[rodgerc]

Originally Posted by Calvin

Just a quick note to inquire as to the status of your planned integration of Goals into the Outline and Project tabs.

Have you spec'd this functionality out fully yet?

If so, could you run your thoughts by the user community for feedback before you fully implement it?

I'm currently working on it... this was a great suggestion.

Here are the main ideas so far:

1) Dreams and goals will now be a type of project. They will show up in the master outline (with a different icon to separate from pure projects) and Projects tab (with a icon similar to the one for items with notes)

2) The Dreams tab will go away ... only the Goals tab will remain

3) The Dream/Goal distinction will be diminished. Dreams won't have a different information form from goals, they will share the same one.

4) It will be easy to switch between Project, Goal, Dream without any data loss.

5) Goal steps will go away, instead you can use sub-projects and tasks in the outline to plan the steps... goal actions will remain to represent regular activities that you want to perform

6) Wishes will remain as a separate entity and will not be included in the outline.

7) The Daily Planning Wizard will only show the leaf goals (the lowest level goals in the hierarchy) which represent your short-term targets

8) There will be a new range field for goals to indicate the time frame for the goal (week, month, quarter, 6 months, year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, lifetime)

9) The weekly planning wizard will still show all goals/dreams with an A priority

10) Existing goals/dreams should be converted with no data loss (except the Dream Impacts tab, which will be converted to Notes)

That's what I have so far, let me know if you have any other suggestions or comments about these?

In a way, I selected this implementation because it was the most feasible given the current design. It may grow and evolve over time, but in the short-term it was the best way to get to an integrated project/goal outline.

Originally Posted by Calvin

Any idea on a time frame in which we might see something in this area?

I don't have a firm timeframe. My best guess is that it will be available for beta testing early-mid June, but it could slip depending on many different factors.

Originally Posted by Calvin

I looked on the "features" list and only saw one item for Goals, and it didn't look like it included integrating it into the Outline and Project tabs.

I need to update that list more frequently. It's definitely the next thing I'm working on for the first 1.5 release.

Originally Posted by Calvin

I really need a good platform for integrating my Projects and Tasks with their related higher level Goals and Dreams. At the bare minimum, I need better integration of Projects and Tasks with their related Goals.

Yes, this should do it.

Originally Posted by Calvin

I know you've probably been busy with the Pocket Informant syncing (by the way, how's that coming along?) and maybe have not had the time to focus on the Goals integration.

The Pocket Informant syncing was much trickier than I ever expected. Part of it is having to sync to a completely different software (PI) which uses the Outlook PIM database and a separate mechanism for the hierarchy, and changes to ActiveSync in Vista.

The next challenge is that PI/ActiveSync are getting overwhelmed by a high number of AP tasks (mostly completed), so I need a way to limit the number of tasks sent to PI.

My current thinking is to limit the sync to Active projects/tasks and those completed within a given timeframe (say 2 weeks), and leave all the other ones in AP without syncing.

This could cause older tasks that were previously synced and completed, to be purged from PI after the time frame.

What do you think about this proposal?