I think I get the Mode drop-down list and am enjoying the flexibility it offers.
However, I don’t get why an item marked as info is showing in my Projects and Actions when I have the Active filter set.
Here’s my use case:
My clients are setup as main projects with their actual projects and tasks inside. I have setup an info mode item as a Contact Log for each to record a history (hoping to get rid of my crm). Each event is a child item of the Contact Log.
But… the Contact Log is very distractingly showing up when I’m trying to decide what to work on next as described above. It seems to only be occurring when the info item has child items. All of the child items and the main container have the blue info mark. I have other reference material stored as a single item and they do not appear in the Active filtered list.
What are these “filters” for? They seem to somehow replicate the standard GTD lists, and maybe that is useful, but I am not sure I see the use case for the, The Focus filter seems to accomplish the same thing as the Focus list, and the Active filter seems to show Next actions (plus overdue actions even of other “types”). To me it is a bit confusing to have such different features for such similar things - unless there is some very important point to it; please enlighten me, someone.
As for Info items I think they would be best dealt with as a “type” (Inbox, …, Waiting, Someday, Info). As far as I can see you could never have a combination such as Next Info or Waiting Info, so why not make this a simple alternative in the type selector. This would be easier to understand, I believe.
Hi @zpikii - I really love to hear how people are using our product in new and interesting ways. Thanks for sharing. Using as a lightweight CRM is very cool
The Active filter is not filtering out the info items because they are not a separate list like waiting, someday or scheduled. Since many people use them for checklists I’m afraid that is we hide those when the active filter is set then we will get quite a few people complaining that they can’t see their check list items (info mode) so there isn’t a perfect solution here.
Can you share more about your use case here? Areas used, tags used, the tree structure you have setup? Maybe we can take that info and think through a good solution for you. Or at least use it in future planning.
Sorry, working as designed - per above.
Good question @Folke, basically we want people to have options. Not so many that they get confused, we will watch for that.
I think this post is actually a great example of why. Different people use the app in different and creative ways and these filters can help them do that.
Another reason is when organizing your list I think most people will do that from the P&A view. In those cases it’s handy to be able to filter due, active and focus items so that you can easily find and change them, without flipping over to another view.
Hi James,
I understand your point about using them as a checklist but I understood that to be more the case when you have a Task manually set to Action so that the items underneath would be Info items, ie, listing items to ask about in a phone call task or a shopping list underneath a go shopping task, thus keeping the main task as a Next Action…
As I think this through, I’m getting a better understanding of the Active list. I was mistaken in my earlier post - the single info item was on a Someday list. But now I’m a bit confused about setting an individual item as Info - what is the intention of that?
I have a basic setup though I’ll be soon upgrading , I believe as I need more Areas. I have Areas for Clients, Me, my son, and a blog I run. I would further add one for the business development and financial aspects of my business and the same for the blog, and I also like to break out personal finances separately from other personal projects. I could see making certain clients into their own Areas depending on the scope of work. In GTDNext, I could do this and still see a bird’s eye view of all clients by using the Area filters on the top of the P&A list. I want to break out some of these Areas to feel like I have more room and less clutter to set out longer-term goals that might turn into projects.
I use tags sparingly, mostly for contexts and only have a few, like calls or errands, since I can sometimes make several calls in a row or group errands together and accomplish a few things across different areas of my life. It’s easy to forget to apply tags, I find, so I avoid systems that require tags for basic features. I use as much GTD as is useful and don’t want to waste time labeling things that don’t need it. I organize my day more by Area than context.
As for my CRM needs, they are, admittedly, minor. I’ve tried several CRM systems but they are over-kill as I’m trying to avoid hiring staff right now (too much hassle) and their project and task systems are not robust enough.
I’d like to see a running history of the different contact events like calls, meetings and emails, just as a memory jog for what has happened. I’m trying to keep each event to a sentence or two with a date. Since I’m using a master Project for clients, I could use the Notes field of that Project to list each event. Any other suggestions?
I need to get at it quickly to add items, since I’m adding them manually but don’t want it cluttering up my P&A list. One advantage to having them in my task list is that it often sparks follow-up tasks and projects. Otherwise, I could go back to putting them in my reference system, outside of GTDNext, which I do use for longer notes.
Definitely. The P&A view is useful for precisely that - for organizing the tasks, and also for reviewing your projects (and areas, for those who wish) systematically.
Filtering is defintely useful, but I am not sure if there is a big difference in the case with Focus and with Next aka “Active” . You need one click to get there in both cases, whether you click a filter button at the top or a list heading in the left menu. And one click to get back. But by all means … maybe it is good to have them in two places. Here is a thought, though: Why then don’t you make a complete set of such filters and name them consistently with the left menu - Inbox, Next, Someday etc - then it would be easier to see the logic, the fact that these particular filters are just an alternative access route to those sets of tasks?
But as for filtering P&A beyond that, I think it is excellent that you can find, for example, tasks with a due date. Another useful filter would be “new tasks” today, and also a filter for “active” in another sense, i.e those that are currently “parallel” or “forced next”, i.e. visible/active on the main lists (not sequentially blocked).
As for checklist items I see no need (nor reason) for labeling those as Info. They can equally well (or actually more appropriately) be considered to be subtasks of a “next action” type - as each of them typically needs to be actually done. (Only if they have been put in there just for reference the Info type would be more appropriate, don’t you agree?)
And there could be a general toggle for “show with or without hierarchy” - sometimes maybe you just want to see the actual actions, but in some cases maybe you want to see visually where in the organizational tree they belong.
Here is one way you could setup your “CRM” in GTDNext - so that your info items don’t show when filtering by Active.
Just make a section for the CRM and make that item a someday maybe item. Then use info mode under that item for your CRM notes. Take a look at the picture for ideas…
This can be a workaround but is not very elegant, since than you would populate your someday list with reference info (!!).
I also use the info as meeting logs for the relevant projects and I would pretty much like to hide them when the active items filter is activated,
I suggest to have the option to hide it or not in your account preferences or create an additional button to show/hide the reference/info items.
Would that be doable in a short time?
