[whpalmer4]

No, GTD neither requires nor encourages putting due dates on tasks which do not have deadlines by which they must be completed.

Your review process is what ultimately drives completion of tasks without due dates. If you see a task that should be worked soon, use the flagging feature to mark it. Each day, make sure you complete everything that is due for that day, then work your flagged actions and items coming due in the upcoming days.

[Kingkiller48]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

No, GTD neither requires nor encourages putting due dates on tasks which do not have deadlines by which they must be completed.

I see... I realise that I spend FAR too much time on thinking when I should complete my tasks and so on... But I just love the way the Forecast function works - especially on the iPad, I can see what are the tasks that should be done by today and so on - it just looks awesome!

However, once you said that, I'm going to this:
- Use Forecast to look at the tasks that are date-based or due-date driven such as assignments etc.
- Use Flagged for tasks that are to be completed today

What do you think?

But the Review function, after you mention it, means that, yeah - you don't really to forcefully apply due dates to tasks that are not due-date driven... Id didn't think of that at all~

[whpalmer4]

Try it out and see how works for you. It doesn't matter how it works for me :-)

Another way you can get tasks to appear in the Forecast view on the iPad is to turn on the display of starting tasks in addition to due tasks. In the Forecast view, tap the eyeball icon at the top, then check the "Days show: Starting Items" item. After that is enabled, you can put start dates on items you wish to have appear in your Forecast view. I typically prefer to use them to hide tasks from view when I am not going to work on them (either because I don't want to or I'm not able to), but they are also easily used to mark tasks without due dates as "something to work on today". Unlike due dates, there isn't anything bad about failing to get it done — with due dates, there's a danger of putting them on when they aren't "real", because you train yourself that many due dates can be ignored. The one hitch with using start dates like this is that if you don't get it done today, tomorrow it won't appear in the Forecast view. This is easily handled by bumping the start date ahead a day when you quit work for the day and still have such tasks left.

[whpalmer4]

A few other tips:

Make sure your next actions are of a reasonable size. You want your reaction to seeing some task to be "oh, that's easy, I'll get that done now!" rather than "mmm, that's going to take a while/is too hard, what else can I do instead?" Another way of looking at this is that you are trying to take advantage of any opportunity for forward progress, instead of declining to take the first step because you can't also take the second step right now.

If you keep those next actions bite-sized, you can simultaneously do your reviews and work the projects. Your review will walk through all projects due for review (which can be controlled on a per-project basis), and you simply make accomplishing a task or two from each project reviewed part of the process. This guarantees that all projects make some forward progress on a regular basis.

[DrJJWMac]

I agree with whpalmer about due dates, although I do find that one can have a fuzzy boundary deciding between when something _should_ be done versus when something _shall_ be done. I routinely set start dates to push actions out of my views until they really can be started (eg, you cannot start a homework assignment until it is posted or handed to you). Finally, I use flags to mark tasks that I will do in the next time period (typically a 3-4 hour chunk of time) looking forward.

Using only an iX device, my morning review might consist of first clearing/logging completed items of their flags, confirming the status of existing projects by entering any new tasks that I know are coming up, and then setting up flagged actions from the forecast view. For a given day, every time my flagged list is emptied, I would consult the Forecast view to flag a new set of tasks to tackle for the coming time slice. Alternatively, when the tasks due for the day are done, I would consult my projects and flag what to handle next.

--
JJW

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by DrJJWMac

Using only an iX device, my morning review might consist of first clearing/logging completed items of their flags

Do you really go through and de-flag completed actions? Why?

[DrJJWMac]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

Do you really go through and de-flag completed actions? Why?

Just a matter of habit and/or personal preference I guess. This may be training from email, where un-flagging is the only way to eliminate something that is flagged (for action in my case).

BTW, this is on the Mac version. Seems to me, the Flagged perspective on my iPod never shows completed regardless of what I define it in the Mac perspective. So, collecting all the flagged actions and then running a quick AppleScript and/or command-L to unflag them works nicely on the Mac. I can see where trying to do the same on the iX could be a waste of time.

Some day, I may re-learn that it is OK to carry over flagged actions in OF and store them in my archive or hold them around forever.

--
JJW