I am trying to apply GTD to my MLO data...

[J Smith]

Hello

I am trying to work out how to re-structure my MLO data in order to apply GTD principles better.

I have pulled together all my stuff to be done (i.e. Tasks & Projects) and put it into MLO folders with the following names:

A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" list  ==> my list of things I may or may not do 

B. "NOT YET" list ==> a smaller list of things I will definitely do but not just yet

C. "DO ASAP" list ==> (the list of live things I need to do As Soon As Possible)

D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" list ==>  This is stuff I have put into the future (using the Start Date)

However it is really a 2 Dimensional problem because I also have various "Areas of Life":

1. WORK ==> My professional work 

2. PERSONAL ==> Domestic/personal administration (includes sport / health / hobbies etc)

3. FAMILY BUSINESS

... and it would be quite nice to separate these Areas of Life visually.

Obviously my "stuff" (i.e. Tasks & Projects) will tend to stay within whatever "Area of Life" I have allocated them. However my problem is that as my individual tasks & projects are likely to change what you might call "execution status" frequently and therefore they need to move very easily between lists  A. B. C. and D. 

So I am trying to work out what is the best folder structure....

Should I have a folder structure that looks like this: (?)

\  WORK

\  WORK  \  A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" list 

\  WORK  \  B. "NOT YET" list

\  WORK  \  C. "DO ASAP" list

\  WORK  \  D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" list

\  PERSONAL  \  

\  PERSONAL  \  A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" list 

\  PERSONAL  \  B. "NOT YET" list

\  PERSONAL  \  C. "DO ASAP" list

\  PERSONAL  \  D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" list

\  FAMILY BUSINESS  \  

\  FAMILY BUSINESS  \  A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE" list 

\  FAMILY BUSINESS  \  B. "NOT YET" list

\  FAMILY BUSINESS  \  C. "DO ASAP" list

\  FAMILY BUSINESS  \  D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" list

It's just that it seems quite cumbersome.

The obvious alternative would be to list the status as the folder in the root

\  A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE"  \  

\  A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE"  \  WORK

\  A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE"  \  PERSONAL

\  A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE"  \  FAMILY BUSINESS

\  B. "NOT YET"  \  

\  B. "NOT YET"  \  WORK

\  B. "NOT YET"  \  PERSONAL

\  B. "NOT YET"  \  FAMILY BUSINESS

\  C. "DO ASAP"  \  

\  C. "DO ASAP"  \   WORK

\  C. "DO ASAP"  \  PERSONAL

\  C. "DO ASAP"  \  FAMILY BUSINESS

\  D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER"  \  

\  D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER"  \  WORK

\  D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER"  \  PERSONAL

\  D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER"  \  FAMILY BUSINESS

OR rather than moving stuff between folders in order to move them from list to list, would it be better to use MLO Flags to move Projects from list to list,

OR use MLO Flags to allocate an area of life?

...and then to create a special "View" for each flag?

But if I change the Flag for a MLO project, will all Tasks and sub-projects inherit the same Flag in the same way as they would inherit the same parent folder.

- Any suggestions?

With thanks

J

P.S.

  

For completeness, I also use MLO to store things that I will want to review but which are not "actionable". So I also have 

- REFLECTIVE THOUGHTS list   ==>  a list of thoughts/principles/ideas that I need to review. Mostly ideas from other people. 

- REFLECTIVE THOUGHTS list  ==>  a list of my own new/creative ideas/innovations/inventions     ]

- REFERENCE list:   ==>  a list of stuff with no associated plan to action (although this sometimes goes into Evernote instead)

P.P.S.

Also the topic "Family Business" really breaks down into 3 actual businesses. But to create a folder for each of them, seems like over-kill:

\  FAMILY BUSINESS 01

\  FAMILY BUSINESS 02

\  FAMILY BUSINESS 03

So I guess I could possibly use a context flag if I really want to do this, I'm not sure...

[robisme (Olivier R)]

Hello,

I suggest you keep the first folder structure (area of life), and use contexts for A, B,C.

Don't you think that a project can have different tasks with different A, B, C, D status?

You could build views grouped by contexts. It would then display your tasks as in your second exemple of folder structure, but you keep a meaningful structure.

At the time of entering an action in your system, it may be easier to know if it is relative to work or family, than if it is do asap or someday, imho.

For your reflective stuff : you could check the "hide the branch in To-Do" option. You could also make the folder start with a specific sign (like * or #) and build view with a filter "top level folder doesn't start with "*".

Olivier

[Wallace Gilbraith]

Hi John

For me, Someday /Maybe, Not Yet, asap etc is a bit of a red herring - this grouping makes sense in a paper-based GTD system but not so much in MLO.

How I do it .... Structure your outline to suit the areas of your life
Any tasks or projects that need to be done asap, give them a due date in the near future, and do them by that date, or defer them then
Any tasks or projects that can wait a while, give them a date further in the future, and when those dates come round, review then whether you want to do them , or set a still later date
Any tasks or projects that are some say/ maybe, don't give them a date. They're still there in your outline, you can give them a date in the great our distant future when you want
Any tasks or projects that you have delegated or want to keep an eye on, give them a due date of when you want to check up on them, and when the date comes round, check up, or defer
If you ever feel an area of life, or a project therein, needs particular attention, zoom in, in your outline, and review your dates there.
On any given day there will be a mixture of Things to do, and Things to put off further.
Some people will automate their life more than this, but this works for me

Regards

Wol










- sent from my phone - please excuse brevity -

- phone sends from gmail account, but please always mail me at ho...@gilbraith.co.uk -

---

From: J Smith <ship...@gmail.com>
Sent: 27 March 2016 20:10:08 BST
To: MyLifeOrganized <mylifeo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [MLO] I am trying to apply GTD to my MLO data...

[Elizabeth Lindsay]

It looks like everyone has already given you good answers.  The key I think to GTD is to structure your list by project (as David Allen defines them) and not by context.  Then tag each item in that project with the appropriate context.  In MLO, you can filter your views by context etc.  You can also had estimated times (to help with finding short tasks to fit in time blocks).  This makes it pretty easy for me to use.

[J Smith]

I find all this is slightly cooking my brain. My thoughts:

1. Any one task can only have one A B C status, do there is no point in using MLO Contexts for this and I will need to add on Context *and* delete a the old Context in order to achieve this.

2. Surely there is no point in doing part of a project. And once started the aim is to complete the entire project, ideally doing each Next Action one at a time.  So to me the whole project is in one of the A B C or D statuses. To recap, these are:

   A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE

   B. "NOT YET" 

   C. "DO ASAP"
   D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER" 

[J Smith]

@Wallace

OK so are you somehow using Due Dates to make things disappear from immediate view?

i.e. are you sorting by Due Date within each Areas of Life folder?

The slight problem I have with what sounds like your way of doing things is that you need to keep deferring less high priority tasks, and there is some bad psychology which means that every time you look at something and defer it, the psychological "resistance" to your executing it increases.

I use the Start Date to make things completely disappear using using the Active Tasks view, as I don't thing Due Date has this effect.  (e.g. typing: Alt/S 3 D  will make a task disappear completely for 3 days)

J

[J Smith]

I am barely using Context at all. I find MLO Contexts are too time consuming to enter for small stuff. AND to be completely honest I don't really know how to use them. 

I mean yes I do use "errands" and "reflective mood" and "low energy" and "frog".

(To explain, "Frog" refers to "anything I have put off a number of times" and which therefore needs doing soon in order to avoid it becoming much harder. I allocate specific times - generally at the start of a working do and/or at the end of a working weak - to tackle "high resistance" stuff that may have started to pile up. More:
http://eatthatfrogbook.com/eat-that-frog-what-does-it-mean/ )

...I may be missing something but apart from those Contexts I have not found Contexts to be very useful, due to the time it takes to enter them.

[Laurence Glazier]

Hi Wallace

It seems to me that you can use the built in Project settings. For things you are working on now, set the project as In Progress. For your tickler list, set it as Suspended. The Not Yet items can use the Not Started setting. And for Sometime / Maybe, don't set the task as a project till you are ready.

No need for anything complicated, use the designs built in to the app if you can.

In the end we all find a different individual approach.

Laurence

[robisme (Olivier R)]

I think that if you keep with your idea, perhaps could you make a good use of the "goal" field, which is very convenient to switch, and only assign them to your head projects, not the subtask.

You could also use flags, with the disadvantage that they are currently not editable on mobile app.

A. "SOMEDAY MAYBE = no goal

B. "NOT YET" = yearly goal

C. "DO ASAP" = weekly goal
D. "DELEGATED / TICKLER"  = monthly

Olivier

[J Smith]

@Robisme

Hmmm. Not a bad idea... I definitely haven't mastered Goals, although I had made an initial stab at them... using the Goals field(!).  So my Goals field isn't completely available.

I am thinking however that it would seem more logical to use the Flags field which I do not currently use for anything else.  The only thing that is holding me back is that I tried using flags about 9 months ago, but didn't get on with them. However I cant quite remember what went wrong.  

To get clear, I am looking for something to change the state of any given entire MLO project (of if the task is not inside a Project, then just the task itself) moving them to just one of the states A B C or D.

I guess I could then create an MLO View for each of the flag statuses (i.e. A B C or D)...   :^/

[Wallace Gilbraith]

Hi John,

 

To clarify – I don’t use AutoSort much.  Never found the time to set up the Active Tasks view well enough to rely on it.

 

My main Tabs on the Windows version are

·        Inbox – processed daily to set a Due Date and a Context, and maybe a Start Date

·        Outline – processed daily to move items from Inbox to appropriate place in Outline
Top level outline folders are: my work; wife’s work; domestic matters; family members; personal care/ pursuits; computers; MLO tips

·        Due Next 30 days – reviewed daily to confirm tasks to be done tomorrow, which are then Starred, or deferred

·        Starred – reviewed daily to give a proposed sequence in which I’ll do the tasks scheduled for tomorrow

This is then synced to my android, and tomorrow I work through the list, and maybe add new tasks to the inbox

 

It’s time well spent to take 20 mins each night to check on the upcoming stuff.

Occasionally I’ll zoom in on an area of life/ project/ folder and review all the dates in it, but not often

 

My getting things done is more than just doing things, it’s selecting which things not to do.

I don’t have a problem with deferring things over and over again, if it lets me focus on what do I need to do.

Sometimes I’ll review and think ‘actually I’m not so busy tomorrow, it’s a good day to tackle X after all’

Other times I’ll think ‘OK, I’ve still not done Y yet, it can’t be so important’, and I’ll take the Due Date off it, or delete it

 

Knowing what I don’t need to be doing is as important to me as knowing what I do need to be doing.

If I get asked ‘Where as we with Z?’, I know. Look it up in the Outline, and re-set the dates if necessary.

 

Best of all, I know I’ve got it all in there, my life is organised, so I don’t have to stress about any of it.

 

Regards

 

Wol

[Travis Stout]

This is exactly what I was going to recommend. Great suggestion!

[J Smith]

William  

> Outline – processed daily to move item

Are you saying that you have to physically "move" every item in order to process it?
If so, this is part of what I am objecting to. Because if I have a large number of items in the tree (I have) then it's a mighty pain moving things into the right place by any of the available means. (ie Control/M, or Click & drag). Control/X causes my MLO to crash.

Surely much easier would be to do the moving by changing MLO database field values, in order to get each task in to the right area....

J