part I
3. When I've added a role or two, I go on with adding goal(s).
When doing something, almost anything, the so-called classic ToDos are not just actions in themselves. You do them with some purpose in mind. You want to get a result from your "do-s". This is what goals are. And if you think of that result before starting, it will help you better understand the steps you need to take to get to that result. It can help you define what exactly you want as a result. And even can help you understand that you don't need that at all :)
I add goals just by typing them in the input and pressing the "Add" button. Each role shows a list of already added goals, and their status - done/not done.
I can then re-arrange my goals using the drag'n'drop. This is one of the techniques I use very often: I try to think of goals I need to do for a role, without deciding at the time of the order and/or importance of doing them. After I add them all, I re-arrange them by priority: I look at the list of goals and decide which one is the most impotant to achieve at that moment, which should be next, etc. So I re-sort them using drag'n'drop to bring the most important goals to the top. The idea, again, is pretty simple, yet very powerful and very natural. We've talked about that here.
4. Then I add actions to each goal.
An action is a step in achieving your goal. Often called a todo, a task - it is something you have to get done to reach the goals. We've intentionally used the word action and not a todo or a task, because action is, after all, an action :). It is a proactive word. It doesn't have an obligatory nature like "todo" and "task".
Actions in the habits can be of 3 type:
+ Single action - a one-step, atomic action
+ Project - a composite action, which can contain in itself all types of actions
+ Checklist - a list of checkable items.
After you've added an Action, you can change its type by clicking on the icon to the right of the action name. By default, a newly added action is a Single action, so the icon will look like this:
The project icon looks like this:
The checklist icon looks like this:
3. When I've added a role or two, I go on with adding goal(s).
When doing something, almost anything, the so-called classic ToDos are not just actions in themselves. You do them with some purpose in mind. You want to get a result from your "do-s". This is what goals are. And if you think of that result before starting, it will help you better understand the steps you need to take to get to that result. It can help you define what exactly you want as a result. And even can help you understand that you don't need that at all :)
I add goals just by typing them in the input and pressing the "Add" button. Each role shows a list of already added goals, and their status - done/not done.
I can then re-arrange my goals using the drag'n'drop. This is one of the techniques I use very often: I try to think of goals I need to do for a role, without deciding at the time of the order and/or importance of doing them. After I add them all, I re-arrange them by priority: I look at the list of goals and decide which one is the most impotant to achieve at that moment, which should be next, etc. So I re-sort them using drag'n'drop to bring the most important goals to the top. The idea, again, is pretty simple, yet very powerful and very natural. We've talked about that here.
4. Then I add actions to each goal.
An action is a step in achieving your goal. Often called a todo, a task - it is something you have to get done to reach the goals. We've intentionally used the word action and not a todo or a task, because action is, after all, an action :). It is a proactive word. It doesn't have an obligatory nature like "todo" and "task".
Actions in the habits can be of 3 type:
+ Single action - a one-step, atomic action
+ Project - a composite action, which can contain in itself all types of actions
+ Checklist - a list of checkable items.
After you've added an Action, you can change its type by clicking on the icon to the right of the action name. By default, a newly added action is a Single action, so the icon will look like this:
The project icon looks like this:
The checklist icon looks like this:
This series of posts have been really enlightening. just wondering about Checklists. How is it different from projects? A post on it would be most useful. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHi there,
DeleteThanks a lot for writing back. We'll go on with the series, just had a little break in development due to some personal things. Will cover checklist in a bit more details, too.
Excellent program. Really really love it. Prob my favorite app so far.
ReplyDeleteI did have a question though about actions - is it possible to have recurring or repeating actions? For example if my role (father), has a goal (be involved in children's school), with a daily action (review homework, read to kids, etc), how could I select this action to repeat or recur?
Additionally, what about goal recurrence? Say if I completed the goal for the day or week, such as "be involved in my childrens school," I still would want that goal to continue in the future? I suppose I could check then uncheck all the goals but that would be tedious. Let me know if you have any thoughts here.
Hi there,
DeleteThank you for your nice words, we're happy you like it. We are currently working on the recurring actions, that's a very needed function, we agree. Technically it takes a little more time than to implement other functions, but the work is going on :).
Regarding goal recurrence, it might seem a useful function, too. But, there are some points to think about before deciding to implement them. For example, when I reach a goal, most often I delete it, even if I need another similar goal again. That helps me think about it again, maybe change my vision of it, other steps. In other words, it doesn't let me make them a commonness.