MLO Tutorials. What I really hate about MLO.

[Saumil Vyas]

I liked the software a lot and that is why I spent some time and money for it. Now I feel like I am stuck with no help and nothing is getting done the way I imagined the MLO would help me out. I am really frustrated with the whole experience. I am using MLO for over a year. I have Windows desktop and android pro-versions plus cloud subscription. My cloud subscription is up for renewal. I feel like I am wasting money. I am thinking to let it go.

I am pretty much using MLO as a to-do task list with reminders. Keep snoozing things not done or organized at proper place. I chose MLO because I saw the potential in the software to do a lot more when I tried before I bought it. I was hoping to get some tutorials to get me started or give me some step by step help.

The help in the software only describe how you can use each function individually, no totalitarian approach. The program looks very advanced and like made by a geek with no way to explain how to implement it (no offence to the developers). I am geek myself and I know the pain. The help shows what each menu item can do, but there is no work flow for implementation. I use this extensively for my task lists and that’s it. I want to organize the way David Allen’s GTD system work. I do see templates and each item has notes. I need something simpler. Something I can grasp without doing a PhD. I have learnt complex program like AutoCAD without a book, because I had a lot of time at hand and spend hours or days on trial and error. Now, I am a busy executive. I don’t have that kind of time anymore.

Long story short, what I am looking forward to:

1.      1.      Work flow to implement and maintain David Allen’s GTD system (Top priority).

2.      2.     I saw a few people posted their experience and GTD implementation all the way back in 2007. I do spend a lot of time reading through forum postings, yes they help, but not clearly answer what I need.

3.      3.     Is there a template that really explains how it works, I can start with? Don’t tell me open the template and go figure out yourself!!

4.      4.     Am I asking for too much? Am I here to take my frustration out, may be. Is there a light at the end of tunnel?

Thanks for reading this and all help.

Saumil

[robisme (Olivier R)]

First, excuse me if my poor English proficiency may make you think I'm talking a rough way, it's not my intention. 

It sounds like you'd want MS WORD Tutorial to explain you how to write a thesis. First, learn how to write a thesis, then write it in Word, you'll see a lot of features for which the help will help.

Why don't you simply learn how to use GTD in GTD forum. The next step is how to implemant it.

You have the choice : paper or computer. The same way it is not necessary to explain you how many sheet of paper you could use to put in the inbox panel, there is no necessity to explain (ie "constrain") you that you first have to put your tasks in the inbox, then regularly chek your inbox and empty it by moving your task toward differents projects, asign context, due date if necessary, etc.

All this is still "how to use GTD", not "How to use MLO".

Then, imagine that MLO is a system of list that you can cusomize your way. If you want to put all the project under a folder, or differents folders, or whatever, it's just your way. But it is still GTD.

Olivier

[Petr Urbanec]

The easy way could be this:

a) create a simple folder structure, for example

/
+--Simple List (single tasks that don't have other next actions)
|
+-+Project List (task that have more next actions)
| |
| +--Project A
| +--Project B
| +--Project C
| +--etc
|
+--Someday/Maybe List

b) make up a short contexts list, for example

@Home
@Office
@PC
@Phone
@Errands
@Waiting For

c) use only the "Outline View" and the "Active Actions by Context"

and that's it.

Of course, you can use more complicated structures, but if you are confused about lot of folders and contexts, you need a very simple structure.

On the other hand, how Olivier R wrote, the MLO is just a tool, like a paper, notebook. You must not think the MLO software gets your thinks done. The main solution is in your mind.

Petr

[bird...@gmail.com]

I think another approach to using MLO is to come up with you own strategy for time and task management. I started out wanting to use GTD, but evolved away from that because MLO can be time management system in itself which makes, GTD feel inflexible and limited. 

I run a business and categorize by revenue and non-revenue generating activities using the tabs up at the top. I use the outline capability to organize project and tasks. 

I just the Starred View to create my to-do list for each day. 

It's simple. 

I think GTD has evolved into sort of a religion. While many people benefit from it, others like myself, find it unnatural, hard to stick to, and prone to driving you into wasting time. 

I'm sure many people will disagree with me and that's okay. But the main my point is that if you find it difficult to implement GTD in MLO, just explore the features of MLO and come up with your own system.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mylifeorganiz...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to mylifeo...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/e918771d-3153-43ef-89ec-8542c72b1d0e%40googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Christoph Zwerschke]

Am 21.11.2013 23:15, schrieb Petr Urbanec:
> *c) use only the "Outline View" and the "Active Actions by Context"*

It's important to remember that you actually have to work with MLO in
three different "modes":

"Weekly Review": Uses mainly the "Outline" view, but "Review" is also
useful if you filled out review dates. You would also look into your
Projects and Goals view to check that everything moves forward, and tune
priorities and adapt to newer developments.

"Daily Planning": Preparing for action in the early morning or better in
the evening before. Here, you look mainly into the "Active Actions" view
and other "To-Do" views because when you did your weekly review
properly, they already give you a good idea which things are most
important to do right now. "Star" everything you really want to do on
that day (since MLO has no explicit "Today" flag or goal).

"Action Mode": Use only the "Starred" view, process everything on it.
Get a feeling of accomplishment when the view is empty in the evening.

I think the frustration comes when you do not take enough time for the
weekly review to re-adjust dates and daily planning. That's more a
matter of discipline or creating habits than a matter of software.
However, MLO is one of the software tools that really consider these
different modes and provide useful views and attributes for them.

-- Christoph

[James D]

I 100% agree with what Saumil writes, and the GTD market is a huge, huge market for MLO.  Compared to the simplicity of using GTD in Web tools like NirvanaHQ, Nozbe (which I understand works similar to "Things" on Mac), and several others, MLO is decidedly much less approachable.

I would like to set MLO up to have the simplicity of dragging a task from the Inbox and dropping on a Project, in the left pane, like Nozbe and NirvanaHQ, and others make very simple.  Eventually I found the "F3" functionality that helps with this, but the GTD Inbox processing scenario, of assigning projects to projects and contexts, seems less approachable and requires more clicks than competing products. (It's also much more flexible, but that's not really the point here.

I still haven't really found how to set MLO up to work the way I really want it to in this regard, the basic GTD Inbox processing scenario.  If there are other threads that people think have excellent info, please post links to them here.

A video tutorial, e.g., available on YouTube, would be a superb way of capturing and presenting this information. A review of the GTD-focused competition, for example, Nozbe has a very good set of video tutorials on using it for GTD-style workflow.  Unfortunately, this tool does not support outline functionality for projects and subprojects, and the developer insists it never will.

On the plus side, the views and filtering in MLO (Windows) are far more powerful than anything else out there.  Figuring out how to set them up to support a basic GTD workflow can be a daunting task for a new MLO user who is familiar with other GTD tools.  Also, no other tool seems to support "Goals" in the helpful way that MLO does, and very few seem to have the concept of "location" on their roadmap, while MLO already has some useful location-oriented features.

Having MLO support and simplify the adoption of MLO for GTD-experienced users who are familiar with simpler GTD tools is a major market opportunity for MLO, and would help ensure the long-term survival and prosperity of MLO.  There is a potential MLO customer base of many, many people who would share similar feelings about MLO to what Saumil shared.  However, most of them simply silently abandon MLO and move to other tools.

Thanks to Saumil for taking the time express his thoughts here instead of silently abandoning MLO.

If MLO long-timers can share links to especially helpful posts or web pages on setting up a simple GTD workflow within MLO, that would be tremendously construtive and helpful.

I personally would think it unconstructive to debate or question Saumil on what he is asking for.  He absolutely represents a market we want MLO to successfully address.

James

[MvdL]

I definitely can feel your frustration. I have had a hard time setting up MLO also to make it work they way I want. I am not using any particular system myself so I do not have any examples to help you out to setup GTD. Searching around though there are plenty of examples of how people setup their MLO for GTD such as this person.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mylifeorganized/MhRdFXV5WTA

One thing to remember is that MLO is extremely flexible and you have to make it work for you. You have to take the time to set it up and tweak it to your liking. But once you do it is invaluable.And yes the developers I think would do themselves a great favor by having  tutorials for some the popular organizing methods to draw in more customers and keep them around.

MvdL

On Thursday, November 21, 2013 7:00:27 AM UTC-8, Saumil Vyas wrote:

[Florian]

I subscribe to what Saumil's and James' opinions. Yes, you have to think it all by yourself and to make MLO work for you. The problem is that setting MLO up looks like programming sometimes (combining different recurrent tasks with each other and with non recurrent tasks). Tutorials and examples would be very, very useful, Andrey.

[Elizabeth Lindsay]

This is why I encourage all new users to be slow in what features they use.  I actually turned off some features (and hid them from view) since I wasn't using them.  They key is probably that all of us need to submit a tutorial for one feature we like and use.  That way, they can be available, since I'm happy with him focusing on coding versus help guides (but I'm a self-serve type of person).