How to deal with a task that will last more than one day

[vodesj...@gmail.com]

Hello,

I'm a beginner with MLO and there's something I'm stuck with.
I have a project containing tasks. Every time a taks is completed, I ckeck it and the project % grows.
But I also have tasks that last more than one day. For example, today I work on the task 1, and I'd like to check it, but I can't because I will have to go on with this taks tomorrow and the day after, until it's completed.
How do I do ?
If I don't check anything, it seems like I didn't do anything and it's not true. And the project % will remain the same.

See my problem ?

Thanks for your help.

Veran

[Stéph]

Hello Veran,

There are two ways I can think of:

1. Split your longer task down into smaller sub-tasks.  What do you actually want to achieve by the end of that day? For a document, for example, it could be the first draft, checking your references, up to the end of the first chapter, the introduction, final check and revision, or other parts.
   
2. I tend to write something on progress each time I do something on a task.  On the desktop version of MLO it's easy - Just hit Ctrl-D, or F4, then write a very brief note, maybe with some abbreviations. For example: "13/09/2013: @call Jim - rvwd scope". At the end of the day, when completing my timesheet, I can just do a filter on "13/09/2013" and everything I've been working on that day gets listed.
   

I hope that helps.

Stéphane

[vodesj...@gmail.com]

Thank you Stéphane, for your answer.

You're right, each task should be divided into smaller tasks. But in this case, one of the tasks is "debugging", and this task will take me some hours.
And each day, I like to split and work on each project, so I only have 1 hour to work on this debugging.
That's why I can't split it into other sub-tasks, but on the other hand, I can't do this debugging in one day.
So what I do is that I debug but I can't check anything in MLO, and I can't see that I progressed in the project...

Anyway, I'll go on doing like that.

Thanks again for your help.

Véran

PS: are you french ?

[Martin.G]

I know just what you mean.  I'm never too bothered about the %progress, but I like having that reminder to do something every day on a task that will last several days (eg writing a long report).  I make the task into one that will recur each day, so that when I have done something on it today I can check it, and know that it will pop up tomorrow as a reminder to work on it some more.

Martin

[Stéph]

Yes, you could set up a recurring task, or you could set up a folder of daily tasks, like debugging. At the end of each day, review that folder and reset all the tasks to unchecked. Just one suggestion among many possibilities.

Well-spotted: I'm part French and was born in France, but brought up in England.

Stéph