SUMMARY
I have discovered that in practice all I am using MLO for is:
a) A glorified To-Do list - mostly for today
b) A list of major projects (although this gets less attention that it
should)
Thanks for the nice summary. One of the benefits of a more complex tool
like MLO is that it allows you to handle not only your current tasks,
but to store all your ideas and maybe-tasks and have confidence that
they are not lost because there are so many means to filter and view and
remind you.
- I use Stars (*Control/Shit/S*) for "do today " - however I am
NOT using the Star outline because I think */visually/* and like to see
the 2D shape of projects (indentations etc) on the page.
It's not really either/or. I use the outline mostly during reviews, and
the flat views mostly when I'm actually working.
- I use Highlighting (*Control/H*) to flag up IMPORTANT stuff to do
(today).
Good idea. Anyway, there should always be only a handful tasks marked
"today" (Star). But if something is really crucial or special, an
additional marker can help to not overlook is. If they are all done and
I still want to work more (rarely happens ;), I go through my "Active
Goals" or other views and put some more on my plate, and then I switch
back to my "Today" workspace (Starred View).
- I use *Control/S* to input the Start date (e.g. "6h" or "2d") to get
things to disappear off the view for a few hours or days.
Yes, that's a good trick. That's why I'm actually not used "Starred" as
my "Today Workspace", but a custom view "Starred Active". So I can
pre-select important things to do in advance, and use the annoying
reminder function less. The tasks will then automatically appear in my
"today" view on the appropriate day.
WEAKNESSES OF MLO
I still think MLO is massively confusing to any newbie. "Bloatware"
comes to mind. And until this is sorted out I don't think MLO will ever
make many significant sales to consumers.
I think "bloatware" is not fair. I think of MLO as a tool for
"productivity geeks/powerusers", and as such, it is not bloated. Even
Excel and Word have lot of functions that an average user does not need.
But I would not consider them "bloatware" either. Bloatware also has the
connotation of software that is oversized (in megabytes) and slow, but
MLO is not overly large and it's snappy.
There are already enough simple nice-looking todo list apps that miss
critical functions, we don't need yet another one. But there is a market
niche for one that has all the power user functionality. Particularly
things like switching between nested and flat views, user-definable
views etc.
> I cannot imagine any highly productive CEO of a major
corporation using this stuff.
Yes, because such people do not need to sit down and actually DO all the
critical work. They just sit in meetings and mastermind stuff that we
ordinary people have then to implement. So much stuff to implement that
we are overloaded and would be unable to cope with it all without a
powerful management tool like MLO ;-)
Also the Andriod app is - to be brutal - appalling.
It's ok for me, but I'm not using it very much. A new and completely
rewritten version that should be much better is currently in beta test.
a) Moving tasks between lists
From time to time I do a "weekly review" but I now have a ton of stuff
(250 - 500 items) on my various GTD style 'lists' and partly as a result
moving tasks/projects in out of my different lists is just too hard.
i.e. I can't do it in a couple of clicks. So in practice I just don't do it!
- Is there a quick hotkey or 2-click way to move an item between my
various GTD type lists? (e.g. I have: "Someday-Maybe" list, "Definitely
Do - but not yet" list, "Reflective thoughts" list ...)
If I got this going I might find GTD "Weekly reviews" become easier and
became a more productive use of time
==> Any suggestions?
The idea of MLO is that you don't create these lists manually. You just
put things in an outline, set some attributes and then you create views
to produce the lists using the attributes.
My outline is structured along life/work areas.
Someday/maybe are simply all tasks that have no due date and no goal.
Items on the "reflective thoughts" list could be marked with a special
flagged.
"Definitely do - but not yet" could get another flag "important", a high
importance set or maybe a goal of week, month or year depending on the
time frame in which you want to get it done.
All tasks which have no goal and no due date should get a "review date".
This makes sure that you revisit these items and check if they are still
interesting. Maybe you will remove them, or give them goals or due dates
so that they will eventually get done.
From time to time I do a "weekly review" but I now have a ton of
stuff (250 - 500 items) on my various GTD style 'lists' and partly as
a result moving tasks/projects in out of my different lists is just
too hard. i.e. I can't do it in a couple of clicks. So in practice I
just don'tdo it!
The trick to weekly reviews is to create a checklist, and arrange it so
that it does not take too long. Going through such a checklist can even
be fun. For instance, my MLO checklist looks something like that:
1. Go through the inbox tasks - handle them right now if < 2min, or set
attributes and then move to proper folder (Ctrl-M).
2. Check if there are tasks in my custom "too vague" view - these are
tasks which have no dates set, or importance and urgency at 100, or have
no context. Set proper attributes.
3. Go through the "review" view and check if there are tasks that need
higher priorities or goals set, or need to be reviewed more or less
frequently. Then mark everything as "reviewed."
4. Go through the "Active Goals" lists. Here I look which "weekly" goals
should be marked with a star, and which monthly goals should become
weekly goals, or which yearly goals should become monthly goals.
5. Check the "due next 7 days" list.
- Is there a *single-click* way to filter my Active Tasks to just
show just the tasks that match a given Context?
I use the "active actions by context" view, and then F6 and F7 to fold
and expand.
I also use workspaces and filters.
P.S. (**) Btw, why is an MLO Outline called an "Outline"? This is
confusing for newbies. Why not "View" or "Report" ?
Everything in MLO is a view. The nested views are called "outlines", in
contrast to the flat todo views like "Active Actions".
Hope this could help a little bit.
-- Chris
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