Getting Started (Part 1 of 3)

  1. Support
  2. 1. First steps: Turn Planning into Doing
  3. 2. Schedule, Prioritize and Categorize
  4. 3. Flexibility and Customizability

Welcome to Getting Started Guide!

This guide will walk you through the basics of MyLifeOrganized. Along the way you will discover in-depth customization capabilities to empower your planning system to new heights.


Getting Started




First steps: turn Planning into Doing

Organize and structure tasks

Some of your to-dos are quite obvious single actions, whereas the others are vague or too general. Either way, the very first and right action would be to place all tasks that came to your mind right into the planning area of MLO — unlimited Outline.


Outline

A file opened in MLO has two default tabs* on the top: Outline (planning) and To-Do (doing).

The Outline tab displays ALL your tasks. Here you can organize and structure them in a common list with unlimited hiearchy.

* If there are no Outline and To-Do tabs in your data file, open a new file with default settings: menu File → New → click arrow near New blank file → Select New blank file with default contexts, flags.


Tip. If you follow the GTD concept, use Inbox to capture all new stuff.


Add tasks

Big things are made up of small actions. For example, the big task "Plan a trip" consists of the subtask "Buy tickets". With hierarchy in Outline you can set parent and child tasks and clearly see how they are related to each other:



Tip. You can Drag&Drop tasks and also use arrows Drag&Drop on the toolbar for moving tasks.

Get a smart list of your To-Do actions. Auto-magically!

Once the planning is done, switch to the To-Do tab.

MLO takes all the stuff that you have entered, works it’s magic and tells you the tasks that you need to be doing now. In next chapters we explain how exactly this magic works.




To-Do

  • displays a plain list
  • pulls up Active tasks from the entire Outline. Active tasks are those which you can start working on right away. Such tasks are green-colored.
  • is created and updated automatically, based on your input.


Tip. Refer to our help file to learn more about which tasks are considered Active.



Narrow your To-Do list even more

It is important to keep your To-Do realistic and not overwhelming. Tasks that you cannot do yet shouldn"t be in the list — MLO offers a variety of features to help you achieve this.

Get back to the Outline and check out the following options:

Zoom in

You can focus on one branch and hide the rest.

  • To zoom in select the parent task and click Zoom in icon
  • To zoom out click the yellow pane or click Zoom out icon


Tip. The Zoom in command in the first tab also affects other tabs if the option "Sync zoom with first tab" is enabled for them. Here you can learn more about tab customization.

Complete subtasks in order

Suppose, you have sequential tasks. You can make MLO show them one by one in To-Do. Just select the parent task and press AltP to turn on this task property.


Look how it works:


Add to dependency

Use Dependencies to hold tasks that can"t start until others are finished.

Explore other options

Collapse/Expand

  • Click Collapse icon to collapse the whole task hierarchy
  • Click Expand icon to expand it.

Hide completed

  • Click Hide completed icon to hide completed tasks.
  • Click it again to show completed recently tasks.
  • Then the next click reverts it back to the original position - all completed tasks shown.


Use Shortcuts

Ctrl + N – to add a new task

Ctrl + Shift + N or Ctrl + Ins – to add a new subtask

Ctrl + M – to move a task

Space – to mark the current task completed



Ctrl + R – to zoom into selected branch

Ctrl + Alt + R – to zoom out



F6 – to collapse the task tree

F7 – to expand the task tree



Ctrl + PgUp / PgDn – to switch to previous / next tab

Summary

At this stage MLO has helped you to:

  • organize all your tasks the way you think, hierarchically, in Outline. Whenever you need to look at your big-picture plan, open it.
  • automatically get a flat To-Do list which eliminates the clutter and lets you focus only on tasks you can actually do.

For your convenience Outline and To-Do are already opened in the tabs (workspaces) so you can quickly switch between them and work on different different parts of the same task list.



Welcome to Getting Started Guide!

Welcome! This guide will walk you through the basics of MyLifeOrganized. Along the way you will discover in-depth customization capabilities to add more power to your planning system.

First steps: turn Planning into Doing

Organize and structure tasks

Some of your to-dos are quite obvious single actions, whereas the others are vague or too general. Either way, the very first and right action would be to place all tasks that came to your mind right into the planning area of MLO — the hierarchical "All Tasks" view.


MLO Android all tasks

All tasks

MLO has two main default views*: All Tasks (planning) and Active Actions (doing).

In the All Tasks view you can organize and structure all your tasks in a common list with unlimited hiearchy.


Tip. If you follow the GTD concept, use Inbox to capture all new stuff.


Add tasks

Adding tasks means breaking down big jobs into smaller parts. For example, if your big task is "Plan a trip," a smaller task could be "Buy tickets." With hierarchy in Outline you can set parent and child tasks and clearly see how they are related to each other.



  • Press Space before typing the task name to turn it into a subtask.
  • Press Back to decrease the indent and remove subordination.

Tip. You can Drag&Drop a task to a desired position in the hierarchy. Tap Move icon to rearrange tasks.

Get a smart list of your To-Do actions. Auto-magically!

Once adding tasks is done, switch to the list of Active Actions. Swipe right to open the menu and select Active Actions.

MLO takes all the stuff that you have entered, works it’s magic and tells you the tasks that you need to be doing now. In next chapters we explain how exactly this magic works.



Active Actions

  • displays a plain to-do list
  • pulls up Active tasks from the entire Outline. Active tasks are those which you can start working on right away.
  • is created and updated automatically, based on your input.


Tip. Refer to our FAQ file to learn more about which tasks are considered Active.



Narrow your To-Do list even more

It is important to keep your To-Do realistic and not overwhelming. Tasks that you cannot do yet shouldn"t be in the To-Do list — MLO offers a variety of features to help you achieve this.

Get back to the All Tasks View and check out the following options:

Zoom in

You can focus on one branch and hide the rest.

  • To zoom in select the parent task, bring up the bottom toolbar, and tap "Zoom in"
  • To zoom out tap cross


Note. The Zoom in command affects all other views.



Complete subtasks in order

Suppose, you have sequential tasks. You can make MLO show them one by one in To-Do. Long tap the parent task → tap three dots to see more options → tap "All properties"→ enable "Subtasks in order".

Look how you can complete subtasks of the parent task "Plan a trip" one by one:



Tip. As you can see in the video above, you can switch to another view by tapping the view name above. No need to open the main menu.



Add to dependency

Use Dependencies to hold tasks that can"t start until others are finished.

Select the task that depends on another → tap the parent task → tap three dots to see more options → tap "All properties" → Dependencies → select the task this one should depend on.



Explore other options

Collapse/Expand

  • Tap Collapse icon in the toolbar to collapse the whole task hierarchy
  • Tap Expand icon in the toolbar to expand it.

Hide completed

  • Click Hide completed icon to hide completed tasks.
  • Click it again to show completed recently tasks.
  • Then the next click reverts it back to the original position - all completed tasks shown.


Summary

At this stage MLO has helped you to:

  • organize all your tasks the way you think, hierarchically, in the All Tasks view. Whenever you need to look at your big-picture plan, open it.
  • automatically get a flat list of Active Actions which eliminates the clutter and lets you focus only on tasks you can actually do.



Welcome! This guide will walk you through the basics of MyLifeOrganized. Along the way you will discover in-depth customization capabilities to add more power to your planning system.

First steps: turn Planning into Doing

Organize and structure tasks

Some of your to-dos are quite obvious single actions, whereas the others are vague or too general. Either way, the very first and right action would be to place all tasks that came to your mind right into the planning area of MLO — the hierarchical "All Tasks" view.


MLO iOS all tasks

All tasks

MLO has two main default views*: All Tasks (planning) and Active Actions (doing).

In the All Tasks view you can organize and structure all your tasks in a common list with unlimited hiearchy.


Tip. If you follow the GTD concept, use Inbox to capture all new stuff.


Add tasks

There may be big general tasks like "Plan a trip" and more specific subtasks like "Book flights". With hierarchy in Outline you can set parent and child tasks and clearly see how they are related to each other.



  • Press Space before typing the task name to turn it into a subtask.
  • Press Back to decrease the indent and remove subordination.

Tip. You can Drag&Drop a task to a desired position in the hierarchy. Tap Move icon to rearrange tasks.

Get a smart list of your To-Do actions. Auto-magically!

Once adding tasks is done, switch to the list of Active Actions. Swipe right to open the menu and select Active Actions.

MLO takes all the stuff that you have entered, works it’s magic and tells you the tasks that you need to be doing now. In next chapters we explain how exactly this magic works.



Active Actions

  • displays a plain to-do list
  • pulls up Active tasks from the entire Outline. Active tasks are those which you can start working on right away.
  • is created and updated automatically, based on your input.


Tip. Refer to our FAQ file to learn more about which tasks are considered Active.



Narrow your To-Do list even more

It is important to keep your To-Do realistic and not overwhelming. Tasks that you cannot do yet shouldn"t be in the list — MLO offers a variety of features to help you achieve this.

Get back to the All Tasks View and check out the following options:

Zoom in

You can focus on one branch and hide the rest.

  • To zoom in select the parent task, bring up the bottom toolbar, and tap "Zoom in"
  • To zoom out tap cross


Note. The Zoom in command affects all other views.



Complete subtasks in order

Suppose, you have sequential tasks. You can make MLO show them one by one in To-Do. Long tap the parent task → tap three dots to see more options → enable "Subtasks in order".

Look how you can complete subtasks of the parent task "Plan a trip" one by one:



Add to dependency

Use Dependencies to hold tasks that can"t start until others are finished.

Select the task that depends on another → tap the parent task → tap three dots to see more options → Dependencies → select the task this one should depend on



Explore other options

Collapse/Expand

  • Tap Collapse icon in the toolbar to collapse the whole task hierarchy
  • Tap Expand icon in the toolbar to expand it.

Hide completed

  • Click Hide completed icon to hide completed tasks.
  • Click it again to show completed recently tasks.
  • Then the next click reverts it back to the original position - all completed tasks shown.


Summary

At this stage MLO has helped you to:

  • organize all your tasks the way you think, hierarchically, in the All Tasks view. Whenever you need to look at your big-picture plan, open it.
  • automatically get a flat list of Active Actions which eliminates the clutter and lets you focus only on tasks you can actually do.


Quiz (select the correct answer)

  1. Which view displays tasks hierarchically?
  2. The view Active Actions displays:
  3. To make your tasks appear one by one in To-Do, you need turn on:
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