I have found that the simplest and most efficient way to sort a large number of tasks is the use of the flattened important urgent see and effort view.
Once you have it set up, sorting is automatic and you do not have to drag items around which is very mind numbing when you have a large number of items. There is a learning curve and getting this setup. And also keep in mind that when you double-click an item that has a hierarchy of sub-tasks you will jump to a view that has those items. So you aren't at all eliminating hierarchy, but rather you're giving yourself an easy to digest automated sorts on the front end. With all of this there is a disadvantage which I have reported to the programmers and I believe they have it on their list of things to fix. the disadvantage is that if you use dates, those dates are inherited by the sub items. That means that when you display the flattened one level view, you will get sub items showing up as separate items. So every day I have to go through manually to remove the date on the sub items. It is a huge annoyance, but overall the advantages outweigh disadvantages. But I believe that the folks over there at mylifeorganized are going to be fixing this. On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 2:40 AM, Smith, John <[email protected]> wrote: > Fwiw, I experimented at some length with Importance & Urgency but never > got it to work well, mainly because priorities are relative and tend to > change a fair bit in the (my) real world. > > I am starting to use contexts more, however "no context" is my default (in > effect "at computer") context and this works for me fairly well for now. > > On 8 October 2015 at 15:51, pottster <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hmm, if it works for you that's great. Just be careful you aren't just >> getting very good at the digital equivalent of shuffling paper. It's worth >> remembering that GTD was borne essentially by the analogue world and the >> workflow in the book was a paper flow. A guiding principle was to touch >> each piece of paper as few times as possible and for as briefly as >> possible. If you are continually moving tasks in an outline, changing >> attributes, changing format, (none of it moving you closer to done), then >> you might want to look at how you could organize differently. A neatly >> ordered desk isn't as welcome as a clear desk! >> >> On Thursday, 8 October 2015 11:36:51 UTC+1, J Smith wrote: >>> >>> Yes I live in my Outline view! (Mostly in All Task, Active). >>> >>> I also use the folders to house different GTD lists (e.g. Maybe Do, >>> Definitely Do) plus other stuff for review later (e.g. Reflective Thoughts, >>> New Ideas, GTD Theory...) ... all of which I hide from Active view and so >>> can only see through my All Tasks view. >>> >>> Fwiw, I then use the sort order in my All Tasks Active view to establish >>> core (relative) priority and then use markups with *bold* and/or >>> hightlight to establish short time priority and finally at the start of >>> every day I use Stars to establish what I'm gonna work on today. >>> >>> I have also just started using Bookmarks go get to the folder I want >>> fast. >>> >>> It's pretty basic but it works for now! >>> I was wasting FAR too much time messing with the system >>> >>> >>> > You might be better off with Ctrl+x and Ctrl+v - this adds to top of >>> folder list. >>> >>> Thanks! Yes not bad. The keyboard sequence is >>> - Control/X >>> - DownArrow >>> - Control/V >>> - Enter >>> >>> It does work. However it's a bit fiddly - 4 keyboard interactions just >>> to go down one row! >>> >>> Any other suggestions? >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Thursday, 8 October 2015 10:27:24 UTC+1, pottster wrote: >>> >>>> You might be better off with Ctrl+x and Ctrl+v - this adds to top of >>>> folder list. >>>> >>>> From this, and some of your other posts, I suspect that you might be >>>> spending too much time "playing" with your outline. I would recommend >>>> keeping your outline structure as flat and as unchanging as possible and >>>> use views and your tags of choice (contexts, stars, flags) to achieve what >>>> you want. Everyone is different of course but I do feel that the Outline is >>>> best used for planning, setting goals and review - a bit like the contents >>>> section of a book. I spent a fair amount of time getting my Outline right a >>>> couple of years ago but haven't changed it significantly for a long while. >>>> Don't get too hung up on the sequence of the tasks either, very few tasks >>>> need to be done (or can be done) in sequence - I say that as an experienced >>>> Project Manager. 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