Hi John,
To clarify – I don’t use AutoSort much. Never found the time to set up the Active Tasks view well enough to rely on it. My main Tabs on the Windows version are * Inbox – processed daily to set a Due Date and a Context, and maybe a Start Date * Outline – processed daily to move items from Inbox to appropriate place in Outline Top level outline folders are: my work; wife’s work; domestic matters; family members; personal care/ pursuits; computers; MLO tips * Due Next 30 days – reviewed daily to confirm tasks to be done tomorrow, which are then Starred, or deferred * Starred – reviewed daily to give a proposed sequence in which I’ll do the tasks scheduled for tomorrow This is then synced to my android, and tomorrow I work through the list, and maybe add new tasks to the inbox It’s time well spent to take 20 mins each night to check on the upcoming stuff. Occasionally I’ll zoom in on an area of life/ project/ folder and review all the dates in it, but not often My getting things done is more than just doing things, it’s selecting which things not to do. I don’t have a problem with deferring things over and over again, if it lets me focus on what do I need to do. Sometimes I’ll review and think ‘actually I’m not so busy tomorrow, it’s a good day to tackle X after all’ Other times I’ll think ‘OK, I’ve still not done Y yet, it can’t be so important’, and I’ll take the Due Date off it, or delete it Knowing what I don’t need to be doing is as important to me as knowing what I do need to be doing. If I get asked ‘Where as we with Z?’, I know. Look it up in the Outline, and re-set the dates if necessary. Best of all, I know I’ve got it all in there, my life is organised, so I don’t have to stress about any of it. Regards Wol From: J Smith [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 28 March 2016 15:27 To: MyLifeOrganized <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [MLO] I am trying to apply GTD to my MLO data... @Wallace OK so are you somehow using Due Dates to make things disappear from immediate view? i.e. are you sorting by Due Date within each Areas of Life folder? The slight problem I have with what sounds like your way of doing things is that you need to keep deferring less high priority tasks, and there is some bad psychology which means that every time you look at something and defer it, the psychological "resistance" to your executing it increases. I use the Start Date to make things completely disappear using using the Active Tasks view, as I don't thing Due Date has this effect. (e.g. typing: Alt/S 3 D will make a task disappear completely for 3 days) J On Sunday, 27 March 2016 22:56:25 UTC+1, Wallace Gilbraith wrote: Hi John For me, Someday /Maybe, Not Yet, asap etc is a bit of a red herring - this grouping makes sense in a paper-based GTD system but not so much in MLO. How I do it .... Structure your outline to suit the areas of your life Any tasks or projects that need to be done asap, give them a due date in the near future, and do them by that date, or defer them then Any tasks or projects that can wait a while, give them a date further in the future, and when those dates come round, review then whether you want to do them , or set a still later date Any tasks or projects that are some say/ maybe, don't give them a date. They're still there in your outline, you can give them a date in the great our distant future when you want Any tasks or projects that you have delegated or want to keep an eye on, give them a due date of when you want to check up on them, and when the date comes round, check up, or defer If you ever feel an area of life, or a project therein, needs particular attention, zoom in, in your outline, and review your dates there. On any given day there will be a mixture of Things to do, and Things to put off further. Some people will automate their life more than this, but this works for me Regards Wol - sent from my phone - please excuse brevity - - phone sends from gmail account, but please always mail me at [email protected] <javascript:> - _____ From: J Smith <[email protected] <javascript:> > Sent: 27 March 2016 20:10:08 BST To: MyLifeOrganized <[email protected] <javascript:> > Subject: [MLO] I am trying to apply GTD to my MLO data... Hello I am trying to work out how to re-structure my MLO data in order to apply GTD principles better. I have pulled together all my stuff to be done (i.e. Tasks & Projects) and put it into MLO folders with the following names: A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" list ==> my list of things I may or may not do B. "NOT YET" list ==> a smaller list of things I will definitely do but not just yet C. "DO ASAP" list ==> (the list of live things I need to do As Soon As Possible) D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" list ==> This is stuff I have put into the future (using the Start Date) However it is really a 2 Dimensional problem because I also have various "Areas of Life": 1. WORK ==> My professional work 2. PERSONAL ==> Domestic/personal administration (includes sport / health / hobbies etc) 3. FAMILY BUSINESS ... and it would be quite nice to separate these Areas of Life visually. Obviously my "stuff" (i.e. Tasks & Projects) will tend to stay within whatever "Area of Life" I have allocated them. However my problem is that as my individual tasks & projects are likely to change what you might call "execution status" frequently and therefore they need to move very easily between lists A. B. C. and D. So I am trying to work out what is the best folder structure.... Should I have a folder structure that looks like this: (?) \ WORK \ WORK \ A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" list \ WORK \ B. "NOT YET" list \ WORK \ C. "DO ASAP" list \ WORK \ D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" list \ PERSONAL \ \ PERSONAL \ A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" list \ PERSONAL \ B. "NOT YET" list \ PERSONAL \ C. "DO ASAP" list \ PERSONAL \ D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" list \ FAMILY BUSINESS \ \ FAMILY BUSINESS \ A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" list \ FAMILY BUSINESS \ B. "NOT YET" list \ FAMILY BUSINESS \ C. "DO ASAP" list \ FAMILY BUSINESS \ D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" list It's just that it seems quite cumbersome. The obvious alternative would be to list the status as the folder in the root \ A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" \ \ A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" \ WORK \ A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" \ PERSONAL \ A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" \ FAMILY BUSINESS \ B. "NOT YET" \ \ B. "NOT YET" \ WORK \ B. "NOT YET" \ PERSONAL \ B. "NOT YET" \ FAMILY BUSINESS \ C. "DO ASAP" \ \ C. "DO ASAP" \ WORK \ C. "DO ASAP" \ PERSONAL \ C. "DO ASAP" \ FAMILY BUSINESS \ D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" \ \ D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" \ WORK \ D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" \ PERSONAL \ D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" \ FAMILY BUSINESS OR rather than moving stuff between folders in order to move them from list to list, would it be better to use MLO Flags to move Projects from list to list, OR use MLO Flags to allocate an area of life? ...and then to create a special "View" for each flag? But if I change the Flag for a MLO project, will all Tasks and sub-projects inherit the same Flag in the same way as they would inherit the same parent folder. - Any suggestions? With thanks J P.S. For completeness, I also use MLO to store things that I will want to review but which are not "actionable". So I also have - REFLECTIVE THOUGHTS list ==> a list of thoughts/principles/ideas that I need to review. Mostly ideas from other people. - REFLECTIVE THOUGHTS list ==> a list of my own new/creative ideas/innovations/inventions ] - REFERENCE list: ==> a list of stuff with no associated plan to action (although this sometimes goes into Evernote instead) P.P.S. Also the topic "Family Business" really breaks down into 3 actual businesses. But to create a folder for each of them, seems like over-kill: \ FAMILY BUSINESS 01 \ FAMILY BUSINESS 02 \ FAMILY BUSINESS 03 So I guess I could possibly use a context flag if I really want to do this, I'm not sure... -- 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]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/!%26!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAEAQF7ewp8NNmiMDGuqc/4rigAAAEAAAAG1cSp1MlVlFnDNobP8ejp8BAAAAAA%3D%3D%40gilbraith.co.uk. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
