ForumsQuestionsHow do you use Folders, Contexts and Tags to manage your


How do you use Folders, Contexts and Tags to manage your
Author Message
jason

Posted: Aug 24, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Im interested in seeing how other people manage their tasks in different ways using the free version of Toodledo and Folders, Contexts and Tags.
jason

Posted: Aug 27, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Anyone at all????
Varun Bhatta

Posted: Aug 27, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Well... you can see few of them discussing that in this thread -
https://www.toodledo.com/forums/5/2660/0/proximos-gtd-setup.html


This message was edited Aug 27, 2010.
Claudio

Posted: Aug 27, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Check out these previous topics:
Folders and Contexts
Folders/Contexts/Tags.

BTW, I found them by typing "Contexts Folders" in the box next to "Search this forum" at the top of the Questions forum.
Salgud

Posted: Aug 27, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by jason:
Im interested in seeing how other people manage their tasks in different ways using the free version of Toodledo and Folders, Contexts and Tags.


Just been very busy. I'll tell you my schema, though I'm probably the least qualified person here bacause I've only been using TD for 6 weeks or so, and I'm still tweaking.

I'm an Amininistrative Assistant for a Colorado government agency, and I support various people and efforts in the division. We have a major project going on, and I directly support a few of the Workgroups doing the project. I also indirectly support the other workgroups and the project in general, since I work for the Assistant Director who is the Project Manager. So I have a list of routine duties like timekeeping and answering phones along with a sizable amount of project work, like taking minutes, scheduling meetings, getting copies made, etc. Part of the reason I like TD is that it's powerful enough to handle the variety of things I do and keep it all organized, if not up to date (Eagerly waiting for the enhancement that actually does the work!:).

So I have folders for the division, for the overall Project, and for each workgroup I support. For years I've had a system of naming such bodies because they often have long names that take up a lot of screen real estate and time to type out over and over (I'm not a good typist, and know every trick in the book to minimize the amount of typing I do. Fortunately, my present assignment doesn't require much typing). So the Research and Evaluation Workgroup is EvalWG in all my postings, file system and in TD. The Project Operations and Implementaton Team is POIT, everywhere. This keeps my folder names short so I can see more across the screen before they fall off the edge into the "More" tab.

Since I group the overall division work under one folder, to keep the total number of folders down, I use tags for my routing duties, again, abbreviated to keep them short. So Timekeeping is TimeK, and so on. I also tag the name of the person I'm doing something for to keept track whom I'm working for and to get additional information if needed. I use first name, last initial as I have in many other systems over the years for the same reasons I use the standard abbreviations mentioned above.

For Contexts, so far, I have Home, Work, Phone and Out. I'm still working on this because it's not quite right. When I have a little time, I'm going to modify them according to a post I saw here a few days ago (Just realized I didn't mark it, so hope I can find it again!). I'm going to have "Phone" as a folder so I can have both Home and Work Contexts for Phone and discriminate which is which.

I use the various Statuses as needed. While there are a lot of requests to make this field customizable, which seems reasonable to me, I don't really need it. I find the various statuses more than adequate for my needs.

Since I have the paid version (am happy to pay the $15, even if I didn't need the features, just go keep TD going), I have subtasks and I mostly use those for standard, repeating projects I do, some of which repeat on a regular basis, some of which repeat on demand. There are some really excellent, helpful postings on how to set this up, if you decide to go Pro at some point.

I don't use the Main page as my main page. I use the Search page and a lot of saved Searches to slice and dice my task lists so I can see whatever I need to keep track of it all. Again, I use abbreviations for the Saved Search names to save space, so my final daily work list is "W-Star", meaning, work, starred. I go thru the many items on my task list each morning in another longer list, which is filtered for all tasks that have a due date before tomorrow, a start date before tomorrow, and are in the Work or Phone contexts and have an Active or Next Action status. Something like that. I star the tasks I'd like to accomplish today and work from that starred list.

I also use TD for my personal task list, and am still developing that aspect. Not as urgent as my work needs. But it is creating additional folders and Saved Searches.

Finally, I've just started playing with using TD as my grocery list. Not sure this is going to work, but I'm giving it a try. This will be in a separate folder offscreen from my work related tasks. If it starts to clutter up TD, I'll do something else. Again, there are some great tips in these forums on different ways to set this up.

One last detail, something I've learned over the years with other similar things. For the folders and Saved Searches that I don't use often but still want available, I name them "zDone" or "zRepeat", to put them at the end of the list so they fall off into "More" and the ones I need more often are visible and available.

I hope this gives you some idea of how you might use TD. I still have a ways to go to get my system refined. If any other users see a simpler, gentler way to do what I'm doing, I'm always open to suggestions.

Best of luck with TD. Keep coming to the forums for help, they're some of the friendliest and most helpful I've attended in my many years of using online support.


This message was edited Aug 27, 2010.
Captain_Obvious

Posted: Aug 30, 2010
Score: -4 Reference
6 weeks know-it-all.

@Salgud : Seriously, get to the point or write a book.
You cannot reply yet

U Back to topic home

R Post a reply

To participate in these forums, you must be signed in.