[Greg Jones]

In my workflow, there are two primary factors that determine when to use a SAL and when to use a project with parallel actions. The first factor is related to the project/planning mode. I view true projects (parallel or sequential) as a group of related actions that, when completed, leads to a specific outcome. In other words, projects are not open ended-they are anchored with an initial task and a final task, and the name of the project will often contain a verb in its description ('Launch new client website' or 'Develop 2010 marketing plan'). The end date of a project may be unknown at the start, but ultimately the project will be completed or else it will be stalled or dropped.

SAL do not have the same (self-imposed) restrictions. I have various SAL for tasks that are related to a specific role/area of my life (work, family, house, etc.) yet the tasks are not necessarily related to one another. Also the SAL is open-ended, assuming that the role/area of my life does not change.

The second factor is related to context/working mode and how I want to view my tasks. All tasks in a parallel project are considered available (if not blocked by a start date), but the actions do have ranking based on where they appear in the project. If I am viewing my contexts by 'Next Action', then only the very next unblocked action in a parallel project will appear. SAL do not have this limitation as every item in a SAL is considered a next action.

Given your example and the question asked, I would think the music list would appear in a SAL. I'd probably go a slightly different direction and keep the list in a text file outside of OF, and make a SAL task of 'Review Music List' myself, but that's just a personal preference of mine to keep most project support materials out of OF.