Allow project to be in multiple folders
 

Hi,

When it's natural (I think) to use folder structure for "area's of responsibility", the following problem shows up: sometimes project belongs in multiple area's. For example, "organize books" project belongs to "Self-development > Reading" area, but also to "Housekeeping" area, since the project involves buying new bookshelf and as a result making the house nicer and more organized.
So I would like to be able to put a project in several folders.
But on the other hand I remember having the same problem in LifeBalance, so maybe it's just me :/

Does it sound reasonable to others? Am I still on the GTD path? :)

Ksenia.

To me, the tasks in this project would have different contexts:

Project: Organize Books
Tasks:
Measure space for new shelves Context: House
Buy bookcases Errands
Assemble bookcases House
Shelve books House

Project: Reading List
Tasks: list books to be read Context: House, or Free Time, or ??

--Liz

[QUOTE=ksenia]So I would like to be able to put a project in several folders.
But on the other hand I remember having the same problem in LifeBalance, so maybe it's just me :/
[/QUOTE]

I haven't used OmniFocus yet, but I imagine I'll definitely want to put projects into multiple folders. I frequently want to organize things along multiple dimensions and that's impossible if a strict hierarchy is enforced. While I can understand hierarchies for project--task--sub-task, I think for the higher-altitude stuff, you need to be able to slice projects in different ways.

I was wondering along the same lines when I started a project about building a web site for the football club my son plays for and which I help run. I have folders for [I]web projects[/I], [I]football[/I] and [I]son[/I], and when I started considering which to use to contain the club's web project I too had the thought that smart folders would be a good idea. On reflection, however, I'm not so sure they're necessary; the club's web site project is exactly that—a web project—and the fact that it is my son's football club is functionally incidental to the management of the project, so it belongs in the web projects folder.

There are so many other ways to view the data in OmniFocus that I doubt I would find it restrictive not having smart folders (note that this doesn't mean I'd turn them from the door!), and I can foresee difficulties when focussing on several folders at once where the project might be in more than one—do we want to see it twice? or just the first instance?

Perhaps if difficulties are encountered with deciding which folder to use, this might prompt a reassessment of the basic ordering ideas being used.

This sounds like a job for *smart folder* !!

[QUOTE=coconino]
There are so many other ways to view the data in OmniFocus that I doubt I would find it restrictive not having smart folders (note that this doesn't mean I'd turn them from the door!), and I can foresee difficulties when focussing on several folders at once where the project might be in more than one—do we want to see it twice? or just the first instance?

Perhaps if difficulties are encountered with deciding which folder to use, this might prompt a reassessment of the basic ordering ideas being used.[/QUOTE]
Finding the right basic ordering ideas is the challenge for me too. I am trying to follow my mind pattern, and sometimes the project is just belongs in multiple areas. If the project belongs to two folders I'd like to see that project twice in the project tree. But I am not sure about smart folders, I like the simple iTunes system the most - one song can be in multiple playlists. Putting song / project in the right playlist / folder is than just a simple drag-drop action.

[QUOTE=ksenia]Finding the right basic ordering ideas is the challenge for me too. I am trying to follow my mind pattern, and sometimes the project is just belongs in multiple areas. If the project belongs to two folders I'd like to see that project twice in the project tree. But I am not sure about smart folders, I like the simple iTunes system the most - one song can be in multiple playlists. Putting song / project in the right playlist / folder is than just a simple drag-drop action.[/QUOTE]
Yes, following that method there would be one large library of projects and then folders would be various custom views of that data, either selected by certain criteria or by drag-and-drop.

I wonder if the proposed "Perspectives" feature will go some way towards satisfying this requirement. My guess is that it will, but it will have to be very slick.

[QUOTE=coconino]I was wondering along the same lines when I started a project about building a web site for the football club my son plays for and which I help run. I have folders for [I]web projects[/I], [I]football[/I] and [I]son[/I], and when I started considering which to use to contain the club's web project I too had the thought that smart folders would be a good idea. [/QUOTE]

This is a case for nested folders.

Using my standard example, I have the following folder - Project nest:

Kids>Daughter>Con Costume

and a sub project: Obtain Materials


I could put Obtain Materials in my Shopping folder -- but this isn't my usual shopping, I want to do it with my daughter. The contexts will be my errands contexts (subdivided by part of town), so they will show up on my context-based list of things to do.

In cocoino's example, I wouldn't have a folder for web projects. I would rather see my Projects section listed by ultimate purpose, so the football club's web project would be listed under Football>Web Project. [I have my costume listed under Personal.] The context may say Computer>HTML Coding; this would group all the web page creation tasks together. [Just as my Errands:northeast context would group everything I need at the fabric store, plus the grocery next to it.]

Does this make sense to you? It does to me -- that 's why I do it this way. It may work for you, or something else might work better.

--Liz

[QUOTE=jtauber]I haven't used OmniFocus yet, but I imagine I'll definitely want to put projects into multiple folders. I frequently want to organize things along multiple dimensions and that's impossible if a strict hierarchy is enforced. While I can understand hierarchies for project--task--sub-task, I think for the higher-altitude stuff, you need to be able to slice projects in different ways.[/QUOTE]

I'd second that. I am using OF Beta for weeks now, but could not really get accustomed to the strict Project/Context logic as implemented. In fact, sometimes I use more time thinking about how to get along best with the 'OF corset', than doing the things. While I admit that I never read Allen's GTD bible from one end to the other (who has?), I just realize that this is not the way how I work (and that I am quite unwilling to change my habits to comply with).
If OF is about teaching how to use Allen's GTD, fine, then OF is probably simply not the right program for me. If it is, however, about helping all kind of people getting more efficient along the method they think is best for them, than nothing should speak against implementing possibilities for multi-tagging, multi-projecting, multi-contexting and so on. Nobody must use such impure functionalities, but the ones, who want, can.