Looking for software that checks next actions against projects

[tominperu]

One of the things to do during the weekly review is to check that all current projects have at least one next action.

I use Outlook and have already found the instructions at http://home.comcast.net/~whkratz/id3.htm, with how to turn Contacts into Projects each with associated next actions assigned to them. This is an excellent and highly recommended improvement but it is still far from ideal.

To check each project for next actions one has to laboriously open each Project and then open Activities....and for some reason Outlook is soooo slow.

It would be great to have a piece of "to do list" software that can give you a project list with each project's next actions listed alongside. Projects that don't have any next action linked to them would also have to be listed. Also, the next actions that are not linked to any project should be listed. It would make the weekly review so much quicker. This can't be hard to construct so why has no one produced such a software.... or have they?

Does anyone have any info or experience on this matter? Cheers :-?

[mcogilvie]

I use Outlook and have already found the instructions at http://home.comcast.net/~whkratz/id3.htm, with how to turn Contacts into Projects each with associated next actions assigned to them. This is an excellent and highly recommended improvement but it is still far from ideal.

To check each project for next actions one has to laboriously open each Project and then open Activities....and for some reason Outlook is soooo slow.


I don't use Outlook anymore, but as an alternative, you can use an extra field to store project names, and then look at your tasks in a collapsible list using that field. That does make one aspect of the weekly review easier. I taught my wife to do this using one of the fields that KeySuite syncs, so she has her projects on both her work and home PC as well as her palm.

Life Balance, which runs on pc/mac/palm platforms (windows mobile coming) will do what you want, but requires different practices than Outlook to make GTD work.

[tominperu]

Thanks for your response. Actually I now realise I have done that already, but thanks for clarifying it can be done already in Outlook.

As you realise, one still has to click though all the projects to make sure that each project has a next action. What would be ideal would be a complete project list with a sublist of all next actions for each project, with also a list of unassigned next actions. Then hopefully one could drag and drop next actions onto projects as necessary.

If that is the case with Life Balance that is fantastic. I will look for that and check it out.

[mcogilvie]

Thanks for your response. Actually I now realise I have done that already, but thanks for clarifying it can be done already in Outlook.

As you realise, one still has to click though all the projects to make sure that each project has a next action. What would be ideal would be a complete project list with a sublist of all next actions for each project, with also a list of unassigned next actions. Then hopefully one could drag and drop next actions onto projects as necessary.

If that is the case with Life Balance that is fantastic. I will look for that and check it out.

You can do that with either Outlook or Life Balance, actually, but the technques are different.

[tominperu]

But how in Outlook? Does anyone have some instructions?

I had the trial Outlook Add-In for a month. Maybe I missed something but I couldn't find how to get a complete list of projects with each project's next actions also listed alongside. Is this really the case? If it was possible it certainly wasn't clear how (Tell me if I'm being really thick!).

I tried out the trial Life Balance today and liked it and it was immediately obvious how it worked. It also has some nice other features that aren't in Outlook. Now I need to save to pay for it!

[tominperu]

mmm... I have now looked at the presentation on the Outlook Add In on this site. On the presentation it shows a project list as I would like.

I still say either the add-in wasn't working with my version of Outlook or how to get that view wasn't clearly signposted.

Hope other users have more luck.

[tominperu]

Thanks a lot!

Perhaps I was being a bit thick! I remember I wasn't so familiar with Views in Outlook when I tried the Add-In, so I missed it. Thanks for the clarification. I may try the trial Add in again and take my pick, if they let me a second time!

I realise the Outlook Add-in certainly helps with emails although I'm not actually unindated with those.

If anyone knows a simple open source "to do list" software that can do what I want let me know. I live in a Third World country and have little income.

Good to know its there to buy if I need it though. I've got some quick answers on this forum so thanks to all...

[Longstreet]

Here is a nice alternative -- check out this program.

http://www.effexis.com/achieve/planner.htm

-Longstreet

[Vadim]

[QUOTE=tominperu]Thanks for your response. Actually I now realise I have done that already, but thanks for clarifying it can be done already in Outlook.

As you realise, one still has to click though all the projects to make sure that each project has a next action. What would be ideal would be a complete project list with a sublist of all next actions for each project, with also a list of unassigned next actions. Then hopefully one could drag and drop next actions onto projects as necessary.

Dear Tominperu! You can give a try for my application TaoNotes. It does exactly what you want it seems.... but better check it by yourself
TaoNotes page (http://actitrend.fre3.com/taopro.html)

best regards, Vadim

[DMW]

You may find Julia's method useful. This shows the NA in both their context and their Project. When the task is completed, it is removed from both lists.

See Julia's post here. (http://www.davidco.com/forum/showpost.php?p=35000&postcount=3)

HTH

DW

[tominperu]

I previously came up with this myself, but it doesn't solve the problem.

Yes, with this method one can easily see which next actions are grouped together into which projects, but it doesn't make it any easier to check each project has a next action - which of course is a crucial part of the weekly review. If there isn't a next action for a project, the project simply doesn't appear as a project category!

One can compare a complete project list with the project categories but this is a terribly tedious method (unless one has very few projects). Preferable to this is the method of turning Contacts into Project as explained in http://home.comcast.net/~whkratz/id3.htm. But as I mentioned in my initial post, this is also somewhat laborious.

Since my last post, I have tried to use the Trial Outlook Add-in again. It doesn't seem to load properly as I get no Active Tasks by Project List view at all. I have tried Life Balance but can't get used to its rather inflexible and automated prioritisation system.

I've also tried to use Tao Notes but it has seemed rather complex and until now I haven't had the time to play around with it to see how it works.

Achieve Planner (http://www.effexis.com/achieve/planner.htm) may work but I haven't had time to download it yet, let alone try out the trial.

If anyone has tried out either of the above and has an opinion, (especially related to the problem of my initial post) I am interested to know. I'd rather get another's opinion before I invest too much time in trying to work them out myself.

I'm still using the Contacts as Projects method for now. It's rather sluggish but I suppose it saves me US$50 - US$ 80, which is what it seems I’d have to pay for any other solutions.

[Deanna]

Bonsai might work for you. I use it to lay out my projects, then it synchronizes the next action to the Palm To Do List (or I use Agendus and it works there too).

http://www.natara.com/Bonsai/index.cfm

Deanna

[kglade]

I use the add-in and use task views to see what I want. I don't know why yours did not work. The view Active Tasks by Project will show only the project master task if there are no next actions assigned to that project. The view Next Actions by Project will show next actions that have no project, too. By configuring views, you can get almost any information you want to see.

As to the price of the tools, only you can determine what is an acceptable cost. I found the the add-in to save me many hours of thinking about how to set up a trusted system. For me, that was worth it. I wanted to spend my time GMTD [Getting My Things Done, all rights reserved :)], not setting up my system. I have heard good things about the white paper for outlook, but never tried it myself. It is lower priced but results in a system that has a little less automation.


Ken

[ext555]

If you live in outlook at work , the cost of the add-in is well worth it , just for the steps it saves you . Like Ken said , they've pretty much set up a " trusted system " for you [especially with the update from last october ]. I've tried doing without the add in just to see how much it really was helping me . I can honestly say it's much easier to follow the gtd process using the add in with outlook .

It helps you get to that place David refers to as " grooved on automatic " .

[mmurray]

If you are using a mac try Kinkless GTD

http://kinkless.com/

If you aren't using a mac then your NA is buy a mac obviously :-)

Michael

[Arjuna]

I haven't fully set up my GTD sytem yet (so I may be way off here!) - I use a program called Agenda at Once - it sounds like it does what you want.

You can drag and drop actions into projects and they show as linked.
You can drag and drop projects/sub projects/actions into the calendar and they show as 'scheduled'

(in AAO they have a 'to-do' pane - I am referring to this when I say 'projects)

Because I don't have much on the 'hard landscape' of my calendar, I keep my list of NA's on the day in question (ignoring the 'time')

I can easily see if each project has a NA simply by expanding each project and checking that it has a 'scheduled' icon.
(the 'to-do' list IS my projects list, with sub-projects and actions nested within them)

It's prolly easier to understand if you have a look!

They do a 15 day free trial and it's $30us to buy.
http://www.datalandsoftware.com/agenda/index.html

[tominperu]

Thanks!

Interesting. With Agendaatonce it seems you can have a look at the next actions for each project one by one. In this way, its on a par with Outlook Contacts as Projects method but a little faster.

It doesn't have categories for contexts as such but I guess you use the Assignees categories (putting @home, @calls etc) for this

It still doesn't produce a full list of projects with all next actions against them so I can very quickly check that each project has a next action. This is what I'm looking for.

I will definitely consider using it though. Good things are its nice a simple. Minuses are: its benefits over Outlook are small so maybe not worth the hassle and learning effort of transfering. Outlook also has some advantages like for instance the more customisable view facility. I have got used to Outlook and have developed a method for using it which may not work with Agenda.

However, Thanks again! Good price! Recommend others taking a look.

[kewms]

Create an Outlook category for each project. View your tasks sorted by category, with all categories collapsed. This is your project list. Note that the list includes the number of items in each category. If this number is one (you'll want to create a task for the project itself), then the project has no NAs.

Katherine

[tominperu]

Katherine,

How clever! Yes I can see that works really well. My gratitude is only tempered by an annoyance I hadn't thought of doing it that way myself! I had come up with making projects another category but having a task as the project itself solves the issue of quickly seeing which project needs a next action, as you point out. So thanks!

One can also use the space for text in the project/task for projec planning.

Well, I suppose that's it then, problem solved. Why you are the first to come up with a simple solution after so many have recommended expensive software and add-ons is an interesting question in itself.

I think there is a tendency to look for fancy new software rather than making do with what we have.

I will stick with Outlook and use your method without the add-in. ( I recieve few emails and its for email I think the Outlook add-in comes into its own).

Hope others benefit from this method...

[kewms]

Using project names as category names does create some problems for people who use Palm PDAs, as the standard Palm software doesn't support very many categories, and only supports one category per item. With my method, you'll end up with at least two, for the project name and the context. Beyond Contacts for Palm removes these limitations.

I actually use a fancy add-in as well, since my main task management hub is ResultManager, a MindManager add-in. But having the tasks in Outlook as well is useful, and the standard Outlook tools work fine for me.

I think one of the reasons why people look for add-in solutions is that most software is very poorly documented. They say the average user only uses about 10% of the features in large packages, and as a result most people probably don't even know that the other 90% of features exist.

Katherine

[tominperu]

Have now spent time trying out Katherine's method. After my initial enthusiasm I have to now say there is a downside to using this method compared to the Contacts as Projects method.

When one uses the Contacts as Projects method one can categorise one's projects in different folders and sub folders. It makes it much easier to go through the projects at the project review/planning stage of the weekly review. Having all the projects listed in just one long list is hard to take after getting used to that facility. One can categorise to an extent by creating a new field and writing in themes etc but this is not as good as having lots of different projects for different aspects of one's life clearly listed in separate folders.

Am I being difficult? Guess I am. I suppose I didn't appreciate how much I like about some aspects of the Contacts as Projects method, when I complained about its shortfalls.

I think I will shut up now and just getting on with using the system I have.

[TesTeq]

Having all the projects listed in just one long list is hard to take after getting used to that facility. One can categorise to an extent by creating a new field and writing in themes etc but this is not as good as having lots of different projects for different aspects of one's life clearly listed in separate folders.
Add one more (third) category - aspect of your life (area of focus). Or add the area of focus prefix to the project's name.

[tominperu]

Add one more (third) category - aspect of your life (area of focus). Or add the area of focus prefix to the project's name.

Some people might like to use that...

but for me, that's just two many categories! I like to see a short streamlined task list, not one with everything repeated again and again under numerous different categories.

And having to think about a possible prefix everytime one writes a next action makes thing too slow.

[Vadim]

[QUOTE=tominperu]I previously came up with this myself, but it doesn't solve the problem.

> Yes, with this method one can easily see which next actions are grouped together into which projects, but it doesn't make it any easier to check each project has a next action - which of course is a crucial part of the weekly review. If there isn't a next action for a project, the project simply doesn't appear as a project category!

> I've also tried to use Tao Notes but it has seemed rather complex and until now I haven't had the time to play around with it to see how it works.

Tom, actually it's very easy to check NAs for EACH project in TaoNotes. And a project APPEARS in the Project View EVEN It has no next actions!

Vadim

[TimeKing]

I have been a heavy Outlook user for many, many years. I have tried FranklinCovey Ascend and PlanPlus for Outlook, GTD Outlook add-on, Bonsai, Life Balance, Achieve Planner, and MyLife Organized.

I highly recommend you take a look at MyLife Organized. With it, you can click a checkbox, "complete subtasks in order", so that only one NA shows up on the To-Do list for that project at a time. Once the first is completed, the next NA pops up!

You can also sort the To-Do list by Context (the program calls this categorization "Places", but it's the same thing. In fact, in the next version, I believe they are going to rename Places to Context.

This program picks up, in some ways, where Life Balance left off, in terms of user-focused software development. Beside excellent Outlook sync capabilities, they are also building a nice PPC app which should be completed in the near future.

I've tried so many different systems since I read David's book a year ago, and MyLife Organized is the best software program I've found that meets my various needs and circumstances.

Good luck with finding and implementing a GTD system that works for you!

[tominperu]

Thanks TimeKing. Yes, I will try My Life Organised. It looks very promising.

And Vadim, I promise to make a proper try of TaoNotes. It will have to be at the weekend.

Thanks to all.

[GGG]

Following a suggestion by Ratz, it is extremely easy in Life Balance to check for projects with no next actions.
(If what I write below does not make sense, come back to it after you have tried the software.)
What he suggests is to assign to each project name in the outline the Place of "Projects", which is set to be always closed. Then the next actions that fall below this are assigned to the actual contexts they belong to. So any project whose next actions are missing or are completed will show up in the To Do List in the place Projects, but only if you check the box for "All" instead of "Open" (this is so you don't have to see them if you use "All Places" to see all your next actions in one big list. If this doesn't matter to you, then set the hours however you like).

The point of this is that if you assign the place of "Projects" to all your projects, each of their children tasks will also be assigned to Projects automatically, and so any that do not have a next action will show up in the ToDo list when you invoke the place "Projects" . Then you can jump directly to the project in the outline and assign it a new NA if you want to, or check it off if it's done. And any projects that you do NOT see in the ToDo List have next actions assigned.

One more great feature that I can't resist sharing with you. Suppose you create an elaborate project with many subdivisions (children) at many levels, next actions, etc, and you decide you can't work on it this week. Just drag the highest level item in the project under a heading called (say) Maybe Next Week, and set that heading's importance slider to zero. The result is that nothing from that project will show up in your To Do List, but when you are ready to make it active again, all you need to do is drag it out of Maybe Next Week and back to wherever you want to have it. No need to redo all the planning work you already did. This works because LB does not put any items or subitems in the ToDo List if the importance slider is set to zero.

I am a Mac (and a Palm) user, so I don't know much about MLO or the Outlook Add-in, but for my money Life Balance is superb for GTD.

George