It's about time I sent a reply:
b) I'm not sure I follow the question about standalone tasks. I don't
always work from the view which groups tasks by their context (although it
helps, if I'm making calls anyway, to check my list of tasks which are
@call and to try to complete a couple of additional ones). A lot of the
time I'm working from my role-goal-project hierarchy and just doing the
tasks which have become important at the time or which are related to my
project.
c) I use hashtagged keywords in either the title or the note to help me
find items in my list, by search terms or text filters. For example if I
have a couple of tasks for which I'm @waiting for ?John Smith to contact
me, I can run a search or a filter with the term "?John". This will filter
out everything else which has John Smith's name in it and only show me
those two tasks for which I'm waiting for ?John Smith to contact me.
Likewise, if I'm trying to find my project for +Sheffield +water +treatment
works, I can use the + symbol in my search term ("+Sheffield") and my
search or filter will ignore anything else to do with the city of
Sheffield. I find hashtags are quite helpful in this respect, but only if I
have a small number of hashtag symbols and I use them consistently.
Does that help, at all?
All the best,
Stéphane
On Thursday, 22 February 2018 11:56:43 UTC, John . Smith wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi Stephane
>
> A) Yes. I do like your concept of building goal into project hierarchy.
> Excellent concept... will require further work & deep thought to implement.
>
> B) What do you do for standalone tasks?
> I find physically *moving* tasks to be massively painful in MLO, whereas
> allocating a context is trivial as I have them on hotkeys. Without hotkeys
> I'm not even sure I would use an electronic system at all (as many on the
> GTD world have pointed out there is much to be said for paper lists!).
> I do take your point about needing to simplify my Contexts and I shall
> keep watching myself to see which I can remove. Although what really
> happens is that some of them only get added after a task has been on my
> system for a while and are being reviewed a number of times... and again
> whilst a task is being re-reviewed it's trivial to add/remove a Context.
>
> C) But I don't quite understand how you are using your keywords. Are you
> putting the
> #
> +
> ?
> characters into the title of tasks? Or the body? Or using the Context-tag
> field? Or what?
>
> Cheers
>
> J
>
>
>
> On Thursday, February 22, 2018 at 12:03:00 AM UTC, Stéph wrote:
>>
>> Hello John,
>>
>> I use 1, 2, 4, 5a and 6a out of your list.
>> I have a bit more hierarchy than you - Area of Life (four quadrants for
>> me: personal, home, work or community) --> Role --> Goal --> Projects which
>> fit in with the role or goal --> tasks to complete that project. Sometimes,
>> with a big project, I group my tasks into project stages.
>> I also identify my roles and goals with custom flags. I don't use the
>> weekly/monthly/yearly goal fields.
>> I set start date and due date and I bump my start date if I want to defer
>> something.
>> I try not to use any of the other fields, such as importance or urgency.
>> I'm trying to minimise the time I spend on MLO and maximise the time I
>> actually spend doing the tasks.
>>
>> I do use hashtag and other tag characters in front of key words: + to
>> identify a project, ? to identify a person I need to speak with, && to
>> identify a keyword as one of my roles. Hashtags are really good for
>> filtering and searching.
>>
>> Now to your questions:
>> a) A task or project is aligned to a particular role or goal when it's
>> under that role or goal in my outline hierarchy. This helps me to watch
>> progress towards a goal and to prioritise work which helps to achieve my
>> goals.
>> b) Yes, your list of contexts looks long and complex, so I imagine it
>> takes up more time than you'd like, in order to maintain it. I can see how
>> that makes it difficult to sort through the list and use it to prioritise
>> your tasks and decide on the next step. In my case, only using contexts for
>> GTD-style purposes, I only have a small number of contexts and it's quick
>> to use those to group a few more tasks to when I'm in the relevant context
>> (@calls, @errand, @office, @home...). My recommendation would be to remove
>> the contexts which don't help you to decide what to do next and go for a
>> simpler, lower-maintenance task management approach.
>>
>> I don't have the perfect system and what I do might not suit you, so
>> really I should just wish you good luck with coming up with a system
>> optimised to your needs.
>>
>> Stéphane
>>
>> On Wednesday, 21 February 2018 10:23:14 UTC, John . Smith wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hello
>>>
>>> How do you allocate tasks to specific goals to tasks?
>>> How do you plan today's periods of time?
>>>
>>> i.e. For any given day, how do you plan which Contexts you are going to
>>> do in which order?
>>>
>>>
>>> [I apologise in advance that this is so long. Partly I am trying to get
>>> my own thoughts clear!
>>> I've marked it up to make it easier to skim-read. ]
>>>
>>> *BACKGROUND*
>>>
>>> For any task like to know, some or all of the following:
>>>
>>> 1. What *Area of Life* it's in
>>> ==> this I do through which MLO *Folder *I've put it in.
>>>
>>> 2. (If it's part of a larger project) what* major project *it's part of
>>> ===> this I do by
>>> a) using a hierarchy
>>> b) using the MLO *Projects* field in the parent task
>>>
>>> 3) "*Priority*" - what is the real-world Importance & real-world Urgency
>>> ==> I use the MLO *Importance *field, but because I find it too hard to
>>> enter both values for all tasks
>>> Importance means importance, except if it's importance is "max" in which
>>> case it means must be done urgently, irrespective of importance!
>>>
>>> 4) "*Do today*" status
>>> ==> I use the MLO *Star* field to flag up at the start of each day what
>>> I want to take on today.
>>>
>>> 5). Different types of "contexts"
>>>
>>> A) What "*where context*"
>>> i.e. Physically where must this be done
>>> ==> Use of MLO *Contexts* field (e.g. @PC, @Office(paperwork), @Home,
>>> @Errands...)
>>>
>>> B) What "*mood context*"
>>> ==> I *also* use the MLO *Contexts* for this (e.g. @Calls,
>>> @DeepThought, @LowEnergy ...)
>>>
>>> C) What "*task size*"
>>> This helps me pluck any quick wins - low hanging task
>>> ==> I *also* use the MLO *Contexts* for this ( @Quickies..)
>>>
>>> D) What "*time of day context*"
>>> I only use this occasionally, but it can be important.
>>> Normally tasks get done at the correct time of day depending on their
>>> Area of Life
>>> But sometimes a work task must be done during the evening
>>> And sometimes a person task MUST be done during working hours
>>> ==> I *also* use the MLO *Contexts* for this too (e.g. @Evenings,
>>> @WorkingHours...)
>>>
>>> E) What resistance history?
>>> For tasks that have been around too long, I also want to flag up "Frogs"
>>> - harder/high resistance stuff (witness by the fact that I have put them
>>> off). I like to start the day with tackling one of these tasks.
>>> This ALSO goes into the MLO *Contexts* field (e.g.@Frog)
>>>
>>>
>>> 6) What "Executable Status" (when would I like see again & execute)
>>> ==>
>>> a) Partly I kick into the future (change MLO *Start Date* field) so
>>> task disappears of Active view [GTD "Tickler" file]
>>> b) Partly I also use the MLO *Context *field too [@Soon/Later,
>>> @SomedayMaybe, @Bonus ]
>>>
>>>
>>> *GATHERING MY THOUGHTS*
>>>
>>> So I am now using the MLO *Contexts* field for SIX different types of
>>> thing:
>>>
>>> A) What "Where context" ==> (e.g. @PC, @Office(paperwork),
>>> @Home, @Errands...)
>>> B) What "Mood context" ==> (e.g. @Calls, @DeepThought,
>>> @LowEnergy ...)
>>> C) What "Size" is the task ==> (e.g. @Quickies )
>>> D) What "Time of day context" ==> (e.g. @Evenings, @WorkingHours... )
>>> E) What "Executable Status" ==> (e.g. @Soon/Later, @SomedayMaybe,
>>> @Bonus )
>>> F) What "resistance history" ==> (e.g. @Frog )
>>>
>>>
>>> But I'm now running out of fields!!
>>>
>>> a) How does one track which personal GOAL any task is part of?
>>> [Explanation: I do find by using task management software it's all too
>>> easy to keep yourself busy executing lots of tasks... but it's not clear
>>> WHY you are doing stuff. In fact it's very easy to do all the wrong stuff.]
>>> ==> So I am really going to allocate Goals using the MLO *Context*
>>> field, as well as for the other SIX things listed above?
>>>
>>> b) How (the heck) does one plan which Contexts I'm doing to do today and
>>> in which order...
>>> ...And hopefully tie in which task area part of those Context?
>>>
>>> J
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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