How to see one tasks in different views

Dwayne · February 19, 2018, 12:07am

If I wanted to create different views to see my tasks in, is the only way to do that by using tags…
or can I use a regular node

Area of Responsibility
task a

Project A
task a

Today - #sun #feb #18 #2018
task a

Erica · February 19, 2018, 12:10am

Should this be in the “Help” category instead? I can help you move it over there. Otherwise I’m not sure what the requested feature is.

Dwayne · February 19, 2018, 1:15am

{Here is it rewritten as a feature } Often I want to see a list item/task in different lists…how hard would it be to build a feature that does this.

a Today List

a Project List

Eisenhower Matrix List

Priority…

and on and on…

And while I’m asking is there any tool out there (besides dynalist) that can do that…
Tags can do it, but it doesnt feel as natural.

Erica · February 19, 2018, 3:31am

I think a bookmarked search is better.

For example, you can search for “color:red”, and bookmark the search (by clicking on the star icon). That way it’s saved as a “view”.

Afterwards, you can click on that bookmark in the bookmark pane, or navigate to it using the Ctrl+O file finder.

Craig_Oliver · February 19, 2018, 3:49pm

Hi @Dwayne,

I use a tagging system that works pretty well for me. The main hierarchy for my tasks is by project.
I do it this way so that no matter how I filter the list tasks are always visible within their projects.
For example:

Project A #project
- Task A1 !(2018-02-19)
- Task A2
Project B #project
- Task B1 #today
- Task B2 #soon
- Task B3

If I have tasks with specific due dates, I use the !(yyyy-mm-dd) date tag like so:

Now I can filter for anything due today using a query like until:today -is:completed . I can also filter on things due this week, this month, similarly.

For priority, I use two tags: #today and #soon. I also use tags for waiting tasks, delegation to teammates, and so forth. But you could just as easily use #important and #urgent for an Eisenhower matrix, or whatever has meaning for you.

With my tags I can quickly see tasks I’ve planned for today, and tasks that I need to start on soon. I can also see tasks that have been recently completed for reporting purposes, and so forth.

Here’s a snapshot of the bookmarks I’m currently using to organize my work projects and tasks. I’d be happy to discuss the queries for them if you’re interested.

Erica · February 19, 2018, 4:19pm

Impressive bookmark list!

Dwayne · February 21, 2018, 12:22am

Wow that looks pretty detailed. I’ll give it a show…I came across this answer "You’re not maintaining hard edges in your system. A “today” list really isn’t GTD-specific simply because if it HAS to be done today, it should be on your calendar."
Do you use the calendar at all?

Craig_Oliver · February 21, 2018, 8:00pm

I use dates on my tasks, but they’re not exactly “due dates”. They’re more like “reminder dates,” in much the same way that Allen’s GTD method describes a “tickler file.” They’re essentially inboxes that get opened on a particular date.

Each day I check my “due today” and “due soon” lists:

If there are items that really need to be done today, I tag them #today (important and urgent).
If they should be done soon, I tag them #soon (important but not urgent).
Otherwise I change the due date (stick it into a future tickler file), or delete it.
For recurring tasks I duplicate the task and change the date on the new task.

I use a calendar for planning events, of course. I don’t use the Dynalist integration with Google Calendar though. Is that what you mean?

Dwayne · February 23, 2018, 12:34am

Yes, thank you.

Erica, in addition to trying what you suggested above,
I remember that I can take the link to the list item and maybe use that. as an alias…correct me if I’m wrong though

Dwayne · February 23, 2018, 9:51am

https://dynalist.io/d/mDzkXik8OyHOQk2Vr1Z1Q1io sample to illustrate my point.

So I’m realizing now that I can’t do heirarchy for tags…like evernote has but that’s ok, its just a visual preference…but I found a workaround for that that may be better… fine because lets say I wanted this setup of saved searches

Priority ( a saved search that include #p1 #p2 #p3 )
p1 ( a saved search that include #p1 )
p2 ( repeat above for p2 )
p3 ( p3 )
**** Clicking on Priority will always result showing all of the p’s
Erica,
if I was in Evernote tag hierarchy, for my task to show up when I click “Priority” I’d have to tag it priority and p1 to get it to show in both views which is a cumbersome extra step.

it seems that saved searches for that reason seem better than evernotes tag stacking functionality… if u dont mind not being able to collapse saved searches…

what if dynalist made saved searches collapsible given that the parent and child have to both include the same criteria ( in my example p1)…maybe thats the new feature i want, lol

Erica · February 25, 2018, 9:23pm

Yeah, there’s the “Get link” option in the item menu.

The simpler way is to head to the destination item (where you want to insert the link), type [[, and search for the item whose link you want to insert. I hope that helps.

Erica · February 25, 2018, 9:24pm

I think what you want is this: Method For Auto-Expanding Search Results

Rene_Molenaar · January 10, 2020, 7:28pm

Hi @Craig_Oliver,

I realize this is an old post. Are you still using this bookmark list? I use something similar but was wondering:

Do you keep all tasks under a project and only add a tag to them to assign a status? Like this:

Project A #project
- Task 1 #open
- Task 2 #open
- Task 3 #waiting

Or add an additional bullet for statuses?

Project B #project
- OPEN
  - Task 4 #open
  - Task 5 #open
- WAITING
  - Task 6 #waiting

Do you use the #open tag on tasks so you can filter them for your bookmark list?

Trying to figure our what works best for me I have about ~100 projects and hundreds of tasks.

Thanks!

Rene

Craig_Oliver · January 13, 2020, 1:56pm

Hi Rene, thanks for your note!

My system has changed somewhat since then. (It’s pretty much always in a state of change. )The addition of the parent operaror has allowed me to do away with a lot of tagging. My work structure now looks similar to this:

Some highlights:

I now organize my projects by status, like a vertical Kanban board. Projects generally start at the bottom in the Backlog, and move their way up.
Each status is tagged #status. To see just my projects, I have a link search for parent:#status. This frees me from having to tag every project.
The list of links at the top has replaced my bookmark list. Most links show me a different filter or sorting of my projects. For example, to see what I need to work on today, I have a “today” link that shows uncompleted projects due today or in the “Today” status. This helps me focus on what needs to be done right now.
My project structure is somewhat fluid, but I usually include a task list, a list of reference material or links, and a place for meeting notes and other content.

The project note deserves further discussion:

The first line in the project note is the most important part of the system. It’s where I keep the up-to-date status of the project: the next action, what I’m waiting on, etc. The reason for this is so that my project overview shows me an accurate picture of where every project is.
This approach allows me to update the status of a project instantly. That’s really important – friction in common tasks is deadly. If updating a project status meant that I had to open a project, open the task list, find the next action, check it off, then add a tag to the next next action, I’d eventually throw it all out. (I know this because it’s happened to me. )
The purpose of the task list is to remind me of what I planned to do on this project. It can get out of date sometimes, and that’s OK. It’s meant for planning, not tracking.
Having the due date in the project note allows me to not only see all dates right on the dashboard, but also sort the projects by due date or reminder date.

I hope this is helpful! One of the joys of Dynalist is trying lots of different approaches to see which one works well with your style and temperment.

Rene_Molenaar · January 16, 2020, 8:16pm

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the detailed reply, I appreciate it! Your screenshot and explanation gives me plenty of ideas and things to try

This is nice, something I’m going to try. Right now I organize projects by area, but not by status. For tasks, I use vertical Kanban:

Never tried the parent search operator until now…that’s useful. I tried it for tasks with a linked search. Saves the hassle of adding a tag to each and every task.

That’s a cool idea too. Right now, I’m looking into my projects to check for the OPEN/WAITING/BLOCKED tasks too often.

This is what I love about Dynalist too. I try things so it matches how my brain works, or try something different to see if that works better for me. Throughout the years I tried Trello, Todoist, Asana, Clickup, and now Dynalist. You are not forced to work in a way how the developers see it. You build your own structure

Thanks again!

Rene

FM · January 28, 2020, 9:48am

How do you do this?

Craig_Oliver · January 28, 2020, 1:48pm

Hi FM. The easiest way I know to create a link to a view is to copy its URL and paste it as a link. So for the “Today” list I mentioned above, I do the following:

Search for the items I want to see. In this case my search is parent:Today parent:#status -is:completed OR until:today -is:completed . That’s a little complicated, but it works out to "Show me all the children of the item named “Today #status”, and also show me every uncompleted item that is due (or overdue) today.
The address bar of the browser now contains a unique URL for this search. In this case it’s something like https://dynalist.io/d/docid#q=parent%3AToday%20parent%3A%23status%20-is%3Acompleted%20OR%20until%3Atoday%20-is%3Acompleted . I copy the URL into the system clipboard.
Now I paste that url as a link somewhere in the document. I like to put it in the notes of the the document root so I can easily jump from view to view. The link looks like this: [Today](https://dynalist.io/d/docid#q=parent%3AToday%20parent%3A%23status%20-is%3Acompleted%20OR%20until%3Atoday%20-is%3Acompleted)

And that’s it! Now I can see this particular view anytime I want by clicking on the “Today” link.

FM · January 28, 2020, 2:40pm

That is pretty cool. Thanks for explanation!

Kenneth_Aar · February 10, 2020, 10:19am

With the search operator “ancestor” this is even easier.

You can search for both a tag and an ancestor

E.G.:
#task ancestor:projectx

This would return a result for all items tagged with #task that have an ancestor called “ProjectX”

This means that if you have and hierarchy of

Vision
- Goals
- - Areas of focus
- - - Project A

The same task would show up in each of these searches(or bookmarked searches). As long as the task is part of the same hierarchy.

Kenneth_Aar · February 21, 2020, 2:25pm

Couldn’t you do this with a search?

I mark all actions with a tag starting with #- .
I mark all Projects with Project

Any actions that have dependencies have their dependencies as sub actions.
Therefore I can find all Next Actions in all projects by searching for:
ancestor:🛠️Project #- -has:children

The -has:children is the key here. But it means the next actions cannot have subactions themselves. Not even completed sub actions for this to work. I just alt tab any actions I complete. And it seems to work fine for me.