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Safe and Convenient Next List

PRO

Folke 09/27/2014 13:42

Platform:All

This is to ask about the status of some old requests concerning something important - the ease of managing the Next list and the risk of "losing" tasks on it.

Before v4, Doit's Next list behaved exactly the same as the Someday and Waiting lists, which was convenient. Tasks were automatically placed (sorted) according to priority, which was both safe and convenient (no dragging necessary, and no risk of losing sight of new tasks landing at the bottom.

Then in v4, we got manual sorting of the Next list. This is a very nice luxury that I very much like to have, but not at the expense of the safety and the convenience. Because of the manual sorting I now have to drag each and every task into priority order, which means a lot of extra work. And because of the fact that new tasks land at the bottom below my lowest priority tasks, I often forget about them and do not notice them soon enough.

Many different solutions to these problems have been suggested by different people. I would like to know if any of these have been decided and planned yet?

Alt 1) Make it a user preference option to have all new tasks land at the top by default. This is a simple thing that will at least make the app safe to use. If I move a task to Next, and it lands at the top, there is no risk that I will not notice it when I visit the Next list next time

Alt 2) Make it a user preference option to either have the new manual sorting or the old automatic sorting (same as on Waiting and Someday). This would make the app convenient to use for those who do not need the manual sorting equally much as they want convenience.

Alt 3) The elegant solution would be to keep manual sorting (which is a nice thing) but with more intelligent initial default placement of tasks, such that new tasks will be placed at the top of its priority level, but can thereafter be adjusted manually. This would be both safe and convenient. There could also be a user preference option to have them placed at the bottom of their priority level instead of at the top.
(The same approach could be used for Waiting and Someday, too, to make it consistent)

wendy_only post on 09/29/2014 09:07#1

PRO

@Folke
Hi,

Thank you for your feedback!

It is to help you notice the tasks at the bottom so we have all new tasks land at the bottom by default. So you will go through the whole tasks in list often.

We have the plan to make it a user preference option to either have the new manual sorting or the old automatic sorting. It is a little difficult issue. We need time to make it.

Shall you need any help or have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me back.

Thank you for your support!

Best regards,
Doit.im Team
Folke post on 09/29/2014 10:50#2

PRO

@wendy_only

Yes, people certainly are very different :-)

I know from other forums that about half of the users want the new tasks at the bottom, for the reason you mentioned and because they prefer to see the lists as a "queue" and want to do the tasks roughly in the order they were entered. The other half are like me. They do the important things first, which means the stuff that did not get done immediately is usually less important, and often remains to be less important. Either way, I do not think it is Doit's job to enforce discipline. Doit should make it simple to use for both. A user preference toggle for tjhis would be most appropriate.

I go through my Next and Waiting lists very often, especially the top part (red and blue priority). I look at the red part several times per day, and the blue part once per day PLUS I see all the tasks (all colors) every time I look for a particular context.

I have tried to make it a habit to speed-scroll down to the bottom as often as possible to look for any new tasks, but unfortunately I still often forget, and on those occasions it happens that I overlook important tasks. I prefer my most important tasks at the top, and the new tasks. If I enter a new task that is not so important, I prefer to drag this down out of the way rather than risk overlooking a new important one that should have been at the top.

I am glad you will at least offer the option to use automatic sorting even on the Next list, as it was before. Will you please consider having a user preference option for new tasks to land either at the top or the bottom of its priority bracket? (The same argument goes here).

But seriously, I do not understand why you do not opt for the more elegant solution. You have invested so much time in the manual sorting feature, so why don't you make use of it and combine it with initial task placement according to your "old and proven" intelligent priority-based method? (But we have discussed this before. You say it is difficult. I do not understand the difficulty. But it is your decision.)