AW: [MLO] Re: Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL // reply to ROBISME

[Emerelle]

Hi again :)

 

Thank you for this hint! I am only using this programm since a short time, so so far not that many tasks in it (I still play with all of it, more or less), but what happens to me frequently is I mark things as done that are not quite done. I will setup views you suggested and keep in mind to re-check the finished tasks as well!

 

kind regards,

 

Brienne

 

Von: mylifeo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mylifeo...@googlegroups.com] Im Auftrag von robisme
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 19. Juli 2012 10:09
An: mylifeo...@googlegroups.com
Betreff: Re: [MLO] Re: Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL

 

I think that the first "tweak" you have to do, is making th app TRUSTFUL.

I mean, being sure that if you input a task somewhere, it will never be lost.

For that purpose, "create" a todo view with all you really need to focus on : dated task, etc

I have create exactly the contrary : a view with all thask that neither have context, date, goal, subtasks, etc : all the not classified task at all, all the possibly lost task, and its part of my weekly review to process them (I mean, sometime, task are toom quicly moved from inbox to a convenient place, but then, they belong to a kind of infbox in each "tree" of the outline).

Le jeudi 19 juillet 2012 05:46:05 UTC+2, Lisa S a écrit :

Don't feel you have to find the perfect "set up" right now. One of the ways I motivate my brain to stay interested is by changing up / "improving" my system. There is so much power with MLO that it's usually easy. For example, I was using Flags but decided to use Goals instead, so I created a view for all tasks with flags, selected many at once, and changed them in bulk. 

 

I actually think it works well to add new bits to your system as you go. Maybe have a basic setup to start, then slowly add more to it. It should work for you, you don't work for it :)

Lisa

 

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 3:34 PM, Emerelle <maz...@googlemail.com> wrote:

Hi Robisme,

 

I totally understand what you mean - this is what I think of when I say too many options are a total pitfall for someone like me. I spent so many days, even weeks on finding the perfect PIM, task manager and the like! I am obsessed with organizing things, especially because this is one of the most difficult things for me due to my ADD.

Thanks so much for clearing up the inbox and the project time setting, now it does make a lot of sense.

 

regards,

 

Brienne

 

Von: mylifeo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mylifeo...@googlegroups.com] Im Auftrag von robisme
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 18. Juli 2012 22:17
An: mylifeo...@googlegroups.com
Betreff: [MLO] Re: Possibly a new user...feel lost LOL

 

Hi,

 

You say a lot of intersting thing, and I will answer you on 2 points:

- INBOX is the place where you might "empty" your brain. You just put a task, whatever the due date, the context, the project or not, it's just a way to forget about it in a trustful place. The when you'll "organize your organization"  (be careful not to be caught in the game, ugh) you will "process" your inbox, moving each item in the convenient outline, setting due dates if necessary, context, etc.

- REQUIRED TIME is not intended to be set within the project, but for each subtask. Thus the project will automatically be populated with the sum of each subtask required time.

 

BTW, I'm completely caught in the game, lol !

 

 

 

Le mercredi 18 juillet 2012 20:02:47 UTC+2, Brienne a écrit :

Good evening :)

Wow, thank you so much for your plenty replies and the warm welcome! I feel like I've come to the right place to look for inspirational ideas on getting a bit more organized with my to-dos.
I had a good look at the user manual today and also checked into some of the suggestions from your postings:
The inheritance of settings such as contexts I already have found, but here I really do have a hard time to decide what is useful for me. I ticked that inheritance  and ended up with all tasks being one or another context - not helpful for overview I guess :-) !

For now I mainly work with the outline view and my tasks usually revolve around 2 main areas (which I set up as folders): Computers and home. Okay, there is also a category for shopping, wish list (books, other house items, software ;) you get the point :) ) and one or two I found by looking at the templates from the program which I have to get used to, such as a backlog and that strange "inbox": I am not sure I know how to use these, as funny as it sounds!

Since all of the things I do at the computer are rather projects that contain several steps/tasks and take some time, I almost have nothing but projects. And since those tasks contain subtasks, I feel I should set them to folders too, I am not sure whether this is useful? Tasks that are not folders and not goals, in other words, that have no icon at all beside the checkbox (right from it) somehow irritate me when looking at the list.

For now I just see mostly folders and projects, but on the other hand, even when I have mostly only projects, that way I can keep track of all things at the same time, set weekly goals (for instance, one of the subtasks could become a weekly goal). I do feel that the category project fits best to most of the things I do.

I guess I have to work with priorities much more to set things like daily tasks. When I still used paper and pen for my list, I used to have just a daily list and three tasks had to get checked off for the day (for instance, three household chores had to be done). I find it a bit of a pity there is no daily goal, because that would be fitting for setting the long term project tasks apart from the chores that need to be done.
(One question concerning these: is there a way to set the words that are used for priority, importance and urgency? I feel these categories could be a lot more helpful if I could assign shorter words, or icons in place of the words).

Another thing I would love to hear your ideas on is the use of icons. I found out you can setup almost any icon as a custom one. After playing around with the settings I realized that too many icons are not good for me - I for now tend to merely use the flags column to mark things aside the icons that are inserted for projects and folders.

Today I took a very close look at the automatic formatting and I must say - wow! That opens plenty of possibilities too. But to be quite honest with you, I sometimes struggle hard when I have too many possibilities. That is one pitfall for someone with ADD. Everything is intriguing and needs to be looked into - and in the end you find yourself spending the whole day on writing and playing with your to do list ;)
I mainly have problems with the mentioned icons (their positioning such as 0, 1, 2 etc is a riddle to me still) and deciding which automatic formatting is useful. Right now I have such a colorful list full of icons that my head is spinning just from looking at it! LOL.

And two things about projects still remain unclear to me, even after I have worked with the settings now quite a bit: One is the usage of the strings for projects; does that have to do with the parsing in the rapid task entry? By the way, thank you so much for that hint, it was exactly what I had been looking for!
Question number two is the setting of the required time for a project: No matter what I check or un-check, those boxes are not available for me. I was thinking maybe I could use that estimated time to sort all projects into short, middle and long projects.

I guess it all boils down now to decide what is helpful to get a clearer view on things. And that is the point where your ideas and personal preferences are a good source of inspiration, thank you for that!

I apologize for this scattered reply, but here comes my ADD and tells me it had enough of computer work today lol!

warm regards,

Brienne

On Monday, July 16, 2012 7:48:11 PM UTC+2, Brienne wrote:

Hi all,
I just joined this group because I am in the middle of my trial of this program and have to make a decision soon on whether I should buy it or not (as with everyone almost, budget is always tight, so we all think twice don't we? ;-) )

I feel a bit lost with all the options, though I am also intrigued by the complexity of this program. Oh and I hope it is ok that I started a new thread? I just felt it would be impolite to hi-jack someone's "New user" thread.

First of all, before I start with my questions, let me tell you a bit about myself and why I am so interested in a program like MLO. I have not read any of the books mentioned in this forum. I am not (yet) familiar with all the theories and methods of to-do lists, and I must say I guess I missed something good!

I suffer from ADD (yes, that attention thing ;) ) and my mind is constantly on the edge of bursting apart from ideas, do-not-forgets and what-I-always-wanted-to-do's. So I really really need a good way to sort things out and get them on paper sorted in a way that fits to my needs or, rather, thinking. I am very intrigued by the idea of having these contexts, projects and goals. That would cover a lot of the things that are on my mind; I had a bit of a hard time finding out how far automatic the program gets though: Is there a way to automatically asign contexts for instance, by typing an "@" in front of a word? Or are all these settings merely done manually through the properties dialog?

I also read somewhere that projects always have to be marked done manually, is that right? Sounds a little odd to me, since I do see the percentage changing with the subtasks getting done.

And lastly, I'd like to ask, in this group, is there anything like a files section where people share templates or something similar? I have often read people talking about some other user's template but I have a very hard time to find my way around these google groups.

I hope this wasnt much too long for a first introduction, and please excuse my mistakes in grammar and spelling. English is my second language and my ADD does the rest to my spelling ;)))

*waves hi to everyone*
Brienne

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[Lisa Stroyan]

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 11:48 AM, Rixey <dri...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have MLO cloud sync capabilities.  I have successfully synced from my phone to my desktop and vice-versa.  The issue is that sometimes duplicate folders and tasks are created from syncing  I don't know if this is coming from using templates or not or syncing to the wrong profiles or files.  I think I'm a little confused about saved files and then profiles.

This is most likely from using a template.  What happens is that if a task has the same name but different properties you can get a duplicate. 

Once you get this straightened out, you shouldn't have any trouble with MLO keeping the tasks in sync without creating duplicates. This is an unusual situation...hang in there and we can help you sort it out.

I have a saved file on my desktop - Do I really need more than one file?  

No, you don't. You can have more than one but it complicates things and I would say, stick with one unless you have a specific need.

 

Shouldn't everything just be one file? 

I believe I also have files in the cloud. - Is that what I should be syncing with every time?  Do I even need files on my desktop or phone.

The file on your phone isn't something you can see...it's there but hidden from you, and it's where all tasks are stored on your phone (doesn't need internet to use). You need a file on your PC, where all of your tasks are stored locally, while you are working with them. This way you can use MLO on the PC without any sort of internet connection.  Then finally you need a cloud file (just one, where both Android and PC will both "meet" in the middle. Other than naming it, right now you won't really be able to do anything with it directly, it's modified by the sync processes of the two machines. So if you create a task A on android, sync to the cloud, now the cloud has A in it's file (but you can't look inside). Then you sync to the PC, and A will be created in the PC file, where you can move it, complete it, etc. When you sync back to cloud, those changes are made to the cloud's version of A. Then when Android syncs, the changes are taken from the cloud file and applied on Android.

And then I have profiles. - Profiles on my phone, and a profile on my desktop?  I'm the only person using this program on my phone and desktop.  Do I need to have different profiles?

One Android profile corresponds to one cloud file and one desktop file. No, stick with one profile, which you sync to the same data file as you sync to on the OC.

To resolve your duplication issues, you can either get everything in sync and then combine things together, or what I would suggest is you can create a new, blank (not from a template) profile on Android (unless there are tasks on Android that you haven't synced yet). If the PC has all your important tasks you might create a new cloud file as well. (rename the old one for now).  

If you create a fresh cloud file and profile on Android, you can move around your tasks / combine folders on the PC and then when you sync it should work properly.

pieces of time though.  I've kept coming back to this thread though.  Hopefully I haven't stepped on any one's shoes by posting onto this thread.  Again any help would be greatly appreciated.

No worries!! 

[Rixey]

Thanks for the help Lisa.