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Thread: Toodledo inactive projects

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
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    Question Toodledo inactive projects

    Hi,

    I'm considering to buy Toodledo but I find the subtasks feature a bit unclear and hard to use.

    So I hope someone could help me understand what is the best practice when you have many projects and at some point you want to make some of them inactive(along with all their sub-tasks).

    Do you click on each of that project's tasks and set it's status to "Someday"?

    Until now I was using "Tracks"(an open source GTD tool) but now I don't have continuous Internet access so I want to use also an Android GTD tool like "GotToDo" that I can sync periodically.

    If you didn't find Toodledo as the best choice, do you have any other recommendations?

    Thank you!

  2. #2
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    Hi again,

    Anyone, any idea about this?

    Thanks!
    Quote Originally Posted by leadgy View Post
    Hi,

    I'm considering to buy Toodledo but I find the subtasks feature a bit unclear and hard to use.

    So I hope someone could help me understand what is the best practice when you have many projects and at some point you want to make some of them inactive(along with all their sub-tasks).

    Do you click on each of that project's tasks and set it's status to "Someday"?

    Until now I was using "Tracks"(an open source GTD tool) but now I don't have continuous Internet access so I want to use also an Android GTD tool like "GotToDo" that I can sync periodically.

    If you didn't find Toodledo as the best choice, do you have any other recommendations?

    Thank you!

  3. #3
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    You can do that (there are also 'hold' and 'postponed' status labels that can be used for the same thing), or as I do, you can have someday/maybe as one of your contexts and change the context of the project and associated tasks when you want to make it inactive.

  4. #4
    SherGTD's Avatar
    SherGTD is offline Getting Things DoneŽ Essentials Certified Trainer
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    I have used Toodledo for a year. I don't use the subtasks anymore - subs kept getting lost or hidden, and my system was repelling me. I have folders for Projects, Next Actions, Waiting For, and Someday/Maybe, and I just move the tasks from folder to folder during my weekly review as needs change.

    The tasks in the Projects folder are written as desired outcomes with project support in the notes field. When I view this folder, the tasks show as a flat index of my projects. Tasks in my Next Actions folder are assigned contexts, so I can print a list of the Next Actions folder by context, or easily review a particular context on my iPhone. Waiting for and Someday/Maybe folders are for tasks I'm incubating or have delegated. To specifically answer your question about projects you've put on hold, I would just move them from my Projects folder to my Someday/Maybe folder. If you do this often, you could have a Projects-On-Hold folder similar to a S/M folder, in that you'd only review it once a week or so rather than daily, as you'd review your active list of projects.

    I don't use the status fields at all. I have found that the more variable to enter, the less I want to use the system, so I keep it very, very simple. Hope that helps!

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by leadgy View Post
    Hi,

    I'm considering to buy Toodledo but I find the subtasks feature a bit unclear and hard to use.

    So I hope someone could help me understand what is the best practice when you have many projects and at some point you want to make some of them inactive(along with all their sub-tasks).

    Do you click on each of that project's tasks and set it's status to "Someday"?

    Until now I was using "Tracks"(an open source GTD tool) but now I don't have continuous Internet access so I want to use also an Android GTD tool like "GotToDo" that I can sync periodically.

    If you didn't find Toodledo as the best choice, do you have any other recommendations?

    Thank you!
    I find the builtin status-es and project handling of toodledo to not exactly map my workflow and/or GTD.
    I do not use:
    - Subtasks
    - Projects
    - Status

    Instead I have extra contexts Projects and Someday/Maybe where I keep a list of all my projects and someday/maybe items.
    I have never had to move an active project to someday maybe, so I can't tell you what to do in that scenario.
    Anyway one of the pitfalls with Toodledo is that because you have so many ways of organizing you (at least I) tend to overcomplicate the system leading to friction in using it.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    St. Louis, MO USA
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    1,538

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    Quote Originally Posted by leadgy View Post
    Hi,

    I'm considering to buy Toodledo but I find the subtasks feature a bit unclear and hard to use.

    So I hope someone could help me understand what is the best practice when you have many projects and at some point you want to make some of them inactive(along with all their sub-tasks).

    Do you click on each of that project's tasks and set it's status to "Someday"?

    Until now I was using "Tracks"(an open source GTD tool) but now I don't have continuous Internet access so I want to use also an Android GTD tool like "GotToDo" that I can sync periodically.

    If you didn't find Toodledo as the best choice, do you have any other recommendations?

    Thank you!
    There are several ways to do this, depending on your usage. Unlike, say, omnifocus, you could use either the status or context field, because both can hide items. Or you could dump the projects in a folder called inactive.

  7. #7
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    Sydney, Australia
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    Quote Originally Posted by leadgy View Post
    ...what is the best practice when you have many projects and at some point you want to make some of them inactive(along with all their sub-tasks).

    If you didn't find Toodledo as the best choice, do you have any other recommendations?
    I was a long-time Toodledo user but gave it up last year for a variety of reasons. Over time I simplified it just as SherGTD mentioned (e.g. status field, priority, etc) to remove the clutter and make it simple to use, but in the end a few things really bugged me:
    1. No real inbox - the equivalent is 'No folder' which just annoyed me
    2. No drag & drop other than in subtasks
    3. No manual ordering of tasks

    As others have noted, subtasks can be a challenge to handle in Toodledo depending on your settings.

    There is an online solution named Nirvana (www.nirvanahq.com) that was built for GTD methodology. I'm not using it but it has many loyal users and they have a feature to flag projects as active or inactive. Might be just what you want.

    I'm using Appigo's Todo Pro which is an online system (similar to Toodledo) but with the features I need (inbox, manual sort, drag & drop, etc). They also have native apps for iPhone, iPad & Mac. I use the online version at work (Windows environment) and iPad or iPhone most other places. It's not specifically GTD but handles my workflow well and has plenty of features, many of which are not obvious at first glance because of the minimal UI style that Appigo adopts.

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