Using keyboard shortcuts, how can I move a task down, directly to the top of a folder? (Windows MLO)

[John Smith]

Hi 

Using just keyboard shortcuts, when moving a task down the screen, I how can I get it directly to the top of a folder? 

Background:

I have many, many items in some of my folders. 

When I am trying to move a task down into a Folder using Shift/Alt/DownArrow (and Shift/Alt/UpArrow)  I find it annoying that the tasks always have to be added from the bottom.

i.e. Without using the mouse (which yes, would work but it is a pain to have to change input device and moreover moving with the mouse is rather a clunky implementation)... is there any way to get a task down into a folder from the top, using the keyboard?

In this screen shot, I am wanting to get a task down the screen by one row...

To get clear, in my screenshot, in order to get my task called "Task AAAA" to just below "Folder 01" on the screen, I am forced to go:

- Shift/Alt/DownArrow (which takes my task all the way down to between task "777" and "Folder 02")...   then 

- Shift/Alt/RightArrow (which gets my task into the very bottom of "Folder 01"...  then

- Shift/Alt/UpArrow 

- Shift/Alt/UpArrow

- Shift/Alt/UpArrow

- Shift/Alt/UpArrow

- Shift/Alt/UpArrow

- Shift/Alt/UpArrow

- Shift/Alt/UpArrow

i.e. Shift/Alt/UpArrow x7 times !

And if I have 100 items in my folder I have to hit Shift/Alt/UpArrow a full 100 times! 

Any suggestions?

J

[Wallace Gilbraith]

Shift Alt and hold on Up arrow, rather than separate presses

Wol


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From: John Smith <shi...@gmail.com>
Sent: 8 October 2015 04:23:37 BST
To: MyLifeOrganized <mylifeo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [MLO] Using keyboard shortcuts, how can I move a task down, directly to the top of a folder? (Windows MLO)

[pottster]

You might be better off with Ctrl+x and Ctrl+v - this adds to top of folder list.

From this, and some of your other posts, I suspect that you might be spending too much time "playing" with your outline. I would recommend keeping your outline structure as flat and as unchanging as possible and use views and your tags of choice (contexts, stars, flags) to achieve what you want. Everyone is different of course but I do feel that the Outline is best used for planning, setting goals and review - a bit like the contents section of a book. I spent a fair amount of time getting my Outline right a couple of years ago but haven't changed it significantly for a long while. Don't get too hung up on the sequence of the tasks either, very few tasks need to be done (or can be done) in sequence - I say that as an experienced Project Manager. Life doesn't happen in A-Z, if only!

[J Smith]

Yes, holding the (Shift/Alt/UpArrow) keys down helps of course. The problem is when you have 100 or so it becomes slightly time consuming.

The other problem is of course the when you finally get back to the top of the folder in question, it is no longer visible at the top of the main body of the screen.  And so at this point, if you were not paying sufficient attention, you don't remember which folder you are now in! 

And so at this point you have to go UpArrow, then Down Arrow in order to see and give focus back to the Task you are working on. Not hard but a bit messy.

Aside:

Only since raising this issue, I have only now spotted that the folder name appears in the MLO's white space just below the tabs at the top of the screen. It's a fraction hard to read the folder because that row also contains the title of the task in full. (Personally I would vote to grey out the task name a this point, but I doubt I'd get many supporters for this.)

Incidentally do any of you people use that row much? (i.e. just below the tabs at the top of the screen) 
And if so what for?

J

[J Smith]

Yes I live in my Outline view! (Mostly in All Task, Active).

I also use the folders to house different GTD lists (e.g. Maybe Do, Definitely Do) plus other stuff for review later (e.g. Reflective Thoughts, New Ideas, GTD Theory...)  ... all of which I hide from Active view and so can only see through my All Tasks view.

Fwiw, I then use the sort order in my All Tasks Active view to establish core (relative) priority and then use markups with bold and/or hightlight to establish short time priority and finally at the start of every day I use Stars to establish what I'm gonna work on today.

I have also just started using Bookmarks go get to the folder I want fast.

It's pretty basic but it works for now!  
I was wasting FAR too much time messing with the system

> You might be better off with Ctrl+x and Ctrl+v - this adds to top of folder list.

Thanks! Yes not bad. The keyboard sequence is

- Control/X 
- DownArrow

- Control/V

- Enter

It does work. However it's a bit fiddly - 4 keyboard interactions just to go down one row!

Any other suggestions?

[pottster]

Hmm, if it works for you that's great. Just be careful you aren't just getting very good at the digital equivalent of shuffling paper. It's worth remembering that GTD was borne essentially by the analogue world and the workflow in the book was a paper flow. A guiding principle was to touch each piece of paper as few times as possible and for as briefly as possible. If you are continually moving tasks in an outline, changing attributes, changing format, (none of it moving you closer to done), then you might want to look at how you could organize differently. A neatly ordered desk isn't as welcome as a clear desk!

[Smith, John]

Fwiw, I experimented at some length with Importance & Urgency but never got it to work well, mainly because priorities are relative and tend to change a fair bit in the (my) real world.

I am starting to use contexts more, however "no context" is my default (in effect "at computer") context and this works for me fairly well for now.

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[bird...@gmail.com]

 I have found that the simplest and most efficient way to sort a large number of tasks is the use of the flattened important urgent see and effort view.

Once you have it set up, sorting is automatic and you do not have to drag  items around which is very mind numbing when you have a large number of items.

There is a learning curve and getting this setup. And also keep in mind that when you double-click an item that has a hierarchy of sub-tasks you will jump to a  view that has those items. So you aren't at all eliminating hierarchy, but rather you're giving yourself an easy to digest automated sorts on the front end.

With all of this there is a disadvantage which I have reported to the programmers and I believe they have it on their list of things to fix. the disadvantage is that if you use dates, those dates are inherited by the sub items. That means that when you display the flattened one level view, you will get sub items showing up as separate items. So every day I have to go through manually to remove the date on the sub items. It is a huge annoyance, but overall the advantages outweigh disadvantages.

But I believe that the folks over there at mylifeorganized are going to be fixing this.

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