Hi John, I was wondering how you were getting on. The good news is that you're still using MLO!
Christoph has done a fantastic job of responding to specific points you made so I'll just make a few general observations. My personal breakthrough with MLO came when I stopped trying to learn and utilize the complete feature set and, instead, adapted MLO to meet my personal requirements and way of working. I'm pretty sure that is true for most, if not all, users. Everybody has a different setup. This is the big appeal of MLO, that it can be configured to support any task management system or methodology. The key here is that YOU have to decide how you're going to work, MLO won't dictate to you what that should be. With respect, if you need that level of hand-holding you should probably look elsewhere. MLO certainly isn't bloatware! It has always been, and is still, very fast and has a very small footprint in terms of program and data size. It's a mature software product with a large feature set but that does not equate to bloatware. I think it was Joel Spolsky who made the observation about another software product that users may only use 20% of the functionality but it's a different 20% for each user. You are right in saying that it appeals to power users and isn't completely intuitive or friendly for newcomers. That's not ideal but the reason people persevere with MLO, or return to it having tried everything else, is it rewards the investment of effort. Spending too much time on your set up is not a unique problem. Far from it. The addictiveness of the personal productivity phenomenon as evidenced through the amount of software and writing even has it's own euphemism - Productivity Porn. You'll never achieve the perfect set up so just get a good one and start doing stuff. Your setup will change with your role and responsibilities anyway. A couple of questions for you John - tell us why you are still using MLO? What are the things you've found useful? On Thursday, 13 August 2015 13:17:15 UTC+1, J Smith wrote: > > > > Hello > > Confession time: > I thought it would be helpful to this community to report back after a few > months of use just how *little* of MLO I am using. In part I am also > asking for practical advice on how to make better genuinely > *time-efficient* use of more features of MLO. > > > 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) > > HOTKEYS > In practice I am using VERY little of MLO. Here is what I am using: > - I use *Alt/Shift/arrow keys...* a LOT to change priority and > indentations into Projects. This is one of the best features of MLO > interface. > - 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. > - I use Highlighting (*Control/H*) to flag up IMPORTANT stuff to do > (today). > > - I sit mostly in the Active Tasks outline view(**) and insert > tasks/projects directly into it using *Insert* and *Alt/Insert*. > - 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. > > From time to time I look at the (long/medium term) Goals outline view. > > ...and (slightly shamefully) that's about it. > > > BACKGROUND > I discovered that I was wasting far, FAR too much time learning the > system, trying to set things up and discussing the technology... and not > getting on with my life! i.e. Not actually Getting Things Done fast enough! > > > 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 like and use this product. However I am > unable to recommend this product to any of my productive/busy friends due > to the hideous learning curve. This is product (productivity platform) only > for my friends who are hard-core geeks. I cannot imagine any highly > productive CEO of a major corporation using this stuff. > > Also the Andriod app is - to be brutal - appalling. > 1. It should sync automatically with my PC. [That's it - no discussion!] > 2. I want to be able to drag & drop items up and down my lists (equivalent > to using the Alt/Shift/arrow keys on my keyboard) and also sideways - in > and out of a hierarchy. [No discussion on this either!] > Sorry but *only* if MLO gets these two things right does the app even > *begin* to become useful to me. > > > ADVICE SOUGHT > > 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? > > > b) Contexts > I have completely failed to make Contexts work! Yes, when I remember I do > put Contexts into some tasks, but mostly I can't be bothered. What I really > mean is that it doesn't seem to be worth the input time because I don't > currently actually use Contexts! I think maybe I have too many Contexts - > I ended up with about 25. > > - Is there a *single-click* way to filter my Active Tasks to just > show just the tasks that match a given Context? > > [ASIDE: Because I think so *visually* ideally I would like to still > see the entire tree structure of my projects, but: > i) it would be great if just the relevant tasks leapt out visually (e.g. > became highlighter, or the others became greyed out) > ii) It would also be great to have some hotkey way of skipping to the next > relevant task (i.e. that matches the selected Context) ] > > ==> Any suggestions? > > J > > > P.S. (**) Btw, why is an MLO Outline called an "Outline"? This is > confusing for newbies. Why not "View" or "Report" ? > > > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. 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