ForumsGetting Things Done®35 Contexts and 170 (Active) Projects
35 Contexts and 170 (Active) Projects
| Author | Message |
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dave |
I'm liking absolutely everything about Toddledo except for the interface to folders and contexts. I am a traveling consultant, and have (require) contexts for every client site, plus all the standard contexts (Phone, Computer, Home, etc). There just isn't enough room in a tab bar at the top of the window to control these.
My projects are 5 times as bad. Unfortunately, subtasks do not present a solution as, in my methodology, projects do not (can not) have a context. Folders are the nearest equivalent, but I am once again limited by the screen real estate set aside for the tab bar. I would kill for the ability to run a vertical folder (or context) list on the left or right of the main screen. The firefox add-on gets *closer*, but I can't see the projects and the actions at the same time. Anyone have any ideas? OmniFocus is being really funky and slow for me, and I'd love to scrap it. This message was edited Sep 22, 2009. |
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Anders |
I'm not sure I understand why parent tasks as projects wouldn't work for you. You could just leave the Context Field blank, and some people use a Context of Project to separate parent tasks. Anyway, that is a bit beside the point. There is a userstyle that another Toodledoer created for just this purpose. It might work well for you: http://www.toodledo.com/forums/3/2754/0/tabs-as-a-list.html.
Another thing you can do would be to use the Firefox Bookmark sidebar, and create a list of Bookmarks to your Different Folders and Contexts, then if you keep the sidebar open, it would effectively do the same thing. |
|
dave |
My understanding from my reading is that if I were to use a context of "project", then none of the subtasks would appear in any other contexts unless I had explicitly flattened the display. I do not know what would happen if I left the context blank. Would they only appear in the "no context" context?
Please understand, half the reason I'm trying to replace OmniFocus is that I'm periodically "losing" actions, either though sync issues or weird bugs. If there's even the smallest chance of individual actions not being visible when and where I need to see them, I might as well go back to looseleaf paper, you know? That being said, that user style is very nice. I'll need to play some more. Thanks for the link. |
|
Anders |
Your understanding is correct. There are advantages to both methods (Folder or parent task as Project), and there is certainly nothing wrong with going with Folders. I was just wondering about your specific reason (I happen to favor the parent task method). If you are worried about not seeing what you need to at the right time, then that is a perfectly good reason to use Folders. I don't find it to be a problem because you can have different settings for each view, so I just keep my Tag view (I use them instead of Contexts) flattented. Other views like Folder and Main, I have indented. However, you could run into problems using parent tasks in this manner if you use the Context filter in another view like Main for example, and forget to flatten your subtasks.
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TheGriff_2 |
I'm also a consultant that travels a bunch so I'm sure we have some challenges in common.
That said I use a Folder for each of my clients and I add work (project actions) to the @Client context. When I'm at ABC Co. I'll just do a search within that folder for @Client. Of course this assumes I have to be focusing on that client exclusively. In my line that's not always the case so often times I'll have a search of @Client, @Phone, @Laptop and @Anywhere sorted by folder. I keep tasks flattened and if I need to see what project the task is part of I can quickly click the icon to expand it. FWIW I assign all my projects to the _Project context to make weekly review of Projects that much easier. Hope this helps a bit...feel free to ask more... |
|
ken |
Posted by dave:
My understanding from my reading is that if I were to use a context of "project", then none of the subtasks would appear in any other contexts unless I had explicitly flattened the display. Posted by Anders: Your understanding is correct. I'm confused. I don't think this is correct. Unless I'm missing something, this would make the use of sub-tasks and contexts pretty lame. A parent task's context is independent of its sub-tasks contexts. I have a context of #project for all parent tasks. Sub-tasks most definitely have their own independent contexts. I can get a quick project list by viewing the #project context. And any sub-tasks marked @computer for instance, show up in context views for @computer. |
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Warren |
Hi dave,
I scrapped sub-tasks in favor of folders as well. It has worked out very well. I didn't like the way tasks were hidden within a parent task, especially on the iphone. You can also Archive a Folder when you complete a project/client. I found this to be my preferred behaviour for my projects incase I had to bring them back or review past projects. As we say in perl, TMTOWTDI! (There's More Than One Way To Do It!) This message was edited Oct 19, 2009. |
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Proximo |
@Warren,
Everyone should do what works best for them. I can see how Folders will work for some and not others. The good thing is you have an option. I think if we had native Project support, that things could be managed in a way to work for everyone. I will continue to use Parent/Sub-task because it works for my setup. :-) |
|
Anders |
Posted by ken:
Posted by dave: My understanding from my reading is that if I were to use a context of "project", then none of the subtasks would appear in any other contexts unless I had explicitly flattened the display. Posted by Anders: Your understanding is correct. I'm confused. I don't think this is correct. You are correct that I was incorrect. I'm not sure what I was thinking. It is true of the Context Filter (you can't use it with subtasks indented or hidden if your subtasks and their parents have different Contexts). And it would be true of simple Context Saved Searches, but you can fix those easily. Anyway, the reverse of what is quoted above is true; If you have your subtasks indented, your subtasks will show under their parent's Context tab (If they are hidden or flattened, you can just toggle the subtasks icon to see them). A parent task's context is independent of its sub-tasks contexts. I wasn't disagreeing with this. Thanks for catching my mistake :) This message was edited Oct 21, 2009. |
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