Filtering the Outline
iLiAS
Outline lately. It is starting to become a problem as it grows, and we
need to come up with ideas of what to do about it, so that we can help
Andrey in his development efforts.
And it's not just the size of the outline that is starting to become a
problem. It's the fact that the outline is starting to become a black
box. It's sort of like the storage closet that you open to find
something, and as soon as you see how overstuffed it is you immediately
close it again. And the more levels deep you have, the more difficult
it is to manage.
Here's one idea: Filtering. Here's some questions to help you
understand what I am talking about:
1) Do you know how many of your tasks are at "normal" urgency or
higher? Which ones are they?
2) Which specific tasks are configured to be hidden from the Outline?
Do you know?
3) Which of your tasks are configured to require above "less" effort?
Do you have any idea as you read this?
4) How many and which of your tasks are assigned to a specific place
(*regardless* if they have subtasks or if they have future start
dates)?
5) Which (and how many) of your tasks will be starting 3 weeks from
today?
These are important questions as you manage your outline. Because, you
see, I believe that the outline (and our lives) are fairly dynamic. A
task that I configured as "more" important 2 weeks ago, may not be as
important today--or it may be more. And what if I find out today that I
will be leaving on a 2-week business trip in 2 days? What tasks are
coming up next week (or the week after that) that I may or may not be
able to do while I am away (depending on "place")?
So how do we find out the answer to the above questions? You guessed
it. We need to go through ALL of them one-by-one in the outline, while
at the same time looking at their properties in the right-part of the
screen. Not good.
I am beginning to struggle with the Outline, and managing it is
starting to take more time that it should. I think Filtering (by a
bunch of criteria) is a *must* next feature to the already excellent
MLO.
Cheers,
-ilias.
Kenneth S. Rhee
> On 02-Oct-2005 10:24:22, myLifeO...@googlegroups.com wrote:
> I am beginning to struggle with the Outline, and managing it is starting
to take more time that it should. I think Filtering (by a bunch of criteria)
is a *must* next feature to the already excellent MLO.
>
I can see a couple of things that could be helpful.
A filtering command that can be preset or programmed (e.g., select projects
that have due dates and due dates are within 10 days).
Perhaps also a column display of meta data that can be sorted the way you
want (sort on due date, start date, etc).
I think a combination of filtering (custom filters that can be saved and
preset) and sorting will definitely enhance the program and help those of us
who are staring to have a huge outline to manage it more efficiently and
effectively.
Thanks.
Take care,
Ken
Mark Levison
> to take more time that it should. I think Filtering (by a bunch of criteria)
> is a *must* next feature to the already excellent MLO.
> >
>
growing size of our task lists (1000+) is growing in importance.
Cheers
Mark
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog: http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/mlevison/
da...@ubiqsoft.com
As I have mentioned in the past, I would love to see a filter bar on the
left. It would include a variety of filtering options including contexts,
effort, importance, due within X days, string, etc.
The result would be the outline or todo would be filtered to just contain
those items that matches. An option would allow showing "ghost" parents so
you can still see the full hierarchy.
The use of contexts would be a key part of this. You could start to use
contexts for all kinds of types.
d