Due and Starred

[Tom]

Is it possible for tasks that become due to be automatically starred?

[pottster]

If you mean have a star applied in the star column, then no.

It is possible to have a star icon applied when a task is due in the icon column via automatic formatting but, I suspect, you want the star column so that you can use associated views.

Your question does raise a very interesting point though. In MLO we can use Conditions to apply formatting and filtering perhaps the next step could be using Conditions to apply task attributes such as importance/urgency, tags (stars/flags/contexts), project status etc. What do other people think?

[Dwight]

Hi, Ken.
I would be totally thrilled to have MLO implement some tools for task automation.  But I don't think that it should be an extension of the current filter definition scheme. I believe enhanced filters would be extremely beneficial to a small group of technically proficient, obsessively organized people like you and me and maybe Tom. It would probably be very expensive and time-consuming to build, and I would guess that nearly everyone who might benefit has already bought MLO, ensuring that there would be little if any return on this investment.

I would rather see MLO take these steps:
1. Build an HTML5 interface to view lists of tasks from your cloud file and maybe check off the completed ones. This could be used in conjunction with a Task-by-email facility with parsing enabled to open MLO to use by a large new base of potential customers. Security of the cloud file would need very significant enhancement.

2. Build an API that would provide access to the powerful task management capabilities of MLO via a browser app; Market the API to other developers as a way to bring the most powerful task management tools to other apps (note-takers, calendars, social media, email, etc.)

3. Use the web interface and the API to build integration with best-of-class task automation tools. If this were happening today I would suggest integration with IFTTT.

A well-designed MLO channel would not only allow you to star tasks that become due, but also flash your desk light red for 3 seconds, call your mobile phone and read the task note to you (but only if the task has a yellow flag) and raise the task urgency by 15 points. As well as creating a task out of every email you receive from an email address in the "customer" group and closing the @Yardwork context at sunset or if it starts to rain.

Much more powerful than what would come from enhancing filters, and with revenue opportunities at each of the three steps so that the vendor can remain solvent long enough to finish the job.
-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2

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-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2
-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2

[Tom]

Dwight,

If it's true that "that nearly everyone who might benefit has already bought MLO," I don't know how MLO will continue to generate income in the future. 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

[Tom]

Pottster,

Thanks for answering!  Yes, I would find it very helpful to be able to use Condtions to apply task attributes.

[Dwight]

My point is that every day hundreds or maybe thousands of people say, hey, this task list in my calendar program isnt good enough, I need someyhing better. And start scanning task managers in their favorite app store,  reading reviews, asking their friends what they use, or checking their existing apps to see what task managers they integrate with. A certain percentage of those people are drawn to MLO. I don't know what the percentage is but I strongly believe that it should be higher than it is.

My personal opinion is that a very small percent of prospective buyers select MLO because it's too complex,  too expensive,  is not featured in most of the "best of" reviews (because it's too complex/expensive), and is seldom listed by top-selling productivity tools as something that they integrate with. I believe that most of MLO's new customers come from a much smaller population,  the dozens of people who say, hey, the task management program would sure be more effective if I could set up explicit dependencies, or make a task that repeats three weeks after I complete it, or would show me a list of tasks that start tomorrow, or something like that.

Anyone selling a product and planning how to allocate scarce resources to invest in the product needs to consider how to attract a bigger share of the prospective customers. While it's important to please your existing customers, thay cannot be your primary focus or stagnation will result.

So the question is,  if the current rule structure for view filters were extended to allow programmed changes to task properties,  do you think that would allow MLO to attract a significantly larger share of the big group in the first paragraph?  Or just make the existing customers happier? Bear in mind the recent comment by John Smith in this forum that you need  PhD to create brackets in an advanced view filter.

I don't think so. But I believe that if MLO pursued web access and interoperability,  it would open the door to lots of new users and instead of having to invent task automation they could interoperate with best-of-class task automation and focus on being best-of-class task management.

-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2

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