Brainstorming: Goal Overview

Folke

01/13/2014 11:22

I love having the Goals feature.

It already allows me to order all my projects into a few distinct goals (I have five Goals defined). I keep the Goals section of the left menu always expanded and the Projects section always collapsed. Very nice.

I have the idea that a special Goal Overview would perhaps solve many different problems we face on a daily (and weekly) basis. You might say it would serve a purpose right in between viewing the Today list and viewing an individual project

• the Today list shows you what you need to pay attention to today, across the board
• the Project shows you what you will need to consider at anytime ever, but only for that project
• the Goal Overview would show you what you need to pay attention to from now on into the near future, but only for that Goal (a whole group of related projects)

This would be useful both for frequent reviewing of your lists and for understanding what is going on in total across all boxes and for a longer time ahead than just today - and still a short enough list for being pleasant and useful to read often.

Review

I like to review my projects one Goal at a time. The iPhone and Windows have a convenient Back button to take me back to the Goal's project list (hopefully the web version will soon, too). This means I can click from the Goal's overviewable list of projects into each project, then back to the goal's project list, then into the next project etc etc.

But I somehow miss being able to see all the essentials at the task level for the Goal as a whole, especially if I do small reviews or checkups in between my weekly reviews, but also as a good start to the weekly review of each Goal.

One way, probably too crude, but just to start this brainstorming discussion, would be to have exactly like a project view for the goal as a whole, i.e. a Next box showing all the next actions from all the projects within this goal, then a Waiting box for all the waiting for actions within this goal etc. etc

Task selection and awareness

Another thing we have touched upon in other threads is the Next list. We all like to have a proper Next list, which shows us everything that is truly possible for us to do now. And this is the GTD way.

At the same time, we often also want to look just a little bit around the corner and see what will very soon become next actions. Maybe these tasks are just blocked by some very short next actions or by an imminent waiting for action, or maybe they have a very nearby tickle date (impossible only one more day etc). Unfortunately, the more such tasks you include on your Next list, the less it becomes a true and accurate Next list.

One very crude solution to this, possible only if Doit changes the starring system, would be to star all such things and look at it all from the Today list, but I can predict that this would make the Today list too long and practically not usable.

But maybe it would be possible to achieve something of that nature on a goal by goal basis, and more automatically, too? A Goal Overview that shows us all the essentials for one single goal without us having to star anything - and without drowning in stuff that is either too distant or of minor importance?

Circumventing the Problem with Workarounds

Doit currently lacks support for subsequent project actions, and every user seems to have his/her own workaround, typically involving the use of Priority and/or Someday, often in combination.

Doit also has a funny starring system, which makes some people use Next in combination with a special Context for the Waiting for actions.

The Goal Overview would need to be a little bit configurable in order to allow different users to implement their various workarounds. But hopefully nothing difficult. And some configurability would be perhaps be necessary anyway, since different users may attribute different kinds of meaning to the Priority property.

UI

When you click a Goal in the left menu it would be natural for the task-level Goal Overview to show in the main pane.

The groups of Active and Inactive projects, which we can see in the main pane today, should remain somewhere in the new Goal Overview. Within the goal overview in the main pane, the grouping should perhaps be by box, just like in the project view, i.e. with no project headings; only the regular project indicator for each individual task.

The special thing about the goal overview list would be the fact that it would be "filtered" in such a way that only the most relevant tasks are shown in accordance with the user's preference settings:

Tentative Settings Options for the Goal Overview

The Goal Overview list could look exactly as the current Projects, i.e. grouped by Box etc, but show tasks from within the entire selected Goal in each box, and only showing tasks that meet the user's settings:

• Next, certain priorities only, e.g. show red, blue and white only
• Waiting, certain priorities only, e.g. show red and blue only
• Scheduled, starting within X days only, e.g. 10 days
• Someday, certain priorities only, e.g. show red only
• For all the above: also show excluded tasks if deadline is within Y days, e.g. 10 days
• Always show starred tasks, regardless of all the above.

All in all, with these kinds of settings, I would gauge that only maybe one quarter of the total number of tasks under each goal would show up in the Goal Overview. This would be quite manageable, and would still hopefully provide an accurate enough overview of all the different categories of tasks that we need to pay attention to in different ways during the next few days or week.

Opportunity

If in this group we could hone this idea into something that is simple for Doit to implement, versatile for different users' varying needs, and truly useful for many users, then chances are that we can see it come true.

What do you think of this?

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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/13/2014 21:26
  2 floor

  
  I just realized that the above suggestion is more or less equivalent to saying:
  
  In the current main pane for a Goal - which already has group headings for the boxes and for Active and Inactive projects - in each Box also include those tasks in the goal's active projects that meet the selection criteria above.
  
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• khaberz  (积分：230)01/14/2014 06:37
  3 floor

  I can see using this in my personal AOR but I have a hard time seeing how to apply this to my work. If I did what you outline, I would probably have mostly a 1-1 relationship between my Projects and Goals for Work related Actions.
  
  In other words, in the Goal Overview you suggest, I would miss the grouping by project. In my professional life, having tasks from different projects mixed in one view (even if the projects were visible in the task bar) would not be particularly useful to me.
  
  I guess I'll have to think a bit more about how to set up the Goals so I can apply them to my work environment.
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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/14/2014 12:13
  4 floor

  @khaberz
  
  Re. Grouping options
  
  Maybe it is like in all other lists - you may have use for different groupings for different purposes, and there could be a choice of grouping by box or by project. But if you have it grouped by project (and tasks from all all boxes mixed under each such group heading), then you might almost just as well click into the individual project - the only difference would be that the overview saves you that clicking and that you get it all a bit filtered (not so long).
  
  I think for me, I would generally look at the box grouping. Say I have six projects in a goal, with on average four true next actions per project, two of which belong to the selected priorities. That would make 12 tasks, neatly shown together. And then Waiting, maybe three per project, one of which belongs to the selected priorities. That's another 6. Etc. I think that would be just nice for my needs - to see "what's cooking" for the goal as a whole in the next week or so.
  
  Re. number of projects per goal
  
  The way I see it, one of the main points of having a hierarchy is to break things down - have an easily overviewable number of goals (I currently have 5) and an easily overviewable number of projects in each (I have on average about 4 to 8 projects per goal).
  
  Another main point (for me, anyway) is to be able to distinguish between certain areas of existing types of commitments (maintaining the status quo in those areas or perhaps achieving a modest improvement) and entirely new major developments that could succeed or fail, having a significant impact on my life either way.
  
  For that reason I have split my "life" into 5 sectors (Goals) as follows:
  - a private area
  - a not-for-profit area
  - a general business area
  - one major business development venture
  - a second major business development venture
  
  All of these Goals contain Projects, and In analogy with the Goals, some of the Projects are true (completable) projects, whereas some (10 all in all) are AoR buckets for single actions that do not belong to a project.
  
  For example, one of my Goals (used as an "AoR group bucket") is Private, In that Goal I have three "AoR projects" (for single actions) and a few real completable projects.
  
  Two of my "true" (completable) Goals are certain major business development goals, Each of those contain a number of completable projects, and I have also moved a couple of my existing AoRs in there, because I want them to be part of that development. In addition, I have a general "Business" Goal (an "AoR group bucket") for all remaining "work" things, such as completable client projects that belong to the kind of business I am already doing and which I do not plan to develop on a large scale, just keep getting new clients, i.e. roughly maintain the status quo in terms of turnover and position. My fifth Goal is an "AoR group bucket" for not-for-profit work. In there I currently have two AoR buckets and two completable projects.
  
  I am sorry I cannot advise you how you might structure your work, but it sounds "wrong" to have a 1-1 relationship between goal and project. If you have many projects all in all, isn't it the case that many of them are just "more of the same" (maintain status quo) whereas others share the aim at putting you in a specific type of much better position in 1-3 years time? And maybe you pursue not just one such major goal, but perhaps two or three (in case one should fail)?
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• hntopper  (积分：395)01/14/2014 15:03
  5 floor

  @Folke, I don't know that I would use this feature, however, I am not adverse to it if you and others would benefit it. I think having the ability to sort tasks within Goals, based on project, box, deadline, startdate, etc would be powerful, but not everyone would take advantage of every option.
  
  I know that you are using Goals as a work around for Areas of Responsibilitiy. I'm wondering if it would be more advantageous to just request an AOR feature than what you've described above?
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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/14/2014 21:02
  6 floor

  @hntopper
  
  Not really. In my opinion the Goals feature holds a much larger potential that AoRs or "areas", and I use it for more than that, but it is true that I use it for AoR purposes also. What I am primarily after is more manageable reviewability several times a week or even daily.
  
  For AoRs in the GTD sense (say 6-20 AoRs for a typical person) I have recommended Doit to implement inheritable tags for projects, such that you can tag your projects with an AoR and have those tags applied to all its tasks. (And I think Contexts and Goals should be able to have inheritable tags, too, to allow for quick filtering.) And if someone would like to tag their projects with an "AoR group" such as Personal, that would be possible, too. (I have three AoRs in my Personal "AoR group".)
  
  For "area" in the sense of an on-duty / off-duty switch I have recommended Doit to allow users to connect some of their existing tags to such a switch's different positions (some may want 2 positions, some 3 etc). If you already have 2-3 "AoR group" tags it would be enough to connect these tags to the switch's positions. Or if someone want to define his switch positions differently that would be no problem either.
  
  But Goals is much more. Regular projects (GTD 10 k) and even AoRs (GTD 20 k) typically need to be revised if you success in reaching a Goal (GTD 30 k). A Goal is a big thing, your current "main projects in life", as it were. The Goal feature lends itself not only to this kind of real goal but also as an "AoR group" bucket (not defined in GTD) for all the ongoing stuff.
  
  No, the main reason I am asking for a Goal Overview feature is for review purposes. The main lists (Next, Waiting etc) do not show me the whole picture, but on the other hand the individual projects are too detailed and simply too many to go through often,
  
  This is why I would like to see a SHORT overview across ALL boxes, but then in order to limit the size of that list I propose it be done by Goal (a handy group of related projects) and be limited by other parameters (dates and priorities) to cover only a limited time ahead, say, one or two weeks. For me, that would be just great.
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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/14/2014 23:14
  7 floor

  @hntopper
  
  BTW, even if Doit were to introduce a master area switch, it still would not solve my problem. Even if I activated that switch for a particular "area" I would still have to choose between either seeing the all area's projects only one box at a time (Next list etc) or to view only one project at a time, but see all of its boxes in full. What I want is to be able to see in addition is the most relevant tasks short-term from all those projects (such as the higher priority levels and the nearby deadlines etc).
  
  Another thing: When I said that an "AoR group bucket (not defined in GTD)", it is actually not entirely true. David Allen does recommend you to have separate lists or groups of AoRs for your various spheres of your life, such as Work or Private etc. But he does not define this grouping as a separate level (horizon) from the AoRs themselves, so I would have to assume that his view is that these groups are still at 20 k, whereas the goals are defined as 30 k. But I nevertheless mix these 20+ k "AoR groups" and 30 k goals in Doit's Goal feature, and it works excellently for me.
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• khaberz  (积分：230)01/15/2014 10:20
  8 floor

  @Folke - Thanks for your explanations. I agree that a 1-1 Relationship between projects and goals is wrong.
  I have thought about this some more and I believe that the nature of my work does not fit a grouping along goals. My work-related Projects in GTD are actual projects in my job. I usually run between 1-3 of them and they usually have no connections between them that would make it useful to group them. When a project is over, I get assigned to a new one, that probably again has nothing to do with the previous one.
  The only other work-related project I set up in GTD is for Professional development. All other tasks that come up in my job end up as individual Tasks in Next (or Waiting/Someday).
  
  Thanks again for explaining your concept!
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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/15/2014 14:34
  9 floor

  @khaberz
  
  So how do you use Goals? Not at all? Or just two Goals - Work and Private?
  
  If it is the latter (Work vs Private) would you see any benefit in having a summary of "what's hot" in each such "area" along the lines of what I have tried to outline here? In other words, for example a Work overview that shows you:
  
  - the important/urgent Next actions that you could start on right now and are likely that you will very seriously consider doing during the next week or two (e.g. red and blue priority Next)
  - the important/urgent things you need from others and are Waiting For them to "deliver" (e.g. red and blue priority Waiting)
  - the "just-around-the corner" subsequent actions (that will be possible as soon as a few small current next or waiting item have been completed, which could be very soon) (e.g. white priority Next, for those who use the same workaround as I)
  - perhaps some particularly "hot" Plan B actions (that you are not sure you need to do, but you might well be) (e.g. red priority Someday)
  - anything that will become possible on a certain date within the next 10 days or so (a tickler)
  - anything that is due in the next 10 days or so (a deadline)
  - anything that is calendared in the next 10 days or so (a calendar action)
  
  Personally, when I think about it, I believe I would find this just as useful even if I had only two Goals as if I had five, but the list would then of course get correspondingly longer. Maybe 2 to 5 Goals is optimal. If I had too many more I think it would get too fragmented.
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• khaberz  (积分：230)01/16/2014 03:10
  10 floor

  @Folke I don't use Goals at all at this time. I tried for my personal area but didn't find it useful enough to stick with it.
  
  I still do think your suggestion is a useful one. I would probably start using Goals in some way if it offered the kind of overview that you oulined.
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• Folke  (积分：2425)01/16/2014 08:15
  11 floor

  @khaberz - yes, I agree the Goals feature is a very unpolished diamond.
  
  It needs not only a meaningful overview, but also some super-simple things like inherited tags (or similar feature), such that you can tag your Home Goal with Home and then use that for the quick tag filtering and the advanced searches.
  
  And the capability to view the long full projects list grouped by Goal. Etc.
  
  I also think Doit needs to explain to users who want "areas" that Goals ARE areas - at lest that is one of the better uses of it.
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• Ryanwyu  (积分：280)01/27/2014 09:50
  12 floor

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