achieve individual task order you would need to apply another factor once the priority groups have been established. So for example if you sort by urgency then by caption - items could be pre-fixed with a letter/number combination to display the exact correct order you wish. Possibly also effort could be utilised or min/max time etc. Or perhaps further subdivide with Morning, Afternoon, Evening contexts. I think you can achieve what you are after but it is not going to be easy and may require you to really think about your view definition and how you sort/group.
I think part of the problem may be that the computerised scoring method references a lookup table for speed. So that the CPU doesn't go ballistic calculating individual priorities on tasks - though this was also done to aid performance on the PPC as well. So in a way the exactness of the priority mechanism in MLO is somewhat of a tradeoff against performance. I suppose things could be exact - but then MLO speed might seriously suffer. Ordering in the ToDo list is always going to be a little difficult, as MLO pulls the information in from various parts of the Outline based on context grouping. The only way I can see at the moment of getting a list with exact and specific order is to forget priority altogether and manually create the Today list with no sorting - in the Outline itself. But this would probably mean duplicating existing tasks if you are dealing with project items as well. MLO in effect is not dealing with a single list with a ToDo list view which I think needs to be considered. It is for the most part pulling in multiple lists and placing the items into a single list in some type of order - usually defined by the view. I think there probably is a case for a specific priority order - the only method I can see that would work easily in your scenario is A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, ..... , Y1,Y2,Z1,Z2 etc. I would imagine this could be achieved quite easily with another field added to MLO for custom priority - then computerised scoring etc switched off, and manual priority order established. I suppose another option may to automatically number lists as they are generated in the ToDo list view - then have the ability to drag and drop. Not sure how easy that would be overall. Perhaps there is a way to create the ToDo list in another format which would allow manual ordering? I may be wrong but for most people I don't think ordering on a task by task basis is a major concern. It is basically used as more of a guide than a specific sequence in which to do tasks. The common systems MLO addresses, GTD, DIT concern themselves mostly with grouping. Autofocus (AF) utilises ordered lists but simply ordered by creation date. Covey users may like an A1,A2 priority mechanism I suppose. Personally I quite like the dynamic ordering in MLO - I think as a guide it can work very well. But in a way it is just a suggestion, as with any priority system/mechanism you still have to choose which task to action. If exact ordering is required, then it might pay to look more at how the Outline is structured with the ToDo list views just acting as a representation of the existing order. All the best Steve ----- Original message ---------------------------------------- From: metroboy <[email protected]> To: MyLifeOrganized <[email protected]> Received: 14/03/2009 11:18:25 Subject: [MLO] Re: Prioritizing Items ToDo Today - Suggestions Wanted >Steve, >I've replaced Weekly Goals with an "@_Today" >context for flagging >items to go onto my "Today" list. I've normalized all >the Importance >and Urgency settings and...unfortunately using the >Urgency slider >doesn't really work. I am getting a very similar >behavior to what I >was previously: moving a task up or down with the >slider is *very* >jerky. In some places it advances task-by-task >(which is the behavior >I want) -- and in some places it advances over 5 or 6 >other tasks in >one jump, and I can't place it in the middle of that >task clump, no >matter how hard I try. >It's really crazy not to be able to directly drag-and- >drop tasks to a >particular spot in the to-do list! I seriously think >there needs to >be *three* settings in the To-Do Ordering Behavior >dialog: >Hierarchical Score, Computerized Priority, and a new >one: "Manual >Ordering". The task order achieved as a result of >choosing "Manual" >should be persistent between sessions, so that I can >come back to the >same order that I set up previously. >My observation from watching the past few years of >MLO's development >is that a lot of work was put into rationalizing the >Computed Score >Priority. This was partially motivated based on >MLO's background as a >competitor to Life Balance, which was one of the >first to-do programs >to automatically rank tasks in a "suggested" order. I >think it's time >to gently move this part of MLO's DNA into the >background. Life >Balance is no longer the dominant player in Task/To >-Do programs, and >people come to MLO from a lot of different >directions. I understand >that a lot of people are using the Computed Score >Priority ranking in >their daily work, and that option should certainly be >left in place >for them. But I bet there are a lot of people who >would like something >different, and I'm definitely one of them. >Nick > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.11.13/1999 - >Release Date: 03/13/09 05:59:00 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" 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/myLifeOrganized?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
