How to set amount of time for completion of a task - not a due date.

[FischerPhoto]

for completing subtasks in order I would like the clock of the due date to start once the previous task is complete. 

once I complete and check the previous task and the next task is now active I will have seven days to complete it and I want that due date to automatically populate. 

How do I do this? thanks! 

Scenario

I design wedding albums

Design Album

Subtasks:

receive album picks

send a proof (7 days)

receive changes

send proof (7 days) 

.....

Thanks!!

Jon

[FischerPhoto]

Is what I'm asking to do possible with MLO?

[Mark]

Hi I am note really sure, but you could check out either dependencies because you can make a dependency with a + no. days, or if these are recurring tasks then the regenerate option could be used...

[Dwight Arthur]

Jon: I may have a solution but I want to test it before documenting it.  Question: in all of your discussion, the time to complete a task once its predecessor finishes is always 7 days. Would it be fair to assume that the duration for each task in a series will be the same? I believe that I cam make it work even if the task durations vary but it will be a longer, more complex process.

Mark, dependencies do not affect either the start date or the due date of a task. All that dependencies can do is to create a period beginning at the start date during which the task is inactive due to uncompleted dependency and therefore remove the task from any to-do lists.

The only two processes that I can think of that actually make calculated changes to a due date are recurrence (which I hope to propose as a solution) and creation of a new task from a template.
-Dwight
Mlo betazoid
on Android sgn2

[FischerPhoto]

Thanks so much for the responses mark and dwight! 

Dwight, if "time to complete the task" and "duration of each task" are the same thing than yes, each will be equal. I'd actually like to change that to 2 weeks rather than 7 days. 

thanks so much!!!

Jon

[Dwight Arthur]

OK, I think I have this. It uses a technique that I call "sliding schedules." - I use them when I want to be able to do a chore late without having to try to catch up afterwards. When one task is late the following tasks are all automatically pushed back. It looks like the same technique could be used if you finish a task early, to push up all of the subsequent tasks.

There are a lot of steps because I'm writing this so it could be followed by people who are at different levels of MLO expertise.

1. Jon, if I understand correctly, you set up another set of these tasks whenever you engage with a new client. So I would suggest setting this up in a hidden branch called "templates" and then using "new from template" for each new client.

2. Create a parent task, with subtasks representing all of the tasks you will need to complete.

3. Make sure all of the subtasks have "inherit parent dates" set.

4. Give the parent task start and end dates that represent the duration (time to complete) for each of your tasks.

5. Be sure that "complete tasks in order" is set for the parent.

6. In the task attributes of the parent, click "recurrence:none" to bring up the task recurrence window

7. Set the recurrence pattern to "daily" and select "regenerate new task ___ days after each task is completed." Fill in the blank with the number of days you want to have to complete each step (14 for two weeks)

8. Set Start Date for when you want the first task to start, and Due Date for the date you want it to be done, in this case two weeks later. Check lead time to ensure that the interval came out to what you wanted.

9 Leave "End Occurrences" set to "No end date." - if you want this set of instructions to self destruct after a single use you can select "end after" but be sure that the number you type in is equal to the total number of subtasks.

10. Click the "advanced Options" button to bring up the Task Recurrence Advanced Options window.

11. If you are going to use this set of instructions just once, select "disable automatic reset" - if you will use them multiple times select "Reset all subtasks to uncompleted, if all subtasks are completed."

12. Complete "automatically recur when any subtask is complete."

13. Not necessary but I'd recommend checking the box by "do not create a completed copy . . ."

All done. Click "OK" on any menu or options windows still open. If you look at the All Tasks view you will see all of the tasks laid out. On any sort of Active Actions view you will see only the one you are supposed to be working on right now. If you check completion on the current task, it will vanish and will be replaced by the next task, which will have a start date of today and a due date in two weeks. Depending on the options you used, when you finish the last task you may have to mark the parent complete or even delete it, or you might find that the first task has reappeared as active starting today.

Special note: if your subtasks are not all the same duration, make sure that the duration of the parent is equal to the duration of the longest subtask. For any task that gets less time, turn off "inherit parent dates", set the start date equal to whatever the start date of the parent is at that moment, and set the due date equal to the start date plus the desired interval. (If the subtask should take one day, set the due date for one day after whatever the start date is) 

good luck, tell me if it works.

-Dwight

[FischerPhoto]

WOW!!! Thanks so much Dwight!!!

I'll give it a go and let you know if I come up with any snags. It might take a few days.

Thanks so much!!

Jon

[FischerPhoto]

WORKED!!!!!

Thanks so much Dwight!!!!

Best
Jon

[FischerPhoto]

Dwight, I don't know if you'll get this but do you have any interest in having a phone call with me about this? There are way's that I would love to tweak my whole system to make it work for me. And I think you have the answers and I think I need a bit (understatement) of handholding. Maybe I can pay you for your for your time.  I'd be happy to .. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Jon

jonfischerphoto.com

On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 2:14:32 PM UTC-5, Dwight Arthur wrote:

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Jon. Flattering offer but no thanks.  Please go ahead and post whatever you want to know on the forum. If I think I have expertise and I find it interesting I will answer., when I get around to it.

Private phone convo would have a few problems:
I'm less comfortable on the phone
I like to test my answer before publishing it
I want to spend time on this kind of thing when it's convenient for me.
If I figure out something useful I want to document it where everyone can see it.

If you have not asked Lisa you should.  She knows a lot and might be interested.
-Dwight

-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2

On Mar 18, 2014, FischerPhoto <jonfisc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dwight, I don't know if you'll get this but do you have any interest in having a phone call with me about this? There are way's that I would love to tweak my whole system to make it work for me. And I think you have the answers and I think I need a bit (understatement) of handholding. Maybe I can pay you for your for your time.  I'd be happy to .. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Jon

jonfischerphoto.com

On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 2:14:32 PM UTC-5, Dwight Arthur wrote:

OK, I think I have this. It uses a technique that I call "sliding schedules." - I use them when I want to be able to do a chore late without having to try to catch up afterwards. When one task is late the following tasks are all automatically pushed back. It looks like the same technique could be used if you finish a ta sk early, to push up all of the subsequent tasks.

[FischerPhoto]

Gotcha Dwight. Makes a lot of sense. And again thanks so much for that in depth step by step instructions on how to solve that problem. And for taking the time to figure it out.  I'm surprised that I was actually able to follow it and make it work. Glad that is now available for anyone to use.

Best
Jon

[FischerPhoto]

Hi again

Am I to assume that wen I create a "new task from template" from this template that I will need to change the duration of the parent task to reflect 2 weeks from that time that i am creating that new task? If so, is there anything else I will need to do besides renaming it? 

I'm also assuming that it can't be made to happen automatically to enter today's date from the time I am creating it , correct? 

Thanks!

Jon

[Lisa Stroyan]

At one point I think I may have solved that issue by having the template task recur once, in your example, two weeks after the task is completed . By completing the task after creating it from the template , the lone recurrence would be updated appropriately . It's been a while so I don't remember the details.

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[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Jon.

If I recall correctly, when you use the command "new task for template" MLO searches through the template to find the earliest start date and replaces that date with today, and pushes back all the other dates accordingly. So if you are creating a new instance of this structure, and you want the first task to start today and finish two weeks from today, you do not have to do anything, MLO should handle it. If you want to create a new instance today and have the first task start in two weeks, you should put an extra "filler" task in the template before the repeating task, with a start date two weeks before the start date of the repeating task. Then, when you create a new instance from the template, the filler will get today as a start date and the repeating task will start two weeks from today.

Does this make sense to you? I'm pretty sure that this is how it works but I am not sure I've described it well.

-Dwight