Strategies to manage status of tasks

[Vale.R79 0]

Hi All,
I'd like to know if you use some strategies to manage the status change from "to do" things to "done" things.
I mean, if you have to pay a bill how do you change the status from "to be payed" in "payed" when you really make the payment? Do you use two different tags?
To avoid using too many tags (two for each action) I tryed putting the "completed" tag once the action has been done and completed. What about when I need to do different actions on the same note? If one action is tagged as "completed" what happen for the other one that is not completed yet? For example, if I have to pay and print a bill, once I payed it and not printed yet which status the tag "completed" refers to? Thank you 

[DTLow 5,749]

11 hours ago, Vale.R79 said:

I'd like to know if you use some strategies to manage the status change from "to do" things to "done" things.

I use reminder date to store due/start dates.  
Even if I'm simply working on a task, I assign it today's date

Reminders have a "done" feature.  
This gives me both a done indicator, and the done date
I also append  "completed yymmdd" to the title (scripted)

Reminders also can be part of search terms.  
For example, the search for my Current Task List is
         reminderOrder:* -reminderTime:day+1 -reminderDoneTime:*

Note: Future dated tasks pop up in my current task list when due

I also sync reminders to my calendar using Cronofy Calendar Connector

>>What about when I need to do different actions on the same note?

I process this as multiple notes
They could be linked to a master task note

For recurring tasks, I keep a completed log at the bottom

You could add a checkbox list at the start of the note

[tavor 668]

These questions aren't easily answered in isolation without an understanding of the overall task management system you are using.

This thread might give you some ideas on how people are using Evernote for task management: The Secret Weapon VS GTD & Evernote for Windows (David Allen)

[CalS 5,311]

5 hours ago, Vale.R79 said:

Hi All,
I'd like to know if you use some strategies to manage the status change from "to do" things to "done" things.
I mean, if you have to pay a bill how do you change the status from "to be payed" in "payed" when you really make the payment? Do you use two different tags?
To avoid using too many tags (two for each action) I tryed putting the "completed" tag once the action has been done and completed. What about when I need to do different actions on the same note? If one action is tagged as "completed" what happen for the other one that is not completed yet? For example, if I have to pay and print a bill, once I payed it and not printed yet which status the tag "completed" refers to? Thank you 

You could add _Completed 02/20/2017 03:50 PM (I generate this with a hot key) to the note when you complete the task and then just delete the action tag.  If more than one action in a note, use a check box for each and add the completed text for each, deleting the action tag when when all tasks are completed.  The underscore is important since it is a searchable special character and will virtually eliminate false positives.

A search for _compl* will return all of your completed tasks.  If you ever use reminders, Reminder Done can serve the same purpose of identifying completed work.  FYI, I use _Paid 02/20/2017 03:51 pm to annotate bills paid.  FWIW.

[JErnestGo 10]

On 2/21/2017 at 4:25 AM, DTLow said:

I use reminder date to store due/start dates.  
Even if I'm simply working on a task, I assign it today's date

Reminders have a "done" feature.  
This gives me both a done indicator, and the done date
I also append  "completed yymmdd" to the title (scripted)

Reminders also can be part of search terms.  
For example, the search for my Current Task List is
         reminderOrder:* -reminderTime:day+1 -reminderDoneTime:*

Note: Future dated tasks pop up in my current task list when due

I also sync reminders to my calendar using Cronofy Calendar Connector

>>What about when I need to do different actions on the same note?

I process this as multiple notes
They could be linked to a master task note

For recurring tasks, I keep a completed log at the bottom

You could add a checkbox list at the start of the note

Does it mean that you treat each task as a single note, instead of creating all tasks in one note as a list with check boxes?

[DTLow 5,749]

Just now, JErnestGo said:

Does it mean that you treat each task as a single note, instead of creating all tasks in one note as a list with check boxes?

For sure - each task as a separate note

This gives me the flexibility of displaying my tasks in different views
- as above in a current task list
- as a project list in my project reviews
----

[JErnestGo 10]

1 minute ago, DTLow said:

For sure - each task as a separate note

This gives me the flexibility of displaying my tasks in different views
- as above in a current task list
- as a project list in my project reviews
----

With this type of technique, you also compile all these notes to file a notebook related to a certain type of project? or all notes (tasks as well) of various topics in a main repository like Business Notebooks (All business tasks via notes), or Personal Notebooks (All personal tasks via notes)

[DTLow 5,749]

1 hour ago, JErnestGo said:

With this type of technique, you also compile all these notes to file a notebook related to a certain type of project? or all notes (tasks as well) of various topics in a main repository like Business Notebooks (All business tasks via notes), or Personal Notebooks (All personal tasks via notes)

I'm a tag person, so I use a project tag

I only have a single Filing-Cabinet Notebook, but have shared notebooks from various projects.  My tasks come from any of these notebooks

[JErnestGo 10]

56 minutes ago, DTLow said:

I'm a tag person, so I use a project tag

I only have a single Filing-Cabinet Notebook, but have shared notebooks from various projects.  My tasks come from any of these notebooks

I see. Thank you for sharing

[Vale.R79 0]

thanks for any suggestions

[BrightHomesRE 31]

Thanks for the great conversation and overview of the process.