ForumsQuestionsPostponing tasks


Postponing tasks
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ramesh.krishnan.98

Posted: Apr 16, 2013
Score: 1 Reference
Being the procrastinator that I am, I end up falling behind my task list. I would like to postpone a set of tasks by changing the due dates, but the catch is this. The set of dependent tasks have different dates, and I would like them all to be postponed by a fixed number. For instance, if I have three tasks, each due on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of a given month, I would like to change those dates to the 14th, 15th, and 16th.

My current solution is to export it as xml (csv causes problems with long notes fields), parse it into excel, filter to get the desired records, manipulate the dates, (waste an inordinate amount of time to get excel to export the dates into a text format), regenerate the xml file, import it back into toodledo, and then (!) delete the duplicates.

I tried the greasemonkey script, but it doesn't work on chrome.

Any tips?

--R
JPR

Posted: Apr 18, 2013
Score: 0 Reference
Say it takes 10 seconds to manually postpone a single due date. Doing your xml export, excel parse, filter.... etc etc. must take you at least 10 minutes, (and I'm guessing much more) and that is the same time as manually postponing 100 tasks.

Personally, if I needed to postpone that kind of volume on a regular basis, I'd reconsider the use of the due date in the first place. Use the due date for things that are really due on that date, don't use it as a sorting mechanism.
ramesh.krishnan.98

Posted: Apr 18, 2013
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by JPR:
Say it takes 10 seconds to manually postpone a single due date. Doing your xml export, excel parse, filter.... etc etc. must take you at least 10 minutes, (and I'm guessing much more) and that is the same time as manually postponing 100 tasks.

Personally, if I needed to postpone that kind of volume on a regular basis, I'd reconsider the use of the due date in the first place. Use the due date for things that are really due on that date, don't use it as a sorting mechanism.


Good point, as that was something that I was thinking of myself. I have a lot of related tasks, and if there was a way to use dependency, I would have to update only one task.

I am using the due date to remind me to do the tasks. Perhaps, I can play around with the "optionally due" feature.
tophyd

Posted: Apr 19, 2013
Score: 0 Reference
Have you considered creating a generic repeating task, and listing the specific tasks on the note?

For example, I could create a repeating task that says "Task for Status Report," and list these actions in the note.
Get input from team
Make sure all major goals are covered
Write up report
Have John review report
Make suggested edits
Sent report to Mary and Ted

If you need to keep track of what task you're on, you could mark an X for tasks you've finished (or delete them if you won't need to reuse them later).

Every day you'd get a tickler that says "Task for Status Report," and you'd just have to go into the Notes section to see which task you need to do. A delay in the first item delays all the subsequent items by default.


Another option is the way I do it. I put the first specific task name into the task name field. When I'm done with that specific task, I don't mark it done, I just change the task name in Toodledo to the next item on the list and change the due date accordingly. I know not to close it because I always check any existing notes before closing a task.


Or, something I've been trying for the last week or so because I still spent too much time postpoining tasks... I just let them go overdue. I put that date on there for a reason, and I shouldn't be trying to cover that up unless something has changed or I made a mistake (in which case I do change the date). My reminder list is everything with an importance level of 7 or above, but you could look at things overdue or due today just as easy.
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