ForumsQuestionsTasks or Folders for Projects?
Tasks or Folders for Projects?
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Jeff |
Hi, I'm new to Toodledo and am just now going to set up a new Pro account. Based on my research, I realize the following question has been asked before but I couldn't find a definitive answer.
We are a small contruction company. Therefore we have multiple and ongoing "projects". Even when the project is completed, we still need to access it for follow up tasks or service calls down the road. So intuitively, I would set up Toodledo to have each home or Project be a Folder and assign Tasks and Subtasks to it up until project completion and afterward. However, after reading and researching Toodledo, most people recommend to use Folders for very broad topics, Tasks for Projects and Subtasks for the Project's tasks and I still can't tell exactly why one would prefer this. Many of our project tasks have subtasks in themselves and it seems we would lose this functionality. We need Projects (around 100 of them), Tasks and Subtasks of those tasks to most directly match what we do. Can anyone comment on why using Tasks for Projects instead of Folders is the seemingly preferred method for most users? Any recommendations for our situation? Will we be in bad shape if we just stick to the Folder/Task/Subtask formula to organize each job? Thanks a lot! |
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Jake Toodledo Founder |
Toodledo is flexible enough to work in lots of different ways. Based on our experience, most people use Folders for projects. But a lot of people do it the other way that you are describing. It is a personal preference. You should experiment and use the way that works best for you. I am sure that you'll get some opinions after me that explain the benefits of using both methods.
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Dave |
@Jeff I use Proximo's setup and it is excellent for my needs. Maybe it will work for you http://www.toodledo.com/forums/5/2660/0/proximos-gtd-setup.html
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slsgtd |
Toodeldo is very difficult to use with large numbers of folders. It is also difficult to have only tasks and sub-tasks for the reason you gave. I think pretty much every user would agree that it is missing one level.
Without that one extra level it is a matter of selecting which kludge you find least inconvenient, but one-way-or-another you have to simulate that level. |
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TheGriff_2 |
So I guess I see that you need to organize two different levels of "Projects". On the one hand you consider each home a project but I am sure each of those homes has many different projects that need completing.
As a consultant I use Folders to keep track of my clients. Then within those folders I use tasks as my projects and subtasks as items to complete those projects. I might suggest thinking of each individual house as a client and then using tasks as projects for each of those clients/houses. |
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Jeff |
Thanks for the replies so far. What I'm wondering is, since I haven't been there yet, it HOW is Toodledo difficult to use with many folders? The only issue I can see is sharing where you'd have to share each folder with many people on the team. But between this inconvenience and not having subtasks, I think I'd prefer the former. Could we use tags for projects instead? Seems the more I learn the more confused I get! I just the SIMPLEST way to track multiple projects with about 6 people total on the team. I've decided that Toodledo is the route, now just need to figure out where the heck to start.
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TheGriff_2 |
It can get complex when you have many folders that you have to view. Once you've taken up the space along the top of your screen, folders will begin to populate a drop-down style menu to the right of the last displayable folder. Some people find this to be an issue.
I tend to reserve tags for information that helps to describe a task. For example on an Agenda task I might put the name of the person I need to talk to as the tag. I also use tags to track my billable vs. non-billable time. In your case I might use the tag to indicate who is responsible for the task. I strongly encourage using my approach...of course I am biased but I think you'll find it simplest in the long run. ;-) |
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Jeff |
Thanks TheGriff, I'm not sure I see any difference in your method from what I was going to set up. A Client is basically a Project in our business so using a Folder for a Project would be the same as a Client no? Not sure I understand. Can you clarify? Also, the folders down the side would be no big deal. The sharing and delegating is where I can't see how multiple folders will work for a small business with many projects going on at once.
I'm starting to see that the collaboration features aren't that robust and can only be used from the web app. This won't work for me as we need to be able to assign a task to a field tech linked to a project FROM our iPhones while away from the office. I haven't found a feasible way to accomplish this with Toodledo so I may have to keep looking... :-( |
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Jeff |
Basically, I can put it in a nutshell what we're trying to achieve with Toodledo and hopefully someone can tell me if it's possible and what the simplest way might be.
6 People on the team. Multiple ongoing projects >50. Each project has various tasks involved, each with its own list of subtasks. We're looking for a way to organize these tasks/subtasks and easily assign them to any of the 6 people from either the web app, the iPhone or Outlook. Example: John our project manager is out at the jobsite. He sees that a wire has been cut by accident and it needs to be repaired. He wants to assign the subtask of "repair wire" of the parent task "Prewire the House" to our Tech named Bill and have it show up on Bill's task list. Even if the best way to accomplish this is using ONE shared account for the projects and using tags or status for assigning tasks to rig it, I'd be interested to hear because I like the filtering power of Toodledo that much and would like to use it. |
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TheGriff_2 |
Posted by Jeff:
Thanks TheGriff, I'm not sure I see any difference in your method from what I was going to set up. A Client is basically a Project in our business so using a Folder for a Project would be the same as a Client no? Not sure I understand. Can you clarify? Also, the folders down the side would be no big deal. The sharing and delegating is where I can't see how multiple folders will work for a small business with many projects going on at once. You have it exactly. For you a Project is a client. Each Project will then have smaller sub-projects (i.e. prewire) and then each sub-project will have tasks (i.e. repair wire). |
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PeterW |
Posted by Jeff:
6 People on the team. Multiple ongoing projects >50. Each project has various tasks involved, each with its own list of subtasks. We're looking for a way to organize these tasks/subtasks and easily assign them to any of the 6 people from either the web app, the iPhone or Outlook. Toodledo really isn't a project management solution. You can probably bend it a bit to make it work for you but with 6 people and the kind of complexity you get in the construction industry, I'd suggest you go for something more robust. Here's one that I've seen during my web surfing. I've never use it but it looks comprehensive and should tick most of the boxes you've mentioned. http://www.proworkflow.com/ |
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