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IceHeartX, there are many ways that "Next Action" can be interpreted. I realize that you are asking Proximo but I'll offer my thoughts.

For me, a "Next Action" is the next physical action that I need to do to move towards a desired outcome or goal.
"1) any action that's actionable right now is a next action."
Not quite. Just because it is actionable, doesn't mean that it is the next action. It could be actionable but it won't move towards the actual desired result, although often it will move towards another (somewhat desirable) result.

A Next Action is "Next" only in relation to a Project, not in relation to other actions for other projects. In that sense, it is the highest priority of all actions that are part of that Project, but it is even more than that. It's the single most important physical action that will move towards the completion of a desired outcome. It might even be the only thing. The idea of precursors is useful but it's more related to project management than it is to GTD.

A project can have many possible actions but only one "Next Action". This is true practically by definition. There's only one thing that is "Next". Everything else will come afterwards.
You have to start with something, with one thing. It's nice to think that you have options but you have to choose. Without a "Next Action" you won't do anything.

"If I've decided on a rule about only one next action per project am I not essentially exploding the number of needed projects?"

I don't get the connection between the number of Next Actions and the number of projects.

A project can have many possible actions but only one "Next Action". This is true practically by definition. There's only one thing that is "Next".

Also, I don't get what you mean about "a smaller list without hiding things that you could be doing". Any sublist (or filtered list) will be shorter than the whole list. The idea is to be viewing those actions that are do-able here and now.

Sorry. I hope that you'll find some of my points useful.

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, although it converts the characters correctly, overall it doesn't work because each of my tasks has a multi-line note, which displays (of course) on a separate line for each line, and so looks like lots of different tasks.

To give a simplified example of something which should be just 1 excel row, but looks to the system like 3 rows (i.e. 3 tasks):
TASK, NOTE
"my task", "my note line 1
my note line 2
my note line 3"

I also tried to point Excel at the CSV file downloaded (rather than the one saved as text), as follows:
Data->Import External Data->Import Data

This also gave the same multi-line problem.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

We do plan to make the defaults more persistent and to allow subtasks to optionally inherit information from their parent.

Additional info, I am also using pocket informant on the iphone, which syncs with toodledo. Could that be messing things up somehow? I'll open a ticket up on this.

1. Native iPhone app
2. Google gears (for offline access)
3. Blackberry
4. Windows Mobile devices

What other ones would you like to see?

You could also create the tasks as normal tasks, and then drag them under the parent. That is another step as well, but I thought I'd mention it.

I can't focus on a list of Actions that contain 100 task and simply say they are all Next Actions. This is just my Action List, my Actionable items. By marking the ones I will focus on that day to move them forward toward completion, I am using Next Actions to my advantage. Not just calling everything in my Actions List a Next Action.

David almost always mentions Next Actions from the perspective of a Project. There is only one Next Action for a Project. Once that action is completed, you can move to the next one on the list.

So why would I call all 100 task in my Action List "Next Actions". To me this goes against that very principle. This will be the equivalent of saying that everything in my Action list needs to be done all at the same time.

The new task defaults only apply to tasks added by using the "Add A Task" button or the keyboard shortcut. I have seen this requested before, but at least one problem is that there are even more people who want subtasks to inherit additional fields from their parent. Obviously those two methods would conflict, but maybe Toodledo will be able to work something out.

Is there a way to edit the values of the status field?
Would love to use this tool for managing project tasks with my iPhone. It would be great to have status follow the phases of project management.

1) Yes
2) That's how repeating tasks work. I'm not really sure what else you might have expected. There is a good explanation of how repeating subtasks work on this page: http://www.toodledo.com/info/subtasks.php

Edit: Wait a minute I just reread your post. Are you saying that the repeating subtask was not regenerated under the parent, or that the completed copy was not left under the completed parent?