Project Final Completion
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Bret
Apr 5, 2016, 8:33:06 AM4/5/16
to MyLifeOrganized
Hi,
Suppose a project has several subtasks. You complete all the subtasks but the project won't be completed and you have to do the "final clicking" on the project name. Is there any workaround for this? except to convert the project to a folder which doesn't make sense as it won't be a project anymore.
Suppose a project has several subtasks. You complete all the subtasks but the project won't be completed and you have to do the "final clicking" on the project name. Is there any workaround for this? except to convert the project to a folder which doesn't make sense as it won't be a project anymore.
Thank you.
John Smith
Apr 5, 2016, 12:03:26 PM4/5/16
to mylifeo...@googlegroups.com
> you have to do the "final clicking" on the project name.
Is that such a large problem?
For me a project may NOT be "complete" just because you have done all the Actions that you could think of for that project, simply because there may well be other stuff to do that you hadn't yet thought of or which may come up just after the last task was done. If but only if the item is a Project, there is also:
b) the Complete percentage (0 to 100%)
AND
c) the Status field (Not started - in progress - suspended - completed)Initially I was assuming you were talking about "a)" but now I'm not so sure... !
J
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pottster
Apr 5, 2016, 6:31:15 PM4/5/16
to MyLifeOrganized
If you are referring to the progress bar rather than the drop down status, see this thread.
Elizabeth Lindsay
Apr 6, 2016, 9:24:26 AM4/6/16
to MyLifeOrganized
I am in the same boat as the other poster. Just because the sub-tasks are complete doesn't mean the project is. Since I follow GTD, I often only have the next action listed and therefore need this prompt (project without a sub-tasks) to remind me to review the progress and either create the next tasks or close it. I would not like to see the behavior changed.
Joel Azaria
Apr 6, 2016, 8:04:26 PM4/6/16
to MyLifeOrganized
As the others, I agree. Just because subtasks are done doesn't mean the project is. In fact if practicing GTD, this becomes de facto your "Projects" list. I prefer the manual behavior that if the project is complete, then I check it off as complete.
As far as the Project Status dropdown, it is strange that you can mark such an item as done (checkbox) and the status can stay as "in progress". I think there should be an automatic action that sets the project status when the checkbox on a project item is marked off. Preferably it should be a prompt asking the user what to set the status to.
Dwight Arthur
Apr 8, 2016, 6:16:14 PM4/8/16
to MyLifeOrganized
Hi, Brett. First, let me add my vote to the group of people who prefer to do this manually. But I will try to offer workarounds.
Before going to the workarounds, please consider the possibility of using it as it was intended. At the end of every project I find a need to stop and reflect. Did the project achieve its objective? Is there any followup that I should be adding to my task list? Did I learn anything that needs to be reflected in my other tasks and projects? Are there any issues with billing or collections? Are there any resources obtained for the project that need to be returned or released? have the files been archived? I could add each of these checks explicitly but instead I consider them when the project's tasks are done and I'm ready to mark the project completed. Do you have tasks like these at the end of your projects? If so, you could consider dropping them and doing these checks as a part of the project closure.
OK, workarounds
The most common and easiest one is to make the project a folder. You rejected that option because it would not be a project any more. Not true, As long as the checkmark for "This is a project" remains checked it will continue to be a project, with the project completion bar and everything. The only thing is that a folder cannot be marked completed, so it will never be archived.
The other workaround is to mark the project as a recurring project. In the advanced options for recurrence mark it to reoccur whenever all subtracts are completed. And one more thing, set it to end after zero recurrences. This pretty much sets up the situation that I think you are looking for, after the last subtask is marked completed the project will automatically try to reoccur, but will not reoccur because it has already reached the maximum reocurrences (zero) and will therefore be marked completed. The drawback of this approach is that the work involved in setting it up is way more than the work involved in just checking off the project at the end. But you could set it up like this once and then save it as a template, and then whenever you are creating a new project you could create it from the template and it will inherit this behaviour of closing after the last subtask is done.
-Dwight
Before going to the workarounds, please consider the possibility of using it as it was intended. At the end of every project I find a need to stop and reflect. Did the project achieve its objective? Is there any followup that I should be adding to my task list? Did I learn anything that needs to be reflected in my other tasks and projects? Are there any issues with billing or collections? Are there any resources obtained for the project that need to be returned or released? have the files been archived? I could add each of these checks explicitly but instead I consider them when the project's tasks are done and I'm ready to mark the project completed. Do you have tasks like these at the end of your projects? If so, you could consider dropping them and doing these checks as a part of the project closure.
OK, workarounds
The most common and easiest one is to make the project a folder. You rejected that option because it would not be a project any more. Not true, As long as the checkmark for "This is a project" remains checked it will continue to be a project, with the project completion bar and everything. The only thing is that a folder cannot be marked completed, so it will never be archived.
The other workaround is to mark the project as a recurring project. In the advanced options for recurrence mark it to reoccur whenever all subtracts are completed. And one more thing, set it to end after zero recurrences. This pretty much sets up the situation that I think you are looking for, after the last subtask is marked completed the project will automatically try to reoccur, but will not reoccur because it has already reached the maximum reocurrences (zero) and will therefore be marked completed. The drawback of this approach is that the work involved in setting it up is way more than the work involved in just checking off the project at the end. But you could set it up like this once and then save it as a template, and then whenever you are creating a new project you could create it from the template and it will inherit this behaviour of closing after the last subtask is done.
-Dwight
BOC
May 17, 2016, 8:54:46 AM5/17/16
to MyLifeOrganized
Just to throw some support to Bret...I run into the need as explained in my 2008 request :-)
Another good discussion around the opposite ( parent <> complete unless all sub tasks complete)
On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 8:33:06 AM UTC-4, Bret wrote:
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