Newbie Question: Does MLO have 'Areas of Focus'?

[John Smith]

Hello 

Newbie question:
Does MLO have an equivalent of GTD "Areas of Focus" e.g. Work, Body/Mind, Life Learning, Relationships etc ?

I guess I am looking for a single-click to JUST see stuff that relates to say Work. 

Presumably this could be done with Context tags in some way... but that would be clunky.

Ultimately I suppose it's about having a second tier of filtering.

I see that there was some discussion by in 2005 about this but what is the current position?

With thanks

 

[Dwight Arthur]

In MLO, contexts can include other contexts. So you could have a contexts called “#calls” “#projects” “#financials” and “#compliance” and then create a context “@work” that included the other four. Then, if you filter on context=@work you will see tasks with contexts equal to #calls or #projects or #financials or #compliance or @work. Would this do what you want?

-Dwight

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[John Smith]

> Would this do what you want?

Maybe it will do - I'll need to think about that.

While I do so, what I will say is that as a general comment this is all quite fiddly to set up!

I *think* I would prefer to have Area of Focus as its own field with a big button near the top somewhere allowing me to hit it and thereafter EVERYTHING that I see is filtered to just that Area of Focus. Certainly this would be much more intuitive and easy to learn!  What I can't tell you yet is which is better/more convenient for the Expert user.

Thanks

More later

J

[Joel Azaria]

The only problem with this Dwight is that it won't hold up on android.  Parent context doesn't show contexts of contained/child contexts on MLO A

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/00c701d00b70%2401748300%24045d8900%24%40dwightarthur.us.

[Richard C]

Which version are you using, John (Windows, Android, iOS)?

I agree with Dwight that one way of achieving this would be to use Contexts as described.   Another option would be to use the hierarchy - create top level items for each Area of Focus and then create Projects and Tasks under each of these as appropriate.

You can then use the Zoom facility to Zoom into a particular area of focus by selecting the top level Task and selecting Zoom (Ctrl+R).  The Zoom works in both the hierarchical and ToDo views - but you would have to select the Top Level item in a hierarchical view and then switch to a To Do.

You could also use this approach (or the Context approach) in conjunction with the Workspaces functionality to create separate tabs for each Area of Focus.

 The above applies to the Windows version - I don't currently use MLO on my mobile.

Hope this helps

Richard

[Dwight Arthur]

It’s possible that my results are based on some old, unreleased code that got to beta before being withdrawn. If so, my apologies. Here’s what I do, and I would really appreciate it if you would tell me whether or not this works for you:

 

On Android, load the Active by Context view.

Press the Menu button

Select “Filter by context”

Select a context that has children (in this case, @work)

Result is a display grouped by context, showing only the context I selected plus its children.

-Dwight

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[John Smith]

OK  thanks

For the record I am using Windows and Android

J

[John Smith]

Dwight - I have been pondering your suggestion:

> In MLO, contexts can include other contexts. So you could have a contexts called “#calls” “#projects” “#financials” and “#compliance”
> and then create a context “@work” that included the other four. 

Call me unimaginative, but pretty much all my current tags apply to both my work and my personal life. Worse, they mostly also apply to a major family project area which I would like to break out separately. (Moreover I am tempted to break 'work' out into my two different careers too. And possibly something for sport/recreation....  )

So it seems that what's really going on is a new 'dimension' - i.e. my Area of responsibility/focus... which is NOT the same as the 'dimension' of the Context in which I am in. 

Here are my current Contexts:

@Car       (stuff to listen to in the car - podcasts etc)
@Errands     (stuff to pick up from shops)

@Future-Approved   (projects I know I will do but not yet in the ASAP category)
@GTD        (learning GTD theory) [OK this is on its own!]   
@Home      (stuff to do about the house) 

@LowEnergy   (stuff to do when low mental energy)
@Office      (non-digital stuff to do in the real world in the office)
@PC         (stuff to do on the PC)
@ReflectiveMood    (stuff to do when thinking more deeply/slows e.g. at the end of the day)
@Sofa       (stuff to read)
@SomedayMaybe   (ideas and stuff I may or may not do in the future)

@Waiting For     (stuff I have delegated)

So it now appears that what it boils down to is that I really need to add TWO tags (AKA contexts) for every action! One for my GTD Context and one for my GTD Area.

e.g. I might have:
"@PC; #Work;"    on one task
"@PC; #PersonalAdmin;"   on another task
"@PC; #MajorFamilyProject;"   on a third.

And perhaps even:

"@PC; #NewCareer"   on a fourth

"@PC; #SportRecreation  on a fifth task

Having to solemnly enter TWO tags for every Action feels like a mighty pain and this would slow things down significantly.

Worse, I'm not at all sure how the filtering through views is going to work. I mean at present I seem to have about 12 Contexts. If I also have up to 5 Areas of Responsibility/Focus that means 60 filters (5 x 12) filters (AKA Views) to set up? 
Obviously 60 views isnt going to fit on the left hand side of the screen on a signal screen. So... would the answer be to set up different Tabs one for each Areas of Responsibility (and to try hard not to delete any Tab by mistake??!)

Or am I over-complicating things? It's just that I find it nice not to have to jump randomly between different thinking areas of my life... as it help me... "focus" (!)
What do other people do?

Many thanks

J


PS

Btw, I am confused about the naming conventions of tags. When and why to people seem to start the with 

@ 

.

#

or nothing?

PPS
What do I do about stuff that I want to disappear from view (e.g. because they are on my GTD 'Waiting' or GTD 'Someday-Maybe' list?

Do I need to add advanced filters for every single view that says:

    Context does not contain @Waiting AND
    Context does not contain @Someday-Maybe
??

WAIT am I having to do all of the above for my Outline and my To Do views?  Now I really am confused!

[Andrei Bacean]

Hi John

The hardest thing, imho, is to create a simple, easy to understand, TREE. Yes, I say TREE.
The TREE is the base of your GTD system. But views, tabs, contexts are instruments which u use to obtain more benefits from the tree.
The TREE has to be simple, intuitive and easy to view. You dont have to feel any discomfort when you look at it.
If instead you think that the tree is complicated then you may STOP at this moment, don't play with views, tabs and so on. GO BACK to the tree and try to simplify it, reorganize it. If you think that you achieved what you want, and the tree is perfect, then leave it for 1 day. Look at it again the next day in the morning, then in the afternoon and also in the evening. Do you think it's also perfect as before??
If yes, then slowly, step by step play with Tabs, Views, Contexts but remember to not make significant changes to the tree in a hurry.
To create a system that works for you is a hard thing. That's why don't hurry, but step by step try to improve your tree, and when you think that it's perfect, only then, play with views and tabs.

Ps
The Tree may be customized using different fonts for top parrent, using diffenent colors for urgent tasks, using icons instead of classic folders example
http://kraevoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/autoformat_2014_06_26_08.jpg
use CAPITALIZATION for top folders instead of normal text and so on...
But at the base of any tree is the information and not the formatting.
So, try to search in this group for examples of use, to see more examples of trees. Also play with templates offered by MLO Application(menu file/new and then choose a template). Browse also the mlo blog, Andrei (the developer) posted a topic about his MLO tree. Read also more carefully the MLO help file (press F1).
I wish you to not hurry but to build your perfect system step by step.
Good luck
Andrei B

[pottster]

Hi Andrei,

I completely agree with you. In my opinion people, don't spend enough time developing the structure of their outlines. The outline gives a built-in set of contexts and facilitates review. It shouldn't be "set it and forget it", it should be amended and adjusted to reflect how you want your life organized. As your life circumstances and priorities change then your outline structure should change as well to match it. In eight years of using MLO I think I've undertaken a major overhaul of my Outline about four times and found it well worth the effort. I incorporate goals and projects into sections of my Outline rather that relying on contexts or other tags and that works well for me. It's also been my experience that the better the Outline the easier it is to share with other people e.g. my wife!

[Dwight Arthur]

John: I'm having a problem with this thread because it has too many open issues. This takes something away from the usefulness of the forum for other users because the result is that a discussion that could be helpful to someone else (eg how to keep certain contexts out of the to-do list) is hidden in the postscripts of some other discussion (eg how to manage an area of focus). So I'm going to respond here to your area of focus question and start new threads for answers to your postscripts.

Using nested contexts, as I suggested, is useful if your areas of focus are isomorphic to your contexts, that is, they fall in the same general structure. Your areas of focus are orthogonal to your contexts, that is they go in a different suggestion. In this case I agree with the posts from Richard, Andrei and Pottster that your areas of focus should probably be the basis for your outline structure. So your outline would have top level branches like work, relationships, etc and there might be a next level of branches for each job, each relationship, or whatever. Then, contexts would represent what kind of task, or what you need to do the task, or whatever. You would use context filtering to select tasks relevant to the tools you have and the place you are, and use zoom-in to select the area of focus.

Does this sound right to you? Note that you can build a view with a particular zoom built into it, and save it in a tab for easy access.

-Dwight

[John Smith]

Andrei

I have now had a very good look at MLO and I can not for the life of me work out how you generated that image(!).

Is that done through the standard "All tasks" view?  What are those icons that look like baskets and why are two of them red? I am using Windows 7 (x64) and I can not find anything similar in any view that I have been able to create in any of my views.

I don't think I understand what you mean by "TREE". Is it the structure of Folders that I would see for example in the standard "All tasks" view?  My problem is that if I build a Tree structure using directories to reflect the GTD Areas of Focus, then it seems to me that this will interfere with using 'drag and drop' to manually change the sort order in on order to put the more important stuff at the top of the page. 

But looking more closely at your screenshot, you have got one row to appear for each of your (what I assume to be) Context tags. How did you create that? Is each row something you created manually or is it some clever View that I have not found yet?

I have also spent quite a lot of time reading and trying to understand David Allens GTD method. And I am still not clear what the best way would be to implement things to allow me to quickly filter my view to just focus on any one of the Contexts. (e.g. Should I set up an entire View and/or tab/Workspace for each Context?) 

Likewise in GTD you have "Someday-Maybe" and "Delegation/Waiting-For" lists. Is the best way to do this to manually move each task/project into a specially named folder at (say) the bottom of my screen (called something like "Someday-Maybe") and to make sure that the folder has "hide branch in To-Do" ticked, so as to stop it from appearing in the "To-do" views?  Are there any other options?
Because moving things is a slightly painful thing to do. And yes, even if you use F3 to help you - it's certainly a lot more than just a few keystrokes. Is there no other/faster way to get something out of the way and stop appearing on the To-do lists?

And what about using Context tags?  For example I see you have something called @WaitingFor. Is that a folder with that name or a Context tag? Is it both? If both why do you bother having the Context tag at all... given that moving the item into that folder would presumably stop the item from appearing on the To-do list?

Also I notice you have folders called "Work Actions" and "Home Actions" and then another pair of folders called "Work Projects and Actions" and "Home Projects and Actions". Where then do you actually keep your GTD Projects? I mean are you physically separating an Actions from the Project that it belongs to. Or do you keep Actions that have no project associated with them in a completely different place from Actions that are part of Projects. If so what is the benefit of doing this? And either way roughly how many of each one do you have at any one time... and if that's a fairly large number (e.g. over say 10) how do you decide which to next? 

With thanks

J

[John Smith]

Hi Dwight

Apologies for moving the goal posts mid-thread. I guess I was leary of starting too many threads - it's hard to know how different communities like to work.

The more I think about it the more I realise that I have absolutely no idea how best to use either folders or Context tags. 

Fwiw, the only other system I have used 'in anger' (GTDNext) simply gives you a list of your context tags across the top of the page. And in a single click you immediately filter whatever it is you are looking at to that tag. How much more easy and intuitive compared to MLO is that !!

Likewise GTDNext has entirely separate fields for 

a) Context (tag)

b) Area (of focus)

c) List (Inbox/Active/Sheduled/Waiting/Someday) 

And by being separate fields there is a lot less setting up & general confusion for the new user. 

To be honest I still only half understand what you say about how to use/how best to MLO - especially for rapid, as few clicks and keystrokes as possible views of my data. 

e.g. When you say my "Outline would have top branches like..." do you mean the hierarchical structure of Folders? And when you talk about setting up some Context filtering how is that best done? Do I need to build and entire view for each Context? If so this is painful stuff, indeed!  For one thing if I have too many Context and create one view per Context tag, then they will be difficult to find in the menus on the left...

"Ah but you can always set up hotkeys to fire them up", I hear someone cry. Yes but there is no very obvious hotkey convention to use. Plus I dont want to have to keep rebuilding these things every time I think of a more easy to remember convention - or indeed a more fully available convention that can be fully used without shuffling around the existing hotkeys.... And/or I may have made fundamental mistakes with the design of my views in the first place.... And/or if I accidentally delete some views.... } all of which do take thought, energy and time!

I dont want to push my luck by any chance of some screenshots to see what you mean?
To be honest there are so many options many of which may be inefficient that I am floundering somewhat.

J

[Andrei Bacean]

My friend

IMHO, you ask to many questions in one thread :)

I will reply to the question about the icons.
See attached image. The answer is there.

Best regards
Andrew

среда, 3 декабря 2014 г., 23:39:16 UTC+2 пользователь John Smith написал:

[Andrei Bacean]

Hi John
Yes, you are right. The TREE is the structure off tasks which you see in the ALL TASKS view.
Best regards
Andrew

[John Smith]

Andrei

OK got it. They are just folders but you have changed used automatic formatting rules to change the icon depending on something quite clever... like whether the folder name has an @ in it. AND whether it has any entries in it.

Clever stuff.  Can you tell use something about your work flow?

e.g. Do all "things you need" to do start life as tasks which you put into one of those folders?

And only later get turned into Projects... and if and when this happens only then do you move them into one of your "Projects & Actions" folders below... Something like that?

Thanx

J

[Andrei Bacean]

Hi John
I'll upload some images of my MLO tree on Saturday (if I won't have unpredicted situations).
My English is bad and it's hard to explain without images.
Best regards
Andrew

[Andrei Bacean]

Hi John

Here is an example of my outline
*On the first image is the outline example
*On the second image - example of an Area of Focus
*On the third image - example of my TODO list:
(the tasks are grouped by EFFORT. and sorted by STAR + COMPUTED SCORE
the tasks which MUST to be done ASAP i place into the HIGHEST URGENCY FOLDER
If some task are also very important i increase its EFFORT.
SOME FOLDERS in my outline have an INCREASED EFFORT too.
When a task is placed in such a folder, it will be shown at the top of my TO DO list.
FOLDERS WITH CUSTOM EFFORT but without TASKS are hidden from the view.)

I will be very busy next 2 weeks, and may reply with big delay

Best regards
Andrei

четверг, 4 декабря 2014 г., 15:42:42 UTC+2 пользователь John Smith написал:

[John Smith]

Hi Andrei

Interesting - thanks

Quick question: 

How are you using the term "Effort" in this context? Is it: 

- The total amount of mental energy to complete a task (or project)?

- A simple reflection the amount of psychological resistance you have towards completing the task (or project)? (i.e. In effect a measure of "how much i dont want to do this task" ? !)

- To what extent does it reflect: 

      - the time required  and/or 

      - the number of steps  and/or 

      - sum of money that will be required to complete the task (or project)?

Many thanks

J

[bacean andrei]

Hi John

The Effort in my example is used to group the tasks by the order in which they may be done. For example, the tasks with the effort MAX may be done at first.

When all tasks with the "effort > normal" are completed, then at the top of my list will be STARRED tasks followed by tasks which are sorted by computed score.

In my example, the effort may be substituted with flags. But the Effort is better supported by the mobile versions of MLO.

Best regards
Andrei B

09 Дек 2014 г. 16:00 пользователь "John Smith" <shi...@gmail.com> написал:

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[J Smith]

Simply put, to answer my original question are most people using Folder to denote "Area of Focus"  ?

J

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, John. I would say that most of my tasks have no explicitly declared area of focus, although in some cases the choice of context implies an area of focus.  In cases where area of focus is explicit it tends to be embodied in a folder or a project.
-Dwight
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[Andrei]

me, yes

----- Original Message -----
From: J Smith <ship...@gmail.com>
To: mylifeo...@googlegroups.com
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 14:33:13 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: [MLO] Newbie Question: Does MLO have 'Areas of Focus'?

> Simply put, to answer my original question are most people using Folder to
> denote "Area of Focus" ?
>
> J
>
> On Thursday, 11 December 2014 07:57:28 UTC, Andrei Bacean wrote:
>
> > Hi John
> >
> > The Effort in my example is used to group the tasks by the order in which
> > they may be done. For example, the tasks with the effort MAX may be done at
> > first.
> >
> > When all tasks with the "effort > normal" are completed, then at the top
> > of my list will be STARRED tasks followed by tasks which are sorted by
> > computed score.
> >
> > In my example, the effort may be substituted with flags. But the Effort is
> > better supported by the mobile versions of MLO.
> >
> > Best regards
> > Andrei B
> > 09 Дек 2014 г. 16:00 пользователь "John Smith" <shi...@gmail.com

> > <javascript:>> написал:

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[John Smith]

I am trying to work out if I could set up a way of working whereby I might have say 4 or 5 completely separate areas of my life (AKA "Areas of Focus") whereby at a single click or hotkey combination I now look at a universe that consists of just that area. i.e. Everything I then enter goes straight into that area and everything I see is just that area.

My thinking is that it's important to maintain progress in all the separate areas.

One possible would be to have a separate MLO file for each area - but that seems a little extreme.

J

[Christoph Zwerschke]

Am 27.01.2015 um 10:48 schrieb John Smith:
> I am trying to work out if I could set up a way of working whereby I
> might have say 4 or 5 completely separate areas of my life (AKA "Areas
> of Focus") whereby at a single click or hotkey combination I now look at
> a universe that consists of just that area. i.e. Everything I then enter
> goes straight into that area and everything I see is just that area.

I have created a folder for each of the areas, and a workspace
associated with each of the folders. In every workspace, I have
zoomed-in (Ctrl-R) to the associated folder. Works great for me.

-- Christoph

[John Smith]

Christoph

But when you add data e.g. using Ctrl/Shift/M where does MLO put it?

J

[pottster]

You can tell MLO where to put it in RTE by using the parsing commands for tasks/folder e.g. -tonameofparenttask or -tofldnameofparentfolder

[Lisa Stroyan]

I too get stuck with the RTE and not wanting to have to type a new folder name each time. I suppose I could have a sticky note with several versions of " -tofldnameofparentfolder " but I'd still have to cut and paste them in. 

The answer is probably to train myself to do it with the inline parsing but that's not happened yet. Also, that doesn't account for notes, multiple tasks, etc.

Possible (un-thought-out) enhancement: a different key combination that brings up an RTE with some sense of knowledge of where you invoked it from. (Which doesn't change the main RTE).

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[Christoph Zwerschke]

Am 27.01.2015 um 17:55 schrieb John Smith:
> But when you add data e.g. using Ctrl/Shift/M where does MLO put it?

Do you mean the rapid task entry? They go by default into the inbox.
From there, you can later move them to the corresponding
folders/subfolders. But you can also directly select a parent folder
with the button on the top right. Or you can use input parsing to move
it to a folder.

And often, I just open MLO, select the tab of the area and then press
the "Ins" key to add a task to a specific area.

-- Christoph

[pottster]

I'm sure your tired of hearing it Lisa but all the stuff you want can be done with AutoHotKeys.

Lisa

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[Dwight Arthur]

Separate files makes sense if you are going to be sharing files differently, for example, sharing one file with family and the other with coworkers. Separate files makes no sense if there are going to be some tasks that don’t fit either file (like planning a surprise for a loved one, not information you want to share with either group) or if some fall in both groups, like soundproofing your home office. Because a task can have multiple (or no) contexts, contexts become a better choice than folders if you have a lot of items the cross or blur the boundaries.

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[Lisa]

Nah, one of these days the reminder will stick. :)

 

Lisa /  lstr...@gmail.com

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[John Smith]

AutoHotKeys is probably sensible in theory however I find myself dragging my feet. 

1. It feel like yet more configuration/setup pain. 

2. Rather than re-invent from scratch I would like to learn industry standard hotkeys that are likely to work in the next application I use and would like to think that application developers are sensible enough to stick to some sort of standards.

e.g. Shift/Alt/[arrow] is used in exactly the same way by WorkFlowy as well as MLO...

J