Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Create an automated “Projects” Smart List with subtasks
Managing projects usually means a lot of tasks, so any way to make keeping track of them smoother is very helpful.
Cue this week’s tip from drfrankbuck that starts with a simple premise: a project is just a task with subtasks. Then, with one Smart List, each of your projects is available from a single view and digging in is one step away.
(Subtasks require a Pro account.)
For those who have been influenced by GTD and want to have a “Projects” list that maintains itself, here you go:
1. For me, I start a new “project” by simply creating a new task.
2. I list the individual steps towards completing the project as subtasks under the parent.
3. As a one-time setup, search for tasks that have subtasks. Those are your projects. Save that search as a Smart List. Name it something like “Projects-All.”
4. Any time you want to see a list of all your projects, click on the Smart List in the sidebar.
5. When you complete a project, you simply check off the parent. It will no longer show up when you click the “Projects-All” Smart List. No manual updating to be done!
6. Let’s take it one step further. I usually want to see all the projects I am working on NOW. The thing they will have in common is that they have a due date within the next week. I created another Smart List for “Projects-This Week.” It has these attributes: hasSubtasks:true AND dueBefore:“8 day from now”
7. I also have a Smart List that shows projects for later this month and another for projects more than a month in the future, but those are other tips for other days! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your tip, drfrankbuck! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum, add a new topic, and let us know how you use Remember The Milk. Each week we’ll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
