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Projects are stalled if they have an action with a future start date Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
expected behavior
projects are stalled if they have no actions
 
Just about to post the same thing. I don't understand why a project with one action, set to a future start date is considered "stalled".

Surely this is a bug, not a feature. What am I supposed to do with such a project? The only thing I can do is mentally ignore it, which defeats the purpose of using OF.
 
Interestingly, I see that Tim said:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Wood View Post
a project is stalled if:

- it is marked Active (that is, you still want to work on it)
- it has no next action
- it either has no start date or it is in the past (that is, if you put a future start date on it, it won't be considered stalled)
- it isn't a singleton project
(Emphasis added.)

My project has no start date, has a due date, with an action that has a start date in the future.

Since the *project* doesn't have a start date, but does have a due date, it's considered stalled, but I don't understand the logic.
 
Definitely a bug... or a feature they haven't gotten to yet...

I handle this by going through my stalled projects based on last reviewed.
I can review the stalled project...
if it has future actions and isn't really stalled, just pending, then I mark it as reviewed.
If it is stalled, I add actions.
If it is completed, I mark it as completed.
 
Don't see how this is a bug. It just as it is supposed to be. If your project does not have a specific start date, then it is a current or active project. And I am supposing its a sequential project. If the first action has a future start date, then none of the actions in the project can be a 'next action'. Thus this project is active (no start date means project has started and thus cannot be not pending), but with no doable action till the first action start date and thus has become stalled.
(Side note - All stalled projects are subsets of active projects)
 
A stalled project is (or at least, many of us treat it as) a project which has no actions assigned to it, and thus may require some further thinking to move it along (or perhaps you completed it and forgot to check it off).

If my project has an action assigned to it, even if that action is in the future, I don't have any planning and thinking to do to move it forward, I just need to wait for that action to reappear when appropriate.

Such a project isn't stalled, it's exactly where it's supposed to be, and I don't need to be reminded about it every time I review my list of projects which actually *do* need more thinking.
 
I am also troubled by this. . .

I am working on a project and the next available action isn't going to be for a month. I don't want to see that as a stalled project because it isn't. I suppose I need to change the start date of the project 1 month so it isn't listed as stalled.

I would only want a project considered stalled if:

a) it is overdue and the NA is in the future
b) there are no NA's assigned.

It should be considered stalled if you have decided the NA can't happen for a few weeks.
 
Select the project in the project pane (left pane when in Project mode), and use Inspect. Change the Status to On Hold, and set the Next Review to a reasonable date in advance of the first task.
 
I am currently using "on hold" for some/day maybe items. I would really have to be bulletproof in my reviews before I did what you suggest! The safest bet for me is just to change the start date of the entire project to something in the future.
 
The point of the review is to make sure that things don't slip through the cracks. So. Yes. Your review is supposed to be bulletproof.

FWIW, I do my reviews asynchronously on an active project folder basis. Personal and Household project folders get reviewed on Friday. Work folders get reviewed on Monday. I put "warm" someday/maybe projects into one of the root project folders. By "warm" I mean that I want to fit the projects in over the next month or so, and they are fully fleshed out. So. I want to see these projects during each weekly review cycle.

Colder someday/maybe (more than 2 months out) projects have their own folder. This is where I go to flesh out incubating projects as I have the time. Projects in this folder get a minimum 1 month review cycle. If I have doubts about that 1 month review cycle, I need to turn the heat up on the project, flesh it out some more, and maybe move it into an active project folder.

I've moved my colder someday/maybe projects to OmniOutliner. I have a single-action task to review the OO document that contains these projects once a quarter. Most of the projects here exist as a single entry with some notes. I have added a date column to track last reviewed dates, but may revamp if the links between OO and OF ever improve. I am considering creating another OO document with projects that really go on the back burner - those with an annual review cycle.
 
 


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