Greetings, I have been using GTD and MLO in combination for many years. I avoid attempting to identify daily tasks, as I feel that does not fit with the GTD model. Instead, as I end one task, I update MLO, complete the task (if appropriate), and ensure the next action for that project is identified. Then I use the various views to determine what to work on next focusing on context, due date (true due dates), energy, etc.
The views I find most helpful are: - By Due Date - sorting tasks by due date - I attempt to have due dates be either a hard date (following GTD model) or a soft date (one I am attempting to enforce, but I try and avoid those) - Projects - view of my projects, sorted by their status and the active tasks - Waiting For - I have a context @waitingfor that shows items I've delegated or need something from another. This view is very help (especially at work) for ensuring I'm following up - Starred - I use stars to identify items that I consider a priority but don't have a due date - Someday - I have a context @someday that I use to identify items to consider for later. This way I can review them periodically and enable them if desired. I use the conditional formatting of MLO to gray those out in the outline - Modified recently - this shows items that have been updated in the last 24 hours - very helpful for "what did I do earlier today" and "why did that task appear to move dates" - helps to reset something if I didn't mean to change it I hope this is helpful, Elizabeth On Friday, June 29, 2018 at 2:43:37 AM UTC-5, John Hochwalt wrote: > > Dear Forum, > > My question is regarding the ‘best practices’ or setting up To-Do views to > manage your prioritized or upcoming tasks. I am a GTD follower & have used > MLO off & on since 2015. I recently am moving back to it from Todoist as I > think some of the pros which have been outlined in this forum make it more > suitable to a GTD approach. > > > > However, while the outline feature is amazing, I struggle with how to best > manage and sort my upcoming tasks. Part of the issue is the flexibility > and that there is just an endless amount of options and methods to use > within MLO. I would be appreciative if any of the long-time MLO users > could provide which views they use & stick with (with what filters & > grouping is used if you can) in order to monitor & manage your prioritized > tasks to identify tasks for this week & today. One of my biggest hangups > on Todoist is that it was heavily structured around the Due Date concept, > which eventually pushed me to stop using it as I had to move-forward my > un-completed tasks every day, which really kills your motivation after > awhile > > > > My current plan is to leverage goal to identify the time horizon & Star to > identify items for today. I would then like to optionally use Due Date > (for items that really require it) and Start Date in my views for this > week/today in order to pull these tasks in (regardless of goal/star). One > feature that I do like is to be able to plan for tasks for a weekend or a > particular day when I know I will have some time with my kids occupied & > have bandwidth to e.g., run errands or complete specific tasks. My folder > structure already is split by areas of focus / role with projects > underneath. I have never had much need to use Context in the GTD-sense for > location tracking as my folders already give me this sense & my ‘work’ can > be accomplished at work or home via my laptop. > > > > I’d like to understand from others if there are pros/cons that you have > seen of using Start Date, Due Date, Flag, Context for the purpose of > prioritizing upcoming tasks? Also, do people actually use the MLO > prioritization algorithm for prioritizing tasks or typically go with custom > defined views? > > > Also, I am not clear from the help material on how the google calendar > sync works. Is it required that I maintain both a start & end date in > order for my tasks to sync into google calendar? > > > > Thanks for any assistance you can give on this topic, > > > > John > -- 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/e60cd042-e917-45fb-8f8a-3812dba8ee4b%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
