What you have written is helpful Lisa thankyou. I still have my problem though!
I have three part time jobs, am studying my masters and in addition I am a husband and father. Consequently I have quite a few projects on the go and the ability to filter out all the stuff I need to do and just look at the "Next Action" is what makes MLO so great. The problem is that, when I am with someone, in a meeting etc, I cannot believe that I can't just say "give me a list of tasks that are tagged with this persons name" regardless of which project the task is in right now. (I suspect that I am not the only person in the world who has one person in their life who happens to be involved in more than one project!) I am also having difficulty imagining that I am the only person in the world who needs to be able to say "ok, so the task is not the next action in a project, BUT I have this person in front of me right now, what was it that I needed to talk to them about again?". You can do this on the desktop software. Problem is, when you meet with someone or bump into someone, odds are you most likely have your phone or tablet on you, BUT not your laptop or computer. It appears that the functionality is there in the Android app, it just needs to be "turned on". At the moment, you CAN get a list of Next (or Active) actions by context, and the rest of the tasks that are NOT Active/Next are filtered out. Does that make sense? If it could be turned on, that would be awesome. The frustration is that there are a plethora of Android apps out there that can do what I (and I assume many others) need, but that DON'T do auto next action like MLO. Seriously, the first app that can do this for me, I will like pay $100 for the privilege (and I am Australian, with the strongest economy in the developed world right now and the strongest dollar too! ;) The app that comes closest to being pure GTD IMHO is ActionComplete. The problem there is that you cannot manually drag and drop tasks to order them. You have to use a rubbish "weighting" system. Their interface is butt ugly too! If you could drag and drop, I would be there in a flash, goodby MLO as wonderful and as powerful and much as I love to use it. Seriously, this is something that I reckon is just a must! Surely I am not the only person who needs something like this!? Ok, enough ranting. Thanks for your wonderful assistance here too Lisa, I really appreciate it. On Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:37:18 UTC+10, Lisa S wrote: > > Hi Stephen, > > I'm copying the MLO-Android group as I think this would be a good > discussion for that group, perhaps we could continue it there since you are > a member of both. > > There are several ways that tasks won't be listed as "Active" which is a > key concept in MLO. It is probably not because they aren't at the top > (unless you have "complete in order" checked) or aren't next actions -- as > long as they meet the criteria for active you should see them. > > Active is a task that can be worked on now, and means things like: > - If they have a start date it has already arrived or passed > - they aren't complete > - they aren't marked as "Hide in Todo" > - They aren't dependent on another task > - The parent doesn't have "Complete in order" set > -They aren't in a Context that has certain "closed" hours > - If they are, it's during Open hours, *or* you have "Include closed > contexts" set in settings/ToDo > > I may have missed some. > > You CAN pull a list of all *Active *tasks -- that is what Active by > <whatever> views are for. (And you might like the Active by Project / Goal > views from the pull-down. But you cannot do this if you have "complete in > order" set. And there are other views to pull ALL tasks in an area, such as > "Goals". I do not think there is an "All by Context". (A very nice > feature addition would be the ability to go into the Contexts menu and see > everything with a certain Content no matter what). > > I suspect it could be "Complete in Order" that is biting you. If you want > to combine "Complete in order" with tasks that you don't complete in order, > you would need a separate task to group the ones that need to be completed > in order. For example: > > Project 1 > Do in order > Do 1st > Do 2nd > Do anytime > Do anytime > > As to your question about reorganizing your structure to fit with MLO > Android...In my experience there sometimes is a bit of compromise. Android > just doesn't have all of the features of the desktop, but it certainly is > do-able. What I do suggest is that you don't try to "work around" any of > the key concepts of MLO such as the definition of "Active" (not saying you > are because I don't know) -- it's a powerful model that sometimes takes > some getting used to, but there are so many features that support a > consistent, highly-featured work model around the key concepts that you > would be crippling your use of it to try to redefine them. > > Does this help? > > Lisa > > On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 11:25 PM, Stephen Said wrote: > >> So I reckon I might be missing something. >> >> I open MLO on my Android Tablet. I have the following Icons: >> >> Nearby, Projects, Active by Project, Bookmarks (Next line reads) >> Starred, Outline, Active by Context, More Views (Next line reads) >> Inbox, Goals, Active Actions, @ & Location >> >> If I select "Active by Context", I cannot see my context called >> "@Agenda-Management" >> >> If I back out of that part of the app (back to the main screen) and then >> select "@ & Locations", I can see all of my task contexts. In this location >> I can see "@Agenda-Management". It has the number 4 in brackets next to it >> (ie: "(4)") >> >> I select the context and it gives me all sorts of information, but there >> is no way that I can get the four tasks that have the context assigned to >> display. >> >> I assume that the reason I cannot see tasks assigned to a particular >> context is because in the outline view, they are still in a list, but they >> are not at the top of that list (ie: not the Next Action). >> >> Does this make sense? >> >> Now before people begin to say I need to reorganise my tasks differently, >> here is the logic: >> >> - I have a list of tasks assigned to a project. >> - I know that I need to chat to someone about that particular task >> therefore it stays in the project list yet it is not the "next action" (I >> do not assign dates to tasks as per GTD methodology. Namely, only assign >> a >> due date when there is a hard due date associated with the activity.) I >> put >> other tasks above the Agenda task so I can progress the project yet still >> be mindful that there is a conversation that needs to be had when I am >> skimming through the desktop app or outline view on the tablet. >> - When I have a meeting, I want to pull out all of the tasks that I >> have tagged with "@Agenda-Meeting", which live in different projects and >> at >> different stages of the sort order. >> >> I hope that all makes sense. >> >> So in short, can you pull out a list of tasks by context from the Android >> app, that are not the next action (ie: sitting at the top of a project >> list)? >> >> Hope it all makes sense. >> >> On Tuesday, 1 May 2012 21:50:38 UTC+10, Stephen Said wrote: >>> >>> How embarrassing! >>> >>> I was in a meeting today. My colleague said "So, what do you want to >>> talk about?" >>> >>> I flipped open my Android phone and tried to open all tasks by context >>> @Agenda-Management. >>> >>> No can do. >>> >>> I opened my Android tablet. >>> >>> No can do. >>> >>> The only way I can get a list of tasks assigned to the context >>> "@Agenda-Management" is to open the Windows client on my computer? >>> >>> I need to drag computer to the meeting? >>> >>> Seriously? >>> >>> Is it just me, or does anyone else think that this should be a basic >>> function of the Android client? >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MyLifeOrganized" group. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mylifeorganized/-/gtnd0p5ziJEJ. >> >> 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. >> > > > > -- > Lisa > > ------------------------------ > Lisa Stroyan, mailto: [email protected] <[email protected]> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mylifeorganized/-/u1wMQSNf2ycJ. 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.
