Hello Sorry - another new user question...
I have realised that I am slightly confused about the MLO use of English. What is the exact definition of: A) Task ? B) Project ? C) Action ? D) Active Action ? E) Next Action ? Here is my best attempt at defining each of them: (please do correct me where I am wrong!) A) TASK A "Task" is something you the user need to do. A Task that involves more than one-steps can divided into "sub-tasks", (thereby forming a heirarchy). B) PROJECT Alternatively, a multi-step task can instead become a "Project" (i.e. if the "This is a Project" box is ticked) A "Task" is something that you need to do that is NOT a Project [True ??] and not a Folder obviously. C) ACTION I think an "Action" in MLO can be either a Task or a Project [True??] (ASIDE: In GTD theory, a "Project" is supposed to be written as a desired outcome. Whereas an "Action" is written as a more physical/visible activity that needs to be engaged in order to move the current reality towards a desired outcome.) D) ACTIVE ACTION For simplicity, if we ignore Start Date, and ignore Dependency, and if we assume "Complete subtasks in order" has not been ticked anywhere, and if we assume we are only talking about things that have not been ticked as being Completed... then "Active Action" refers to all Tasks AND all Projects that do not have uncompleted sub-tasks in the hierarchy below them. Personally I was surpised to discover Projects appearing in the "Active Actions" View at all, however in MLO Projects seem to behave just like Tasks in as much as they will appear in "Active Actions" view ONLY if they do not have any children. i.e. Neither Tasks with children nor Projects with children will appear in the "Active Actions" view. In fact the "Active Actions" view does not seem to care AT ALL if something is a Project or not, (other then the fact that the Project name can (optionally) be inserted into the row containing a Task name if that Task is part of a Project). E) NEXT ACTION A "Next Action" must meet all the criteria to be an "Active Action", however only the *first* task in each heirarchy will appear in a "Next Action" view. However here Projects *are* treated slightly differently from Tasks, in as much as where there is a Project located within any given heirachy, the system tries to find a Next Action within that Project. And also the existance of the Project does not intefere with the current need to find a Next Action in the heirarchy in which it is located. A Task does not need to be part of any Project in order to appear in a "Next Actions" View. Also a Project with no children will appear in a "Next Actions" view. The fact that is a Project forces it to appear, however, perhaps surprisingly, it will not get a mention in the "By Project" component of the view of a report like "Next Action by Project". In fact if a Project without children is located outside of any other Project, it now appears within "Project: (none)", which feels slightly strange... but understandable given its other behaviours. QUICK SUMMARY: A) Task - stuff you need to do that is not a project B) Project - a collection of Tasks C) Action - A Task or a Project ?? D) Active Action - A Task or a Project that is not made invisible by - Start Date - Dependency - Complete subtasks in order (in the hierarchy above it) - Completed being ticked E) Next Action ? An action that is next in the hierarchy whether or not it is part of a project. OK I wrote all that mainly to straighten out my own head! Am I broadly correct / what did I get wrong? J -- 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/80ec0c2d-b661-444b-b023-8022bfa72b4b%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
