What about using advanced view to show the tasks in a date range? I have a view set up for the next 7 and 30 days.
On Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at 2:48:13 PM UTC-5, Susannah wrote: > > Thanks Dwight for the explanation. That all makes sense. I am more just > looking for a more visual display of my tasks. If I need something more > than that I would use Microsoft project. In list views I have a really > hard time seeing how badly I am over scheduling myself on one day and > underscheduling on the next. I use the word scheduling loosely here. If I > had something like David Timpe mentioned I think that would help > tremendously to better see my work. I have tried using Kanban flow along > with MLO and it works pretty well except for having things in more than one > place. > Susannah > > > On Friday, May 24, 2019 at 10:43:01 AM UTC-4, Dwight wrote: >> >> Hi, Susannah, your suggestion of providing a *Gantt chart view *in MLO >> has been popular. I'd like to discuss *some of the factors that could >> make this into a high-cost low-benefit feature.* >> >> If all you were looking for is a task list with horizontal bars showing >> start date and due date, that's probably available at a moderate cost. But >> I suspect that most if not all of the people asking for this are actually >> hoping for much more - I believe that you will be disappointed with a >> simple Gantt view unless MLO also provides project management features such >> as resource balancing and dynamic rescheduling. >> >> Let's start with dates. If you follow anything like the GTD methodology >> for task management, you are not using MLO's Start and Due dates for >> anything like the date you plan to start and finish the task. Start is the >> earliest date on which you could start the task, and Due is the date after >> which the task can no longer be done or is no longer meaningful. For >> example, if I want to buy tickets to the opera, I might put the date they >> go on sale as the start and the date of the performance as the Due - If I >> have not bought them yet on the day after the performance there's no point >> in doing it now. So maybe they are on sale for three months, that does not >> mean that the duration of this task is three man-months. Also, you could >> have a large and complex set of interrelated tasks with complex >> dependencies, some of which could be running behind schedule, and none of >> that makes the tickets go on sale any sooner or causes a delay in the >> performance. MLO is very good at handling dependencies but it does so by >> managing the active/inactive status of each task. Suppose I am buying the >> tickets for a group who want to go to the opera together, so I have to put >> in my order for the tickets, confirm the they are available, then collect >> money from all of the people, pay for and pick up the tickets, and >> distribute them. Suppose that takes a month to complete. That means that I >> really should buy them no later than a month before the performance. MS >> Project would reschedule the "buy tickets" task to be due a month before >> the performance. MLO cannot do that because MLO will not reschedule your >> tasks for you. >> >> In order to handle this simple situation MLO would need four dates >> instead of two - you would add Begin and End which would reflect the plan >> for when you will actually do this task. MLO would be free to reset the >> begin and end dates to reflect your dependencies. >> >> You would also need to know the actual effort required for each task, >> usually measured in hours (different from the Effort field, which gets a >> number between 0 and 100, not clear if it's hours, days or just a relative >> scale where 100 means "very big"). And you would need to know how many >> hours per day you have available to work on tasks like this. And which days >> you work and which days you don't work, like weekends and holidays, >> including obscure local holidays. You might need to also track all of the >> other things you spend your work hours on, and all of the people who you >> will need to help you and their availability. If there are scheduled >> resources, like conference rooms or bulldozers you may need some way of >> knowing when and whether they are available. >> >> Once MLO can handle all of this, then you need to enter all of this >> information, and even worse, you have to maintain it - when bad weather or >> a broken tool or a long phone call from your Mom throw you off schedule you >> have to remember to update your project plan and see whether the end date >> changed. That's why most projects that use project management tools >> effectively have a full time project administrator (different from the >> project manager) in charge of creating and maintaining project plans and >> spending little or no time actually working to complete the project. A >> single person trying to manage tasks on a project management tool usually >> has an inevitable crisis where you have to choose whether to try as hard as >> you can to get the project done on time and forget updating the project >> plan, or spend your time keeping the plan accurate and not actually >> complete the project. >> >> For your nice to have feature of finding the critical path, a MLO would >> need further enhancement. >> >> And this brings me to my primary concern. MLO is in my opinion the >> absolute top of the line in task management apps with tools and features >> that bring power and flexibility seen nowhere else. If the MLO developers >> were to invest in all the things described above, the result would be a >> passable but primitive project management tool missing most of the advanced >> features found in the many currently available project management apps, >> like time tracking to feed payroll, or calculating the cost per value added >> ratio for each task to allow outsourcing or elimination of nonproductive >> tasks. There would be little reason for anyone seeking a project management >> tool to select MLO over the established project management apps, and not >> much chance that the MLO developers could ever recover their investment in >> these enhancements. >> >> -Dwight >> >> On 5/22/2019 7:19 AM, Susannah wrote: >> >> Me too on the Gantt view >> I thought there used to be one on the phone app but I don't see it >> anymore. Would love one on the desktop version. Would also like a kanban >> board view but Gantt would be first choice. >> >> On Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 8:04:35 AM UTC-4, Costa G wrote: >>> >>> Hi All, >>> Suggested feature: Gantt chart graphical representation of projects. >>> In my opinion, MLO has all the infrastructure to implement this: >>> - Task list >>> - Dependencies >>> - Due date >>> >>> Tasks do not have to be arranged into hierarchy according to their >>> dependency. >>> >>> What needs to be changed: >>> Commonly on MSproject, projects are constructed by defining the >>> following basic data: >>> 1. Kickoff event >>> 2. Dependencies between tasks >>> 3. Duration of each task. >>> >>> The most important results of this feature are: >>> 1. A graphical representation of the project's structure, - the Gantt >>> chart. >>> 2. The outcome, - the project's end date, given the task durations and >>> dependencies. >>> 3. (nice to have: ) Calculation of the critical path - branch of the >>> project which is the limiting factor to the completion date. >>> >>> >>> Thanks and hope to see this come to life! >>> >> -- >> 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/98e3da94-b8c7-4808-865d-ca3b851bc336%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/98e3da94-b8c7-4808-865d-ca3b851bc336%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. 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