[soundsgoodtome]

Originally Posted by jasong

Soundsgoodtome, what benefit do you get by marking "cut the front lawn" as "in progress" that you don't get by seeing that it's not yet done? If it's in your list of stuff to do, and you get interrupted, it's still in your list of stuff to do because you haven't done it yet.

Yes, but believe it or not, there are instances when it is advantageous to know -- specifically -- that a task was begun, yet not completed. I get what you're saying: even 99% done is still "not done." You're right. But for me, there are situations when I absolutely *must* abandon a particular task to complete another task or several other tasks. And by the time I complete those (and I don't mean 10-minute tasks; sometimes I'm talking about *days*) I may have forgotten about the incomplete one. In those cases, depending upon various deadlines and a ton of other variables, I'm faced with decisions: Do I (a) begin a brand-new task? Or (b) do I go back to the incomplete task? The answer is *not* always the same, and I need a way of quickly identifying the tasks in my list that are "in progress."

Again, if you prefer the "on/off" paradigm, no problem! But please do not make the mistake of assuming that "pure GTD" is the best solution for everyone, because it is not. Is it a fantastic system? Yes. And it works for many people. But everything in the world is not black and white, and I get this sense that GTD-adopters want everything to be so black and white, and frankly it's becoming a bit annoying. It's like "we know the correct way (the David Allen way), and *your* way is inferior.

Perhaps that's not your intent, but there's subtext like that in hundreds of posts all over this forum, and it's starting to become a real problem.

Originally Posted by jasong

The calls/voicemail situation is similar. You had an action "call susan re: potluck" and you did that. When you completed it, you had another action come out from it: "wait to hear back from susan re: potluck".

As I wrote in another reply, moments ago, I don't need another action. Frankly, I think it's silly to have to script out every single move, like that. The task is making the call. When I see those words, written down, my brain knows what to do next. I don't need to write down "Wait to hear back from susan"; then write down "If no reply from Susan, call again," Rinse. Repeat. That is too much busy-work. All I need is the original task, and for me, anything related to that one task (waiting for the returned call, or calling again later) is already inherent in the original task. Now, if the conversation with Susan leads to another task, then that's different. But to write down "Wait for reply from Susan" as a task does not and will not ever work for me. All I need is a simple indicator that I took the step, and the rest is already understood.

Originally Posted by jasong

A checkmark showing that the "call is in progress" isn't "true": the call *isn't* in progress.

OK. Now you're just being ridiculous with the semantics. Of course the "call" isn't in progress, but the "task" is. This is farr too much overthinking about something that is very, very simple. I don't need to script out every singular action, regarding the call. The task is to talk to Susan about the potluck. When I mark that task "in progress," *I* know what that means. I know I haven't left the phone off the hook. I know I'm not on the phone with Susan presently. I'm not leaving instructions for someone else to pick up where I left off, I'm leaving a quick, visual cue for myself.

[QUOTE=jasong;23252If you see an action of "call susan re: potluck", and it has the "in progress" mark, what does that tell me? That I called and left a voicemail and... what? She needs to call me back? I need to call her back later? Do I have to wait for Susan, or can I move ahead?[/QUOTE]

If you truly need to ask yourself all of those questions, I can see why pure GTD is helpful to you. When I see "in progress," I know what it means, and I know what to do next.

Originally Posted by jasong

I fear that a third state is a recipe for ignoring, forgetting, postponing, and generally disturbing my "mind like water" goals.

And here we go again.... It's really difficult to read comments like that and not want to be acerbic and pithy in return. I don't have those problems. I have other problems in my life, but not those. So -- if you need this structure to accomplish your tasks, then I'm happy that you've found the structure you need. I don't need that much structure, and I really couldn't care less about disturbing "mind-like-water" goals. I really couldn't. And I'm really tired of these condescending comments. You'd think GTD is a religion and that only those who follow it "properly" will inherit the kingdom.

I'm sorry, but I think some of you are really taking this stuff WAY too seriously and are going WAY too far.

Originally Posted by jasong

The more OmniFocus moves away from core GTD principles, even with options to enable/disable them, the more worried I get.

Because it won't do what you want it to do. But there are others who don't want to be forced into the GTD methodology. You need rigidity to be accomplish your goals, but we need flexibility.

I'm amazed at how much discussion this has generated, even though I went out of my way to state -- more than once -- that I was requesting *optional* features, enabled via preferences! If it's optional, and you never have to even see it unless you enable it, why do you care?

Originally Posted by jasong

All that said, a mechanism for handling "delegated tasks" or better support for "waiting on" tasks would be appreciated, and I have some ideas I'm working through, which I'll post for comment soon.

At least we agree upon something. :-)