Task list

I really loved agenda and the way it integrates with Reminders and Calendar. My opinion is it really needs a task list (there is another software on the market that has this feature and it works very well but, it doesn’t have that good integration with icloud world that I love in Agenda). As I am a freelance having all the checklist as tasks on the same place (not the whole note) could be a really strong feature for me and surely will help me to jump again back to Agenda!

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As a developer, I use task lists all the time in Agenda. Usually I will have a task list in a single note for a project I am working on for a few days.

Can you be more specific about what you miss? Because you are certainly able to make checklists, and even add reminders to them.

Hello! thank you for your reply. So in my job I need to have different notes and tasks for different customers and projects, and when I have many notes becomes slow to find the task on every single note. So could be useful in my case to have a task list to see all the tasks from differents notes in a single place.

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This is definitely something we’d like to make possible in a future update, thanks for the feedback

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I think you should prioritize this feature, and when you add it, we should be able to classify tasks by projects and by context.

These contexts could be the categories that I already have, but I think it would be better if we could group several categories in one context.

(Nobody wants to see personal tasks at work, and I think it is very normal that in a context of work we have several categories).

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I’m a bit confused: Agenda does already have categories, and it is common for people to make a “Work” category and a “Home” category, and sort the projects into those.

We also have the ability to password protect projects coming in the next version of Agenda, so you could then have your work projects locked (or vice versa).

If I have misunderstood, please let me know.

And I would want to add that Focus filters are a further great way to separate Work from Personal if you like:

I would love this. As f.i. in evernote that is the sit. All tasks from notes collected also in a task overview

We have ideas about this.

Personally, having all tasks in a single list would be a nightmare for me, because I use tasks for everything. A single project of a few days may have 50 tasks or something.

What is more useful is being able to setup overviews of the tasks. You could have all tasks, or you could have tasks in a range of dates etc. This is more where we want to go.

Of course, we already have Categories on Agenda. But I want talk about “contexts”: which can group one or more categories. In the sense of the contexts in GTD.

When you develop the ability to combine all our tasks in a single view, we should be able to select a context and be able to see all the tasks in a set of categories.

:wink:

I think this would be best handled with tags. You can already make searches for tags, but it is limited to one. We have a big overhaul of search coming, and you should be able to combine different tags to get something like what you want.

I don’t agree, Drew.

Labels must be used to express a value that depends on each task. But if I have 220 tasks in a project, or 700 tasks within several categories, and I have to tag all of them like “Work”, then they ARE NOT tags but contexts.

Do you understand me? Obviously, the labels solve the problem, but it is not the optimal way.

Not sure I understand. If you have a bunch of tasks in a note, you can put the note in a project, the project in a category, and the category in another category (eg work). That’s one way.

Tags can certainly be used as context too, since they are searchable at the note level. You put the tag in the note at the top or bottom. Now that note, and all its tasks, appear in searches for that tag.

In future, we hope to allow filtering of notes at the paragraph level too. Ie show me all paragraphs/tasks in a note where this tag exists.

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Originally, GTD (Getting Things Done) was a paper-based system, so using contexts, like ‘phone’, ‘computer,’ or ‘Internet’ made a lot of sense.
OmniFocus is probably the to-do app that’s most true to GTD. It used to have ‘contexts’ but now it uses tags for the same purpose. And that makes sense too because it’s a digital affair now.
One could argue contexts still exist but more in the sense @drewmccormack describes, in categories, projects and tags.
As far as I know, having hundreds of tasks in a list is someting David Allen would strongly recommend against. He recommends breaking them down in actionable items, prioritise them and put them in the right ‘context’ e.g. project, category, timing and importance. All of this is made possible through Agenda’s flexibility, and now, with the introduction of coloured notes that are searchable, even more so.
I like to use all of this flexibility to make overviews that show me exactly where I’m at, where tasks and plans are concerned.

Rob

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You always have very useful things to say around these topics, @robbie07: I would love to see you give an overview of how you are using Agenda at the moment. If you’ve already written that somewhere else on the forum, I apologise for missing it, and would you give a link, please?

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Thanks!

Here’s an early example of how I used to use Agenda (I use it for anything and everything): How I use Agenda: the Eisenhower method

For a couple of months this year, Agenda wasn’t my main business tool. This was due to a series of webinars I organised, the handling of which was primarily about participants’ data. I used a CRM, CapsuleCRM, for that purpose.

Currently, I’m involved in the development of an analogue business tool, which is completely different from what I used to do (mainly training). As a result, the setup of Agenda has changed significantly.

Coloured notes are now at the center. They represent the four Eisenhower matrix quadrants. Because they’re searchable now, I have Smart Overviews of them. It’s immediately clear what has to be done and why.

But. You know, systems, including tools like the Eisenhower Matrix, are only effective if you commit to using them consistently. Once you notice that you deviate from your system more often, it’s best to adjust the system, not your goals.

Rob

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I’m afraid, you talk a lot but you don’t listen.

Here, we are talking about the need for a list of tasks, that groups the tasks dispersed by different notes.

In Agenda (and not in GTD), several categories can belong to the same context.

I’m just asking that when they do the development of the task lists, they allow me to see all the tasks of a single context together (without having to tag them all or having to color all my notes).

That’s all.
Anyway, thanks for discussion.

Thanks for reminding me not to get carried away!

Cheers,
Rob

@delisau with all due respect, @ian_T asked @robbie07 to describe his workflow, so he did listen.

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I agree with the community. It would be if this was a priority.