Quick Tips

1. Items in OpenLoopz are called 'actions'.
2. To add actions to the main list immediately tick the 'Next Action' context when creating the action.
3. Review all actions on a weekly basis. Don't worry if you forget though - OpenLoopz will remind you when you let an action go 'stale'.
4. Actions can have sub-actions. A sub-action is just an action that happens to be associated with a parent action. In every other way a sub-action is just another action.
5. A sub-action is also called a project and the two terms are used interchangeably.
6. Create contexts as you need them. When you create an action that requires a new context, simply press the 'New Context' button on the Context tab.
7. Get actions out of your head quickly! If you don't specify a context or a deadline when creating an action in OpenLoopz, the action will go into your 'In Basket'. Your 'In Basket' is always visible in the status bar (unless its empty). When you have time you should try to clear the 'In Basket' by scheduling and/or applying contexts to each action.
8. Location contexts are associated with one or more places. You can add places as you need them by choosing 'New Place' when creating a new location context.
9. Actions only appear on the main screen if:
   • they are associated with the 'Next Action' context.
   • they are associated with a location context and you are within one mile of at least one of the places associated with the context.
   • they are associated with a time context and the current time/date is within the context time/date range.
   • you manually pin the one or more of the contexts that the action belongs to by selecting 'Pinned Context' from the menu on the main screen.
10. All Places are specified by a specific lat/lon position and OpenLoopz uses a fixed radius of 1 mile to determine whether you are in or outside the place. Future versions will allow you to specify a radius for each place individually.

Contexts

There are 4 types of context in OpenLoopz:

1. 'Standard Context' is like a 'tag' - you give it a name and can pin it to the main screen (see 'Pinned Contexts' section below) or just view it's actions from the review screen.
2. 'Location Context' is for actions that are associated with real-world locations. A Location context can be linked to one or more places.
3. 'Time Context' is for actions that are associated with a day of the week and/or a time range.
4. 'Contact Context' is for actions that are associated with a particular person. The person's contact details (phone number, email, etc.) will be available at the touch of a button.

Functionally, a context is just like a 'category' or 'tag' commonly used in other apps. Conceptually, organising actions by context is a vital element of Getting Things Done. Rather than using priority levels or assigning colour to highlight items of interest, you are encouraged to think about what context the action should apply to. Will you do this action at home? Maybe this action is a phone call so you can add it to the 'Call' context. If your action is something you want to do while online, you could assign it to the 'Online' action. The next time you are browsing the web on your computer, rather than browsing the news or sport pages, why not pull out your phone and try to do some of the actions in your 'Online' list and Get Things Done! Create a new context by selecting the 'New Context' option from the Contexts screen (accessible via 'Review|Contexts' from Main Screen). Also, when creating a new action you can create a new context for it if a suitable one doesn't already exist. Edit a context from the Context list by long pressing the context until a context menu appears and selecting 'Edit Context'.

Sub Actions / Projects

Conceptually, Getting Things Done style `Projects` are fully supported in OpenLoopz but there is no distinct project type. A project is simply an action that has been broken down into sub-actions. Any action that has one or more sub-actions is conceptually a project. With other task management apps the burden is on the user to decide up front whether to create projects or actions and usually certain features are missing from projects. In OpenLoopz you create everything as an action then if you decide the action can be broken down further, you just add sub-actions.

Home Screen Shortcuts

OpenLoopz supports Android home screen shortcuts. You can create an icon on the home screen to directly create an action and there is also a shortcut for each list in the review screen for easy access.

Stale Actions

A stale action is an action that has not be reviewed for a certain period of time. When an action goes stale, OpenLoopz sends you a notification to remind you the action still exists! Note: For an action to loose its stale status you must 'Edit' the action - it's not enough just to view it.

Shred Action: Permanent Deletion

When you delete an action you are actually just marking it as deleted. The action still exists in OpenLoopz and you can still see it by going to Review|Deleted Actions. If you want to permanently delete an action, you must first delete it, then you will have the option to shred it from the context menu when you long press on the action.



</html