Hello I want to re-open this topic.
After some months of using MLO, I am now in the habit of writing multiple tasks on one line - which I separate with " ==> ". I normally use this for things that need doing a particular order... or sometimes it's just a way of inspiring me to START a project by defining something small to get started with. I use CAPITALS for major projects (btw, is there really no way to get MLO to capitalise MLO-level "Project" names automatically? I already get it to change colour...) e.g. "HOUSE NOW CLEAN ==> clean bedroom ==> hoover stairs ==> bathroom (hoover+mirrors) ==> hoover hallway ==> clear/hoover main room." Now here's the why I like doing this: a) I can see my *first *task "clean bedroom" automatically, AND b) I'm not wasting vertical screen space with a long list of stuff which I'm not ready to process yet (i.e. I *know* it's there but I'm not interested in it right now) AND c) If I do want to see the other tasks/sub-task, then all I need to do is just hover with my mouse and all the hidden text appears with a simple mouse-over. d) Then, as soon as I have completed something (quite possibly *not *in the rigid order I had previous suggested to myself !) it's simply a matter of clicking on the line at the relevant spot and hitting the delete key a few times. (or of in doubt anywhere on the line in question hit F2) This stricks me as entirely brilliant ! To re-cap in this way: i) I can see what I need to do next (usually the first one OR TWO are in fact visible...) ii) The view is extremely compact - allowing multiple projects to be visible on my screen at once iii) It's trivial to see ALL the tasks within any project at once (not just the *first *one - as some MLO reports do... if you can remember how to set them up... plus set up hotkeys to get at them etc etc... All very fiddly in my experience!) In fact to be completely honest I'm not even using the "Project" function at all ! I may be missing something but it doesnt bring any value to me at present. What I am using however is *indentations* - and I am doing so *a lot*! I use it to indicate sub-tasks of tasks. You see for me it's quite rare that my mind naturally even *thinks* in terms of "Projects" (i.e. GTD theory not withstanding, things have to be genuinely quite large projects before I naturally want to think about them in that way!). There is a further benefit which is more subtle... which is being a very visual kinda guy I find it helfpul to *visually* distinguish one project from another. [ASIDE: One of the most productive people I know still uses pen and paper. Lots of written lists. She like the visual side - the shapes of the lists & text etc.] i.e. When you write on paper this happens automatically of course, but digitally all the shapes & mental photos of everything are necessarily leaping around as you edit. So I like to create shapes using indentations and colours etc. So now, in this way when I think of my "Clean house" project in my minds eye I see a list of stuff all on one line. I can see visually that these items are all tightly bound to each other. And also I recognise it visually when I browse past it WITHOUT READING it! Weird, I concede but true. Now here's downside: a) Ticking off is less easy. But I personally don't want to see what I've ticked off, nope not ever again - pure clutter! So dont care about that. In some instances this can psychologically slightly help me try to do all the tasks at once rather then feel good about half completed tasks. b) Changing order of tasks is less easy. Yes that can be a problem - but only sometimes... [And yes, for this reason I do sometimes wish to convert horizontal into vertical lists - see below] Ultimately it's a trade-off. You see, it slightly subtle but I like *compact *views and to me, and to me the ability to see on any given row... all my tasks within that project ... JUST with a simply mouse over, rather than with 3 actions is worth it. These three task being: 1. select the row 2. cursor right [to see all the hidden rows] 3. cursor left [to hid all the hidden rows again] Now, the big problem for me is that whenever I change my mind and I want to convert a long row into a vertical list of shorter tasks (i.e. multiple rows), MLO makes this a nightmare! [WHY SO HARD!!] I sometimes use the Control/D key and edit but that is pretty painful and on balance I regard this as a serious omission by MLO. To get clear, what MLO needs to do is for any given row: allow you to edit the text; get your cursor at the place you require; and hit [whatever hotkeys] and thereby get the row to divide i.e. "break" the line into two a that point. This would allow the user to go through a long line breaking it into a number of short lines very quickly & easily. Just like editing text normally in fact! And it would also be helpful to me to be able to do the reverse.i.e. To get to the end of a row's text and when I hit Delete, then the row below gets "sucked up" to join the current row. i.e. it the text is appended, and any child tasks come with it. Btw, don't get me wrong I do spend most of my life using cursors & hotkeys, rather than mouse. But over time subtle ergomic differences emerge. To me using the arrow keys to think about things feels 'more clunky' and moreover selecting text then causes a change of colour (white text on pale-ish blue for me - which is fractionally harder to read as well - yes it can be changed [I just have!] but remember most users won't bother...) SUGGESTION: I suggest that a mouse-over on text should 'pop' not just the longer/hitten part of the text like it does at present, but also should pop all hidden the subtasks below that task (I suggest probably only just showing the one level below it...) i.e. I am requesting that a mouseover on a task's name field should in effect cause a popup that is rather like hitting the little green sideways triangle on and off (when you mouse-off) at the start of a row. I concede that some people may well find this a bit disruptive because as your mouse moves around the screen, too much might then be moving... however remember I'm NOT asking for all the tasks below it on the screen to be actually moved down the screen (as happens when you do a real clicking of little green triangle (or arrow right/left), instead I'm asking for the texts top "pop-up" in a temporary popup window 'floating' *above* the text below it. And that only when you click on text in this popup because you want to edit it, only then should you be taken into the formal edit mode - at the place in the text where you clicked of course - and only then should all the rows below it moved down. Btw, there is one very slightly annoying thing about the (in many ways brilliant) MLO interface, and that is that *during* the mouseover that pops up when the task decription is longer than the space visible in the row, if without clicking on the text, you try to move the mouse over to the right, to the place in the text where you want to edit... the pop-up immediately *disappears *as soon as you go too far to the right ! (i.e. it disappears the instant that you go beyond the area of the text box below it). Whereas what I want to do is: When I see a popup showing longer lines, if as I move the mouse to the right I do manage to keep my mouse over that popup, I want the pop instead of disappearing to remain visible on the screen if I left-click it I want to be taken to start editing the text at that exact place in the text. i.e. It's counter-intuitive to be shown some text which you cant just click on and edit at that place. BTW, I do also find it annoying that if I click on the area of the text field where it does not be full enough of text at that point, (i.e. if you left-click at the text but miss the actual text), then the editing window fails to open up like it does if you do manage to hit any actual text. So I find myself hitting F2 a lot rather than just left-clicking on what I want to edit. Enough J On Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 5:32:55 PM UTC+1, Dwight Arthur wrote: > > On Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 5:53:48 AM UTC-4, J Smith wrote: >> >> <...>Personally I use this for: >> A) Tasks that are *best* done consecutively immediately after each other >> e.g."Pick up tap from hardware store ==> go to stationers for pen & paper >> ==> supermarket ==> post letter on way home" >> B) I also use this to write up things that MUST be done in that >> particular sequence but not necessarily immediately after each other: >> e.g. "Install new locks ==> Get new keys cut ==> give new keys to Fred >> ==> Tell George Fred has new key"<...> >> > Hi, John. I use this syntax where I have multiple steps that must be done > as one. For example > Get Clippers>Get rope>prune and tie trees > If I get interrupted after getting the clippers and don't get back to this > tilltomorrow, I will need to restart at the top. There is no possibility of > partial completion. So I'm comfortable with making it a single task.In both > of the examples you gave here is a possibility of getting interrupted in > the middle and later (maybe much later) needing to pick up and finish. I > would want separate tasks. I would still enter it quickly. For example > measure for blinds>order blinds>buy wall anchors>did blinds arrive > yet?>install blinds > would get entered into the Rapid Task Entry window (with parse and > multiple entry enabled) as > Install Blinds -p -o > measure for blinds > order blinds > buy wall anchors > did blinds arrive yet? @waiting > > for readers less familiar with RTE I will mention that this creates a > project with five subtasks and "complete tasks in order" turned on. If I > mark tasks complete when I finish them, the next action will always be > clear,After the last (waiting) task is completed, the project name (install > blinds) becomes the next action. I believe that all of the advantages you > mentioned apply, with the additional advantages that it's easy to track > partial completion and resume after an interruption, it's easy to add a > task to the middle when you need to, and you don't have to worry about > splitting lines. > > -Dwight > -- 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 mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. 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/05681a4e-5a55-43c9-b707-a147d55b5d94%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
