Dwight: I should explain that there is a school of thought (which I picked up from GTD forums elsewhere & possibly from David A himself) that you shouldn't sort AT ALL. ...And that priority should be something that comes purely from the human mind having repeated eye-balled everything you are currently trying to do ASAP.
I know that this won't work for me but I am trying to give myself room to experiment using various modes of establishing priority at once... Lisa: Did you know something can be a folder and a project? Yes I spotted that. However ticking the Project box on a folder didn't seem to make any difference in my reports...(!) Either way, for now, as above, I am planning to completely abandoning folders. It will be interesting to see how far I get without them. Watch this space... A On Friday, December 5, 2014 9:03:35 AM UTC, Dwight Arthur wrote: > > Hi, John. > > Sounds like a different and interesting way of managing tasks with MLO. I > look forward to hearing more as you progress. > > > > The only reason for importance and urgency is for use in sorting your > tasks. If I understand correctly you will be manually sorting (ie physical > sort) which would mean that neither of these fields matter, except insofar > as the data is helpful to you yourself. My thoughts (drawn from life, not > software) is that people tend to allocate too much energy to urgent tasks > that may be unimportant and not enough to important tasks that are not > urgent. Coding these separately help me keep track of this problem. > > -Dwight > > > > *From:* [email protected] <javascript:> [mailto: > [email protected] <javascript:>] *On Behalf Of *John Smith > *Sent:* Thursday, December 04, 2014 11:47 PM > *To:* [email protected] <javascript:> > *Subject:* Re: [MLO] Quirk: "Next Action by Folder" happening in "Next > Action by Project" view. > > > > > > > > Dwight: > > > > > how can MLO provide any tools you need > > OK, I do find this quirk somewhat bizarre, particularly as Actions in the > root directory it self (i.e. not in any folder) do cheerfully appear... but > yes, I do hear you. > > > I am poised ready to pivot. > > > > I need to simplify what I have so that I can actually get on and use it in > the short term! > > > Here is my new plan: > > 1. No Folders > I think I'm just going to get rid of folders completely - they just seem > to get in the way. (Maybe I'll bring them back eventually I'm not sure). > Scrapping Folders will also of course avoid the what I am not allowed to > call 'stupid' quirk and allow Next Action by Project to show me both Next > Action that do and do not have Projects. And designing new Views will be > easier too. > > 2. Physical Sort > Use the physical sort order to establish some sort of overall priority > approximate (this is made possible by the lack of folders) > > > 3. Flags > Use flags for Context. I think any action can normally only have one > Context. And an item can only have one Flag so that's a good fit. Radical I > know, but blame pottster ;) > > 4. Tags > Use the 'Context' tags to create any hierarchies that I need using the > "Context includes Context" feature. > > 5. Priority (Urgency/Importance etc) > > a) Physical Sort [recap I know!] > > In the short run I shall use a physical sort to show me what I know I > should be doing next > > b) Highlight > > I shall also use Control/H so that the eyes can find things without > reading > > > > c) Stars > > This will be used for "has focus today" - The stuff I think I'm doing > today (will try to keep down to c. 5 or so at any one moment) > > d) Important/Urgent fields > With this structure I should be free to experiment with using the > dedicated Important & Urgent fields, plus the clever > looking-but-I-only-half-understand-it "Computed-Score" priority. > > I now cant yet decide how feasibly it will be to bother to enter both > Importance and Urgency fields for everything. But with this structure I > shall be free to find out! > > I think it will be quite useful to simply allow the physical sort order on > the Outline to flow through to some of my views. > > > > How mad am I? > > > > > On Friday, December 5, 2014 2:43:06 AM UTC, Dwight Arthur wrote: > > I believe that the behavior you are describing is documented in the User > Manual section on Next Actions which says “*Note**: If there are Active > Tasks without parent project then only first task for each root task is > selected.*” The wording is a little stiff but it is completely consistent > with the observed behaviour making me believe that it’s all intentional. > There’s just one glitch which is this: I believe the statement should have > been “*Note**: If there are Active Tasks without parent project then only > first task for each root item is selected.*” It’s my opinion that rules > like this apply equally to tasks, projects and filters, but the word “task” > does not communicate this quite as clearly as “item”. > > > > I recognize that this is a case where MLO’s out-of-the-box function > differs from what you would prefer. In the long run, that doesn’t matter, > what matters is whether you can use the power of MLO to make a view that > does what you want. Usually that’s the case though the jury is still out > for your version of next actions by project. > > > > As an aside, there are MLO users who try to adhere to GTD orthodoxy. And > there are those who do something entirely unrelated to GTD. A lot of us, > though, use something personal and idiosyncratic that’s inspired by GTD. So > when you find a case where MLO’s default action differs from your > understanding of GTD orthodoxy, that does not necessarily justify changing > MLO’s action to be more nearly compliant. That’s because there are some > users out there who are counting on the existing functionality. I have been > stung several times (and the developers I’m sure have been stung even more) > by proposing clear improvements in MLO functionality only to face a chorus > of angry protests from fans of the prior functionality. > > > > So the better question to ask is, how can MLO provide any tools you need > but don’t have that will let you build your dream view. > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On > Behalf Of *John Smith > *Sent:* Thursday, December 04, 2014 8:59 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [MLO] Quirk: "Next Action by Folder" happening in "Next Action > by Project" view. > > > > Hi > > > > [ASIDE: OK I am still smarting... but apologies are accepted where given. > From my side I am happy to apologise for my the *tone* of some of my > earlier remarks. OK let's move on.] > > > > I have discovered a rather fundamental "weirdness" of the system. [Fwiw, > in order to confirm this weirdness I have started again with an empty > dataset.] > > So if you have a collection of tasks in the root directory, to which you > have not yet had time to allocated into any Project yet, then if you go to > the standard "Next Action by Project" you will see those tasks listed at > the top of the page, where it calls them "Projects: (none)". > > Ah but not so fast, this only works in the root directory. And if those > Tasks are moved into a directory of any sort, guess what? They all > disappear from this "Next Action by Project" view! > > > > WTF? > > At least *most* of them disappear. Because it turns out the the first > task with the folder *does* stay visible after all. But only the first in > that directory - all the others disappear. > > So it's almost as if MLO is treating a Folder as if it were a Project. > i.e. MLO is 'filtering in' the Next Action within the Folder *as if* it > were finding the Next Action within a Project. Now, if I had ticked the > "This is a project" box on the directory then that would make perfect > sense. However the "This is a project" box is emphatically *not* ticked! > > > > For reasons of diplomacy I shall resist the urge to call this a "bug", but > surely it is pretty unexpected. > > > > Background: > > As we all know, one of the core GTD concepts "Next Action". And so this > "Next Action by Project" is likely to be one of the most important screens > to anyone trying to implement GTD. I certainly intend to spend a lot of > time there. > > > > Either way, surely we don't want to see "Next Action by *Folder*" because > the folders are just supposed to be merely containers for subject areas and > they do not indicate that something is actually a live Project! > > > > I find this to be quite a fundamental problem. I mean if you use folders a > lot and you have a lot of one-off type Actions to which you have not yet > bothered to put into projects, then whenever you try to work from the "Next > Action by Project" view of the world, all your Actions will disappear - All > except one per folder! > > P.S. Now there is a solution to this anomaly which is, similar to what I > mentioned in another thread, which is that if you convert your Actions > without projects into Projects then they are 'forced' to appear in this > "Next Actions by Project" review. But this is definitely a fudge because in > GTD theory you need to work tasks very differently if they are an action > compared to if they are a project. > > > > Surely this "Next Action by Folder" cant be something anyone designed into > the system on purpose. And surely it is unwanted, no? > > > > Either way, I am curious. Has nobody else discovered this 'quirk' ? > > > > And if so, how to you get around it? > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/684754e3-0bdf-4dc8-80b7-8d659052c1eb%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/684754e3-0bdf-4dc8-80b7-8d659052c1eb%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <javascript:>. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/520cd10c-e71c-4559-b0ac-3be059b5f56b%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/520cd10c-e71c-4559-b0ac-3be059b5f56b%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. 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