Scheduled Tasks vs. ASAP Tasks (Best Practice)

[Alexis]

I would like to share some thoughts regarding dealing with scheduled and not scheduled tasks.

We all have tasks we need to do at a certain time and at a certain place. While the MLO concept of contexts takes wonderfully care of places/locations it´s less obvious how to deal best with start- or due dates and times.

On the other hand we all have more than enough tasks we can do anytime. They have no dates and for that are ASAP Tasks. (As Soon As Possible)

Ideally i would like to have one list of tasks which i could work from top to bottom. This list would contain all tasks sorted by start date. The ASAP tasks i would like to place between those tasks. Just as many tasks as i have time until the next scheduled tasks begins. Unfortunately exactly that is not possible. At the moment in MLO sorted lists it´s not possible to place manually tasks even if those don´t have that sorting parameter, right?

My best idea at the moment is to work with kind of two lists in one which i do not consider as perfect. As i´m still a MLO Newbie you may have better ideas.

1. My list ist sorted by Due Date. Actually the Due Date is used as a start date. I use Due Date/Times instead of Start Date/Times as those are displayed on the iOS Devices.
2. There is a folder named ASAP above (older Due Date) the first scheduled task. The subtasks in that folder are the ASAP Tasks.
   
3. The ASAP Folder is always expanded. The subtasks are manually sorted. The next one i would like to start is at the very bottom.
4. This way my next scheduled task is always under my next ASAP task. I can quickly compare what to do next.
   

What´s your solution for dealing with ASAP vs. scheduled tasks?

Alex

[Dwight Arthur]

On Friday, October 24, 2014 8:06:38 AM UTC-4, Alexis wrote:

. . .This way my next scheduled task is always under my next ASAP task. I can quickly compare what to do next. What´s your solution for dealing with ASAP vs. scheduled tasks?. . .

Alex

Alex, this is an ingenious and nest solution. To describe my approach, I need to distinguish three categories: Your ASAP tasks which have no ties to any specific dates, your scheduled tasks which are nailed to a specific date-time, and something in between: ASAP tasks that do not appear on my to-do list until a certain date, and that may have some date by which they must be done, but within those constraints they are ASAP.

For specifically scheduled tasks I most often schedule appointments on my calendar. If there is some reason why this needs to be set up as a task (eg other tasks are dependent on the completion of this task) I will generally use MLO Reminder to alert me of the start time.

Alexis wrote:

. . .I use Due Date/Times instead of Start Date/Times as those are displayed on the iOS Devices. . .

In line with GTD I use start and due dates as the cannot-be-done-before date and the must-be-done-before date. It would really be a serious problem for me if I were to lose the use of one of these date fields. If you cannot view the start date on your device, I understand that you need to nake accomodations. But I would encourage you to try to find a way to regain the use of both fields. I don't know much about ios devices but I thought that current versions of MLO for IOS included the ability to create custom views - can't you just add the start date to the views where you need it?

-Dwight

[Alexis]

I feel we think about this topic very similar.

My Outlook/iCloud calendar i only use for appointments, meetings and so one. It would get very confusing if i would put tasks there. Sometimes i use a different approach and drag calendar elements into MLO.

I absolutely agree with you about start and due dates. Unfortunately if it comes to custom views on mobile devices only filtering and sorting is possible. You only have one column in the tasklist and this is the task itself. You can as a second line display one date. And this is due date/time only. That´s the reason for my approach.

Alex