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Due dates for entire lists and an overview without too much clutter

vincentvandalon says:
My system

To organize the things that I need and want to get done I use a structure loosely based upon the getting-things-done (GTD) philosophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done). For a large part I need to keep track of tasks that can be split into several actions, these are projects. On the other hand, there are tasks that have only require a single action for completion. These single action tasks are categorized, examples of such categories are: chores-home, errands-home, chores-work. A significant part of the actions have a due date. In some cases entire projects have a due date, this not an option in RTM but as I will show there is an elegant solution for this. Most actions also need a certain context such as @grocerystore, @diystore, @office, or @boss. Task depending on someone else are labeled with the context “waitingFor”.

For my day to day work, I like to have two views on my todo-actions. (1) It is vital that I have an overview of the tasks that need to be completed in the upcoming week combined with the “waitingFor” actions. If there is a project with a due date, the overview should only show the project name, the items on the list should not show up on this list. (2) I want to keep track of all the projects from a higher level, showing the projects that for example got stuck or that I forgot about. Therefore, I also need an overview of all the projects with as little clutter as possible. Looking at the lists in the RTM app or website will not work since this also shows the categories, Inbox, Sent, and smart searches.

To make this more tangible, let's look at a couple of examples of projects and items that I have to manage:

I need to organize a meeting as a member of an alumni board. The project “Alumni association” has the following items:
- Send invitation to members, due Friday.
- Confirmation room reservation, waiting for response of the venue.
- Brainstorm about new activities.
The project “Migrate webserver” is due Friday. None of the tasks need to be done first but everything on the list needs to be done before Friday. Items in this project are:
- Restructure DNS
- Copy files
Then I have a chore that need to be done:
- Clean kitchen

Using Remember The Milk for my system
I will now describe how I tried to implement this system in RTM and demonstrate how the three examples fit in. The trick to solve the due date problem on lists/projects is to add an item |projectName| to the project-lists and tagging this with #projects. This project-name item can then be given a due date if needed. With smart searches this enables me to make the overviews I described above.

The projects and categories in my system are represented by lists in RTM. The categories crucially do not get this “|projectName|” item keeping them out of the project overview. The contexts mentioned before are implemented as labels. The two overviews are implemented as two smart lists named predictably “overview” and “projects” (see also the example below). The “|projectName|” item is key in being able to put an entire lists on the “overview” list, which is done simply by giving this “|projectName|” item a due date. To wrap up I will discuss the two examples and how they work in RTM. Both the “Migration” project and “Alumni association” are projects and have lists that look like this:

List “Migrate web server”
- Copy files
- Restructure DNS
- |Migrate web server| ^Friday
List “Alumni association”
- Send invitation email ^Friday
- Confirmation room reservation #waitingFor
- Brainstorm about new activities
- |Alumni association|
List “Chores-home”:
- Clean kitchen

Smart list overview -- search “dueBefore:"5 days of today" or tag:waitingFor”:
- |Migrate web server|
- Send invitation email
- Confirmation room reservation

Smart list projects -- search "tag:projects” :
- |Migrate web server|
- |Alumni association|
- Not showing the “Chores-home” or "Inbox" list though!
Posted at 1:31pm on October 11, 2014
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