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Model "Getting Things Done" (GTD) using Mori

Submitted by uwehobohm on Mon, 2008-04-28 08:57. Tags ( )

I purchased Mori 2 years ago, and its still one of my bread and butter apps. I keep all notes there.
I become interested recently in GTD tools (see http://www.priacta.com/Articles/Comparison_of_GTD_Software.php for a list of tools). I tested OmniFocus and ThinkingRock. While OF is both not for free and less sophisticated than TR, TR is under development and has quirks and snags. However, I was wondering if Mori could be slightly adapted to fulfill GTD needs.

The GTD paradigm essentially boils down to

  • throw down ideas, dates, to-dos in a basket
  • whenever it suits you - possibly soon - sort these ideas into actions; actions combined are called projects
  • attach a "context" tag to each action. Context may, as a simple example, be the place where the project is done (e.g. "home", "office", "car", "laptop")
  • attach a priority to the action, this may be a start date or a due date or a number or several of these
  • attach a "duration" to the action
  • attach additional info like comment, URL, picture ...

    These simple organizing principles can already be of much help to manage your to-do lists. For instance, you can sort actions by due date, duration, context, project.

    All this essentially can be done using Mori by adding columns. To enable GTD the following would be required:

  • it must be possible to sort based on TWO columns, i.e. group one column and sort another, eg sort on project, within that sort on due date
  • entries in some columns might need help of a limited list, e.g. in the context-column you dont want to type "office" again and again
  • the bug of incorrect sorting date-columns dealing with european date format (dd.mm.yyyy) must be fixed.

    best regards
    Uwe

    ‹ Mori freezes with tag folder How do I link entries in Mori to other applications? ›
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    iGTD-Plugin

    Submitted by Rolf Schmolling on Tue, 2008-04-29 01:47.

    Hi,

    did you try out the iGTD-plugin?

    Works quite well.

    Rolf Schmolling M.A.

    http://rolf_schmolling.macbay.de/

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    Thanks for the hint. After

    Submitted by uwehobohm on Tue, 2008-04-29 10:43.

    Thanks for the hint. After playing around with both, iGTD does not work at all under 10.5 (command-N fails), iGTD2 looks interesting but has some quirks, development seems to be halted.

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    mGTD?

    Submitted by Alastor933 on Tue, 2008-04-29 11:48.

    I think Rolf means mGTD, not iGTD.
    I'm sure it's a fine piece of work, but it is not modifiable. You can, of course, add scripts for functions the plugin does not have.

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    Yes, definitely

    Submitted by Alastor933 on Tue, 2008-04-29 10:09.

    Check out this page. The author has posted here, and in several other fora, on the subject.
    It would help if you have some scripting skills; with a bit of AppleScript, Mori is easily adapted to whatever works for you, GTD-wise. I use Mori for GTD myself, and I'm sure there's quite a few others.

    As regards your requirements:
    1) It looks like Mori does do 2-column sorting. What happens when you try this? I'm not sure why this would be necessary; can you explain? Most of us use labels to set action status, and smart folders to collect them - no sorting required.
    2) This is very doable with an Applescript; I know of 3 different implementations.
    3) My Mac runs in Dutch; today displays as '29 apr 2008' in Mori. Dates are sorted correctly, at least in Mori 1.6.3. I have the Datetime plugin installed, but I don't think this makes any difference.

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    almost...

    Submitted by uwehobohm on Tue, 2008-04-29 11:51.

    I read http://jhh.med.virginia.edu/main/MoriGTD with great interest. There are a lot of good ideas, and smart folders are indeed part of the answer.
    Why would I like 2-column sorting like in Excel ? Assume you have 3 columns "due date" and "duration" and "context(place)". You might want to group within context and sort within groups on due date, or you like to sort on due date and within the same due date on duration. Of course you can think of a dozen or so smart folders for the most common filters, but its not quite flexible.

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    "Scripts & Plugins" is the

    Submitted by Alastor933 on Tue, 2008-04-29 12:10.

    "Scripts & Plugins" is the page you want here. mGTD is not in there, you'll find it somewhere in the forum.

    And Jim's scripts are still there, just download the example notebook. But I'm convinced they are too simple for what you seem to need.

    You're right about not wanting 12 smart folders, of course. But if that's the number you'd need to get past a sorting problem you may have an overcomplicated setup, IMHO. I'd prefer a complex script over lots of stuff in the GUI, be it columns or smart folders.
    I have only 2 custom columns, and 7 smart folders. One of those is for checking the notebook itself. Then there's 2 for NAs (one for desk work, the other for all else), 1 for recurring tasks, 1 for WFs, 1 for 'completed', 1 for errands.

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    Sorting, again

    Submitted by Alastor933 on Wed, 2008-04-30 00:37.

    Mori cannot sort like Excel. It's an outliner, it sorts like the Finder.
    If it does something else on your Mac you've got some other problem on your hands.

    Try Jim's setup for a few weeks, see how it goes. Much better than working in one long, mixed list, I believe.

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