Some necessary improvments

Ahmed56

01/25/2015 11:39

Hi...

I have been using Doit for a while and I'm very pleased about it's performance and simplicity.

However, here are some issues that needed to be fixed:

1) The waiting list should give option to follow up , putting a anything a waiting list will not benefit me since I have nothing to do for that particular issue but to follow up from time to time, so I suggest here that a task should be moved to Today's list and noted (automatically) to follow up.

2) A task that is in the scheduled list should move to Next list not the Today's list, here is an example, I have to pay my apartment rent on 25th of this month and this could be done within five days after 25th, so on 25th that task being shown in Today's list give the indication that it should be done today only while in reality it is not, and maybe there are more important tasks than this in the Next's list .

3) The Today' list should take the tasks that are due dated today, not start dated today, in addition to the tasks that are chosen by user from the Next list as his daily planning.

4) Today's list should not be separated from Next list, meaning Today list is part from Next list and not something else, i.e tasks on Today's list should be shown also in Next list because the Next list is the main list for the thing that have to be done as soon as possible as GTD book suggests.

Do you agree or not? Why?

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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/25/2015 13:10
  1 floor

  I agree and sympathize a lot and think these are very important features to discuss and implement.
  
  4 and 1
  I totally agree that Today should not be a separate category as it is now in Doit. Instead, it should be just a "flagged subset" of what is on the other lists (Next, Waiting etc) like it usually is in other apps. I agree that most of the flagged actions are usually Next actions, but I find it very convenient to also be able to flag other actions, e.g. flag a Waiting For action concerning an expected delivery today or flag a Scheduled or Someday action for special review or double-checking later today. The flag saves me the work of writing a new separate next action for things like "follow-up on delivery of x" or "double-check when they will be open" or "reconsider carefully". Just flagging it is usually enough.
  
  2 and 3
  I agree that the scheduled items really usually will belong on the Next list and should be visible there. Personally I would prefer to see them as "flagged Next" (visible on both Next and Today) and be able to "unflag" them (visible only on Next list). This is because I prefer to have some kind of notification that something has happened on my Next list; I would not want anything to sneak in unnoticed on my Next list.
  Ideally, I would like to predesignate these scheduled task for either Next, Waiting or Inbox. For example, I can expect to receive certain reports in the first week of every month. These could go straight to Waiting (flagged for Today as notification, but possible to unflag when I have noticed them.)
  
  What do you think of these modifications?
  
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• Ahmed56  (积分：300)01/25/2015 18:32
  3 floor

  Totally agree, you mentioned some points that I have missed.
  
  Hope to see these features very soon, but for the time being I will move all my tasks from my Today's list to the Next list, except for those which are due today.
  
  As for the follow up issue, I'm currently setting due date for the 'waiting' task just to remind me to follow up on particular date.
  
  I think that's what could be done for now, do you think??
  
  
  
  
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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/25/2015 18:56
  4 floor

  I would like to be able to set deadlines for those Waiting For tasks that really have a true objective deadline, for example delivery deadlines that people have promised me. But since Doit currently moves Waiting For tasks into Today on the deadline date I can no longer see that this task is actually a Waiting For (somebody else's duty), so I would have to be very careful with how I word the task (or define an @Waiting context for these, which I tried for a while).
  
  What I do now (and like) is I use the Priority field for all Next and Waiting actions in the following sense:
  
  - red: consider these every single time I even glance at this list
  - blue: consider these at least once per day (my morning GTD scan/review)
  - turquoise: consider these at least once per week (weekly GTD review)
  
  In other words, if a Waiting For task is due to be delivered soon and is also of importance I will raise its priority to red in order to see it more easily on the Waiting list. I usually glance at this list a few times a day and can then consider whether to give these red tasks some required follow-up action.
  
  I would certainly like, in addition to this, to also be able to "star" Waiting tasks, such that I could see these "starred" tasks both on the Waiting list and on the Today list. This would allow me to keep all "hot" or "selected" items of all kinds conveniently on one list.
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• Ahmed56  (积分：300)01/26/2015 05:10
  5 floor

  Again, hope that Doit will solve these issues without user need to take these turnarounds.
  
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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/26/2015 14:28
  6 floor

  Yes, and I think it really mainly boils down to just having a "flag" (e.g. a "star") which does not in any way move or change the task, just:
  
  1) makes the task more easily visible on its list (thanks to its "flag icon", e.g. "star")
  2) makes the task also visible on a separate "flagged" list ("Today" list)
  
  The rest is mainly just natural consequences of this. For example:
  - on the due date, the task is "flagged" but not moved
  - on the start date, the task is "flagged" and is moved from Scheduled to Next. (This can also be made more advanced with more options.)
  
  Please note that, regarding my use of priorities, that this is something I will keep doing even if I have a proper "flag", because I find it extremely relieving to be able to look at any list and easily be able to focus on what I need to see right there and then, sometimes the High ones that deserve my closest attention, sometimes the Low ones that need some tidying, reviewing etc. For me, "flagging" and "High Priority" is not the same thing. I often choose to star/do something of low importance simply for contextual/situational reasons, and vice versa - I may not have a chance to start all of my most important things right now (also for such reasons), so I leave them "unflagged" but still marked High Priority such that I will not overlook them later. I like this a lot. In fact, the Priority feature is the main reason I moved from Nirvana to Doit.
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