ForumsQuestionsHow organize Tasks
How organize Tasks
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SteveUrich |
I organize my life around 10 areas of life that you have to be successful in and then in each of those area I have goals and then underneath goals there are tasks and projects.
Example: Self Management Health Relationships Finance Career Focused / Organized Personal Entertainment System Mgmt Home Then under Finance for example there is the project, Develop Financial Plan which has sub tasks. I am wondering if I should put the 10 areas as folders, the tasks and sub tasks under there with Tags to just see what I want or would it be easier to just use Tags to see all of the Financial projects that I have. What do you recommend? I am concerned that if I make too much use of Sub Tasks that things will get lost or it will be hard to quickly see what is going on. I have over 450 items after my brain sweep as part of GTD. Thanks, Steve |
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Anders |
I use the task with subtasks for projects method, but some people do find it easier to go the other way. It really comes down to personal preference, but many people use that system successfully. There is the danger of missing nested subtasks, but in my experience, once you get used to using them, it is pretty effective. You may want to do some reading through the Tips & Tricks and Getting Things Done forums to see what others are doing, and what sounds best for you.
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lite1 |
Steve ... I'd suggest doing some entry of your 250 items (which I assume GTD would consider each to be a project) by for example creating a folder labeled Self Management (or some abbreviation) and one say for F/O (Focused/Organized). Then enter 2 or 3 of your items that would fall into each of those areas of life focus including any subtasks for each. Then perhaps create folders for each of the other areas.
Now imagine/practice doing various things in TD e.g. entering a new project; doing a weekly review. Click open each folder and imagine/guess how many projects you would have under each one - how many would have subtasks; would all have tags. Then ask yourself some ?s: Would I like it that when I am in a given folder I know that that structure is supporting me in knowing that anything that I look at here is relevant to X area of my life? Would I use each folder 1 or more times daily? If you only imagine going into a given folder a couple of times a week, then perhaps having fewer folders would make more sense (as you could "see" just that area of your life by having a saved search based on a tag that simple gives that to you as hits). Whatever way you start to setup TD for your GTD, you will be able (and perhaps will be likely) to change it after having 3 to 6 weeks of experience with "your system". Hence I'd say choose an approach at first that is easiest to enter all of your 250 items and which intuitively you feel good about. If you choose too many folders/areas of life then you can "collapse" things later on by "reassigning" these to another folder. If you choose too few Folders, then you can split a given folder into two or more later on e.g. initially Personal might include "Health" items but with the tag (health) and similarly include Self Management and Focused/Organized with their own unique tag. If you find that when you look at and use Personal folder that you feel that there is just too much there and you feel overwhelmed rather than organized and on top of managing that area of your life, then split it out later on. By mocking up parts of two folders and imaging the implementation of your entire initial system you will be able to get started and then from experience modify things based on your own use. My further advice would be to know that: Simpler is probably better which often translates to fewer folders are better. Use abbreviations or acronyms for folders so that they don't take up too much room (you can modify name at anytime so fine to start with full name and shorten later). The keyboard shortcuts allow you to move to any folder (in a particular view) by typing a number between 1 and 9. If you have more folders than that you have to mouse click. Since I believe that keyboard shortcuts are one of the best time savers, I personally considered this in my system. All of my comments are based on ONLY using TD in a computer and not from iPhone or other mobile device. I believe but do not know from experience that most if not all of what I suggest would also apply if you are using mobile device for some or a great deal of your viewing and/or entry. FWIW I have 9 Folders that I created (plus the standard TD "No Folder"). For someone into GTD, and depending on your life/work situation you might want these Folders which I use and find of value Rcv(Receivables) Maybe Lists Ref(erence) Have fun, TD is a wonderful tool and has alot of options for customizing it to suit your own current and evolving needs. I started with it and GTD this past May and it has made a meaningful difference in my life ... good luck. Edward P.S. I do not have any shared folders (sharing with other team members or family members who have accounts is possible) and it does not sound like you need or want to use TD in that way. I don't think it would change my advice to you. P.S.2 While my folder structure has been stable for months, I do sometimes add a temporary folder for a major personal or work porject that will be short lived and which will utilize 70% of my energy/time for a week or so and which has lots of moving parts that I have to be totally on top of. And then it is deleted, history. By analogy unlike your physical home where unless you move to a new residence it is difficult to remodel rooms, or add new ones, or combine rooms - TD makes it easy to do minor to major renovation fairly quickly. This message was edited Aug 23, 2009. |
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SteveUrich |
Thanks for your suggestions.
I have to admit that I do not really get GTD. I have studied the first book and listened to the Making It All Work book. Having all of these lists that have to be reviewed and counting on the review to help me prioritize while I am in the rush of the day seems more work than it is worth. I really liked the prioritized daily todo list that was part of the original franklin planner (book and software) and if they could write software that worked I would use it as I just liked pounding down the list from top to bottom and forwarding to the next day that which I did not get done. I guess that I am missing the basic premise of GTD. I like getting it all out of my head but once I am done with the mindsweep I am left with a massive mount of undoable tasks. Any suggestions on how to get it? Thanks, Steve |
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Claudio |
Posted by SteveUrich:
I guess that I am missing the basic premise of GTD. I like getting it all out of my head but once I am done with the mindsweep I am left with a massive mount of undoable tasks. Well, you could make your tasks "do-able" ... :)Check out some of the threads in the Toodledo GTD forum: http://www.toodledo.com/forums/5/0/getting-things-done.html |
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roddyt |
Posted by SteveUrich:
Thanks for your suggestions. Having all of these lists that have to be reviewed and counting on the review to help me prioritize while I am in the rush of the day seems more work than it is worth. I second Claudio's recommendation to check out the GTD forum, but I do want to address this comment. The review is a very important aspect of GTD, but it should be done at a time that you specifically set aside for it; preferably without interruption. It's not something you want to do "in the rush of the day." As for the massive amount of undoable tasks, yes, it sounds like the initial foray into GTD where you do the first mind dump. It can be daunting, but it's a one time exercise. In the beginning you add a lot of tasks, but soon enough your head will be empty (my wife sometimes thinks mine always has been) and the number of tasks you add on a day to day basis becomes more reasonable. In the end, it's whatever works best for you that counts. Roddy |
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Anders |
The review should definitely not be taking place while in the fray, but at the same time, I often find that I have several things that I dumped in my inbox that need to get processed rapidly, and can't wait for my weekly review. This may not be very GTD of me, but what I do is prioritize inbox items. When I need to get some stuff from inbox to action list, I just go in and skim the high priority stuff off, leaving the rest for my weekly review. So if I get an email, and forward it to Toodledo, but realize that I need to take care of it in the next couple of days, I will give it a high enough priority that it will rise to the top of my inbox. Another important thing is to completely empty your inbox when you do get around to the big review. That way, you won't feel like you are lost in a pile of meaningless undoable stuff. The big thing I figured out was that I was leaving things in there for when I was not completely sure about all the details to turn it into a full project. Now I enter whatever I can, and mark it as Planning. That way, I have all my processed, but incomplete projects in one place where I can add details, and eventually activate them.
Sorry about the brick of a paragraph. I need to figure out how to use the enter button :) This message was edited Aug 31, 2009. |
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