Re: mGTD: Thoughts from a long time d3 user
On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 2:17 AM, Damian wrote:
>
> I looked at mGTD years ago and decided that D3 was more suited to me.
> I really didn't get on with mgtd's dashboard and slow entry method and
> found d3 very configurable/hackable.
>
> I recently re-thought my gtd methodology, due to being snowed under by
> index cards that I never get around to entering into the system, and
> looked at various option again.
>
> Tried Thinking Rock, but that didn't feel any good to me. Then took
> another look at mGTD to see how it had changed. I found myself much
> more at home with it than I had done previously and was impressed
> (rather than frustrated as I was years ago) with the lay out. Then I
> stumbled across the 'Quck Add' button. That feature looked to be a
> total deal clincher to me so I transferred my d3 information into mGTD
> (with the help of
> http://www.estamos.de/blog/2008/09/05/getting-things-done-gtd-migration-from-d-cubed-to-monkeygtd/
> )
> and tried it out. I have not used it extensively since then (Christmas
> and family time etc), but it's looking very good so far.
>
> The quick add feature is incredible. d3 was great for adding actions
> to projects, but being able to add many projects at once is fantastic.
> My plan for this is to create a simple text file and amend it through
> the day (maybe using Launchy to make the process even smoother). At
> the end of every day, I can simply cut and paste that text file into
> quick add. That's just so good!
>
Cool, thanks for the feedback.
>
> One question I have is with next actions. In d3, only the fist action
> was the next action. When that action was finished, the following
> action was the new next action. This could be changed manually so that
> you could tag other actions as 'floating', enabling them too to be
> active, but the default was for one at a time. That seemed to be much
> more gtd than all of the actions being active at once unless you
> manually toggle them, or am I missing something? It seems like to get
> what d3 does in terms of automatically creating your next action would
> take lots of activating and deactivating actions in mgtd.
>
Can't be done at present, but there is a plugin you might like to try.
Search for Carsten on the google group.
>
> Another part of mgtd that I liked was 'areas' as I had built this into
> d3 myself and all of my area tags kept working fine (with a bit of
> work) after moving them over to mgtd. I did it slightly differently on
> my system in that I tag a project with multiple areas. For example
> "Home: Buy new bed" may be tagged with 'home', 'finances' and
> 'family' (bad example, but you get the idea). Most of my projects have
> between 2 and 4 area tags. This work fine in mgtd, although it would
> be handy to be able to click on multiple areas within a project rather
> than having to click on one and add the rest manually by editing.
>
> I love the simple way that projects can be moved between 'Active' and
> 'Someday/Maybe' at the click of a button within the projects
> dashboard. That's going to be great for weekly reviews.
>
> At the moment, I'm not using the 'realm' feature, but I really like
> it. I just want to give it all a bit more thought before I start re-
> tagging 500 projects so that I don't change my mind about the realms
> half way through.
>
> That's about it for my aimless thoughts. Congratulations to the
> developers and I'm enjoying finding out about the new functions I have
> available to me. I still have a fondness for d3 and my hacks of it,
> but I'm happy with mGTD at the moment (hasn't had heavy use yet
> though).
>
> Thanks again. A few feature requests are listed below if anyone is
> interested.
>
> Cheers
> Damian
>
>
> Requests
>
> - Is it possible to make the default tag for a new project added by
> Quick Add to be Someday/Maybe rather than Active? This could maybe be
> a toggleable option to switch on and off? Personally, I want most of
> my newly entered projects to be 'Someday' and changed over to 'active'
> only on a weekly review
It's an easy hack. In MgtdProcessInbox look for this:
fields.push("Active"); // make it active
Change to this:
fields.push("Someday/Maybe"); // make it s/m
Then save and reload.
>
> - In quick add, could 'Space' separate tags rather than | (after the
> first |)? This is the way that d3 handles adding actions. It's no big
> problem. It would just speed up entry.
> eg
> ".call dad|@calls @home @quick" rather than ".call dad|@calls|@home|
> @quick"
>
possibly
>
> - Tag abbreviations within quick add? Would it be possible to manually
> set up some abbreviations for tags? Such as 'sm' instead of typing
> Someday/Maybe, or 'ff' instead of typing [[Friends and Family]], or
> '$' instead of Finances.
>
it's a nice idea. You could edit the shortHand var in the same plugin. But
currently it only works for Actions. I would like to be able to use SM for
projects also.
>
> - Could quick add have a method to add notes into
mGTD: Thoughts from a long time d3 user
[A few of my thoughts and some feature requests at the end] Hello all, I looked at mGTD years ago and decided that D3 was more suited to me. I really didn't get on with mgtd's dashboard and slow entry method and found d3 very configurable/hackable. I recently re-thought my gtd methodology, due to being snowed under by index cards that I never get around to entering into the system, and looked at various option again. Tried Thinking Rock, but that didn't feel any good to me. Then took another look at mGTD to see how it had changed. I found myself much more at home with it than I had done previously and was impressed (rather than frustrated as I was years ago) with the lay out. Then I stumbled across the 'Quck Add' button. That feature looked to be a total deal clincher to me so I transferred my d3 information into mGTD (with the help of http://www.estamos.de/blog/2008/09/05/getting-things-done-gtd-migration-from-d-cubed-to-monkeygtd/) and tried it out. I have not used it extensively since then (Christmas and family time etc), but it's looking very good so far. The quick add feature is incredible. d3 was great for adding actions to projects, but being able to add many projects at once is fantastic. My plan for this is to create a simple text file and amend it through the day (maybe using Launchy to make the process even smoother). At the end of every day, I can simply cut and paste that text file into quick add. That's just so good! One question I have is with next actions. In d3, only the fist action was the next action. When that action was finished, the following action was the new next action. This could be changed manually so that you could tag other actions as 'floating', enabling them too to be active, but the default was for one at a time. That seemed to be much more gtd than all of the actions being active at once unless you manually toggle them, or am I missing something? It seems like to get what d3 does in terms of automatically creating your next action would take lots of activating and deactivating actions in mgtd. Another part of mgtd that I liked was 'areas' as I had built this into d3 myself and all of my area tags kept working fine (with a bit of work) after moving them over to mgtd. I did it slightly differently on my system in that I tag a project with multiple areas. For example "Home: Buy new bed" may be tagged with 'home', 'finances' and 'family' (bad example, but you get the idea). Most of my projects have between 2 and 4 area tags. This work fine in mgtd, although it would be handy to be able to click on multiple areas within a project rather than having to click on one and add the rest manually by editing. I love the simple way that projects can be moved between 'Active' and 'Someday/Maybe' at the click of a button within the projects dashboard. That's going to be great for weekly reviews. At the moment, I'm not using the 'realm' feature, but I really like it. I just want to give it all a bit more thought before I start re- tagging 500 projects so that I don't change my mind about the realms half way through. That's about it for my aimless thoughts. Congratulations to the developers and I'm enjoying finding out about the new functions I have available to me. I still have a fondness for d3 and my hacks of it, but I'm happy with mGTD at the moment (hasn't had heavy use yet though). Thanks again. A few feature requests are listed below if anyone is interested. Cheers Damian Requests - Is it possible to make the default tag for a new project added by Quick Add to be Someday/Maybe rather than Active? This could maybe be a toggleable option to switch on and off? Personally, I want most of my newly entered projects to be 'Someday' and changed over to 'active' only on a weekly review - In quick add, could 'Space' separate tags rather than | (after the first |)? This is the way that d3 handles adding actions. It's no big problem. It would just speed up entry. eg ".call dad|@calls @home @quick" rather than ".call dad|@calls|@home| @quick" - Tag abbreviations within quick add? Would it be possible to manually set up some abbreviations for tags? Such as 'sm' instead of typing Someday/Maybe, or 'ff' instead of typing [[Friends and Family]], or '$' instead of Finances. - Could quick add have a method to add notes into projects? eg Scratch bum|Personal .find index finger|@home|@office _Easier when not seated .scratch when ready|@home in the above example, the '_' prefix would tell quick add to add the line as notes within the project. No idea if that is possible or not. - Can a project have more than one area selectable? Multiple area tags work fine, but currently need to be manually added as you can only pick one from a drop down list. If they were all visible and toggleable (as contexts are within actions) then multiple areas could be applied much more easily. - Quick add within a project. Can quick add be done within a project as d3 does? I know that you can do it by typi
