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Puzzled about cleaning up an item Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I have a project with all items concluded that won't go away. Is that normal?

I had a project called "Fix auto body" with tasks solicit advice on shop, call for appointment, bring car in. All of those are completed and the checked-off items are now invisible unless I use the View menu to show all. But the project remains. If I try to delete it I am warned, "Oy, if you delete this all the hidden items are gone too!" In this case I don't care, but I sort of think that it's probably useful to keep old items around for the same reason I don't consider emptying iCal of appointments from last year: once in a blue moon it's EXTREMELY useful to be able to figure out what happened way back when.

So...should I just nuke the project or what?

Despite what I said it's useful to have recurring projects (e.g. my weekly sunday review) remain since I may add tasks to it. But this one, being one-shot, is worthless.
 
It sounds like you've completed all the actions currently defined in the project but you haven't completed the project itself. You can do this in a number of ways:

1) Select the project(s) and hit the spacebar

2) Select the project(s) and go to Edit -> Status -> Completed in the menubar

3) Select the project(s) and right-click on it, selecting Completed from the contextual menu

4) Select the project(s) and click on the Completed button in the Inspector palette (one with green check mark)

5) Select the project(s) and click on the Complete toolbar button (big green check mark, not displayed by default but easy to add)

Hope this helps.

-Dennis
 
Thanks, I had missed that. It's confusing that there is a check box for tasks and the space bar for projects.

What happens if I "complete" a repeating action? Will it come back?

What happens if I fail to complete a repeating action? Will all the completed tasks reappear upon the next repeat date?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gumby View Post
Thanks, I had missed that. It's confusing that there is a check box for tasks and the space bar for projects.
Actually, the spacebar works for both projects and actions.

I think projects don't have a checkboxes to help reduce visual clutter and simply because you don't typically complete projects as frequently as you complete actions.

I actually find clicking the big green check mark in the toolbar to be very satisfying when I complete a project.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gumby View Post
What happens if I "complete" a repeating action? Will it come back?
A new action is created when you complete the current repeating action. However, the new action might not be immediately visible, depending on your view settings and how you've got the repeat set up.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gumby View Post
What happens if I fail to complete a repeating action? Will all the completed tasks reappear upon the next repeat date?
If you don't complete an action before the next repeat date, a new action is not created until you complete the previous action. You can develop a backlog this way if you fail to complete the original action for long enough.

For example, if you have an action set to repeat every minute from the start date (now) and you go sit on the porch for 30 minutes, when you return and check off the action, a new action will immediately be created. When you check off that one, another will appear, and so on for 30 or more actions until you get caught up to the current time (one action for each minute you sat on the porch).

Does this make sense?

-Dennis
 
"Make sense?" Well I can understand why it might be implemented that way. However I guess I'd thought repeated actions would be appropriate for implementing (say) my weekly review. If I don't get around to doing one of the items (say, "empty /~Downloads folder") then I won't get prompted, which is arguably the wrong thing for Weekly review, 10K review etc.

I can't make a good case for changing it though. Thanks for following up on all this.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gumby View Post
Well I can understand why it might be implemented that way. However I guess I'd thought repeated actions would be appropriate for implementing (say) my weekly review.
I'm not sure I understand what the problem is. Repeating actions and projects are ideally suited for implementing things like weekly reminders (conduct weekly review, empty downloads folder, get haircut, mow lawn, etc.) Why aren't they appropriate for you?

Quote:
Originally Posted by gumby View Post
If I don't get around to doing one of the items (say, "empty /~Downloads folder") then I won't get prompted, which is arguably the wrong thing for Weekly review, 10K review etc.
Why won't you be prompted? Won't the action still be on your list of things to do?

-Dennis
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gumby View Post
If I don't get around to doing one of the items (say, "empty /~Downloads folder") then I won't get prompted, which is arguably the wrong thing for Weekly review, 10K review etc.

I can't make a good case for changing it though. Thanks for following up on all this.
We've got a feature request in our development database for the option to make actions behave this way. No idea when/if it'll be implemented, but this is something that's on our radar screen.

Last edited by Brian; 2008-06-19 at 12:30 PM.. Reason: me no can punctuate.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toadling View Post
Actually, the spacebar works for both projects and actions.
Spacebar? Who knew. That is not intuitive.
 
In fact, how do you turn this OFF? Wow you can easily accidentally complete an entire project with NO feedback.

First one that comes to mind. HAve project selected, press command-space for spotlight, but kinda miss the command key, and if you are looking up at the spotlight corner, nothing happens, you shrug, press it again, oh good, spotlight, then 2 days later, "what the heck happened to my project!"
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sriggins View Post
Spacebar? Who knew. That is not intuitive.
As often as possible, you want to make things intuitive, but you can't do it for everything; in those cases, you shoot for learnable.

The "Marking a project complete" and "Marking Actions Complete" sections of the help menu material both mention this. It's also mentioned in the corresponding sections of the manual.

Last edited by Brian; 2008-06-19 at 12:35 PM.. Reason: first I under-punctuate, then I over punctuate. go me.
 
 


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