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Inbox on Today screen

PRO

Folke 03/30/2015 17:25

Platform:All

Here is a neat and easy thing (I suppose), quite useful for people in my situation:

A preference setting that allows us to always see our inbox items right on the Today screen as they arrive, rather than have to click into the Inbox to check many times per day.

I know you will ask why. It is because I never have heaps of tasks or thoughts in the Inbox. I normally enter new tasks straight into the project etc where they will belong. The Inbox is something I use only for external emails, such as calendar notifications, Siri notes and the occasional forwarded email. I normally want to see and decide on these as soon as they arrive, as quickly and conveniently as possible.

As for the implementation, I suppose there are several alternatives. The best would probably be to display the Inbox items as a separate "group" etc on the Today list. Regardless of which grouping I have chosen there could be an additional group called Inbox. Another alternative would be automatically spread them out among the other tasks in Today (in the no Context group, no Project group etc, depending on which grouping I have chosen). As I would easily see that these tasks have no project, no context and no priority defined I would know that they are new arrivals.

wendy_only post on 03/31/2015 02:49#1

PRO

@Folke
Hi,

Thank you for your feedback.

In GTD, you'd better collect all material into Inbox. Then you process them in one time when you are free to do it. In your case, you do not do the same as GTD. We will do a research on your suggestion.

Best regards,
Doit.im Team
Folke post on 03/31/2015 10:33#2

PRO

@wendy_only

Slight objection:

1) GTD does not say that you must use any particular app or tool as your one and only inbox. We normally have many inboxes or collection devices, collectively referred to as the "inbox". For example, we may have one or many email inboxes, one or many intrays in our office, one or many notebooks in our jackets and trousers and briefcases or handbags, voice memo devices, Evernote, post-it stickers on the fridge, you name it. When we "process our inbox" we go through all of these. GTD does not even rely on the existence of an app (with our without a feature called "inbox"). The GTD methodology can be utilized even on paper.

2) GTD does not say that you must och should postpone the processing of your collected items for its own sake. It has no value in itself to be slow. But it does have great value to have one or more places to keep your thoughts if you do not have time to process them immediately. I have many such "inboxes" (collection devices), e.g. paper notebooks. When I process these inboxes I see no point whatsoever in first entering them in yet another inbox of electronic type (Doit's inbox) and then from there to wherever they will reside (typically within a project in Doit).

I think many people make the mistake of believing that their app inbox should be same as the GTD inbox. This can never happen. The total GTD inbox is always so much bigger - for example, most of us get visits from the postman who puts letters and stuff into an inbox called mailbox.
Folke post on 04/15/2015 15:36#3

PRO

@wendy_only

Here is a response made by The David Allen Company to a related question (by somebody else), where they confirm most definitely that you do not have to put things in the inbox first:

http://gettingthingsdone.com/forum/forum/david-allen-company-forums/public-discuss-getting-things-done/173702-finalizing-gtd-tips?p=173857#post173857
wendy_only post on 04/17/2015 02:50#4

PRO

@Folke
Hi,

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry that I may not make it clear before. I agree that if you know where the action goes then please please please just put in on your list. If you know the task is for today,you could just put the task in your Today task. If you do not know, you could put them in Inbox.

Best regards,
Doit.im Team
Folke post on 04/20/2015 11:56#5

PRO

:-)

In my case I know that absolutely everything that arrives in my Doit mailbox (Inbox) is intended for my Today list. This is why it would be safer and easier for me if I could use a preference option to always show the Inbox items straight on the Today list.
wendy_only post on 04/21/2015 03:52#6

PRO

@Folke
Hi,

Thank you for your feedback. It may be convenient to you to see the Inbox list in Today. But for other users, it may not.

Best regards,
Doit.im Team
Folke post on 04/21/2015 07:13#7

PRO

@wendy_only

Yes, it would need to be a user preference option.