Remove from Inbox

[Riaan Eloff]

I created my first task in Android.  Made it a project, created subtasks, contexted it etc etc etc.  What concerns me is that the project & tasks still show in INBOX.  Should INBOX not simply be for capturing"everything", but, once you've processed, should it not remove itself from Inbox and go somewhere else, before being checked off?

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Riaan.
Different people set up their MLO outlines in very different ways, so the folders can end up with very different  meanings. How would MLO know. Without you telling it,  which folder sould house a project that you have just set up?

On the other hand,  a lot of my tasks get captured into the inbox then completed and checked off within a few hours, still in the inbox,  often without even having been assigned a context. The objective is to spend more time getting things done and less time managing the queue. If MLO were to start sending my tasks off somewhere else, i don't think that would make me any more productive.
-Dwight

Ps in case you missed it, MLO have announced a major upgrade to MLO for Android  targeted for November.

On Oct 23, 2015, Riaan Eloff <almynamei...@gmail.com> wrote:

I created my first task in Android.  Made it a project, created subtasks, contexted it etc etc etc.  What concerns me is that the project & tasks still show in INBOX.  Should INBOX not simply be for capturing"everything", but, once you've processed, should it not remove itself from Inbox and go somewhere else, before being checked off?

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[robisme (Olivier R)]

And anyway, YOU have to move the task to a different place in case you want. It's not an automatized process.

Olivier

[Riaan Eloff]

Hi Dwight, thanks for the reply.  I think I'm just not clear enough on what is bugging me  :-)

I would like to use the inbox as an actual inbox.

Firstly, as software that openly claims to be in support of the GTD method, the first thing one wants to do with inbox items is process them, and get them out of the inbox.  MLO does not allow this to be in any way semi-automated (eg, say I assign a context, move it out of the inbox...it has now been processed - or, say I assign a date/time to it, move it out of the inbox, since it has now been processed).  Sure, I understand what you are saying about completing many IN the inbox...cool...that happens here too, and then they are checked off an disappear from view.  I'm talking about the ones that will take long/are projects etc.

Secondly, ignoring GTD for a moment, and ignoring the fact that MLO is presented as GTD-supporting software, the absolute clutter in the inbox is relentless.  So, I've entered 12 tasks/ideas/thoughts/projects during the day.  Now, I start processing them, including sub-tasks, other new tasks that relate, etc etc etc, and, at the end of my review time, I sit with say 42 items in the Inbox which will require attention over the next day/wek/month or even year.  So, tomorrow, I start entering new tasks again as I think of them, receive instructions, or get creative.  Now, at tomorrow's review, I have 42 already processed, sorted and ready-to-do items, mixed in with another 7 unprocessed items.  That's just a mess!  :-)

I reiterate, I want to use the inbox to capture ideas.  But, they cannot all stay mingled with each other in there, because, when I start processing, it takes soooo much time checking which have been paid attention to, which are new etc etc etc.  So, this is my gripe with the current functionality of the inbox.

Now, moving on...yes, as +robisme correctly says below...you can manually do this.  True.  Yet, again, the manual process is also quite wanting.  Let's take my example of the 42 processed item,s from before.  So, I've got 42 items that are either projects, sub-tasks, tasks, essentially things that need to be done over the coming day/week, month/year.  Now I simply want to move them, manually, out of the inbox, so that they don't clutter it.  I go to outline view, and want to move them there, out of the inbox into the "root" of the outline view.  So, now I have to do it one major task at a time.  One cannot select all and CTRL-M, neither can one select all and ALT+SHIFT_LeftArrow, because in both cases the hierarchy get's thrown away.  This is my issue with the manual method.  It throws away hierarchy (which I may just have spent 25 minutes creating, since things were all related/dependant.  So of the 24 items, say 16 are top-level (start of a hierarchy or and individual task), I now have to select ONLY the ones that are single tasks, move them.  Then I have to select each hierarchy tree individually, and move them one-by-one.

To be quite honest, I do actually NOT want to use folders.  I am happy to put everything right there in the root of outline mode.  BUT, the only way one can get something OUT of inbox, is to actually MOVE it with ALT-SHIFT-LeftArrow, which loses hierarchy no matter what you do, OR, the only other alternative, CTRL-M, which, at least, KEEPS hierarchy, so long as it is done ONE top-level item at a time.

To me, the simplest route would be - let the inbox be an inbox to gather things.  Once I have done anything more than just plain enter a task (ie, assigned a category, setup dependency, assigned a date, changed priority), automatically remove it from inbox, and put it in the root of outline.  OR, for even better functionality, allow a button/checkmark that says "ACTIVE", meaning:  "This task has been processed, and is ready to be done".  If "Active" is not a good idea, use the word "PROCESSED", indicating the same thing.

Does this clarify a bit more what exactly my concern here is?

[robisme (Olivier R)]

If REALLY you don't want to use any folders, I could suggest you an idea :

- don't use any folder (obviously)

- enter all your notes in the root of MLO (obviously too)

- create a view that could be used as an INBOX : filter task that have nothing set (no date, no context, no icon, no star, no review date, is not project, etc.)

As soon as you edit something on your task, it will go out of this view.

- you can then create view irganized by contextx or whatever, therefore excluding the "considered as inbox" items.

This way, you have a completely "virtual folder" setting, that will 

Does it sound to you?

Olivier

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Riann. I understand that when you attempt to move items from the
Inbox to the root you are flattening the hierarchy. I can understand
that this would be frustrating. Let's see if we can find a way that you
can use MLO more effectively and avoid this flattening effect.

When I move a branch out of inbox and into root, it does not flatten. I
do this by selecting the top of the branch (an immediate child of the
inbox folder) and dragging it to the root. However, if I select the top
of the branch and also all of the children in the branch and then move
them, that is taken as a multi-select command to move each of the
selected items, separately, to the root and the hierarchy is lost. Is it
possible that when you have this problem, you might be multi-selecting
the children in the hierarchies that you are moving?

My suggestion for you would be
1. multi-select just the top level item in each hierarchy. One way to do
this is, from the inbox view, f6 then ctrl-a then f7.
2. Use the Outdent command to promote them to root level. If you prefer
keyboard over mouse, that's Shift+Alt+Left. If you prefer mouse, that's
the left-facing arrow in the toolbar that starts with the big red "new
task" button.

Please let me know if this resolves the issue for you.
-Dwight
MLO Betazoid on Windows, Cloud and Android SGN2
On 11/4/2015 5:44 AM, Riaan Eloff wrote:
> [...]One cannot select all and CTRL-M, neither can one select all and

> ALT+SHIFT_LeftArrow, because in both cases the hierarchy get's thrown
> away. This is my issue with the manual method. It throws away
> hierarchy (which I may just have spent 25 minutes creating, since
> things were all related/dependant. So of the 24 items, say 16 are
> top-level (start of a hierarchy or and individual task), I now have to
> select ONLY the ones that are single tasks, move them. Then I have to

> select each hierarchy tree individually, and move them one-by-one.[...]