ForumsQuestionsGoal contributions


Goal contributions
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korbas

Posted: Mar 16, 2008
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In the goals section, under the "Contributes" heading, it will only show that one goal contributes to another if the contributing goal is in another section - for example, one long-term goal cannot contribute to another long-term goal. The contributing goal actually has to be in the short-term goals section.

Could this be an additional feature? Surely one long-term goal (say, "Get accepted to med school") could contribute to another long-term goal ("Graduate from med school.")
tjreo

Posted: Mar 17, 2008
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The three-tiered approach works great for me currently but I can see how goals can easily become nested folders.

I would really like to hear the reasoning behind the design decision to go with a strict three levels.
Jake

Toodledo Founder
Posted: Mar 17, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
We wanted to extend our to-do functionality to match the six-level model described in David Allen's GTD book. He uses an airplane metaphor in the book:

50,000+ feet : Life
40,000 feet: 3-5 year vision
30,000 feet: 1-2 year goals
20,000 feet: Areas of responsibility
10,000 feet: Current Projects
runway: Current actions


20,000 feet and down was already implemented well with our folders/contexts/tasks and subtasks. This left 50k, 40k and 30k, which we mapped to Life, Long and Short term goals. We felt like this matched GTD well and was also accessible for people who don't use GTD.

We also try to keep things simple, and having a strict three-tiered approach keeps the interface easy to use and understandable to most people. If we allowed nested goals, or for goals on the same level to contribute to each other, then you could get into some complex situations that would be difficult to resolve or communicate to the customer.
Roman

Posted: Mar 17, 2008
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*rapidly nodding his head in favour

i think, three tiers of goals should be enough. finally, you should achieve them, not manage them. and after all, GTD is about simplicty, isnĀ“t it?
vegheadjones

Posted: Mar 17, 2008
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While I agree that three tiers is enough, I am curious how you see 20k feet reflected in the toodledo schema. Runway is obviously tasks, sorted by context, and 10,000 is folders, but where do you think the areas of responsibility go?
Jake

Toodledo Founder
Posted: Mar 17, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
If you want to strictly stick to the six-level model: 20k=folders, 10k=tasks, runway=subtasks.

In practice, I think that most people use folders for both 20k and 10k and have the runway be both tasks and subtasks.
korbas

Posted: Mar 17, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
I guess three is enough, and it does keep things simple. :-) That is especially the case as this is more of a task-oriented system.

This message was edited Mar 17, 2008.
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