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Submitted by jan_rifkinson on 2010/09/09 13:02

I see the equations in today & tomorrow but I don't understand what drives them, i.e. what date is it related to?

What I want to do is be able to assign a DateDue to an item & have IQ automatically calculate that it is due tomorrow or this week or next week

Is this possible?

Comments

Yes, this is very possible and easy.

I assume your date fields is datedue and not DueDate. Other wise you'll have to change it (replace DateDue with DueDate)

Add these auto-assign rules for the Today, Tomorrow, NextWeek fields.

The only one I haven't looked at is... This week, as I'm not sure what this would do... End of week ?

Today (field autoassign) :

A:DateDue = Int(Now)

Tomorrow (field autoassign) :

A:DateDue = Int(Now) + 1

NextWeek(field autoassign) :

A:DateDue = Int(Now) + 7

This week... Not sure about this one.

A:DateDue = Int(Now)

Thanks, Armando. For some reason I couldn't get these to work. There were already equations in Today, Tomorrow, etc for (I guess) IQ GTD -- which I've never used -- so I added a "|" at the end of what was there & then your formula right after it. I closed re-opened grid but I did NOT close re-start the program.

I just tried them and they work. Of course you need to change datedue to DueDate if that's the name of your field, like I said in the previous post.

Here's an example for the "today" field

A:Tomorrow= | A:ThisWeek=-1 | A:NextWeek= | A:DueDate = Int(Now)

personally I like to format these entry as

A:Tomorrow= |

A:ThisWeek=-1 |

A:NextWeek= |

A:DueDate = Int(Now)

I find it clearer, but to each his own... It does the same thing in the end. Just make sure to not add a "|" at the end of the last one

Not working here.

See attached zip which includes

grid w source bar
items in question
equations: today, tomorrow, next week

[quote=jan_rifkinson]

Not working here.

See attached zip which includes

grid w source bar
items in question
equations: today, tomorrow, next week

[/quote]

Your screencast was very clear, thank you.

They should all work except for the tomorrow field. You forgot an "|" at the end of the penultimate line.

How to test : just check any of these fields (tomorrow, today, etc.) for any item in your DB. Look in the properties pane : the DateDue field should be filled with the relevant date. Forget filtering and items appearing in grids / or not, for now. Just concentrate on whether some date appears in the DateDue field.

Armando, a few notes on this issue.

First there is a difference of perspective, understanding, explanation > all on my side which has caused me some confusion & you some un-necessary time working this thru with me. For that I apologize. By way of explanation:

Today is Saturday

I assumed if I entered a date = today (format mm/dd/yy) that today & this week boolean fields would = 1

Likewise if I entered a date = tomorrow (format mm/dd/yy) that tomorrow & this week boolean fields would = 1

OK so now I understand the formulas work the other way, i.e.

I check boolean today or tomorrow, etc & the relevant date should appear in DateDue (format mm/dd/yy)

Here's actually what happens:

If I check boolean today, this week is automatically assigned but NO DATE (format dd/mm/yy) appears

If I check boolean tomorrow, this week is automatically assigned & date (format dd/mm/yy) DOES appear but the date is NOT RELEVANT, Ex: 12/31/1899

So......

First I would like to be able to input a duedate (format dd/mm/yy)

and have it trigger relevant boolean values

This becomes particularly of interest when adding a DateDue to calendar & seeing it expressed this way in a grid

I don't know if that's possible

In any case there's something screwy with the relevant date calculation

After a very useful phone session with Jan, we've improved the (very) basic GTD system that is part of the default IQBase.

Starting v0.9.25B, the Today and Tomorrow fields automatically update based on the DueDate field, so:

If an item DueDate is tomorrow, the Tomorrow field will be checked
If an item is due today, the Today field will be checked
Either of these will also check the ThisWeek field

This update is done automatically.

Included in the sample IQBase.

To retro-fit an existing IQBase:

In the Visual Basic Editor, This Database section, add:
'-------------------------------------------
function isToday(dDate) ' this function returns True if the supplied date = today. Is used as part of GTD
if int(dDate) = int(now()) then isToday=true else isToday=false
end function

function isTomorrow(dDate) ' same as above, but returns True if the supplied date = tomorrow
if int(dDate) = int(now())+1 then isTomorrow=true else isTomorrow=false
end function
In the Today field, Row Equation section, add:
=isToday(DueDate)
And check Auto-update
In the Tomorrow field, Row Equation section, add:
=isTomorrow(DueDate)
And check Auto-update

Starting v0.9.25B, you'll also be able to use Auto-assignment rules instead or row equations:

In the field DueDate, add the following rules:
AM:Today=isToday(DueDate) |
AM:Tomorrow=isTomorrow(DueDate) |
E:Today= |
E:Tomorrow=
Check the new auto-assign auto-update (which does a Touch on each DueDate field-values when IQ detects a day change)

Other suggestions to make IQ a better GTD system are welcomed !!!

Ooops! I was going to post something similar but postponed it and... You were faster.

I'll add a note though. these "dates to YN fields" conversions can be convenient, but calling them GTD is misleading as they don't really have anything to do with the GTD system per se (as designed by David Allen). Just saying as someone looking for a GTD implementation might end up scratching his/her head.

GTD is both simpler and more sophisticated. It all revolves around the inbox (triaging the stuff in it : actions-tasks, deferring, filing, etc.) and the weekly review (sharpen the saw, as Covey would put it). I've implemented the system in IQ exactly (almost ) as specified in the "book" + a few extra things here and there gathered from S.Covey and other management systems. If you want, I'll show it to you.

>but calling them GTD is misleading

You are most certainly right. I know very little about GTD and what's in the sample IQBase was my very simplistic interpretation of some (rather limited) reading on it.

>If you want, I'll show it to you.

Definitely, and if it can be implemented in the default IQBase, it would be great !