[wayne4]

How would you organise this?

Here's a fictitious list of hotels

HOTELS SPECIFIC TO A CITY
London = 25 Hotels (London 1 , London 2, 3,4 etc)
Brighton =10 Hotels (Brighton 1,2,3,4 etc)
Paris = 5 Hotels
New york = 10 Hotels
Amsterdam = 10 hotels

HOTEL CHAINS SPECIFIC TO A COUNTRY
Travelodge.co.uk
thebigsleep.co.uk
spainSleep.esp
hotelUSA.usa
bedhotel.france

HOTELS THAT OPERATE IN MULTIPLE COUNTRIES
www.ibrostar.com (spain, italy, france)
www.Ibis.com (UK, Holland, Germany, France)

HOTELS GLOBAL
Holiday Inn
Hilton
Marriot


Situation 1 - London Trip. I need to filter a list of all the London hotels followed by Uk Hotel chains , followed by multiple country chains followed by Global Hotels.

Situation 2 - Paris Trip - I need to filter a list of all the paris hotels followed by france Hotel chains, followed by multiple country chains followed by Global Hotels.

My question is:

1) What would your projects list look like?
2) What would your context list look Like?
3) How would the filtering work?

I don't know if this post addresses some of the issues here??

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=5961

[Craig]

I'd make a context for each possibility. Then multiple-select (by Cmd-clicking) those having to do with London, view grouped by Context, and save as a "London" perspective. Same with Paris.

[wayne4]

Craig

Thank you for your suggestion

I'm very keen (and dedicated) to optimising my structures within the planning mode (as this is often the mode I use to getting things done, explained on this post http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=10678).

So, I'd be very interested to hear suggestions on how to organise this list in the planning mode (specifics on folder structure)

When you say a context for each possibility, do you mean make a context for "London" and then one for "Brighton"??. If so what context would you give Travelodge.co.uk. (both brighton & London are in the UK and travelodge have hotels in both city's.

I just can't see how a system would work? Am I being dull?

thank you for any suggestions

[Craig]

If you're working out of planning mode then you're using the program very differently from how I do...

I meant having contexts for every distinct context - so one for every line in your list (including, for example, a separate one for travelodge.co.uk). The Cmd-selecting will group them for you.

[Lucas]

My suggestions would be helped by knowing a little more what your ultimate goal is.

Just seeing what you've given, I think that I would use Excel or OpenOffice instead of OF.

[iNik]

I'm also unclear as to what you're trying to accomplish. Are you a hotel manager or a salesperson serving the industry who needs to visit multiple hotels per country? Assuming it's something like this, you'd probably want to build a nested contextual hierarchy, something like this:

HOTELS
Holiday Inn
Hilton
Marriot

UK HOTELS
Travelodge.co.uk
thebigsleep.co.uk

LONDON
london hotel 1...n

BRIGHTON
brighton hotel 1...n

SPANISH HOTELS
spainSleep.esp

US HOTELS
us hotel 1...n

NEW YORK HOTELS
new york hotel 1..n

(etc...)

For multi-country hotels, you could just throw them in Global, make multiple copies (so you have a context for the particular hotels in each country, regardless of their affiliation), or whatever works.

ALTERNATELY, consider keeping a list of hotels and your notes about them in some other document, and create context lists, agendas, or whatever on a trip-by-trip basis. That will keep your plans more concrete, by far, each time you head out the door.

Putting everything in your task manager may be overkill and will probably clutter things up. I am, personally, a big fan of creating and killing contexts as liberally as I do projects. If I'm on a trip, I'll put in contexts for locations I'm visiting, individual events (e.g. Trade Show Booth), the airport, and so forth. When I get home, I archive and then delete the offending contexts.

[keone]

I agree with Lucas and iNik. Until we know more about what it is that you are trying to accomplish--what your project is--it's difficult to give you advice. Remember that OF is a task manager rooted in GTD principles to help us complete our projects, which as defined by David Allen, are any tasks involving two or more action steps.

[keone]

wayne4, with my first reply in mind, here is how I would set it up for a London trip.

First, I would put all of the URLs re: hotel possibilities in one folder titled London Hotels in my browser. Then I would set it up in OF as follows:

PROJECT: PREPARE FOR LONDON TRIP, 12/18-12/28/08 START DATE: 11/01/08 DUE DATE 12/27/08


ACTION GROUP 1: Make hotel reservations (Sequential)

Research hotels. See (Browser Name) London Hotels folder CONTEXT: Online Research DUE DATE: 11/20/08

Make hotel reservations (Add a note: 1st choice: Hotel 1 URL; 2nd choice Hotel 2 URL) CONTEXT: Online or Phone (whichever one you'll be using) DUE DATE: 11/21/08

Waiting for hotel res confirmation CONTEXT: Waiting For DUE DATE: 11/25/08

ACTION GROUP 2: Schedule Meetings while in London (Parallel)

Arrange meeting with HRH Q Elizabeth (Add a note re: what you want to meet with the Queen about) CONTEXT: Phone DUE DATE: 11/23/08

Arrange meeting with Gordon Brown (Add a note re: what you want to meet with the PM about) CONTEXT: Phone DUE DATE: 11/23/08

ACTION GROUP 3: Packing (Parallel)

And so on.

[wayne4]

Fantastic!

Thanks for the clarity and detail of your replies.

I have 4 different people offering me 4 different approaches.

You have given me plenty to think about for the moment. I will no doubt post back some time in the future...& try to put you in the picture of what I was trying to do.

I Just need to put into practice what each of you are suggesting.

Thank You

P.s. Queen will be thankful too!