How can you make sub-projects show up in correct order in To-Do list?

[Mr. Analogy]

As I break a project down, it always seems that it's really a bunch of
smaller projects (sub projects). This is very very helpful to making a
project manageable in pieces <30m. (See example at end of this post).

But these sub-projects are often very sequential. I can't find a way
to show them in the To-Do list and preserve that sequence.

How do you folks deal with sub-projects and making them show up in the
right order?


WHAT I'VE TRIED

When I view them in the To-Do list there are basically two options:

1. If I made the sub-project an actual "project" then the sub-projects
get listed (often) out of order.
2. If I don't make the sub-project a project (i.e., it's just another
task) it doesn't get listed (only it's subtending tasks). This is very
confusing because the sub-project's tasks often aren't clear without
seeing their parent (sub-project).

I'm currently using the Group By at : Top-level-parent, Project,
Parent
But... it forces them to be sorted (alphabetically I guess) which
still changes their order. Similar problem to #1 above.




So I end up with something like:

1. Improve Website conversion rates (Project)
a. Install Google Analytics (Shows up in To-Do ONLY if it's a
project)
(1) Read instructions on GA
(2) Get the tracking code for GA
(3) copy tracking code to website.
b. Set up A/B Split testing
(1)

c. Brainstorm ideas for improving conversion ratio:
(1) Use buttons for download trial link and buy trial CD.
(2) blah blah

Thanks!

[Mr. Analogy]

BTW, I tried making SubProject 2 dependent on SubProject1 so that 2
wouldn't show up in my To-Do till 1 was finished.
(I have a The Filter's Setup set to show only (Not
(HasINcommpleteDependency))

That works ONLY if you've defined SubProject1 as a *project* before
you make it a dependency for SubProject2 (because that means
SubProject2 is dependent on ALL tasks in SubProject1. If SubProject1
were just a task then it's sub tasks aren't dependencies).

I think this will work but it would be nice to maintain the outline
structure so that sub projects could just be tasks.

-Clay

[Mr. Analogy]

BTW, I tried making the top level project "Complete sub tasks in
order" and that didn't solve the problem either.

-Clay

On Nov 2, 12:47 pm, "Mr. Analogy" <mranal...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Lisa Stroyan]

I tried your example, and I can kind of see what you are saying....not completely but maybe this will help:

- if you use Group by, you automatically get sorting, either ascending or descending, by that field. 
- within the group, your tasks should be in the same order they are in the Outline - you can make sure nothing is used in your "Sort" box - mine were, with your example.

It seems like you have two issues.  One is that group-by doesn't keep the ordering....My workaround is to put a number in the title of things I want to group-by, or don't group by project. 

The second is that parent tasks don't show up in the task title....my workaround again has been just to be more specific with my titles, and jump back to outline view as needed.  It has the side-benefit of making me much more specific about my tasks! :)

You are trying to make an outline out of todo view, I think?  I think what you really want is outline filtering...a much requested feature. 

Lisa

---

Lisa Stroyan, li...@stroyan.net
www.empathic-parenting.com

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

>I can't find a way to show them in
>the To-Do list and preserve that sequence.

Did you try to set the sort option for the To-Do list to (none)?
The tasks will show up in ToDo in the order they are in the outline.

Andrey.