The design of MLO is primarily concerned with grouping tasks of a similar nature either by priority, context or some other manner. It offers a suggested order based on these factors. If a specific order is required it can be achieved but it involves manual intervention - for example prefixing tasks with A1, A2, A3 etc. Or configuring the Outline to be based more around a single list, similar in a way to DIT and a daily task diary. Now there are also options to colour code which can be used to an extent for ordering.
Specific order can be achieved easily with a single list - but here for the most part we are dealing with multiple lists displayed as a single list. Information is being pulled through from the outline from various parts. Manual ordering in a way would mean having some sort of disconnected ToDo list view, that I would imagine would be very hard to sort and order through the various other means. So in other words I could imagine a manually ordered list, but group, sort, advanced options etc wouldn't work. Because for the most part these fields would have to be ignored for manual sorting to override the selected options. Personally I think paying too much concern to list order limits your available options, you are sort of stating there is only a single starting point that being next task on the ordered list. Obviously order plays a significant part if you are dealing with a large list of items. But the general idea of MLO is to group items of a similar nature into manageable lists, grouped by a selected factor. So to that aim subdivision of lists into smaller and smaller groups, would be a way to obtain order. Then by applying specific priorities to those smaller lists you would be able to achieve a desired order. Drag and drop ordering I don't think will work, though I may be wrong. Only because the ToDo list is a representation of the data within the Outline. So dragging and dropping, may impact on the Outline itself. Unless there is a way to create a disconnected view - but then that takes away the dynamic aspects of the ToDo list automatically updating when things are modified. Which may also be an issue if your data is not current and doesn't reflect changes immediately. What I think might work is an A1, A2 priority mechanism (or a user defined custom priority) as a separate field, where only one task can be set as A1, A2, A3 etc. But the downside to that is you would have to set individual priorities on all tasks. Which could be a bit of a pain - but would always display the correct order. A1, A2 priority may appeal to Covey users as well. So you could address people that require ordered lists and a specific working system. All the best Steve ----- Original message ---------------------------------------- From: "Richard Collings" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Received: 15/03/2009 11:57:38 Subject: [MLO] Re: Prioritizing Items ToDo Today - Suggestions Wanted >> >> 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. >> >In which case, why use MLO. You can just do this in >Word or some other note >taking/outlining software. Which is what I actually >do for my major tasks >of the day (in the same way as Nick). I primarily use >MLO to track all the >little tasks. >The beauty of MLO is that you can have two views of >your Outline - one >showing the tasks in some sort of Work Breakdown >structure (ie grouped by >Project, Deliverable, etc) and then the To Do list >which represents the >order in which you want to do the tasks. The >problem is that for some of us >we can't get the To Do list into an order that makes >sense to us. >Richard > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.11.13/2001 - >Release Date: 03/14/09 06:54:00 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
