I wasn't sure if I should add this to one of the many existing threads on action groups, "next" vs. "available" actions, etc. I figured a new thread might be easier to do.
I find action groups as a concept very useful for organizing what I would otherwise call “sub projects“ but for the inability to treat them fully as such. (The recent functionality to more easily change parallel/sequential, and the removal of the contexts is a great addition.)
As an example, let's say my “project“ (or, as I prefer to think of them, my “desired outcome“) is “Paint Living Room“, I would have a couple “sub projects“ or “action groups“), e.g. “Decide on colors“, “Buy Painting Supplies“, “Prepare Living Room for painting“, etc.
Each of these is a distinct “project“ that can have actions that move it along. I can set it up as
Paint Living Room (project, parallel)
[_] Decide on colors (action group, sequential)
___[_] Visit Home Center and review color combos (action, in Errands)
[_] Buy Painting Supplies (action group, sequential)
___[_]Visit paint store for tarp, brushes, tape, etc. at painting store (action, in Errands)
___[_] Waiting on color decision (action, in Waiting For)
[_] Prepare Living Room for painting (action group, sequential)
___[_] Move items to center of room (action, in Home)
___[_] Waiting on tarp purchase (action, in Waiting For)
___[_] Cover items with tarp (action, in Home)
If “next action” is “what's the next physical action I can take to move my project (”Paint Living Room”) forward, then there are three of them; in Contexts, with Errands, Home and Waiting For selected, and my filter set to Context/Project/Next/Any/All, I expect I'd see
[_] Visit Home Center and review color combos (action, in Errands)
[_] Move items to center of room (action, in Home)
[_] Visit paint store for tarp, brushes, tape, etc. at painting store (action, in Errands)
After all, I can do any of these three actions and my project has been moved forward successfully. I would have Gotten Something Done.
Instead, I only see one action:
[_] Visit paint store for tarp, brushes, tape, etc. at painting store (action, in Errands)
This suggests to me that either we need to rename next and available, change the behavior of next to match available, or (my preference) alter how action groups report their available “next” actions. There's no reason my “next” action can't be any of the three “top” items in my action groups.
Part of the issue is that actions are tied to projects, not action groups. In context mode,
[_] Visit Home Center and review color combos
is displayed with a project of “Paint Living Room” rather than “Decide on colors”. It would help, visually, to show the hierarchy, e.g.
[_] Visit Home Center and review color combos ... Decide on colors (Paint Living Room)
[_]Visit paint store for tarp, brushes, tape, etc. at painting store ... Buy Painting Supplies (Paint Living Room)
[_] Move items to center of room ... Prepare Living Room for painting (Paint Living Room)
Does this expectation make sense? Am I missing something important in how I've planned my project(s) and want to act on them?