Priority subsorting - current status? | Help Center

Priority subsorting - current status?

PRO

Folke 02/09/2014 12:08

Platform:All

What is Doit's current plan regarding the priority vs manual sorting of the Next list?

The "old" priority subsorting was very popular - automatic, powerful, convenient. The new manual subsorting has some merits, of course, but overall it entails a lot of unnecessary work and trouble and is not nearly as powerful or useful as automatic priority sorting on a long list like Next.

Will you offer users a choice of priority subsorting or manual subsorting?

Or will you be able to blend the two - automatic default placement by priority, then manually adjustable? That would be the best of both worlds - nobody would be unhappy.

Or will you simply let us suffer with the current manual sorting of the Next list - on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, hoping that over time everybody will come to see things your way?

Manual subsorting would be particularly useful on the Today list and in the individual project. Why don't you focus on implementing it there?

wendy_only post on 02/10/2014 08:24#1

PRO

@Folke
Hi,

Thank you for your feedback.

We agree that it will be better to offer automatic default placement, then manually adjustable. But now it is difficult for us to make it now. We need time. Please understanding. Now you can use different "Group by" and manual sort to manage your Next tasks. You can group the list by Priority.

In Today,we offer Doit now function. You can manual sort tasks there. In individual project list,you can manual sort tasks in Next group.

Best regards,
Doit.im Team
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Folke post on 02/10/2014 14:33#2

PRO

@wendy_only - thanks for explaining. I am glad you are thinking the right thing :-)
Folke post on 04/17/2014 15:30#3

PRO

@wendy_only

I came up with a few ideas that might be much easier for you to implement as an interim solution - not as good as priority based default placement with manual adjustment capability, but at least it would reduce some of the unnecessary manual work that we now have to do:

1. A "master" next action sorting order, perhaps called "Ungrouped". This would allow us to make all the manual adjustments in only one list, instead of having to go through all of the other grouping mode lists (grouped by Context, Deadline etc). The master order would affect all other viewing modes of the Next list and of all other lists (projects, contexts etc) where subsets of the Next list are shown.

2. Under Tools in the "cogwheel menu" (where you already have an option for sorting projects alphabetically) also have an option to "Sort Next actions by Priority, latest action first". This would recalculate the whole "master" (ungrouped) sorting order and hence all the other grouped sorting orders and subsets that are all derived from the "master" order.

3. Perhaps a user preference setting to do this automatically whenever a new Next action is created or has its priority changed?? (In practice, this would negate the manual sorting entirely, but might be preferable to some of us.)

4. And then, finally, when you have solved the technical issues, make this automatic mode more "gentle". Instead of brutally recalculating the whole list, just ensure that you insert the new tasks in the right place (immediately before the first existing task that has that priority), but do not change the order between any of the "old" items. Then we finally have "priority based default placement with manual adjustment capability" - the best of two worlds.
wendy_only post on 04/18/2014 06:42#4

PRO

@Folke
Hi,

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We will do a research on it.

Best regards,
Doit.im Team
Folke post on 04/18/2014 12:20#5

PRO

@wendy_only

Great :-)

I forgot to mention another very simple thing, that can be implemented either in conjunction with step 1 above, and which will eliminate a lot of unnecessary grief:

~1. Always place new items at the very top of the Next list (not at the bottom or anywhere else). This would greatly reduce the risk that you forget to move new tasks to another position, because they will tend to be visible every time you enter the list. It also eliminates the unnecessary scrolling all the way down to the bottom just to check for new tasks. Furthermore, new tasks statistically have higher odds of being important than the low priority tasks that you have already decided to place (manually) to some place nearer to the bottom. So, placement at the top is more efficient and more intuitive - and safer - than placement at the bottom.

Maybe this change is so simple that it could be implemented even before an ungrouped "master" next list view?