Process Thoughts

Purpose

The thoughts collected through the Collect Thoughts screen are displayed one by one, in the same order as entered. A counter indicates how many thoughts still need to be processed. If this screen has been called when re-processing an Item or Action, or if any "tickled" Someday/Maybe items need to be looked at, the corresponding thought will be displayed first.

This screen is where you decide what to do with a thought. First of all, you need to decide if the thought is actionable or not. The default is actionable.

Actionable

Single action or Project?

We recommend that you first think about the thought and enter the successful outcome for this activity. The display of the successful outcome field is configurable (see Actions Preferences). It is then easier to decide:

If a new project is required, you can create the project as a top project or as belonging to an existing project or sub-project.

You must enter the description of the next physical action that should be done. The description is defaulted to the thought description but it can be overwritten.

A context for this action can also be selected. You can also enter notes for that action. The display of the following fields is configurable:

Action Status

You now have five choices for this action as follows.

  1. If the action will take less than two minutes to do, you should do it straight away and then check the done check box;
  2. If the action should not be done yet but you wish to record it, then select the "Inactive" Status. The Start date can be entered. When the Start date is reached or has passed (in case you don't run the application for a few days), the action will become a "Do ASAP" one automatically;
  3. If the action should be done as soon as possible, then select the "Do ASAP" Status;
  4. If the action only occurs at a particular date and time, select the "Scheduled" Status. Then click the button along side to select a date, then enter the time (24 hours format: 7 o'clock in the evening should be entered as 19:00) and duration if applicable. You can also create a recurrence definition;
  5. If you wish to delegate the action to someone else, select the "Delegated" Status and enter who you are delegating to (an email address or name) and a date to "Follow-up" whether it has been done. To inform the person you are delegating to, you can send an email by pressing the "Email" button. Delegate To is copied as addressee, Action Description as subject and Notes as email text.

    There are two user options for this delegation emailing in Actions Preferences as follows:

    - you can opt to append the text "Email sent" followed by the current date, to the end of the notes field.

    - you can change the character encoding. You may need to do this if your particular email client program does not properly accept the details passed to it.

    Please note that to use the email functionality on Linux, a proper email address (containing a "@") needs to be entered.

Project

Based on your decisions at the beginning, check the project check box if a new project is required. A new project will be created automatically. The project description is defaulted to the thought description but it can be overwritten. If the action does not have a thought, or if you leave the project name blank, the action description will be used.

If the thought is related to an existing project (current or future), press the button. A pop-up window opens with two tabs: Projects and Future Projects. From the appropriate tree, select the project (or sub-project) the action (and possibly the new project) belongs to. In the tree, a project can be expanded or not and you can change the order to alphabetic using the buttons above the project tree.

Notes field transfer

If Notes were entered for the thought, they will be copied into the action's notes and to the project's notes (if applicable).

Priority field

An action created under an existing project will take the priority of that project, unless the user has entered a priority for that action. A sub-project created under an existing project will take the priority of that project.

Not actionable

If the thought is not actionable, you can do one of the following:

Others

Lastly you press the Process Thought button or its Shortcut Key The next thought is then displayed at the top and the entry fields are reset.

For 'tickled' Someday/Maybe items, the word 'Tickled' + tickle date will be appended at the beginning of the thought description.

For any date selection: the calendar window "Select Date" will open, allowing you to Select a date, Clear it or Cancel. You can select a date by double-clicking on it. You can also enter the date directly. You can set the date format and what is the first day of your week (Sunday or Monday): see Dates.

Notes field

The operations you can do are described below in the order of the buttons from left to right. When insertion occurs, it happens at the cursor position. Copy/Cut and paste of text can be done through the standard shortcut keys Command+C, Command+V and Command+P.