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Search results for "Posted by Folke X"
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Folke X |
A workaround - or for some of us perhaps even a simpler and better way than thinking in terms of dependencies - could be to make use of the already existent Status field in Toodledo, and promote tasks to higher levels manually during reviews:
- Next Action - Active - Hold - Someday The above four statuses are the ones I would consider to be straight-line promotions upward for your work. Then there is also the statuses Waiting and Delegated, which are convenient when your are waiting on somebody else. Even for those who do not regularly review their projects, this method still will work: When you run out of Next Actions you simnply will have no other choice than to take a look at the Active ones and promote some of those. And so on - promote from Hold to Active etc. This message was edited Aug 03, 2011. |
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Folke X |
Posted Aug 03, 2011 in: Toodledo Redesign - July 2011 - Part 2
Score: 0
Totally agree. Enough said. Most of us like both the new UI and the way Toodledo has handled the switch.
If someone liked something much better in the old UI, then the best way to deal with that probably would be to submit a feature request for that particular feature (say, in the Questions forum). Also, bug reports are definitely appreciated by everybody. It is important both for Toodledo and for all of us users to identify and weed out any bugs, new or old. |
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Folke X |
I have made similar efforts to gradually simplify the way I do things. I take advantage of many of the data fields in Toodledo. Most of these I use for exceptional things and fine-tuning. I try to keep the "mandatory" ones to a bare minimum:
Status: This is my main "mandatory" field I use Next Action, Active, Planning, Hold, Waiting, Delegated and Someday for the scheduling/pipelining of tasks (pretty much in accordance to GTD). (I have "hijacked" the statuses Postponed, Canceled and Reference for more unorthodox purposes related to filtering etc.) Due date and Time: Only for externally timed tasks I never use due date for scheduling my own time - I rely on Status reviews for that, and I try to minimize the use of due dates. I use Due date only for tasks that have a "real" external deadline or decency requirement, or which at least have some other "real" external dependancy. For example, if I am waiting for some necessary input from somebody I usually set a due date (reminder) for when I need to take action in case nothing has arrived. Folder (or one Tag): Necessary to keep me sane This is the basis for how I break things into manageable portions at the most fundamental level. My tasks are separated into more than a dozen different buckets which represent different time-limited projects as well as permanent areas, such as Family-Admin, Family-ProjectZ, Job-Marketing, Job-Admin, Job-ProjectX etc, etc. Contexts: For special conditions I have no need for @computer, @phone etc. My standard environments are such that I have all these kinds of things available all the time. This means I do not need to specify a context in most cases, which saves time. I still use contexts, though, but not quite according to the book. One such context is "Away" (= out and about=@errands), which I find useful for seeing and selecting things that can be done at the same time while out and about somewhere. Location: No I have not found any use for it yet. I know it is very common (most systems have it), but this is not for me, it seems. Priorities: I use them, but do not depend heavily on them I use them as an indicator of the impact or potential the task might have. This measurement provides additional fine-tuning of the pipeline. For example, in the Someday category, the ones with a higher such "potential" are more likely to be detected and selected (by me, when I manually review the tasks) for a promotion along the pipeline (to, say, a Hold or Active status). Star: Yes, intuitively The way I usually keep my lists sorted (by Status, with Star as a second Sort order), the Star gives me a versatile means to further fine-tune the pipeline, for example to highlight the most urgent of the Next Actions, or by pre-marking some of the tasks in Active, Hold or Someday as the most likely to be next in turn for a promotion along the pipeline. Subtasks: No I used subtasks and subfolders a lot when I was using Todoist a few years ago. I decided this is not the way I want to get things done. I generally try, as far as possible, to keep projects as a one-task item. In many cases this is good enough, because I often know the steps intuitively or by heart - I just need to have it on my list so that I do not forget chipping away at it every day. If I need more info on file, I prefer to just use Task Notes. For slightly larger projects, where I need to use separate tasks, I sometimes create a new folder to keep them in, or, especially if it is a "matrix project" (tasks in different folders but somehow related) I may define a common short-term Goal for them (to be able to filter them in or out in Saved Searches etc). Task names: Yes, heuristically systematic I have found it to be good practice - even if there are alll kinds of sophisticated mechanisms for filtering and sorting - to also use very clear and a bit "systematic" (almost military style) task names. For example, instead of writing "Repair attic door lock" I might write "Attic Door Lock Repair". There might be other tasks named, say, "Attic Door Hinge Grease" and "Attic Floor Vacuum clean" etc. This "backward" naming tends to be particularly useful when the list is sorted alphabetically. In addition, it is generally easier to read task names if they all have a similar syntax. This message was edited Aug 03, 2011. |
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Folke X |
You could be right. I'll keep an eye open and see what I can find.
But please bear in mind (in case you notice someting similar in other areas): 1) Only task notes and experimental scroll seem to be affected (in my case). Other similar parts of Toodledo work flawlessly, e.g. Notebook and Forum entries can be typed at full speed, and normal "full screen" scrolling (not experimental) is always smooth. Neither do any other sites appear to be affected (e.g. Gmail etc). 2) This problem started to occur when the new UI was introduced. |
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Folke X |
Posted Aug 02, 2011 in: Discreet at-a-glance visualization
Score: 0
Aaah, I see. I didn't think of that.
Hmm. Then maybe the text could be printed as it is but in white color, totally invisible against the white background, but still clickable - this would be very nice and clean. |
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Folke X |
Posted Aug 02, 2011 in: repeat from due date and time
Score: 0
But isn't that the way it already works?
You actually have a choice of repeating either from the due date (scheduled date) or from the completion date (actual date). |
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Folke X |
Posted Aug 02, 2011 in: Discreet at-a-glance visualization
Score: 0
Just a little thing more - a thing so simple it could be implemented anytime, almost in no time, and with no adverse effects that I can see:
In the grid format, it would be much easier to locate tasks that that stand out in some way if the "field empty" texts (such as "no Context", "no tag" etc") were completely invisible (or at least much further subdued using a much, much, much lighter shade of gray). For example I use (some would probably say "misuse") the Context field in such a way that for most tasks it is empty, which means "my default context", which I know exactly what it is. Only occasionaly do I put one of my three other contexts - and I have deliberately chosen names of very different length for these three. This means in principle I can interpret the context at a glance, without really reading it. The main obstacle is the text "no Context" which reduces the visual contrast between those tasks that have the default context and those that do not. |
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Folke X |
I have been using PI for iPhone for several months, and it works (touch wood).
Unfortunately, it does not support Saved Searches (but neither does the Toodledo app, as I understand it). For me, the main attraction with PI was having Google calendar and Toodledo tasks in the same app, even on the same screen to some extent. (And the calendar part is a better interface to Google than the native iPhone calendar.) |
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Folke X |
Posted Aug 02, 2011 in: How to view status field when adding a new task?
Score: 0
Then it should show - if you are sure you have enabled it in Settings.
The Status field is very far out on the right when you add a task - easy to miss. |
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Folke X |
Here is som more info:
It appears, just as you suggested, that safe mode solves the problem, and it solves another problem, too, that I have not reported - the fact that the experimental scrolling is very "jumpy". In safe mode the experimental scrolling is smooth, and task note editing is also smooth. Neither of them shows any sign of lagging. Only when I start in safe mode do I get rid of the lagging problem (for both task editing and experimental scrolling). It makes no difference if, upon launch of FF with the -safe-mode switch set, I check the "disable plugins" box or not. As long as I continue in safe the problem is gone. (I have also inactivated the only plugin I had (Java Console) from within Firefox proper, but this alone does not solve the problem.) It would seem that the lagging arises from something else that takes place on the page, something which does not take place when in safe mode, whatever that could be. |
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Folke X |
I'll keep an eye open and see if I can discern any such dependencies or other patterns.
I am not sure if I can replicate it myself - the problem just comes, stays for a while, and then goes away. The only thing I know for sure is it never happened with the old UI. (I don't have any plugins except Java.) |
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Folke X |
Sometimes, but not always, it takes several seconds per character to enter task notes, and if I type ahead more than say 10 characters the whole text entry session gets aborted with the text truncated.
This does not appear when entering Forum posts or anywhere else, but when I move back to task note editing it remains slow.) (I am using FF 5.0.) |
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Folke X |
Workaround:
I do not konw if this is any help to you, but I use Status (and the Star) to achieve the pipelining of tasks. When I review my projects I gradually move tasks to a higher Status, Next Action being the highest status (and Starred Next Actions being the very highest). I tend to keep most of my lists sorted by Status, then Star. |
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Folke X |
Posted Aug 01, 2011 in: Please Help Me Hide Tomorrow's Tasks
Score: 0
Yes, you can change the settings for the hotlist (use due date setting "withing 1 days"), or:
Create your own hotlist as a saved search. This is easy, and it allows you to include or exlude whatever you like, for example you can disregard priority, filter out certain tags or whatever. Just do a new search and then press the save button. |
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Folke X |
I have been getting "All Tasks" as the default suggestion <u>in the Tag field</u> when I create new tasks. I promise. I don't know how it got there.
I'll try and keep track of if and how it keeps reappearing. |
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Folke X |
Mainly out of curiosity: How do I is take advantage of the multi-line mode?
I always use the grid mode. I can see everything without clicking, I can sort and select, and I can expand the notes with one click. With multi-line-mode I always have to click to see anything at all. Right? But I assume the multi-line mode must be very valuable for something, though, since apparently it is being used quite a lot. Can somebody please enlighten me as to what it is good for? |
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Folke X |
Posted Jul 27, 2011 in: How do I used Folders in the Notebook with the new interface
Score: 0
Thanks Salgud,
I had also been wondering what they were for, and now I know. So far I have been using -1 Reference tasks for this purpoae, with the actual info in the task notes. I can see that by having them in the notebook instead these things will be quicker to find. |
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Folke X |
I keep getting a new tag that I did not define myself. It is called "All Tasks".
I suppose this is a bug - if not, how is is intended to be used? |
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Folke X |
Toodledo is a powerful tool, with a myriad built-in views to choose from. On top of that the user can define yet another myriad of views (aka saved Searches). This is all great. Please never limit this flexibility
Yet it is probably a fact that the individual user uses only a very small number of all these views on a regular basis. The rest of all the built-in views and saved searches are used only occasionally (such as for tracing tasks that seem to have gone missing). At this point in time, when so much work and discussion is going into the new UI, I think it is worthwile to bring up and consider some possible space-saving as regards all the views also, especially if this can help alleviate the problem some users are experiencing with the size (width) of the navigation. Save space and make navigation between frequently used views even quicker I think it would be possible to limit the always-visible choices of views to the following: - a small number (say 5) of user-determined favorite views. For new users, this selection of views would be preconfigured by Toodledo (the views deemed to be most useful to a typical new user), but the user can replace these later with other built-in view or custom searches. - a catch-all "All views" option, which would bring up the whole myriad of available views maybe on one full page, both the built-in ones and all the user defined searches. This does not need to be very slick or space-conserving, as it will only be used occasionally either to select an unusual view or to change the choice of favorites. Where should this go? Well, one very good possibility is to put it straight into the top navigation in the new UI. Instead of the current Tasks tab there would be the, say, 5 + 1 new tabs. If there is not enough room there, the font size could be reduced a bit, and if this still does not help, some of the other tabs could be merged (say, into a Tools tab that comprises Organize, Tools, Forum and Help) Suggestion for pregonfigured selection of favorite views I get the impression, from the current setup that Toodledo has, and from what I read in the forums, that the following initial setup might be appropriate: - Main view (the one that is organized by Importance level, which is a compound of different data fields) - Hotlist, a filtered list using a comnpund of data fields - Starred, which actually is just a "quick filter" of one of all the data fields (the Starred field) - All tasks by Folder, which I imagine is one of the more frequently used views for somebody who comes in fresh from using some other system - Calendar view, which is actually a niftly filtered list based on a range of Due dates picked by simply clicking a calendar - maybe room for a couple more favorite views? - and then, finally "All Views" which opens up the whole plethora of choices of out-of-the-box views and saved searches, and which lets the user select a view to show immediately or a set of views to have a favorites from now on. Don't forget In addition to the views as such, Toodledo has very powerful tools for sorting the lists (the views) according to any of the data fields, and to select any one of the resulting sections of the list, and it now also has quick filtering in the new UI's Show menu. All this gives enormous flexinility in itself, and many of the prefedfined views strictly speaking are not really necessary at all. |
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Folke X |
I am writing faster than I think, apparently ;)
An obvious way to resolve this "toggling" issue would be something like this: When you click a column heading you get a little menu that first contains the non-mandatory option to actually sort the list (in ascending or descending order), and only thereafter all the filtering checkboxes. Normally, when just filtering, you simply wouldn't click the sort option, and vice versa. (By the way, why doesn't the Star have a column heading for sorting?) |