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Toodledo Toosdays: Organize Your List
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Sabina A.

Posted: Jun 25, 2013
Score: 0 Reference
Our Toodledo Toosday Tip:

It’s important to know what's on your to-do list and keep it organized. Create a weekly repeating task that reminds you to review and reprioritize your to-do list!



Submit your Toodledo tips to [email protected]. If you're the first one with a new idea, we'll give you a free month subscription!
Norman J.

Posted: Jun 25, 2013
Score: 0 Reference
It would be nice to have a 'review feature' in the style of OmniFocus. Since Toodledo is a generic tool and doesn't distinguish between projects and tasks, there is no generic way to 'identify' a reviewable project in the meaning of GTD.
A possible solution would be a separate field for defining the review-cycle of a task or sub-task (e.g. review on sunday every 2 weeks) or a global review-interval in the user properties. The question is, when to start with the first review. Maybe it is possible to start the review period from the start of the task or from the 'creation time'.

Because I don't know the 'data model' of Toodledo, I have to guess that is somewhat of an extension to the 'task table' or the creation of a seperate 'review table' and the integration into the web-site, search and mobile applications. Summarizing a hell of work for a small but very useful feature.

A more practicable tip is either using the (often unused) 'start date' to indicate the last review, combined with a search that looks for all tasks whith a 'start date' older than two weeks and bulk-adjust the 'start date' after the review or using a tag like '@2013-06-23' to set the last review date on a task. With the second solution it isn't possible to use a time-based search but you will be able to see old unreviewed tasks in the tag-section of the menu.

Regards

Norman


This message was edited Jun 25, 2013.
Salgud

Posted: Jun 26, 2013
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Norman J.:
It would be nice to have a 'review feature' in the style of OmniFocus. Since Toodledo is a generic tool and doesn't distinguish between projects and tasks, there is no generic way to 'identify' a reviewable project in the meaning of GTD.


I have trouble understanding what you're saying here because of all the qualifiers, like "generic" and "reviewable" and so forth. (I do know that Allen's definition of a project could be anything from brushing your teeth to a mission to the moon.) But if you're saying there's no way to identify projects in TD, that's not the case. You have search criteria for "Has children" which does the trick. Whether or not that's "generic" or will identify "reviewable" projects is up to you. You can always use tags to aid in this search, unless of course, David Allen doesn't allow it.

A possible solution would be a separate field for defining the review-cycle of a task or sub-task (e.g. review on sunday every 2 weeks) or a global review-interval in the user properties. The question is, when to start with the first review. Maybe it is possible to start the review period from the start of the task or from the 'creation time'.

Because I don't know the 'data model' of Toodledo, I have to guess that is somewhat of an extension to the 'task table' or the creation of a seperate 'review table' and the integration into the web-site, search and mobile applications. Summarizing a hell of work for a small but very useful feature.

A more practicable tip is either using the (often unused) 'start date' to indicate the last review, combined with a search that looks for all tasks whith a 'start date' older than two weeks and bulk-adjust the 'start date' after the review or using a tag like '@2013-06-23' to set the last review date on a task. With the second solution it isn't possible to use a time-based search but you will be able to see old unreviewed tasks in the tag-section of the menu.


I guess you can go to all that trouble, if it pleases you. Seems much simpler to me to create a series of Saved Searches that find what is needed for your weekly review, then just incorporate them appropriately into your list of Saved Searches. However, I recognize that this may not be sophisticated enough for some.
Norman J.

Posted: Jun 26, 2013
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Salgud:
Posted by Norman J.:

I have trouble understanding what you're saying here because of all the qualifiers, like "generic" and "reviewable" and so forth. (I do know that Allen's definition of a project could be anything from brushing your teeth to a mission to the moon.) But if you're saying there's no way to identify projects in TD, that's not the case. You have search criteria for "Has children" which does the trick. Whether or not that's "generic" or will identify "reviewable" projects is up to you. You can always use tags to aid in this search, unless of course, David Allen doesn't allow it.


As I was going to say that every user of Toodledo could have a different setup for projects. For example one can use a single Folder for a single projekt or tag the 'project task' as "project".
I am using tasks for projects and sub-tasks for the actions in a project. All projects are resides in one folder called "projects".

I guess you can go to all that trouble, if it pleases you. Seems much simpler to me to create a series of Saved Searches that find what is needed for your weekly review, then just incorporate them appropriately into your list of Saved Searches. However, I recognize that this may not be sophisticated enough for some.


The question is not what pleases me but how to make the review process more efficient. Actually I have about 50 projects, some active, some waiting and some on hold. During my weekly review I have to 'process' 50 projects. The majority of these projects haven't changed since the last week and no review is necessary. For me it's easier to tag the project with the date of the last review and the review period (e.g. 2 weeks). This way I am able to review every week all projects with the 'weekly review tag' and every two or four weeks the remaining projects.
The planning what to do the next week / day is a seperate step in my GTD-setup because my projects have a priority. I understand that this is a discrepancy to the 'core GTD-system' but in my life there are projects which are much more important than other ones (e.g. 'find a kindergarten' is more important than 'look for new garden furniture' despite both projects have to be finished in the first half-year of 2013).

Regards

Norman


This message was edited Jun 26, 2013.
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