Projects vs. Programs
I have been using GTD for a few of years and Nirvana for approximately a year and a half. One thing I have continually struggled with is the handling of programs...those things that aren't technically a projects (activities with 2 or more tasks), but long-term programs/activities that I am involved with that may or may not have tasks associated with it at a given time depending on what is going on; i.e. recurring meeting for advisory councils, strategic planning, etc. etc.
I am curious as to how people handle these in Nirvana? Do they become a "project" even though they may not have action items at certain points in time?
Let me know what you think.
Thanks for your help.
Chris
Comments are currently closed for this discussion. You can start a new one.
2 Posted by Mick on 07 Oct, 2011 12:12 PM
The way I see it, you're talking about Areas of Focus/Responsability.
3 Posted by Proximo on 07 Oct, 2011 04:42 PM
I don't use Nirvana for anything outside of handling Projects and Single Task.
GTD is a system and requires different tools for different things.
4 Posted by schollguin on 07 Oct, 2011 11:56 PM
Folders and/or Sub-projects or some way to introduce project grouping or hierarchy is something that has been on the wishlist for quite some time, but no idea if/when the functionality will every make it into Nirvana. I have not heard anyone from Nirvana comment on it in a very long time, so I take that as meaning, it's not going to happen anytime soon. Lack of being able to organize projects in Goals/Programs is one of the few reasons I always consider moving back to OmniFocus. I use Areas of Focus in a very basic way (PERSONAL and WORK). I have a work-around solution right now where I tag my projects like so: {FINANCIAL}, {HOUSEHOLD}, {CREATIVE}, etc. It's not ideal, but for me it works better than creating an Area for each goal or program. I tried and abandoned that approach because I had about 10 Areas, and it was hard for me to get a unified Next List of all WORK stuff, or all PERSONAL tasks.
5 Posted by Proximo on 08 Oct, 2011 12:28 AM
I agree.
We do need sub-folders or sub-projects and it's coming to Nirvana.
I have a trip to China that has about 3 sub-projects within the main structure of things for me to prepare for before I leave. I handle this by structuring the main parts of the project in Nirvana and then creating a Project Folder on Windows 7 that I can host the other details needed.
Not ideal, but it works for now.
6 Posted by candeshouse on 11 Oct, 2011 02:17 PM
Thanks all for the insight. @schollguin- you hit the nail on the head of what I struggle with daily. From a personal perspective, I am able to manage some of this with AoF, but from a "work" perspective, it becomes WAY to cumbersome and convoluted, as you pointed out. I will continue with my workarounds in the hopes that there is a solution or at least something that gets us closer soon.
7 Posted by Folke on 19 Oct, 2011 09:30 AM
I agree. And I think an important part of the solution would be if Areas could be grouped together.
Areas are actually the right thing to use if you have many different roles to play. It makes long-term, in-depth planning so much easier if you can focus on one such role at a time. In this long-term planning you normally do not care so much about physical context/localion, time, energy etc. it is all more about making sure you've got it all covered with appropriate projects and tasks etc.
But on a more frequent or daily basis, for short-term selection and execution of tasks, you normally want to see several such roles combined. When at work, for example, you probably like to see all your working roles combined, but not the private roles. You want to be able to see what you need to do today in the hours you have set aside for work, and from there you may wish to narrow it down further by context-location etc. during the course of your working day, but you probably to not want to narrow it down by exact role, unless you decide to do some planning ahead that day.
The most flexible way to implement grouping of Areas probably would be if you were allowed to define any constellation of Areas and give it a group name, and to have as many such groups you like defined. A more restricted, but still probably good enough, implementation would be hierarchical, such as Area and sub-Area.
I am currently in the process of perhaps (hopefully) moving over from Toodledo. In Toodledo I have implemented all this using smart lists and filters. I have tags for the different Areas. The work related tags are named :W-ABC, :W-DEF etc. and the personal ones are :P-ABC etc This is a hierarchical implementation. I can list or filter either those that begin with W, which gives me all Work related stuff, or a specific role (area) within work. (It would even be possible, if I should ever need it, to create a non-hierarchical selection of areas, a smart list combining some work-related areas and some personal ones, but so far I have never seen any use for that. This is why I think a simple hierarchical implementaion would probably suffice for Nirvana.)
This is really, really useful. I have not used this approach for very long, but now that I have gotten used to the enormous benefit of being able to plan ahead narrowly, role by role, and then to select and execute across a wider group of areas (or all areas) based on more temporary factors such as location etc, I find it difficult to imagine ever going back.
(In case anyone is wondering, the reason I may jump ship from Toodledo to Nirvana is the fact that Nirvana is almost exactly what I want right out of the box. It is almost like my own set of smart lists that I have set up in Toodledo. With Nirvana I don't need to see all the other features and stuff that I don't care about. But Toodledo is a powerful toolbox, that's for sure.)
8 Posted by Mick on 19 Oct, 2011 11:26 AM
Omnifocus has grouping of projects/areas as well (technically they're all folders, Omnifocus is completely unstructured and has to be largely customized, that's what I don't like of it - you have to create a folder for waiting for items for example).
I have 8 different roles in my office at work, and I would love to see only job-related items when at work as well, expecially because sometimes my boss or my colleagues creep behind my desk and look at my screen, for privacy reasons I'd like to have my nirvana lists always on screen but not my private affairs.
9 Posted by Proximo on 21 Oct, 2011 08:49 PM
@Mick
I use "Areas" to separate Personal from Work.
I have a "Work" area and I switch to this at the office. This changes the entire UI focus to work related task/projects only.
When I leave work, I switch to "Personal" and now I have all the stuff in my personal life that needs attention.
candeshouse closed this discussion on 08 Feb, 2012 01:46 PM.