[steve]

I am so jazzed you guys added this feature! I think this feature is essential to GTD. Thank you!

[korm]

"Stalled" vs. "On Hold" seems like a distinction without a difference. If there's no next action, there's no next action.

Paul

[steve]

I see the distinction in this way: stalled is unintentional and unwanted while "on hold" is intentional and part of the plan.

[Craig]

I can see this being very useful. Now I wish there were an easy way to just display projects with no flagged actions.

[steve]

Originally Posted by Craig

Now I wish there were an easy way to just display projects with no flagged actions.

How would you use that, Craig?

[davisre]

Originally Posted by steve

I am so jazzed you guys added this feature! I think this feature is essential to GTD. Thank you!

And this almost seemed like magic: I have a "waiting for" context that I use for delegated actions or external dependencies. I've set the "waiting for" context not to allow next actions. So this new "stalled projects" filter now automatically identifies projects that are sitting there waiting for something. Neat.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by steve

How would you use that, Craig?

I plan out my projects as far as I feel like. Then, during my weekly review, I flag the actions that I'd like to get done that week. So essentially I use flags as a priority marker to make sure (or at least increase the odds) that all my projects move forward each week.

So at my weekly review, I could (and will) use the new stalled setting to make sure at a glance that none of my projects are awaiting more planning. But I could use the setting I'm proposing, viewing only projects with no flagged actions, to generate a list of my projects that need this flag.

[davisre]

Although the stalled projects filter is great for finding stalled projects, acting on the projects in the list is difficult, mostly because a project disappears immediately after I do something that would get it moving again, like adding a next action. That sounds good, except that it happens before I'm done making changes, which requires me to fish around looking for that project again.

If the project has a default context defined, just selecting one of the projects in the stalled project list and hitting return is enough to zap the project out of view. If it doesn't, the disappearance happens when you tab from Context to Start Date, filling in data.

So I've been trying to use the view bar to switch back and forth between stalled and active project modes to make any changes to a stalled project. But since it might be hard to find the project among the active projects, it sometimes helps to focus first.

So to work through a list of stalled projects, the procedure becomes
1. Look at the stalled project list.
2. Identify a project that needs a next action; select it.
3. Focus on it.
4. Toggle the filter from "Stalled" to "Active" (which requires that both the view bar and the project hierarchy be visible).
5. Edit the project.
6. Change the filter from "Active" to "Stalled".
7. Show All to undo the focus.
Repeat with the next stalled project.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by davisre

So to work through a list of stalled projects, the procedure becomes
1. Look at the stalled project list.
2. Identify a project that needs a next action; select it.
3. Focus on it.
4. Toggle the filter from "Stalled" to "Active" (which requires that both the view bar and the project hierarchy be visible).
5. Edit the project.
6. Change the filter from "Active" to "Stalled".
7. Show All to undo the focus.
Repeat with the next stalled project.

Interesting post. Would it simplify things to do this?
1. Look at the stalled project list.
2. Select all.
3. Focus.
4. Toggle the filter from "Stalled" to "Active"
5. Edit all the projects in a row.

[davisre]

Originally Posted by Craig

Interesting post. Would it simplify things to do this?
1. Look at the stalled project list.
2. Select all.
3. Focus.
4. Toggle the filter from "Stalled" to "Active"
5. Edit all the projects in a row.

Very clever, Craig. Yes, that does work better. Step 2 is trickier than it sounds if the stalled project list is grouped by anything. Curiously, if any of the groupings is selected, the focus button and menu item are disabled. You have to make sure you're selecting only projects and/or actions.

But otherwise, yeah, that eliminates some of the fiddling.