Some suggestions for new features
I've been using LB for about three years now, and I really think it's a terrific, well thought-out program.
However, I have some suggestions for improvements / new features.
1. Sublevels for pie charts
It would be great if I could break down each 2nd and 3rd level task into it's own pie chart, so I could keep track of how much time I'm dedicating to a specific duty (i.e. work duties, household tasks) rather than to just the TLIs (i.e. work vs. play)
2. Allow for the ability to exclude certain top level items from pie
That way I can implement GTD categories such as an inbox and someday/maybe without having to detract from the percentage of the pie allocated to the others
3. Optional numerical slide for importance
To allow for better fine-tuning of priorities
4. Option to hide tasks that happen by calendar/date book from to-do lists
Once a task is on my calendar, I don't need to see it on my to-do list, which I use for any tasks that have not been fixed in stone on my calendar
On your 2nd point,
I have quite an easy solution, it serves me well.
Make one of your current TLI (any of them, really) be a 'fake vessel', by adding an extra parent with 100% importance. Then inside this parent (the vessel) will be your actual TLI, and beside it any "system" areas that you would have had as TLI but didn't want showing as pie slices (e.g. Inbox, Someday/Maybe, System)
For example, say you have as your TLI these three:
Live fully
Be responsible
Build relationships
You can do the following with any one of them (take Live fully for instance):
Live fully (vessel - Importance 100%)
---Live fully (actual "TLI")
---Inbox (system area)
---Someday/Maybe (system area)
As long as no credit is generated/kept within the "system" areas, the fake "Live fully" should be a perfect mirror image of your actual Live fully in terms of credits, priority, etc.
p.s. maybe "Be responsible" in this case would be a better fit because it relates better to keeping an Inbox and Someday/Maybe items than the others do. I do this kind of association through a TLI called Maintenance.