I use DoIt.im because nothing else works like I do, and it has fast, easy adding and editing from my Desktops. But...
The *huge* deficiency is that it does not cater for GTD's concept of an Area of Responsibility.
I want to divide my Projects into Areas like PERSONAL, FAMILY, HOME, WORK. I don't want to see dozens of Projects like 'Extend Pergola' and 'Lose Weight' among my WORK projects - it just clutters up the landscape and makes Work more difficult to organize.
At the moment, I use Tags to separate Tasks into 'Areas of Responsibility' but that is pretty clunky - it means I have to use Filters to make the separation work, and *all* my Projects turn up in the Project list instead of just the Projects associated with the Area I am reviewing at the time.
If DoIt.im could introduce an overarching element 'Area of Responsibility' that can be assigned to every Project, and Projects are automatically filtered by Area of Responsibility, then it would be very nearly perfect!
I agree and I also know this is a frequent request and a popular feature in those apps that have it in some form (e.g. Nirvana, FacileThings, GTDNext).
To some extent Doit actually has it, but it is only a half-measure, far from complete. Doit has a feature called Goals, which can be used to organize projects (and single tasks) into the appropriate Areas or Goals. I use the Goal feature for precisely that purpose. I have five such top-level entities (Business, Non-Profit, Private, NewBusiness1 and NewBusines2). It makes it neat.
BUT: Doit does not allow me to actually use this Goal for anything. There are no accompanying display features. For example, if I click a Goal/Area in the left menu, all I can see is a list of projects within that Goal/Area, but not the tasks, which mean I cannot review the whole Goal/Area in one single view. If I look at the Next, Waiting or Someday list I cannot group it by Goal. If I want to filter by Goal I have to filter by all the various projects within it. And, as you said, if I would like to hide everything that does NOT pertain to a particular Goal/Area there is no way to accomplish this.
It would be a simple thing to fix all this. The Goal-Project-Task-Subtask hierarchy as such is already there and is powerful enough for this and most other purposes. All it would take is a few additional display options.
For example, if, when you click a Goal in the left menu you would get a list of the projects (as we do now) followed by a list of all the tasks in those projects (similar to what it looks like for an individual project now), then we would have a quite perfect view for reviewing our Areas/Goals in a focused way, one Area at a time.
To some extent Doit actually has it, but it is only a half-measure, far from complete. Doit has a feature called Goals, which can be used to organize projects (and single tasks) into the appropriate Areas or Goals. I use the Goal feature for precisely that purpose. I have five such top-level entities (Business, Non-Profit, Private, NewBusiness1 and NewBusines2). It makes it neat.
BUT: Doit does not allow me to actually use this Goal for anything. There are no accompanying display features. For example, if I click a Goal/Area in the left menu, all I can see is a list of projects within that Goal/Area, but not the tasks, which mean I cannot review the whole Goal/Area in one single view. If I look at the Next, Waiting or Someday list I cannot group it by Goal. If I want to filter by Goal I have to filter by all the various projects within it. And, as you said, if I would like to hide everything that does NOT pertain to a particular Goal/Area there is no way to accomplish this.
It would be a simple thing to fix all this. The Goal-Project-Task-Subtask hierarchy as such is already there and is powerful enough for this and most other purposes. All it would take is a few additional display options.
For example, if, when you click a Goal in the left menu you would get a list of the projects (as we do now) followed by a list of all the tasks in those projects (similar to what it looks like for an individual project now), then we would have a quite perfect view for reviewing our Areas/Goals in a focused way, one Area at a time.
