[MLO] Re: Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL
Hello Brienne, welcome to the google group and the MLO user's. Thank you for telling us about yourself and why you are trying MLO. From this we learn about your intentions for using MLO and can try to help you finding a way how MLO is a benefit for your life. First I want to tell you that MLO is usable in many ways, either simple, a bit more complex or very simle at all. A simple way, which is good for starting, is to use MLO only as an outliner without using the todo-tab or any of the properties in the properties dialog. Only open a blank new outline and begin typing all the things you want to do or you want to remember. Then if the amount of entries (so called tasks) is growing and you feel a need for more structure, then MLO's features come in turn. You can begin by grouping: create a task in the root (first level/top most level of the outline) as a folder (Properties dialog: Pane General: Task To-Do- Visibility: checkbox Folder) and move all the tasks that belong to this folder as subtasks. Then you can collapse or expand the subtasks and you can find your entries better. The To-Do-Tab shows you a plain list of tasks (not a tree like the outline). Theses tasks come from the outline. You can filter the list in the To-Do-Tab so that less tasks would show up. As a first idea you can mark some of your folders as hidden so they won't show up in the todo list (Properties dialog: Pane General: Task To-Do- Visibility: checkbox Hide the branch in To-Do). This may be an idea for a folder that contains things you want to remember, but you don't want to do them now. Now about your three questions I want to add to Richard and Dwight: - assigning a context by writing @ in front of the word is possible if you use the parsing feature of MLO. You tell MLO to parse your entered task caption by pressing "Alt-Enter" instead of the normal way pressing "Enter" only. Make sure to place the @-things at the end of the entered text. By this parsing feature you can set a lot of other properties like "mark as project: -p", "folder: -f", "star: -*", "start: today 17:00, or tomorrow 14:00" und due date. You can find an explanation of the parsing feature in the help of MLO. An easy way to open the page is to open the rapid task entry dialog (Menu -> View -> Rapid task entry window) and click "learn more" near to the checkbox "parse...". - The templates mentioned in the google group could be found as follows: Open MLO, then click in the Menu -> File -> New... and a dialog pops up with many entries. There you have the option to open a blank new file or one of the built-in templates. I have personally gotten some useful ideas from these templates by the years I use MLO. From time to time I open one of these templates and play around with it to find inspiration for new useful ways to use MLO. And a big benefit for improving my use of MLO's power is this google group. Hope this helps a bit, best wishes Bedrudin Am Montag, 16. Juli 2012 19:48:11 UTC+2 schrieb Brienne: > > Hi all, > I just joined this group because I am in the middle of my trial of this > program and have to make a decision soon on whether I should buy it or not > (as with everyone almost, budget is always tight, so we all think twice > don't we? ;-) ) > > I feel a bit lost with all the options, though I am also intrigued by the > complexity of this program. Oh and I hope it is ok that I started a new > thread? I just felt it would be impolite to hi-jack someone's "New user" > thread. > > First of all, before I start with my questions, let me tell you a bit > about myself and why I am so interested in a program like MLO. I have not > read any of the books mentioned in this forum. I am not (yet) familiar with > all the theories and methods of to-do lists, and I must say I guess I > missed something good! > > I suffer from ADD (yes, that attention thing ;) ) and my mind is > constantly on the edge of bursting apart from ideas, do-not-forgets and > what-I-always-wanted-to-do's. So I really really need a good way to sort > things out and get them on paper sorted in a way that fits to my needs or, > rather, thinking. I am very intrigued by the idea of having these contexts, > projects and goals. That would cover a lot of the things that are on my > mind; I had a bit of a hard time finding out how far automatic the program > gets though: Is there a way to automatically asign contexts for instance, > by typing an "@" in front of a word? Or are all these settings merely done > manually through the properties dialog? > > I also read somewhere that projects always have to be marked done > manually, is that right? Sounds a little odd to me, since I do see the > percentage changing with the subtasks getting done. > > And lastly, I'd like to ask, in this group, is there anything like a files > section where people share templates or something similar? I have often
re: [MLO] Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL
Hi Brienne. If you create a folder and assign a category to the folder, new tasks you create in that folder will inherit the category. That's one way to avoid typing it in, does this help? The same thing happens if you create tasks with no context (for example, in the inbox) and drag them to a folder - but only if you enable this in the settings, on the page called "Behaviour" Regarding completion of projects, yes after you have completed all the subtasks you still have to complete the project. For me, there's always a task at the end for cleaning up, closing accounts, archiving files, etc. and I generally associate some part of that with completion of the project parent. You are correct that project completion tracks as tasks are completed, but try this experiment: create a project with two subtasks. Complete one, and the progress bar shows 33% complete. Complete the second and it shows 67% complete. All that's left is the project itself, complete that and it goes to 100% complete. Does this make sense? I don't know anything about sharing templates. I know that people share themes but I don't know much about that either. -Dwight From: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com [mailto:mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Richard Collings Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 6:54 PM To: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: [MLO] Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL Just a quick reply, Brienne (welcome, by the way). I have similar sorts of problems and make extensive use of the Rapid Task Entry to try and stay on focus. If a thought comes into my mind, I hit Ctrl+Shift+R, up pops a dialog box and I enter it and it gets added to my inbox. And yes you can assign contexts and even specify the parent (although this is not easy). I feel sure others will be along with suggestions for templates, etc. PS: Have you looked at the Pomodoro Technique. From: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com [mailto:mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Brienne Sent: 16 July 2012 6:48 PM To: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com Subject: [MLO] Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL Hi all, I just joined this group because I am in the middle of my trial of this program and have to make a decision soon on whether I should buy it or not (as with everyone almost, budget is always tight, so we all think twice don't we? ;-) ) I feel a bit lost with all the options, though I am also intrigued by the complexity of this program. Oh and I hope it is ok that I started a new thread? I just felt it would be impolite to hi-jack someone's "New user" thread. First of all, before I start with my questions, let me tell you a bit about myself and why I am so interested in a program like MLO. I have not read any of the books mentioned in this forum. I am not (yet) familiar with all the theories and methods of to-do lists, and I must say I guess I missed something good! I suffer from ADD (yes, that attention thing ;) ) and my mind is constantly on the edge of bursting apart from ideas, do-not-forgets and what-I-always-wanted-to-do's. So I really really need a good way to sort things out and get them on paper sorted in a way that fits to my needs or, rather, thinking. I am very intrigued by the idea of having these contexts, projects and goals. That would cover a lot of the things that are on my mind; I had a bit of a hard time finding out how far automatic the program gets though: Is there a way to automatically asign contexts for instance, by typing an "@" in front of a word? Or are all these settings merely done manually through the properties dialog? I also read somewhere that projects always have to be marked done manually, is that right? Sounds a little odd to me, since I do see the percentage changing with the subtasks getting done. And lastly, I'd like to ask, in this group, is there anything like a files section where people share templates or something similar? I have often read people talking about some other user's template but I have a very hard time to find my way around these google groups. I hope this wasnt much too long for a first introduction, and please excuse my mistakes in grammar and spelling. English is my second language and my ADD does the rest to my spelling ;))) *waves hi to everyone* Brienne -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mylifeorganized/-/eInlwuXgofoJ. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mylifeorganiz
RE: [MLO] Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL
Just a quick reply, Brienne (welcome, by the way). I have similar sorts of problems and make extensive use of the Rapid Task Entry to try and stay on focus. If a thought comes into my mind, I hit Ctrl+Shift+R, up pops a dialog box and I enter it and it gets added to my inbox. And yes you can assign contexts and even specify the parent (although this is not easy). I feel sure others will be along with suggestions for templates, etc. PS: Have you looked at the Pomodoro Technique. From: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com [mailto:mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Brienne Sent: 16 July 2012 6:48 PM To: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com Subject: [MLO] Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL Hi all, I just joined this group because I am in the middle of my trial of this program and have to make a decision soon on whether I should buy it or not (as with everyone almost, budget is always tight, so we all think twice don't we? ;-) ) I feel a bit lost with all the options, though I am also intrigued by the complexity of this program. Oh and I hope it is ok that I started a new thread? I just felt it would be impolite to hi-jack someone's "New user" thread. First of all, before I start with my questions, let me tell you a bit about myself and why I am so interested in a program like MLO. I have not read any of the books mentioned in this forum. I am not (yet) familiar with all the theories and methods of to-do lists, and I must say I guess I missed something good! I suffer from ADD (yes, that attention thing ;) ) and my mind is constantly on the edge of bursting apart from ideas, do-not-forgets and what-I-always-wanted-to-do's. So I really really need a good way to sort things out and get them on paper sorted in a way that fits to my needs or, rather, thinking. I am very intrigued by the idea of having these contexts, projects and goals. That would cover a lot of the things that are on my mind; I had a bit of a hard time finding out how far automatic the program gets though: Is there a way to automatically asign contexts for instance, by typing an "@" in front of a word? Or are all these settings merely done manually through the properties dialog? I also read somewhere that projects always have to be marked done manually, is that right? Sounds a little odd to me, since I do see the percentage changing with the subtasks getting done. And lastly, I'd like to ask, in this group, is there anything like a files section where people share templates or something similar? I have often read people talking about some other user's template but I have a very hard time to find my way around these google groups. I hope this wasnt much too long for a first introduction, and please excuse my mistakes in grammar and spelling. English is my second language and my ADD does the rest to my spelling ;))) *waves hi to everyone* Brienne -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mylifeorganized/-/eInlwuXgofoJ. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en.
[MLO] Suspended Items showing on To-do list?
I have many task items marked as project status "suspended" - but yet they still appear on the to-do list This doesn't seem right Can someone explain? Why would I want something that is essentially "on hold" to show up on my to-do list? Please advise... Thanks! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mylifeorganized/-/P_Sh2PC-bUYJ. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en.
[MLO] Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL
Hi all, I just joined this group because I am in the middle of my trial of this program and have to make a decision soon on whether I should buy it or not (as with everyone almost, budget is always tight, so we all think twice don't we? ;-) ) I feel a bit lost with all the options, though I am also intrigued by the complexity of this program. Oh and I hope it is ok that I started a new thread? I just felt it would be impolite to hi-jack someone's "New user" thread. First of all, before I start with my questions, let me tell you a bit about myself and why I am so interested in a program like MLO. I have not read any of the books mentioned in this forum. I am not (yet) familiar with all the theories and methods of to-do lists, and I must say I guess I missed something good! I suffer from ADD (yes, that attention thing ;) ) and my mind is constantly on the edge of bursting apart from ideas, do-not-forgets and what-I-always-wanted-to-do's. So I really really need a good way to sort things out and get them on paper sorted in a way that fits to my needs or, rather, thinking. I am very intrigued by the idea of having these contexts, projects and goals. That would cover a lot of the things that are on my mind; I had a bit of a hard time finding out how far automatic the program gets though: Is there a way to automatically asign contexts for instance, by typing an "@" in front of a word? Or are all these settings merely done manually through the properties dialog? I also read somewhere that projects always have to be marked done manually, is that right? Sounds a little odd to me, since I do see the percentage changing with the subtasks getting done. And lastly, I'd like to ask, in this group, is there anything like a files section where people share templates or something similar? I have often read people talking about some other user's template but I have a very hard time to find my way around these google groups. I hope this wasnt much too long for a first introduction, and please excuse my mistakes in grammar and spelling. English is my second language and my ADD does the rest to my spelling ;))) *waves hi to everyone* Brienne -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mylifeorganized/-/eInlwuXgofoJ. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en.
