Cool use for Hide--in-todo!

[Lisa Stroyan]

So I was thinking about some of my tasks, and Daniel's "paint the truck" example, too, and I think I just found a really neat use for Hide-in-todo.

So I have tasks which I should do daily, and the dilemma always is, do I clutter my whole list of tasks with them, or have an "aggregate task" that has them all in the note?  For example, "Get ready for tomorrow" has parts such as, "charge my phone", "shutdown outlook so backups will work", "make coffee/set timer".

But the next day if I don't mark them off, I really don't want to be checking off all of these, so I've had them as a note on the task, which isn't ideal.

So here is the set-up I'm trying out:

Get ready for tomorrow (auto recur when all are complete, reset all to uncomplete, alarm)
      charge my phone (hidden)
      shutdown outlook so backups will work (hidden. alarm)
      make coffee/set timer (hidden)
      look through tasklist (hidden)

Now -- Because the parent's active status ignores the "hide-in-todo" tasks below it as if they weren't there for the purpose of calculating active status, the only task that shows up on my tasklist is "Get ready for tomorrow", and if I complete it, all of the children get reset.  But if I look in Outline or have a view that includes these tasks (they all have a context of "Routine"), I'll see all the children, and can mark them off individually, and if I do, the parent will also get completed. The alarms still work, even though the tasks are hidden.

Anyway, I'm just starting to play with it but I think it is going to help me solve a little issue I've had for a while so I thought I would share :)

Lisa

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Lisa Stroyan, mailto:lstr...@gmail.com
http://www.empathic-parenting.com

[Philb]

Thanks Lisa. Interesting idea. I'm looking at my workflow at the
moment, and I have the exact same dilemma. Individual tasks
currently, but I need to study your method below.

> ----------
> Lisa Stroyan, mailto:lstro...@gmail.comhttp://www.empathic-parenting.com 

[onnodb]

Thanks a lot for sharing; that's a very useful trick!

Best,

Onno

[chuckdevee]

Thanks Lisa, good idea. Works really well for me. Cleans up my ToDo
list quite a bit. These 'special' projects (ie ones with all subtasks
hidden) I add a text marker to ">>>" and set a formtating rule to
identify this marker and give them a special formating in the To Do
list. This is so that I can clearly differentiate between projects
that I have to shift-tab into the Outline to address, and normal
projects which, when they appear in my ToDo list, basically ask
whether further tasks are needed to complete.

[chuckdevee]

that should be.. 'ctrl-Tab' to move from ToDo to the Outline