ForumsQuestionsWhat status is used for scheduled tasks?
What status is used for scheduled tasks?
| Author | Message |
|---|---|
|
Disorganised |
What does everyone else use?
Currently I'm using the status "none" in Ultimate To do list on Android because none of the other statuses seem appropriate. I mean, say that you decide to create a task to make an appointment for the doctors for next week, and for the sake of argument you put it under the "waiting"(because you're waiting for that time" to come around) status. If you forget to check through your waiting and deferred tasks for that week you may miss it because it's not in the "next action" status (toodledo doesn't seem to have a way to automatically change the status of tasks depending on their start/due date, so it means that we have to keep on eye on each of the scheduled tasks and change their status manually) There's also the problem with recurring (scheduled) tasks. Imagine you have a task that recurs monthly. When it's a month away it may well be given the status "waiting" and then "next action" when it's couple of days before it's due, but isn't this a tedious way to go about it to continually have to change it's status from "waiting" to "next action" and back again, ad infinitum? Are there any plans to have a "scheduled" status? Then we can have all our scheduled tasks all under 1 status rather than being all over the place, and eliminate the need to continually keep an eye on the due/start dates to change it's status Thanks This message was edited May 31, 2015. |
|
coolexplorer |
TD has almost every conceivable variable by which one can sort and manage tasks. However to avoid spending too much time in manually "managing" tasks and more time in "completing" tasks, I have turned off the 'Status' field in settings. I have incorporate one or two critical status in another context field.
I rely on only the priority, star and start-due dates to present me my task priorities in custom lists. May not work for everyone, but works for me. Best of luck. This message was edited May 31, 2015. |
|
jim.morse.TN |
I agree with Coolexplor
|
|
Disorganised |
I think you guys have got a good point! I seem to be constantly moving tasks from one status to another, so it's kinda like spending more time organising my tasks than actually completing them.
I'm always looking to simplify so maybe I can find something similar that works for me. The only problem I've found is when I use contexts or tags instead of status to separate the tasks is that it's more difficult to use subtasks (i like to have the pproject name with the subtasks all indented underneath so that I can see what needs to be done at a glance). Thanks for your input! This message was edited Jun 02, 2015. |
|
Salgud |
I think the issues of constantly changing Status are due to lack of understanding of Saved Searches. For example, I have Next Action tasks even months in advance, and frequently a month in advance. I organize and manage monthly meetings, and try to have a Next Action task for each all the time. But they have Due Dates as much as a month out, so they don't appear on my custom Hotlist because they haven't reached their Due Date yet. So I don't see them until their Due Date. No need to change status frequently, they have Next Action Status from the beginning, but don't show until their Due Date. I also incorporate Start Dates for tasks that need to start well ahead of their Due Dates.
I find the combination of Status and Due Date one of the more powerful and frequently used criteria for eliminating the problems described above. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Feel free to ask me questions if you have any. This message was edited Jun 03, 2015. |
|
Disorganised |
I hear ya about Next Action, but you and I currently use status in different ways. Your system seems to be project based where each task in the project is given a next action status, even if it's months away.
I'm using status as being time dependent. This is how I'm using each of the statuses -"none" - (currently) I'm using this for scheduled tasks but it's just a hack so I want to change it -"next action" - tasks I want to do 'soon' -"active" - tasks which are either ongoing or tasks that i plan to do now and again(eg "look through buy and sell for a bike". This is a task which I may do whenever I come across across a local 'buy and sell' magazine or maybe if I look online. It's not something that a do once and then tick off as complete) -"planning" - i'm contemplating about doing them soon -"waiting" - I'm waiting for something unpredictable outside of my control to happen such as a received phone call to make an appointment, a successful job interview, getting a promotion, etc. -"hold" - Ive purposely put the task on hold until whenever, but I definitely want to do the task in the very near future. -"someday" - these are either a brain dump for stuff I may or may not do (eg take up a martial art), tasks which are actually projects and I haven't yet decided to process them (eg take up a martial art) salgud, I'm quite keen to explore your idea of using start dates as ticklers(I assume that's what you mean) along with statuses. What statuses do you use beside "next action" and how do you use them? Thanks in adcance |
|
Salgud |
Disorganized, I use most all of them and I think I use them as intended (which really doesn't matter, everyone should use the fields in any way they find helpful. Just happened this way for me with Status).
Someday - I'll get to it eventually, but not any time soon. These probably end up being deleted as often as they get moved to Active. Planning - I use templates for repetitive project tasks, and when I create an actual work project from a template, I multi-edit over to Active along with other changes I make at that time.This is a filtering tool to keep these Templates from showing up anywhere I don't want them, which is almost everywhere else. Active - In the batter's box. The status I give virtually all new tasks unless they are already Next Actions, and not a Template task. Hold - I'm holding it because I'm not ready to do it yet. I put down why I'm holding it to remind me. Waiting - for someone else to do something or get me some information I need to do it. I put down who it's waiting for and why. Cancelled - it's been canceled, usually by a higher up, but I want a record of it in case someone comes later asking why it didnt' get done. I always know who cancelled, why and when. Eventually these get deleted. Delegated - I've delegated to someone else. Next Action - Often part of a project, but not always. Usually it's something I need to do asap, unless dated to a future date, in which case it needs to be done by that date, and will automatically show on my Hotlist on the Due Date, unless it has an Start Date, which will put it on my Hotlist then instead. This last is only used occasionally. For example, I manage 3 major meetings a month, from scheduling them on all the participants GCal, to sending out the minutes and handouts afterward. So I have a template for each (each is a bit different). They all occur late in the month, so I copy a template for each and multi-edit the tasks, changing priorities (-1 to 2), Status (Planning to Active), and the folder (Templates to relevant folder for that meeting). Actually, creating this new project is the last task in the previous month's meeting project). Now that I have this month's meeting in my active list of tasks, I start assigning Dates and Statuses where relevant. One of the first things I do is reserve a state vehicle for myself to get to the meeting, so I click that Next Action and go do it. The ones with true due dates come much later. I have to have an agenda out by a week before the meeting, so I set the Due Date appropriately, and the Start Date 3-4 days earlier. This causes the Get Agenda Task to appear ~10 days ahead of the meeting, and I send out reminders to the co-chairs that I need the agenda 7 days ahead of the meeting, giving them 3-4 days ahead of that to put one together. So I have a constant tickler in my Hotlist for those 3-4 days that I'm waiting for the agenda, and if I don't have it the day before it's due, I can send another reminder, at my discretion (These things can be very political :). Some of these tasks have known Due Dates from the start, like bring equipment and take minutes (day of). I usually don't get around to entering these dates until the tasks immediately preceding them are in process, but could really do them anytime I choose after I've created them. So while I do have to update Status to some degree through this process, this field is not directly controlling where the task is in the flow. Start and Due Dates do that. Status is used as a filtering device for my final daily custom Hotlist (doesn't resemble TD's very much. Virtually all of this is done in Saved Searches, to the point where I rarely go off the Saved Searches panel for anything. Usually a task gone MIA. This is an attempt to create a natural flow of tasks into TD, and to limit the likelihood of overlooking anything, and to minimize editing. Mostly, it does this and I feel like I'm a step ahead on all of it, which is probably still a delusion anyway! :) I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. This message was edited Jun 05, 2015. |
|
Disorganised |
Ah I see - so for your next actions, they're where you seem to place all your scheduled tasks. I notice that you make use of the hotlist feature extensively, and I think that's an idea I can take away. I'd never really bothered with it before.
I'm thinking now that I may not need to put all scheduled tasks into "none" status because Ultimate To Do List in Android allows you to create custom 'views' enabling me to see them all at a glance, so I think that will be a cleaner way to go about it. I like your idea of using start/due dates together with the hotlist to be alerted to upcoming tasks rather than relying on the status as I've done. I think I'll try and work with those ideas. Thanks a lot bud! :) This message was edited Jun 08, 2015. |
|
Salgud |
Hope it works for you, Dis. Be careful of the ultimate Task Manager trap, overuse of Due/Start dates. I fallen into it many times myself by putting in Due Dates just to bring them to my attention at some point, but on which the task was not really due. Big trouble. You end up endlessly changing Due Dates just like you been doing with Statuses.
Best of luck! |
|
Salgud |
Posted by Disorganised:
Ah I see - so for your next actions, they're where you seem to place all your scheduled tasks. I notice that you make use of the hotlist feature extensively, and I think that's an idea I can take away. I'd never really bothered with it before. I hope I was clear that I use my own Hotlist, not the one that comes with TD. This gives me a tremendous amount of flexibility to do as I described. This message was edited Jun 12, 2015. |
|
coolexplorer |
I use Ultimate Task Manager Android Apps "Start date" with "Persistent Reminder" on mobile to Jog me on the Important&Urgent tasks to be done. Unfortunately the "Start date" reminder alarm does not sync with the TD web page (only "Due date" alarms do). I still use it though and UTM has a wonderful 2-way sync with my Google Calendar and Custom Views.
I am looking at you TD. ;) |
|
Disorganised |
Posted by Salgud:
Hope it works for you, Dis. Be careful of the ultimate Task Manager trap, overuse of Due/Start dates. I fallen into it many times myself by putting in Due Dates just to bring them to my attention at some point, but on which the task was not really due. Big trouble. You end up endlessly changing Due Dates just like you been doing with Statuses. Best of luck! Thanks Salgud. I agree, that's something that I intend to clear up as I'm guilty too, but I tend to only use start dates as 'ticklers'. I never use due dates in to-do apps because definite dates are exclusively for the calendar Posted by Salgud: Posted by Disorganised: Ah I see - so for your next actions, they're where you seem to place all your scheduled tasks. I notice that you make use of the hotlist feature extensively, and I think that's an idea I can take away. I'd never really bothered with it before. I hope I was clear that I use my own Hotlist, not the one that comes with TD. This gives me a tremendous amount of flexibility to do as I described. I'm not sure if the Ultimate Todo list app one is the same as the TD one Posted by coolexplorer: I use Ultimate Task Manager Android Apps "Start date" with "Persistent Reminder" on mobile to Jog me on the Important&Urgent tasks to be done. Unfortunately the "Start date" reminder alarm does not sync with the TD web page (only "Due date" alarms do). I still use it though and UTM has a wonderful 2-way sync with my Google Calendar and Custom Views. I am looking at you TD. ;) Thats an idea. Thanks! It would save me from having to enter ticklers all the time which end up orphaned throughout my to do list when the dates have gone This message was edited Jun 12, 2015. |
You cannot reply yet
U Back to topic home
R Post a reply
To participate in these forums, you must be signed in.