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Steve |
Posted Oct 17, 2009 in: How to handle "must do today" and Next Actions?
Score: 0
I have quite a few tasks that are date-dependant, and a lot are also recurring. According to GTD, these are simply placed on "your calendar", and you look at these before your Next Actions. So far, so good.
However, I struggle a bit looking between the two sets of tasks. There will always be times when I can't complete my "must dos" first, maybe because of context, time constraints etc. So I move on to my Next Actions. I must then continually remind myself to go back and look at my "must dos" in case I forget them! I keep both sets of tasks in Toodledo, and I can sort of come up with a saved search that combines both sets, with due-dated tasks sorted before Next Actions to hopefully indicate they must be done first. But I can't find a way to replicate this in the iPhone app, so I;m a bit stuck. Anyone got any good ideas in this regard? |
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Steve |
Thanks, Vin. Long as I'm not alone!
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Steve |
Love the theme. But I have one little niggle (which applies to all themes I've tried). The theme "sticks" as long as I switch between tabs in a single view. But if I go to another view, my default Toodledo theme shows for a second or two before the dark theme takes over, which is a little off-putting. I think it's related to how many tasks are displayed on the page. Is this a common problem? I've tried on Safari and Firefox.
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Steve |
@Jrod:
Ah, thanks, of course! That makes it very easy to complete one action, pick the next and move it to the Next Actions folder. There's still one thing that bothers me about the way Toodledo works. If you have subtasks in your Next Actions folder, when you go to the Next Actions folder you have to make sure that subtasks are flattened, otherwise you don't see them. But then you want to look at your Projects folder and there you want subtasks nested. So you have to continually manually change the way subtasks are displayed because whatever you choose applies to all the folders under the Folder view. Do you find this frustrating too, or have you found a way around it? I wish Toodledo remembered these sort of options for each tab! @Proximo: Thanks again for taking the time to expand on the way you do things. Every little bit helps! |
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Steve |
@Jrod:
I'm interested in your approach of mainly using the Next Actions folder. Your said: "I can always click on a task to see the parent project task and all surrounding tasks that are collected. If the next physical action after that needs to be done that week, I check off the completed task and change the new next action to the "Next Action" folder." Can you do all this from your custom searches? I find that if a search finds a subtask, you can click on the parent icon to display the parent, but this doesn't result in all the subtasks being displayed - just the parent and the subtasks that match the search. So I have to go to the Projects folder to find the next task to mark as Next Action. Is that what you do? I'm not sure what you mean by "all surrounding tasks that are collected." Thanks. |
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Steve |
OK, thanks. I'm trying to keep all tasks in Toodledo, so input on how people handle this in conjunction with next actions would be helpful.
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Steve |
Further edit: Page 76 of the gtd book says:
"If the project has multiple components, each of them should be assessed appropriately by asking, "Is there something that anyone could be doing on this right now?" You could be coordinating speakers for the conference, for instance, at the same time that you're finding the appropriate site. In some cases there will be only one aspect that can be activated, and everything else will depend on the results of that. So there my be only one action, which will be the linchpin for all the rest." Certainly seems to indicate that multiple next actions for a project are to be expected. |
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Steve |
Yeh, horses for courses. We can all choose what's best for us. Nice to discuss what people use though.
Anyone care to comment on how they handle/filter tasks that must be done on a particular day? |
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Steve |
Thanks very much for clarifying, garroteman. I followed you right up until the last paragraph! Are you here saying that you like Proximo's new methodology of adding a second level of context in tags, but that you yourself don't generally need this?
I see so many examples of people having a phone or calls context so they can just quickly grab a list of all calls to make in one go. I think I'd find this useful. Proximo would need another saved search to do this effectively I think, although he has said he just uses the tags view (which would show all actions, not just starred next actions so might be confusing if you have a lot). Thanks again for helping me get a handle on all this! |
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Steve |
I'm totally with you, IceHeartX. From my perspective, a single project can have multiple next actions. I would think most of them do! Your example of tasks within a project that will take different times to complete is pertinent. You want to see them both when you're looking at all your next actions so you can decide then, based on how much time you have, which one to do. And multiple tasks could be in different contexts. You do whichever one is pertinent to your current context, and any of them could move the project forward. Omnifocus even gives you this capability. Tasks within a project can be serial or parallel. If they're parallel (and ready to action) you get to see them all and choose which to do.
I think a single next action makes sense if you continually look at ALL the actions in a project to decide what to do next. You will pick the best one. But in a software context, where you have picked next actions in advance of actually doing them, maybe at a weekly review, it just doesn't make sense to me. Edit to make my point a bit clearer (I hope). As I read it, the book says you'll have project "files" with the associated tasks mapped out. You'll choose a next action to put on your next action list, which should be broken down by context. If you do this in advance, say at the beginning of the day or at a weekly review, you have no idea what contexts you might find yourself in, or how much time you'll have. If you had multiple ready-to-go tasks in that project that would all move it forward, you might well miss out on doing something if you only choose one next action to put on your list. If, on the other hand, you only look at the tasks in your project at the time you are looking for something to do, it's fine. But then we have no such thing as a next action list. What am I missing in the process? This message was edited Oct 15, 2009. |
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Steve |
I'm new to GTD, and part-way through "the book". I'm interested in the way you and garroteman use contexts. Garroteman said to not fall into the trap of breaking context into phone, computer etc, but they are specific examples that appear in the book. What's so bad about using them? I see you, Proximo, have added these as sort of sub-contexts through the use of tags. Why not have them as main contexts?
Loving these threads! For years (decades?) I've used a Franklin method of having due dates and priorities for everything, and planning each day pretty much the night before, based on how long each task should take, how much time I have, etc, plus an "interrupt factor". I actually don't think this is as far removed from GTD as some might think, but I'm interested in trying the GTD approach of just having lists with next actions etc. I have been confused by next action as it applies to one-off tasks, but the Proximo approach makes some sense to me. I too have many one-off tasks, and looking at a big list every time I want the next thing to do seems daunting and doesn't seem to fit the de-stressing idea. That's why the Franklin method has been good for me - every task has its day, and I don't worry about it until it pops up. Speaking of popping up, how do you handle tasks that DO have a specific day? Does your search include those tasks due today (or are overdue), or do you just use the due-date tab to look at these tasks first? Cheers! |
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Steve |
Posted Aug 13, 2009 in: iPhone app experiences and problems
Score: 0
I've been using Appigo's Todo app on the iPhone, synced to Toodledo Pro. I'm starting to see a few niggles with the way it tries to strike a compromise between its functionality and the Toodledo API, so I tried Toodledo's iPhone app. I thought I'd write a list of problems and suggestions. Sorry if these have already been discussed elsewhere:
I find it frustrating that your sort selection isn't remembered for each view, like it is on the web app. For things like focus and due-date today, I like to use folder sort because my folders at the moment are really contexts (if I used contexts, I'd use context sort). But that's useless if I go into, say, a Next 7 days view, so I have to change the sort order to due date and then revert. I'd love to see multi-line task descriptions. Too many get truncated. I know I can use landscape, but I'd still like multi-line. I'd like an easier way to see subtasks when nested. Todo just shows you parent and subtasks when you tap a parent, and you can tap on each one to get details. I think this is quicker and easier. I think icons for things like priority and coloured dots for things like contexts and folders work better. Maybe as an option? I worry a little that repeating tasks only regenerate when you sync. That means when I'm on a desert island my tasks won't repeat. Now you could argue that if I'm on a desert island I shouldn't be looking at my tasks, but you get the gist... Push works nicely, but the sound they make is too low pitched and too short to be picked up. Be nice to have configurable sounds. Not sure why the shortest reminder is 15 minutes. How about 5 minutes and 0 minutes too? Like the web app (and Todo) it would be nice to have a "banner" when there is a major break in the sort. Like today, tomorrow, next 7 days, or folder/context name etc. Much easier to see what you've got then, rather than having to peer at the text to see when something changes. This has been discussed recently, but I find the way repeating tasks behave when you tick one off a bit odd. In contrast to normal tasks, it stays ticked, and the regenerated instance appears, even though it doesn't belong in the current view. Doesn't seem to be necessary to me. Also, if you turn your phone off at this point and then turn it back on, an EXTRA task is shown (ticked off). This bit's a bug I guess. I'd at least like an option to search all tasks, not just those in the current view. Eliminates the need to switch views unnecessarily. A "quick add" button would be nice. I use this a lot in Todo. Just type in the description and the task is added with all its defaults. I notice that you can't at the moment set subtasks to repeat with the parent, as you can with the web app. Lastly, the app is crashing quite a bit for me. Can't pin it down exactly, but it will fairly often crash on startup. Thanks for listening. I love Toodledo, and I look forward to seeing the iPhone app evolve. |
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Steve |
No problem - I understand. I'll keep an eye out...
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Steve |
Just wondering if there's a timescale when this issue might get looked at. Thanks.
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Steve |
Actually, it gets weirder! Even in my task 2 case (all subtasks have no due date), they DO appear without fuss if the subtasks have no context! My saved search sorts by context, if that makes any difference. So, if all subtasks have no due date and no context, they display fine when I click on the parent task icon, with no filter message saying they're hidden.
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Steve |
Thanks for that. But it really doesn't explain my Task 1 case. The task and subtasks all are due today. They initially show flattened. If I click on the icon for the parent task to nest them, I'm back to the problem of getting the filter message.
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Steve |
I have a similar problem. Let me try to simplify things...
I have 2 tasks that both have subtasks (everything in a single folder). Task 1 has subtasks with today as their due date, the same as their parent. Tasks 2's subtasks have no due date, but the parent has today. If I use the "due-date" tab and look at today's tasks, everything shows fine. Depending on the filter, Task 1's subtasks are either flattened or nested. Task 2's subtasks are always nested because they have no due date. Now I try to do a saved search, which can be as simple as showing all tasks. Once you get into Saved Search world, there's no such thing as filters. If I try to un-nest Task 2, I get the message that some subtasks are hidden because of the filters, and I have to click on this to get them to display. Task 1's subtasks always initially display flattened (I have no choice). If I then click on Task 1's icon to nest the subtasks, I get the same problem as Task 1 - a warning that filters are stopping the display. It seems as if there's a behind the scenes filter once you get into Saved Search mode that you have no control over. This is stopping the proper display of subtasks. I'd really like this to be looked at, since it's ruining the usefulness of saved searches, which I rely on a lot. |
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Steve |
That's nice to know! Thanks for the great support. I'm a happy toodeldoer now, and will upgrade my account.
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Steve |
That's great! Thank you so much. Works like a charm.
A bit off-topic, but can you give me an idea of how your site is maintained? What sort of data backups are there, redundancy, off-site backups etc. are there? I definitely want to entrust my valuable todo's to toodeldo, but need to know how "safe" they are! Thanks again. |
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Steve |
Thanks - I understand. Actually, I'm surprised it hasn't been reported before. Presumably anyone who is ahead of the US will see this problem pretty immediately. Maybe not many use saved searches with phrases!
Is there some way I can track when things get implemented/changed, maybe an RSS feed or something? |