3 ms·

I think you might be blurring the lines between task management and to do lists. To do lists are what the name implies, a list of things to do. Once you start

I think you might be blurring the lines between task management and to do lists. To do lists are what the name implies, a list of things to do. Once you start adding things like dependencies, etc. to a to do list, it's not really a to do list any more. If you are going to be that detailed about how you do your tasks, then a traditional Project Management tool (like Microsoft Project) is probably what you need. Sure it's going to have some extra features you don't want, but nothing is forcing you to use those features, especially if the task management part satisfies your primary needs for dependency tracking, estimate/deadline rollups, etc.

MrTonyD 11y ago
Lots of applications are really full featured databases with a simplifying user interface to suit a particular use case. I think a good Todo list could and should be the same - with both a simple Todo use case supported while also able to become more full featured (I would like something able to handle "getting things done" style planning. But why not be able to scale to full-on project management? It could be made pluggable.)
kaitai 11y ago
There's something in that space, though! Before I can have friends to dinner, I need to buy the ingredients, but before I buy the ingredients it would be good to print the recipes so I don't need to go back to the store. Also, I need to clean the dining room a bit which involves moving the elephant out of the room and into the garage. Two little streams with deadlines: move elephant, print recipes today. I worked on an app like this for a while as well, just arranging everything graphically, but abandoned it as too idiosyncratic....
- maigret 11y ago
  For this problem, Getting Things Done says you should only record the next task. The second doesn't interest you as you only need to think about it once you're done with the first. Work projects have multiple dependencies because they involve often many people, but Agile has been also pushing backward the desire to plan too much in advance.
  - Jtsummers 11y ago
    The problem (crap, way late to post, sorry) is that you may record the task "Have friends for dinner". THEN you start working backwards on the dependency chain. It's a natural way to break down problems (why am I shopping for food if I don't know what I'm shopping for?). Shopping for my weeknight dinners is different than shopping for my Saturday night party (literally different tasks if they're time separated). So the desire is to be able to record a target task, and obscure it (so to speak) behind the preparatory tasks. This is where projects and other things come into play. Project: Make a journal for my sister's wedding anniversary. Tasks: Purchase materials, assemble, hire artist friend to produce neat drawing on cover, distribute for signing by family (both sides). Those end up becoming ordered in some fashion (purchase materials, then the rest), or running in parallel (hire the artist friend and paste it into the produced journal, send out a single sewn signature to family and sew it into the final product, assemble the rest and wait). If you've only recorded the task "purchase materials" you don't have a concept of what follows it (and it remains in your head). This doesn't mean you need to see the following tasks, yet (software can hand them behind the tasks they depend on or by date or similar). But recording them is not a problem.

MrTonyD 11y ago

Lots of applications are really full featured databases with a simplifying user interface to suit a particular use case. I think a good Todo list could and should be the same - with both a simple Todo use case supported while also able to become more full featured (I would like something able to handle "getting things done" style planning. But why not be able to scale to full-on project management? It could be made pluggable.)

kaitai 11y ago

There's something in that space, though! Before I can have friends to dinner, I need to buy the ingredients, but before I buy the ingredients it would be good to print the recipes so I don't need to go back to the store. Also, I need to clean the dining room a bit which involves moving the elephant out of the room and into the garage. Two little streams with deadlines: move elephant, print recipes today. I worked on an app like this for a while as well, just arranging everything graphically, but abandoned it as too idiosyncratic....

maigret 11y ago
For this problem, Getting Things Done says you should only record the next task. The second doesn't interest you as you only need to think about it once you're done with the first. Work projects have multiple dependencies because they involve often many people, but Agile has been also pushing backward the desire to plan too much in advance.
- Jtsummers 11y ago
  The problem (crap, way late to post, sorry) is that you may record the task "Have friends for dinner". THEN you start working backwards on the dependency chain. It's a natural way to break down problems (why am I shopping for food if I don't know what I'm shopping for?). Shopping for my weeknight dinners is different than shopping for my Saturday night party (literally different tasks if they're time separated). So the desire is to be able to record a target task, and obscure it (so to speak) behind the preparatory tasks. This is where projects and other things come into play. Project: Make a journal for my sister's wedding anniversary. Tasks: Purchase materials, assemble, hire artist friend to produce neat drawing on cover, distribute for signing by family (both sides). Those end up becoming ordered in some fashion (purchase materials, then the rest), or running in parallel (hire the artist friend and paste it into the produced journal, send out a single sewn signature to family and sew it into the final product, assemble the rest and wait). If you've only recorded the task "purchase materials" you don't have a concept of what follows it (and it remains in your head). This doesn't mean you need to see the following tasks, yet (software can hand them behind the tasks they depend on or by date or similar). But recording them is not a problem.