Inbox item to Project

Hi,

I’m missing the feature to convert an item in the inbox directly to a project (I’m aware that I can drag the item to the left side projects). I really often find stuff in my inbox that are someday/maybe projects (at least until the next weekly review) and need further planning. It is not really comfortable first to drag the item left and than edit it to someday/maybe… Or I’m not aware of something that is already implanted.

Also it would be nice to have another field to type in the really first next action for the project or maybe a default first “plan project X” action, when the field is empty.

Isn’t that what happens when you make a project “sequential” ?

No, my question is about project planning: how i can easy convert an inbox item to a project an plan the first next action in one step/window.

You are correct. In the desktop app the only way to convert an Inbox item into a project is to drag it into the project list. I agree that it’s an unfortunate limitation. By contrast, in mobile apps converting any item into a project is possible.

Do you consider it as a future feature? Like it is possible in the app?

Set the first next action in the inbox window would then also be a nice feature for projects, when the conversion from inbox item to project is possible. Would make planning a lot easier! :slight_smile:

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Yes, conceptually it’s should be there, and it’s not difficult to add.

Do you mean like adding a text field to simultaneously create a next project action while converting an item into a project?

Yes, something like that! This would make project planning a lot easier, since with GTD in mind everything with more then one action is a project. So when you create the project from an inbox item, you can already implement the first next action for this project, e.g. “Plan project”. Maybe even when the field is empty it can automatically create a “planning”-next action, because in my opinion this is always the first step of a new project, when the next actions are not clear.

Maybe its a bad idea, since you can convert “Notes or description” into next actions. But this would be one step more… And with an extra field (or even an automatic planning-next action) the chance to have a project without next action should be smaller.

Thanks for considering it!

What about automatically open the new action dialog right after creating the project?

That’s also a good idea!

I can easily imagine how this would be useful. I do not like the idea of an additional text field in the editor dialog.

Options:

  1. a checkbox in the editor, which would trigger another creation dialog with pre-populated project field as suggested by @manu
  2. a checkbox to automatically create “Plan project {title}” action in the project being created
  3. a global setting to automatically create “Plan project {title}” action in all newly created projects

I like 2 and 3, but as a user I would not care for the additional checkbox and just use 3 (the global setting)

I would definitely enjoy something like 3.

What are your thoughts?

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I really like and would enjoy option 3!

Maybe you can make the global option customizable for different languages? For example I write my actions in German. You can give there a field where {title} is given and the rest we can customize once. But when this is to much effort, “Plan project {title}” would work for me totally fine!

I prefer option number 1 because it allows me to create my own particular Next Action. Not predefined one.

Another idea: Every project without a next action could get a “plan project {title}”, like a diagnostic tool. (Maybe also a global setting?)

Hm, in most cases I already know the next action for my projects when I create them and I’d say that even less than 10% of my project have a plan action as next action.
So I vote for 1 with a pre populated next action dialog where I can change everything right when creating the project.

may be do not use a checkbox but an extra button:
And add a new button “Save/Create Project+ Next Action”

I also would enjoy somthing where you can create the next action in the project-window.

Sounds really good! I also really like option 3 for projects without next actions, maybe when you click on the normal button. So there is always a next action to this project. One you can create yourself when you click on

and a “Plan project {title}” when you just click on Save.

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Any plans to optimize the use case “new project from a captured inbox item?”
Both on Android and windows.

This is available:

20210430_152420

2 Likes

wow, when did that happen?
:grinning: :rocket: