Info: How are people using Todolist?

[Peter Harman]

Just a general query to the group - How are people using the program? 

Recently my job has changed from Blue collar to White collar and found various uses for this software in my role such as a knowledge base, far beyond the original intention of a GTD role.

[Tony G]

As a software developer with a small international client base, I have a .tdl for each client.
They're all different. Some want estimates before work begins. Some want only summary time logs, others want detail.
My stylesheets (beginning with "tg" in Resources\Stylesheets) are flexible to allow a single stylesheet to adapt to many different reporting requirements while maintaining consistency.
I never archive tasks because I want to be able to report on activity for at least a year.
My pattern is to click the time logging button as soon as I start doing anything, and to unclick it when done. My time reporting used to be more flexible, reporting "roughly" to the nearest 5 minutes and then rounding up or down to the nearest quarter-hour. Now with strict usage of ToDoList, I report every second to the 100th of an hour (two decimal places). On one hand I feel weird literally reporting every second, on the other hand my clients seem comfortable knowing that this time is not estimated or adjusted but extremely accurate.
For billing I submit my hours to my Accounting department along with a Transform using a stylesheet. An invoice is generated and emailed to clients with the report. I sometimes find myself wondering what the cut-off date was for invoicing specific clients. So I want to create a separate .tdl so I can log exactly when I generate invoices and for what time period.
The bottom line you see here is that I'm very dependent on ToDoList for things ToDo as well as for things that have been Done. For this reason, for my production usage I'm still running v6.9.6, though I test with v7.0.x. At some point when there are no more issues trickling in on 7.0 I'll upgrade to that for production use.

[simplenuity]

Currently using TDL for developing a GTD-implementation with it.

[3D Printing Solution]

I'm using Todolist for mechanical service, projects (building production lines) , simple tasks (welding safty barier). I have one tab for fast  task one tab for projects one tab for orders. I hope Todolist will go more for industrial ,construction site. I hope you guys will develope simple way to put difrent persons to diffrent task every day and salary to have full tool for project cost basic on hours spend

. Greetings

[Devdalus]

I'm successfully writing a Game Design Document using this software. I love to arrange things hierarchically

[Juan de Arriba]

I'm using TDL for project managament

[Tony G]

That application sounds more like a Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP) system, for which many companies pay tens of thousands of dollars.
If you could define specific requirements for your business-specific purposes then someone might volunteer to create a customized solution for you. Perhaps your company would be willing to pay for such development services, or trade your services (generating a model) for code.

HTH
T

[Tony G]

That's really cool. I find myself using TDL for documentation like this too - including the ToDoList wiki. It's so easy to organize content, sub-categorize, prioritize, and then check off content as complete. I also use Scrivener for writing other docs/books. It helps with organization like this and I can link TDL tasks with the content there.

[zajchap]

Many ways. 
 - Project Management & Planning (previously in conjunction with Gantt Project - now TDL only)
 - Portfolio management (in conjunction with another system. Looking forward to filtering by custom attribute to make it much better for this).
 - Hierarchical notes / outlines (sometimes in conjunction with Freemind/Freeplane).
 - Task lists (infrequently. looking forward to Kanban view to help with this.  I somehow struggle with the discipline needed)
  I don't use TDL for time logging.
  I mostly use it for my own work.  I struggle to use TDL in the team setting beyond project plans / Gantt, due to not being able to acces it from anywhere (partly due to IT restrictions).
  I have considered using it for project resource planning, but have not had the time to work out how this would best work.
  I used to try to run one large TDL for work, and one for home, using filters, sorts etc to see what is to be done at any time.  I found this too complex to run efficiently, so I now have many separate tasklists for projects or topics, loosely linked by an overview tasklist (like a portfolio tasklist).  Still complex, but there is less searching waste involved somehow.

[.dan.g.]

Great to have you on board Johannes!

[Peter Harman]

Also noted today that the Kanban extension you can limit the view to what needs to be done this week - very handy

[Firdea]

Hi. It is very difficult to find good software for my activity. I am doing service for big factor. Every Day the giving as diffrent task some of them including materials some onyly People work. Some task are for half hour some for few days. Sometimes on auction my company win big project like machine assembly , test and start up. For every job I have to make raport and after they create order and I can invoice. When I discover to do list i was sceptic but after few days with this software I discover it is so flexible!!! And now I can do every think on this software but some aspects are still missing for my . Basically i can not complain it''s great solution

[zajchap]

Never left.  Been lurking and keeping up with the codeproject page, but haven't had the bandwidth to really engage with the new communication structures.  Life and work have been in the way.  Transmission will remain patchy for a while I fear.  FWIW, still loving TDL, loving the enhancements, and loving the Gantt and Kanban abilities.  Amazed how you keep it up.

[Brendan T]

Like many here I also use it in a technical context - tracking activities in Engineering projects, with a new file for each project.  The organisation of the tasks fall into two categories, ad-hoc and scheduled with the latter being planned first in MS Project before being imported and appending in TDL during execution.  The reasoning behind moving the tasks to TDL is primarily because find it better for "micro" task handling than a full blown Project planning tool.  I also use it in conjunction with freemind - sketch out activities in Freemind before again importing to TDL.

I use the stylesheets for providing reports but these are primarily internal for the team.  Another key aspect of the tool that I use is the task handling - the ability to quickly and easily reorganise the list as necessary - the hotkeys come in very handy here!

For home, my needs are a bit different(simple lists, mobile, different platforms, synchronization) so I use another program.

[Brendan T]

Hi Zajchap,

how do you link the individual tasklists to the overview tasklist?  I thought referencing could only be done within a single list.

Brendan

[zajchap]

Hi Brendan,
  The quick answer is I don't. 
  The overview tasklist has a line item per project or development, generally with no children (makes for a better looking Gantt).  I then have a separate tasklist with the project plan of a single project.  There is no automatic link between the tasklists - although I guess I could put a file link into the overview to open the relevant tasklist - haven't thought about that before?

  From memory, the real killer for me with the tasklist containing everything, was finding where to insert a new item / task. Would spend too long searching for the right place. 
  Another thing I have found over time is I now restrict the levels of hierarchy in a tasklist to 2 or 3.  I used to go down 5, 6, or 7 levels deep, but over time I have found this multiple (and variable) levels of parent tasks complicates things and makes getting an overview and reporting more difficult.  I now use separate tasklists and custom attributes to simplify / flatten things (although this is a little hampered by not being able to filter on custom attributes yet).

[Keith Collyer]

I work in a role with several focus areas, and occasional one-offs, so I have set up the major focus areas as top level activities and created lower-level tasks for the detail. Generally only need one or two additional levels. I mostly use the Kanban board add-on. I don't have much detailed project management, it is mostly task management for myself and my team.

[Peter Harman]

Just as a side note I have just used this software to prepare for a large audit, set the parameters required in a list, allocated resources needed and timeframes. As the requirements were checked they could be ticked off. The cool thing was I was able to place on an overhead projector and displayed to the auditor as well. Worked well and was able to keep track of every issue required.

[Tony G]

Peter, you marked this thread as Complete. Is there any such thing as "Complete" on a comments thread?
I will add notes found here to the wiki as time permits. To me, that resource is as much about how people use TDL in the real world as it is about how to use the software itself in terms of which controls to click.

[Brendan T]

I can relate to this Peter.  In my projects, it is often the best record with the most detail recorded.  It links to supplementary word/excel/ppt files, has records of the tasks for everyone, logs when completed and the comments sections gets the back story to the various tasks.
I never had to utilise it for an audit though, touch wood! 

[cad@gkmm]

Am Montag, 28. September 2015 02:11:53 UTC+2 schrieb Peter Harman:

Just a general query to the group - How are people using the program? 

I simply want to let the devs know that this program is nice and that it is hard to find one like that. Keep up the good work. :-)

How I use it? ... Well, still testing, but I want to use it to simply organize my days at work and to set goals for myself.

(I don't need any collaboration features since my work is independant enough from my colleagues so that I don't need such features as part of an app.)

So, thx for this program so far. Regards, S.

[LHammonds]

I have been using ToDoList for years for myself and my local team.  Once my team became global (not on the same file-sharing LAN), I needed a web-based solution.  qdPM was the only thing that came remotely close to ToDoList and allowed me to access it anywhere.  I still use ToDoList for my personal projects though and I keep it and my data on my NextCloud file-sharing folder which keeps it in sync with all the PCs I use.

The author (dan.g) is pure awesome.  (yes, I'm a fanboi and dan can do no wrong)

[.dan.g.]

Thx LH, your last comment made me laugh!

[Tony D]

My main method of working with TDL is to use it as a meeting/telephone note organiser & task list. The process is:

At the start of the meeting - New Task - New Task at Top (a shortcut would be nice)

Insert the date and time (CTRL-D)

Type notes (using markdown syntax in simple text mode to make it easy to transfer to web if needed)

If there are actions, copy the text and paste as sub task (CTRL-SHIFT-V) assign dates/reminders as required.

Add file links in comments if relevant.

Set the due date of the meeting as the created date (actually done in preferences)

Mark the task complete at the end of the meeting

Periodically organise the tasks in tree view, if I get bored.

All meeting notes are in one TDL file.

TDL makes it really easy to look back through meeting notes.

[Peter Harman]

Just out of interest - just been able to get todolist running on a chromebook without installing Linux using what appears to be a beta program called Crossover in the android play store. 

Still using todolist on a daily basis, especially to keep track of compliance needs.

[.dan.g.]

Cool, great job.

Could you post some screenshots pls?

[Peter Harman]

Unfortunately crossover is not ready for prime time - will have another attempt when my machine gets the linux option of the operating system.

[Henrik Lund]

I use a combination of TheBrain and ToDoList for managing projects. I manage all tasks in ToDoList - which is by far the best of its kind. And now it looks beautiful on a high resolution monitor.

[.dan.g.]

>> And now it looks beautiful on a high resolution monitor.

That's great to hear Henrik, though there are probably still some places where input controls are not scaled properly.

So if you come across any and can screenshot them for me that would be an enormous help :)

[Henrik Lund]

Hi Dan.

Thank you for the new version of ToDoList. I'm happy.

I found out that the scaling issue only turns up when ToDoList is active on my laptop screen (3840x2160) and I move the time tracker box on my secondary screen (1920x1200) - so, no big deal. The calendar is not affected but the other drop down lists (e.g. Status) are.

Best wishes,

Henrik

--
Download Latest Version: http://abstractspoon.pbworks.com/f/todolist_exe.zip
Website: http://abstractspoon.weebly.com/
Wiki and other resources: http://abstractspoon.com/wiki/doku.php?id=todolist-description
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ToDoList (AbstractSpoon) Support" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to abstractspoon-todolis...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to abstractspoon-t...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/abstractspoon-todolist-support.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/abstractspoon-todolist-support/dafadf85-1956-4e07-9e1a-dbebd31c3fa5%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Alessandro Verdoni]

I use TDL to follow several different jobs as Project manager,

I prefer to use one single sheet where all my projects are grouped under the same root and each of them is splitted into a large WBS, based on task groups (Customer activities, Engineering, Administration tasks, Transports, Yard, Snag resolution, etc...), and of course sub groups...

I prepared a template that can be quickly adapted to the different projects.

Using the several filters available in TDL I can quickly check daily activities, progress of main tasks, interferences between different tasks..

The rich text area available for each single task make me easy to keep a tracking of task evolution, link to Outlook e-mail, meeting reports, pictures, set memos etc.

List view and priority allows to see in a glance which are the most urgent or critical task, even across different projects.

I have a second sheet where I put all the "not operative" activities (improvement of internal activities and efficiency, employees evaluation, company financial meeting reports...), that to say everything not related with the jobs themselves.

At the beginning I had a doubt concerning the stability of TDL when managing thousand of tasks in a single >100Mb .tdl file, but it seems having no problems.

The only things I cannot do with TDL is sending e-mail (Outlook) and preparing very big plannings (MS Project).

I can bet that there is nothing comparable to TDL even using commercial SW!

[.dan.g.]

>> The only things I cannot do with TDL is sending e-mail (Outlook) and preparing very big plannings (MS Project).

Can you give me more detail please?

[Alessandro Verdoni]

Hi Dan, 

mine is not a complain, rather the opposite. The meaning is that there are only a few things that TDL can't do.

Outlook is, of course much better for sending and handling e-mail, organize meetings and manage contacts.

MS Outlook is better when you have to manage plannings with hundreds of tasks related by a lot of constraints (end to end, end to start, do not start before... etc) and resource limits.

It would be great to have a TDL including Outlkook and MSP features, but I guess you need two or three more .dan.g. to do that :-)

[.dan.g.]

>> It would be great to have a TDL including Outlook 

'File > Email Tasks' or do you mean something else?

>> preparing very big plannings (MS Project).

How does MSP handle this?

[Alessandro Verdoni]

File > Email Tasks' or do you mean something else?

I mean handling all the email, address books, meetings agenda as a e-mail client like Outlook does. 

How does MSP handle this?

Well, MSP has a lot of native features dedicated to planning management: a lot of possibility to link tasks each other, manual or automatic programming of task sequences, customized calendars with possibility to define different working days and daytimes, different views to emphasize critical path or resources or costs in several ways... etc. etc.

Having a tool including TDL and Outlook (main) features would be fantastic. Of course I understand it is something that could take years of work for a single developer.

[.dan.g.]

Yes, this is completely beyond the scope of TDL.

However, that doesn't mean that there can't be better integration such as two-way task synchronisation...

[OOM]

Hopefully this is not considered necroing the thread (it's been going for a few years so... it's not really dead, right? :p)

For me, the question would be "what don't I use it for?", gosh.

For work as a software developer, I use it

• as a task manager with priorities, due dates and statuses. Tasks are grouped by projects and subprojects.
• to document various step by step procedures and serve as a personal FAQ ("phone is doing that weird thing again, how to fix")
• for software analysis, listing customer needs, business rules, use cases, etc...

At home, I use it

• to document my game designs
• to keep track of recurrent chores (due date + remaining days)
• to list various movies and games I want to try at some point
• as a task manager for personal projects