Question: How to indicate a Project's Status is a Someday/Maybe, MLO project properties or Context?

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althegr...@gmail.com

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Jan 4, 2016, 10:55:39 PM1/4/16
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Hi Everyone,

Question: How to indicate a Project's Status is a Someday/Maybe?

 

Do you use the MLO Project properties or make a Context of Someday?

 

Also, what's the best use of the MLO Project properties? Use them on only on "Active Projects" (ones that are considered Do Now or Soon?}

 

From the MLO Help:

You can set a status for the project. The following statuses are possible:

Not Started,

In Progress,

Suspended,

Completed.

 

Statuses are only uses for grouping in the Projects view.

 


My question is: do one of these Project properties indicate a GTD "Someday" ?

 

Use Case:

 

Project1: Replace Kitchen lights with LED fixtures - Completed

Project2: Replace Hall lights with LED bulbs - In Progress

Project3: Replace Master Bathroom light fixtures with LED ones (Have 4 month wait for special fixtures from factory) - Suspended

 

This is where my question is:

Project4: Replace huge outdoors area with New LED fixtures - ??? Not Started OR Suspended OR ???? (This can't be done this year and maybe never as we might sell the house .. or it just not worth the expense … or ….. some other reason that makes doing the project a Someday project.  This is a GTD type of SOMEDAY / MAYBE project.)

 

So to show the GTD Someday/Maybe of Project4: Outdoor New LED lights,  get  Not Started OR Suspended OR a user defined Context?

 

Further, are the MLO Project statuses only to be used for "Active Projects" (or ones that will SOON be active)?

 

I can see an In Progress project becoming Suspended for a short while, but what if that project becomes a Someday/Maybe project?

 

Your thoughts?

 

Al


Christoph Zwerschke

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Jan 5, 2016, 9:01:58 AM1/5/16
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Am 05.01.2016 um 03:48 schrieb althegr...@gmail.com:
> My question is: do one of these Project properties indicate a GTD
> "Someday" ?

You do not need to have a special project status for this. Just consider
everything that has no start date and no goal (week, month, year) as
"someday/maybe". You can set a review dates to indicate that you want to
re-evaluate and re-consider starting the project at some point in the
future.

-- Christoph

althegr...@gmail.com

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Jan 6, 2016, 11:49:06 AM1/6/16
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Christoph,

Thank you very much!

That's exactly what I needed to know!

-Al

kitus

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Jan 6, 2016, 5:56:07 PM1/6/16
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Do you feel comfortable with how the Suspended state has been implemented? I don't. I would expect actions within a suspended project to automatically vanish from the todo list view, but this is not the case...

Dwight Arthur

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Jan 6, 2016, 6:42:35 PM1/6/16
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Hi,Kitus. If you want tasks in suspended projects to drip off of your to-do list, MLO provides you with the tools that you need to make that change.  All you have to do is to add a filter for ProjectStatus Not Suspended to the advanced filters for your favorite to-do list view. If you would like step -by-step instructions for making this change, just write back and let me know the name of your favorite to-do list view, and whether you are on Windows or M9bike
-Dwight
MLO Betazoid on Android SGN4

Elizabeth Lindsay

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Jan 9, 2016, 11:52:21 AM1/9/16
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I use a bit of a combination.  I have those that are "Someday/Maybe" with the status of "Not Started" and a context of "@Someday".  Then I have a theme that colors the "@Someday" context gray.

kitus

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Jan 29, 2016, 4:18:04 PM1/29/16
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Hi Dwight,

thanks for this. Has this ProjectStatus always been there? How can I be such a fool?

Thank you for this :)

kitus

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May 11, 2016, 6:02:31 AM5/11/16
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Hello Dwight,

when you responed to this thread I tested it and I would swear I made it work. Today I've been playing around with this with no success. Is that offer still on? :)


On Thursday, January 7, 2016 at 12:42:35 AM UTC+1, Dwight Arthur wrote:

Dwight Arthur

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May 11, 2016, 7:38:18 AM5/11/16
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Yes of course. Two questions :

1. Which one of MLO'S built-in views should be the basis we work with, and

2. Should we create it on Windows or mobile?

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J Smith

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May 11, 2016, 8:46:02 AM5/11/16
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Christoph

Can you say a little more about this - have you set up a special version of the Active Tasks view that has advanced filters to this effect?

i.e.
- The start date cant be blank  AND
- The start date cant be in the future
(i.e. the start date must exist and be in the past)  

I think it is interesting to default to putting everything into "SomedayMaybe", however I am less sure that I want to go to the bother of manually setting a goal for every small task...

J

J Smith

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May 11, 2016, 9:05:43 AM5/11/16
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Kitus., I totally agree with you. It is ridiculous that a Project that has actually been suspended by the user should still appear on the todo list of Active tasks.

(Aside: To me it is a good example of how MLO's learning curve and how - powerful though, without question it is - needs a stupid amount of configuration by the user.  [grrr!] )

Personally I have never used Project Status for anything, however it looks like an extremely useful way to take tasks out of being Active (by using the ProjectStatus() function in the Advanced filter).

The other alternative of "kicking tasks along the road"  by setting the Start Date way into the future for review when their start date arrives also interesting, however please note that you would need to select all tasks within the project in question before changing the start date in this manner, in order for this to work.

Either way you do it, you will then have the problem of how do you review your Someday/Maybe list?  I guess you need to manually a new view showing all tasks that have start dates in the future and all tasks whose projects have been suspended, yes?

J

Luc Poitras

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May 11, 2016, 9:49:57 AM5/11/16
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I think I just found a way that works FOR ME:
- I have a Workspace called "Projets en cours" meaning Active Projects;
- In this Workspace, in the AdvancedFilter, I have "IsProject is true";
- Based on David Allen's GTD, we should always do a weekly review, and within this weekly review plan the week ahead;
- Let's say we are sunday the 08 of mai today and I am doing my weekly review;
- I will modify the date of sunday the 08 to sunday the 15th of mai in the "To" within the StartDate Filter on the left, and leave the "From" blank to leave the already active projects intact.
- I also check the "Hide Undated" box in the StartDate Filter. And so, if I feel that an undated futur project should appear in the Active Project Workspace, I will then create a start date within this week for it, and this project will (from now on) appear in my Active Project Workspace.

Hope this helps,
Luc

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