What do you do when your task list has more red (overdue) items then black?

[Phillip Dyson]

I was looking at my task list lately and noticed that I had more red entries than black.

So many things came up that never made it into my list and it go completely neglected.

I'm currently fighting that sinking feeling and attempting to figure out the best way to deal with them.
Some of them have already been moved several times.

So what do you do when the life high-tide comes in and over-whelms your organization scheme?

[Hrun]

1st have a purge and delete the things that are never going to get done.

2nd Try to identify tasks that are not really yours and delegate them to their true owner.

3rd Link tasks to specific calender slots so that you have time set aside for the task.

4th Ignore 1,2 & 3 and spend a happy couple of hours surfing ppcthoughts instead.

This is my method. easiest is 4, hardest is 2 and most useful is 3

HTH Giles

[IpaqMan2]

1st have a purge and delete the things that are never going to get done.

2nd Try to identify tasks that are not really yours and delegate them to their true owner.

3rd Link tasks to specific calender slots so that you have time set aside for the task.

4th Ignore 1,2 & 3 and spend a happy couple of hours surfing ppcthoughts instead.

This is my method. easiest is 4, hardest is 2 and most useful is 3

HTH Giles


For some strange reason I feel this method may actually work.. LOL


I pretty much do a combination off all of the above as listed in the poll.
I do my best my to get done what I can during the day and forward what I didn't get done for the next day or another day during the week. Though some things I will not date due to my schedule I know it's just something I will need to work with over several days as I find time.

One thing I do that has helped me from having a huge and overwhelming daily To Do list is use a master or monthly To Do list. I use Pocket Informant as my main PIM software on my Pocket PC and use the notes options of that software (which is a slim down version of Phatnotes) and write down all the tasks I would like to get done during the month. During the day as I am planing out schedules and other To Do's I have made it a habbit to check that list and try to schedule in what I can. By doing this, it helps me from having a huge daily list of things I know I may not get too but with out forgetting that those ToDo's I want to accomplish through out my week and month.

[Phillip Dyson]

IpaqMan2
A master task list?
Sounds reminiscent of my Franklin Quest indoctrination of the early 90s.

I would like to know more about how you manage it. Do you have one living note that changes as task come on and off?
Do you review daily and create tasks for items as you decide to do them?

I currently use PhatNotes and PI.

This is interesting because I even have a growing list of undated tasks that weren't critical, but definitely didn't want to risk never doing.

[IpaqMan2]

Well, the idea actually came from the days when I used the Franklin Day planner throughout the 90’s.

When I moved over to PDAs, I really wanted to be able to keep the format of the Franklin Planner system that worked so well for me over the years. I literally spent about a year trying different software moving from Palm based PDAs and Pocket PCs trying to find that perfect “groove”.

On the PPC what seems to work for me is Pocket Informant. I keep all my PIM information there. I than use the notes section of Pocket Informant and keep a master or monthly To Do list. During the month I am constantly adding to this list as things come up or as I remember to do other things. When I go to plan my daily To Do’s I will usually look at that master or monthly list to see if there is anything from that list I can get done that day. If there is, I plan it into my daily To Do. When I complete it, I check it off and the next time I go through my master or monthly To Do list I than will use the “strike through” feature to show that I have completed it. I guess I could just delete it at that point, but I like to see what I’ve done as this helps gives me a sense of accomplishment.
At the beginning of the month I’ll create a new list of things to do and forward what hasn’t been finished for the last month. The goal here is to actually get done things I need to do and hopefully I am able to see this as I accomplish more things than I am moving over to the next month.

I am able to view and update all my PIM information through Outlook and Phatnotes for desktop. So during those times I am working from the desk I am able to continue what I need to do with out always living from PDA.

I know this sounds a bit much, but my PIM stuff is important to me. It’s what allows me to make goals in life and follow through to get ahead.

And a side note, I also keep a daily record of events like I’ve done on the Franklin Planner, though on the Pocket PCs, there really isn’t any software to do this well. On the Palm OS, the best software for this is DayNotez
http://www.natara.com/DayNotez/Index.cfm

On the Pocket PC, I am currently using Journal Pro.

[Phillip Dyson]

I know when I went from the binder to the PocketPC, I tried the Franklin software and found it to clumsy.

Why do you use Journal Pro for you daily records as opposed to PhatNotes. I know that they both give you desktop integration.
Outlook integration of you wish. I chose to pick the stand-alone Phatnotes over the outlook integration.

[IpaqMan2]

Yeah, I was really disappointed to see how the Franklin day planner system was intergraded on to PDAs. Funny thing is the world head quarters of the company is probably about 15 minutes from where I work, and if given the chance I would love to give them some ideas on how they should push their system onto PDAs.

I chose Journal Pro over Phatnotes for my daily records because I liked how Journal Pro would automatically create a new note for each day while still saving it to one file. Where as with Phatnotes I didn't want to have a separate note for each day and eventually end up with hundreds of different files. The Search function on Journal Pro works ok. The program it's self is still far from perfect but tolerable enough to suit my needs.

With Phatnotes, I also chose the Desktop over the Outlook intergration but am about to give the Outlook intergration a try to see if I like it any better.

A Question....
Do you ever use your PPC to take voice memo's when you are on the go?

[Phillip Dyson]

I haven't used voice notes just yet. Matter of fact I'm just getting the courage to my PPC in meetings at work. I do use it in my personal life though.

I originally tried the outlook integration as my first demo. I just found it to have problems. Notes would be lost. Duplicates. You know the same story as everything else that syncs with Outlook

Perhaps I should give Journal Pro a look. Perhaps it will be a more intuitive tool for day to day notes.

[IpaqMan2]

I haven't used voice notes just yet. Matter of fact I'm just getting the courage to my PPC in meetings at work. I do use it in my personal life though.


Wait until you pull out the folding keyboard to use with your PDA at a board meeting... You'll get the strangest looks for everyone.

I have been using my PDA at work and with my different jobs every since my first Visor. With every PDA I've owned I have always used a stowaway keyboard and would take into meetings at work and even set it up on my desk to jot things down when needed through out the day. The first time you do, you'll get some odd looks, but if people respect you at work they quickly go away and than you get the "Oh" and "Ahhs" from everyone.

As for the Voice memos, I find this to be a huge part of my PIM management for personal life and business. Many times I will be on the go and something will come to mind and I don't have time or it's not approperate to pull out my stylus and write it down. So I'll use the voice memo feature to record the memo for later.

I use a freeware program that is a today plugin that will remind me of voice notes I have recorded. With out that program I probably would forget to check my voice notes anytime I created one.

The program can be found here
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=1863

Anyways.. Good luck with PIM'ing on your device.

[Kowalski]

i use tagenda and if a task has a due date of today, then tAgenda highlights the task, plus in the optimisations i choose "show overdue tasks".
this way i always see overdue tasks whenever i open my pda and this helps me with motivation to complete them as soon as possible

[Phillip Dyson]

IpaqMan2
Thanks for your insight. I'm definitely going to look into JournalPro. And AudioNote

Kowalski
tAgenda seems pretty useful. If I hadn't already invested in PocketBreeze I would give it a try.

[Kowalski]

simplicity has its power, thus tAgenda is a valuable tool for me. pocket breeze is too comlicated for me, and pocket informat too. i wish they built a lite version of pocket informant, sometimes i get lost in the program.

one thing that i like about tAgenda is you can set the count of lines that tAgenda uses, this way i can make use of whole today screen withouth seeing ugly scroll bar in the today screen

[Phillip Dyson]

3rd Link tasks to specific calender slots so that you have time set aside for the task.



I just re-read your post. This is also reminiscent of my Franklin Covey days. I guess it just goes to show that even if you change technology, you don't have to throw out the process.

[Phillip Dyson]

I use a freeware program that is a today plugin that will remind me of voice notes I have recorded. With out that program I probably would forget to check my voice notes anytime I created one.

The program can be found here
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=1863

Anyways.. Good luck with PIM'ing on your device.

I just wanted to follow up. I installed the AudioNotes program and its great!
Now I use voice memos when I'm in the store and especially in the car. What a productivity boost. Now I don't have to stop and whip out the stylus everytime I have a random thought.

Then when I get home, I plug in my headphones and create phatnote entries or tasks.

[fivepetpalace]

So what do you do when the life high-tide comes in and over-whelms your organization scheme?

I simply come here, relax, and forget about it. 0X

[Perk]

Wow,

Looks like I'm not alone in moving the due dates.

hehe

[Hrun]

I just re-read your post. This is also reminiscent of my Franklin Covey days. I guess it just goes to show that even if you change technology, you don't have to throw out the process.

Guess some of it must have rubbed of without me realising. I spent 6 months using franklin planplus for Outlook and palm on a clie TJ35. I gave up with it in the end as I found the outlook side to buggy.

Still have it if anyone is interested in a deal.

Giles

[Pat Logsdon]

So what do you do when the life high-tide comes in and over-whelms your organization scheme?
Panic, mostly. But I do that a few times a day anyway, so no big deal. :mrgreen:

[Hrun]

As for the Voice memos, I find this to be a huge part of my PIM management for personal life and business. Many times I will be on the go and something will come to mind and I don't have time or it's not approperate to pull out my stylus and write it down. So I'll use the voice memo feature to record the memo for later.

Using PI, how do you use a hardbutton to fire up the voice recorder?

I can change the apps that the hard button links to, but cannot find the prog that starts the voice notes in PI. Best I have managed is to click on the notes, then record then start. I would like to replace this with one press.

TIA Giles

[ctmagnus]

I can change the apps that the hard button links to, but cannot find the prog that starts the voice notes in PI. Best I have managed is to click on the notes, then record then start. I would like to replace this with one press.

Out of the box, my iPaq came with the fifth button set to Record. I've always disabled it asap, but if I set a button to Record, all that is required to record something is to hit the button and then press the Record button on the Notes toolbar. It's not quite one press, but it's fewer steps than Notes, Record, Start.

[ctmagnus]

tAgenda seems pretty useful. If I hadn't already invested in PocketBreeze I would give it a try.

PocketBreeze can display overdue tasks as well. I set mine up to be red as my Today theme is usually a soothing blue.

[ctmagnus]

And one more thing: I try to set stsrt dates as well. That way, any decent tasks app can filter by date and not bother you with tasks you don't have to worry about yet.