>>> MLO already shows the *active* actions, i.e. those that it thinks *are* actionable (e.g. no start date or start date passed, context not closed). How do you distinguish between "actionable" and "genuinely actionable"? There must be criteria. >>>
Sorry I'm obviously not being clear enough. The central point with GTD is that because our lives are all so complex and also because things shift around so much, it just takes too long to ever hope to enter enough data for any automatic system to be actually be able to tell you or me exactly what to do next. For this reason, in GTD we need to do quite a lot of *intuitive* / common sense prioritising, but that this works best when one has frequently eye-balled the lists of stuff to do. [Aside: In fact to emphasise this point, as a relative GTD new users, on the GettingThingsDone.com forum I am getting a certain amount of heat from more than one user for using any kind of digital system rather than just using paper!] So, bearing this in mind you have to understand that in our fast-moving lives - certainly in mine - there simply is not time to put enough information into the data AND to keep it sufficiently up-to-date for MLO be able to tell us what to do next. So what MLO thinks are "active" may or may well not be fully active. For example some actions would be *best* done after certain other actions, however the benefit in doing this may not be huge. [And before you ask, no, I dont have time to pedantically enter this as a formal "Dependency" - that would take far too long and moreover very often the dependency is not necessarily a binary thing in any case.] And of course other actions may well be 100% independent of each other. Moreover certain actions are only "nice-to-haves"... and not actual requirements. For example let me create a fictional example to illustrates the point. Project: Clean up my sitting room (in time for VIP mother-in-law visit!) Actions: 1. Buy some new/ better brand of vacuum cleaner bags 2. Replace the vacuum cleaner's bag (which is not working as well as it used to) *3. Water plants [rapidly becoming urgent]* 4. Sprinkle carpet-cleaning (anti-dust-mite) powder on carpet 5. Wait 10 to 20 minutes 6. Dust the high areas of room (pictures, light, shelves etc) [not crucial unless 4. has been done] *7. Vacuum clean the carpet [absolutely crucial]* *8. Clean windows [important too]* Let me explain: The only really imporant thing that I'm hoping to do are the bold things (3., 7. and 8.) which I need to do at the very least. However the only absolutely crucial thing is "7." (vacuum cleaning the carpet) because it's a total mess! And doing "3." (Water the plants) and "8." (Clean the windows) can start at any time during the preceding week. Now it's not *essential,* but if time permits, then when I'm next on my @Errands, I might be able to do "1." and buy some new/better vacuum cleaner bags. And IF I have managed to do "1.", then I may as well do "2." and replace the vacuum cleaner's bag. But if I have LOTS of time I could do a really good job and also "5." sprinking on powder and if I have LOTS AND LOTS of time I could even do "6." wait the full 20 minutes to allow it to kill the dust mites. But wait, if I run out of time, then I can just go ahead and do "7." without doing 1. 2. 4. 5. or even 6. and I could go ahead and vacuum clean the carpet using the existing bag. It's a bit horrible and I fear rather smells of dog... So not ideal, but much better than doing nothing for my VIP visitor! So in MLO, if I just use "Next Actions" view (or have the project to be set at "Complete Subtasks in order"), then all that will be visible in MLO would be the low priority thing "1." ==> Disaster because I only see something low priority! BUT if I use "Active Actions" view then I am over whelmed with 8 seeing all items at once! (Note that this would be many more and much worse for a larger project obviously.) So what I want is: - for 1. to be visible as my MLO Next Action (even though it is low priority) - for 3. and 7. and 8. to *always* be visible (because they are both important and are not dependant on each other) And for completeness: - for 2. to appear after I complete 1. - And for 4. 5. and 6. to appear in sequence after I have completed 2. So how I suggest we could like to achieve this would be to use the "Next Actions" view but to make 3. 7. and 8. to be "Forced Next" actions. Does that make sense? On 10 January 2015 at 22:04, Christoph Zwerschke <[email protected]> wrote: > Am 10.01.2015 um 22:20 schrieb J Smith: > >> And although sometimes this "small" number will one, in practice it will >> often be 3 or 4 because it needs to be all the Actions that are >> genuinely Actionable right now. (realistically up to a limit of say 4 or >> 5) and because I want to be able to choose between them. >> > > MLO already shows the *active* actions, i.e. those that it thinks *are* > actionable (e.g. no start date or start date passed, context not closed). > How do you distinguish between "actionable" and "genuinely actionable"? > There must be criteria. > > Or do you just want to show the first 3 or 4? Then you should propose an > extension to the "group by..." functionality that allows you to show only > the first n entries per group. That might be useful indeed to keep the > lists smaller. > > > so do does one's personal location, mood/mode and levels of both energy > & will power! > > Location and time are already factored in when determining the active > actions, by looking whether the context of the tasks is open (you need to > uncheck "include closed" in the filter). Mood and energy can be handled by > additional filtering on certain flags or contexts, time required or effort. > > -- Chris > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > topic/mylifeorganized/INyMCDEUpJ4/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, 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/54B1A200.2040407%40online.de. > 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]. 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