[colicoid]

First I must say that I am not familiar with Franklin/Covey.

Originally Posted by jpathomas

Question #1 Priority.

Priority in OF and GTD is handled by the order that you put tasks while in planning mode. If a task really is of higher priority than some other task you should tend to the high priority task first (if your context allows it). This is one of the benefits of serial projects. You can still view and complete lower priority tasks, if you want to, by adjusting filters. Flags are a non GTD addition that a lot of people use for priority flagging, but flags can be used in many different ways. Other ways to deal with priority, and get around the fact that OF doesn't support it, includes special priority sub contexts or strict naming conventions paired with searches.

Originally Posted by jpathomas

Question #2 Delegation. I have things on my task list that need to get done, but not by me. I need to track it, it's a step that needs to be completed, but not one that I can complete myself. In F/C I'd mark that as delegated. How can I indicate that I've delegated an action Item in OF? Yes, I could flag it, but I don't want to unflag it later, I want it marked, for all time, as delegated.

OF is a personal task management system and does not support this directly (yet) but there are of course workarounds. I have a special @waiting-for context with a sub context for each person a regularly delegate to. People that I only delegate one or two tasks to I put in the general @waiting-for context. This works extremely well for me.

Originally Posted by jpathomas

Question #3 In Process. Sometimes my task is to call someone, and I end of leaving them a voice mail, and waiting for them to call me back. In F/C I'd mark that item as In Process. In OF it looks like it's either done, or not done.

In GTD I suppose only one task can be in progress at any one time which is the one you are actually working on. All you need to do is to be more liberal about what you call a project; and you won't need an "In Process" flag thingy. E.g.:

1. Phone X and tell him about Y.
You made the phone call and he didn't pick up so you left a voice mail.
The task of phoning is now done and marked as completed but a new task is entered instead.
2. Wait for X to phone me back about Y.

See, you now have a mini project instead. The action involved more steps than you had initially anticipated. This example is of course simplistic but this is one of the major strengths of GTD. No matter how much a small task grows; the system is able to cope.

If it is really important that you actually talk to the guy; voice mail isn't enough. You would reschedule the task and make another phone call in two days or whatever. Util you get hold of him the task is not done. You could make entries in the note field if you want to keep track of failed tries to reach him.

GTD does require you to think differently about certain things reading the book is probably good advice.