Sequential projects

telenieko

Hi,
I’m coming from OmniFocus (OF) and there are a couple features there that I’m not sure if they’re available at all, planned or impossible.

OF has the concept of “Available” task, this is kind of a meta filter that comprises: prior tasks are done, start date is due, the project and/or tag is not marked “disabled”… So with one filter you take out a lot of tasks that you do not care at the moment.

In OF at you can define “Sequential” or “Parallel”. When you do a lot of planning ahead (like putting down 50 tasks for the next few weeks) that property allows OF to know that on Sequential all tasks below the first uncomplete are unavailable, so you won’t see them in lists filtering “is:available”; While Parallel means any task is available.

This is quite powerfull because that property can be set at any outline level, so you can have a Parallel group with several Sequential subgroups. When mixed with the “active” filter above things can be quite neat.

Another small feature is that at a group level you have a Completed / Paused button; Completed marks everything inside the group as done; While Paused makes the whole group “unavailable”, which can be usefull when, for example, something gets roadbloacked due to external factors and you want it out of the way for the moment without mangling all the tags and due dates.

Is there anything in Legend, or planned, about this “Available” meta-filter; and the Sequential task groups?

thx.
marc

LauraH

Hey Marc - welcome to Legend! The short answer to your question: No, there is nothing like those features in legend currently. It might help to think of Legend more as an outliner with super powers - instead of a “Project Manager” like Omnifocus is.

That said, Legend can be very, very powerful and flexible - and there are ways to set up your systems to approximate some of the functionality you are asking about.

For example, to get only “Available” tasks: I am very strict with the way I enter information. I only use “project” items to truly mean a project (GTD style definition - a multi step objective I am wanting to achieve). I only use the “task” item type on items that are actually doable RIGHT NOW. Any “future tasks” brainstorming tasks, I use a bullet point. And then when I review, I change the next batch of “doable” tasks from bullet points to task items.
I keep “Active Items” in their own section of the outline. Any “Someday / Maybe / Future” projects are in a separate section of the outline.

This way, if I’m zoomed into my “Active” Outline section: a list view search for only tasks truly shows me only the currently active tasks. A search to “group by project” and show only tasks shows me only my active projects and the active tasks under them.

Granted, this is an approximation of the functionality you describe - because it does require that you manually keep it up to date. But it might help meet your needs?

webalstrom

I agree with LauraH. There probably is a way to set up a system similar to OmniFocus but it will be less automatic and more hands on. This isn’t bad, though. In the past, I used OF, Things and other systems that would automatically bring things to the fore on a designated date or when certain conditions were met. I found I felt that I had less control over what I was supposed to be working on when I expected things to be fed to me at the right time then when I need to take a more active role on reviewing tasks and keeping up with what I need to do when.

I use a hybrid GTD and MYN/1MTD system. A loose GTD mindset for doing tasks/next steps/projects and the 1MTD for the review process (sections for do today {Critical Now}, keep on board for coming week {Opportunity Now} and further out {Over the Horizon}). Using this system and the date feature in Legend (to search by start or due dates) makes it easier to keep on top of upcoming tasks and making sure I don’t schedule too much all at the same time.

LauraH

Related: Legend also does not have “start dates” in the way a project manager would. Legend lets you attach one date to an item. However, since the dates are “in line”, and not necessarily an isolated property - I use them for many different purposes.
Example:
*. This project is due March one, so move it to my active section on !1Feb. <—- this task will show on my agenda on 1 Feb, because that is the date I set. But in the text I can note that I’ve got it there as a “start date” not a “due date”.

telenieko

Thank you all for your feedback. Those tips can work, it requires more discipline on the review process though 😱

Will see how that works for me.
thank you

Jerud

I think it’s right to say Legend isn’t a true “Project Manager” and it can’t be expected to have a complete set of features for that purpose – but I certainly do use it as one, and this seems like a compelling idea.

Currently the numlist prefix doesn’t really “do” anything compared to other prefixes, which let you zoom or complete or something when you click on them. Numlists are just formatting – but it would make a lot of sense if they had a ‘sequential’ behavior!

I apply numlists to subtasks specifically to indicate that order is important, which is only about 25% of the time for me. I like to stay flexible when I can – but when order does matter, it’d be nice to have it enforced – because otherwise I’m tempted to skip around as I usually do.

It’d be real interesting to try and duplicate the OF behavior with numlists, although Legend doesn’t have an analog to the “available” concept so it would require some creativity. Unavailable items could maybe get pushed to Archive state (most underused feature ever) until they’re ready? That would certainly hide them.

Additionally, maybe projects that contain numlist items could automatically complete themselves once all their numbered child-items were complete.

Kinda just pipe dreaming here…I think a feature like this would likely be pretty far out specifically because of what LauraH pointed out – Legend isn’t a project manager.