I follow the David Allen’s suggestion to just throw each new item into the Inbox, and then periodically process the Inbox, assigning Contexts, Next/Waiting/Someday…, and Projects to each Inbox item. My problem is that this can’t currently be done without a lot of view switching and item dragging. For example, if I change an Inbox item to Waiting, it disappears, so I have to go to the Waiting screen to find it and put it in a project or assign a context to it. There’s also no way to move an Inbox item into a sub-project in one step. You have to drag the item from center pane to left hand pane to put it in a top level project, then select that project, find your new item, and drag it down the center pane (which can be a long list if all of your subprojects are expanded).
Another, related area of discontent is the need to constantly switch between keyboard and mouse when processing items.
I hope that after the launch of the mobile app, you can work on Inbox processing. Keep up the good work!
I am a brand new user and still learning my way around, thus I would not post a comment unless somebody else is having the same issue. So far this has been a great solution and has made a big difference in my workflows! Thank you for the tool!
I echo the first statement addressed here. I was processing my Inbox this morning and experiencing a bit of frustration with turning Inbox items into Active Projects. My Projects and Actions list is quite long, and I was spending quite a bit of time scrolling through the list trying to find the Action to turn it into a Project with tasks.
What I intuitively want to do is tell it to “create project,” by right-click or other means, and have it take me to the project view where I can directly add tasks. Of course, being able to add sub-tasks directly on the Inbox list prior to moving it to “active” would be another way.
Have people found an efficient way to do this? Being so new, I have likely not found the “tricks” yet.
I do not have a real solution, but maybe a couple of workarounds that might help
get the inbox items into Focus first. Then they usually will not “disappear” (unless you Schedule them)
enter new tasks straight where they belong, and avoid the app inbox. The GTD inbox is whatever collection tools you decide to use, so there is nothing “un-GTD” about not using the app inbox. Personally, if I do not have time to enter tasks properly I often find it quicker to scribble something on a piece of paper than to get the app out and put it in the inbox. (In both cases I usually need to reword it completely anyway, so it does not save me any time to make the note in the app inbox)