PocketInformant: How do you use it to manage your life?

[Phillip Dyson]

Even before the latest 2005 release, PocketInformant was full of many integrated productivity

features. I can fully admit that I probably only use a fraction of what this product is

capable of. So I wanted to find out how others are using it in their daily lives.

Perhaps some tips and secrets will be revealed to help the rest of us.
Below are a list of the features that I know are there:

Calendar View
Tasks View
Contacts View
Notes View
Journal
Hierarchical Tasks
Links
Timeline View (new)
Filtering
Templates
Smart Macros
Categories

Heres what I do. Pretty basic.

I pretty much use the basic PIM features to manage my life. I mostly use Categories to keep my

personal appts, contacts, and tasks off my work computer. I'm weird that way. This also means

that I have to use Intellisync at work.

I tried using the hierarchical tasks for awhile, but without a corresponding function in

Outlook, it seemed to not be as useful. Creating a hierarchy in PI then seeing them out of

their contexts in Outlook became confusing. This may not be as much an issue if I considered

my PDA the system of record. Perhaps I should revisit.

I don't really use the notes view very much since I purchased PhatNotes.

So, how do you PIM with PI?

[Kowalski]

everyday when i go to bed, i open pocket informant and plan the next day, have a look at what i did the whole day and what i didnt do.

i use tAgenda as taday plug-in and if i miss a task, it displays red and reminds me to finish the job as soon as possible.

i use notes alot but pocket informant doesnt support drag and drop in notes explorer.

i will heavily use journal feature as soon as my stowaway bluetooth keyboard arrives.

[Jacob]

I use it to remember everything I need to do. If I need to remember to do something I just enter a task in there and I'll get to it - so nothing (especially nothing important) falls through the cracks.

I LOVE the new timeline view, which will give me a very good way of managing my work tasks and seeing how my work schedule is and will be. I'm looking forward to the new features they add to the view.

Other than that I don't do anything too special with it - I just couldn't go back to the regular pocket outlook UI.

[hamishmacdonald]

I keep trying. I want to use Pocket Informant, but I find it just too busy. I inevitably go back to the built-in apps. Same thing with @Mail, which I purchased.

[superpuppan]

I have been following PI since version 4. I attended a David Allen Getting Things Done workshop three years ago, and have been a converted soul ever since.

The GTD system works flawlessly with my outlook at home and work, my onenote system and pdas.

Check out www.davidco.com for the system. Michael Hyatts webblog (http://michaelhyatt.blogs.com/workingsmart/) is a gem for how to manage your life using various PIM systems.

S

[Phillip Dyson]

I have been following PI since version 4. I attended a David Allen Getting Things Done workshop three years ago, and have been a converted soul ever since.

The GTD system works flawlessly with my outlook at home and work, my onenote system and pdas.

Check out www.davidco.com for the system. Michael Hyatts webblog (http://michaelhyatt.blogs.com/workingsmart/) is a gem for how to manage your life using various PIM systems.

S

Do you find that any of the new features in PI make it easier to adapt the GTD system to your needs?

[superpuppan]

Hi,

There are in my view no dramatic changes in PI 2005 vs PI 5.62. The task view now supports categories in a better way, making PI look almost like my desktop PIMs (outlook 2003 and outlook tablet).

The one feature that I would have like to see in PI 2005, as with Agenda Fusion v7, is some kind of project mode where I could link appointments, tasks, notes, etc to different projects.

IMHO, the rest of the AF suite is less good than PI 2005, and the GTD system (buy the $10 workflow processing pdf doc) utilizes the strengths and shortcomings of outlook in a very good way.

I use Phatnotes pro as a project tracker instead.

S

[discordian]

I use Wife version 1.0 to run my life :wink:

[phanprod]

I've been quite happy with PI since version 4, and I've begun to use PocketBreeze as well. I've become a great deal more organized in my personal and professional work with the help of these tools. The only thing I wish is that the contacts I attatch to an appointment in Outlook carried over to PI. I use this feature to run 'reports' of a sort to figure out which of my employees worked which performance (I manage the backstage crew at a theatre).

As for keeping the work and personal lives seperate, I just heavily utilize catagories. If there's a computer at work I want to sync with, I'll tell active sync to only run certain catagories. My personal stuff never gets transferred that way.

[emuelle1]

Well, this is a mind blower. Several months ago, I borrowed a book from my in-laws' bookshelf. I took it to work, started to read it, then put it on a shelf and forgot about it.

Over the weekend, I thought of some threads on this site about using a Pocket PC to manage tasks. I went looking for them, and saw a lot about "GTD" and David Allen. I decided to take that book back out and imagine what it could be? David Allen, Getting Things Done. Amazing how things work out. I guess I'll have to read it now...

[kushaaal]

GREETINGS!
PI + SPB Diary= Integrity soution.
Let's start with Tasks:
I have field work, adn many people tell me many different thing to do in their favor, so I write them all in my PI.
I started a get togather, where-in I would sit alone, and let people come to me with problems. I will write down all the tasks, and very importantly give them three specific category- The function itself as category (so I remember it is related to that function, and I remember the person had met me in that), Task doer category (the one who will be responsible-something like project), and the actual matter category (like the person wants promotion- so the category as 'Promotion').
Next when I call up the person who is going to do the work (I call him Job doer), I make a journal entry. This is important, becoz the task may have started when it was reported but I should give the job doer enough time and remember too that I had assigned the work to him. The third category Matter category is used to make sure the job goes into the office record branch wise.
Now Linking is a greatest thing which had happened and the way PI does it is so beautiful. Now You can have link window which pops up and anything thin in PI can be linked in that. Normally if I have to call somebody, I link it wiht his contact number. Other way round, I had assigned some contact as HOT CONTACT, the one I assign task more frequently. So at night if I remember somebody's face :idea: , I just reach his contact detail through applying filter in contact as HOT CONTACT, and zoom I have all the task assigned to him in my finger tips.
I requested developers of PI to intorduce Due tomorrow when 5.62 was running, and it was integrated. That's another great thing. By the night I just click on 'DUE TOMORROW', and I can have a peaceful sleep as I know what I have to do tomorrow. Offcourse, I don;t forget to mve date of task due today to Due tomorrow, and it get's very frustating to see yesterday task with Overdue task (I hate overdue task, they sucks 0X )
Now Frequently I conduct follow up meeting, and here comes TLV (Time line view) & custom view manager. I had added all my inspector in TLV Category some 11 of them 8O , and saved that view as Inspectors in custom view manager. So in followup I open that custom view in TLV, and zoom my meeting goes, leaving my inspectors to wander how can I remember so much about the task I have assigned to them. :wink:
So Task view had made my image as "MAN OF WORDS", coz any work told to me gets completed :D
Offcourse real planning to an event is little curbursome, and I found my Hierarchial task link broken too often. For that I use Pocket Mind Map.
Even though notes feature which also integrate Phat notes, Phatpad is really good one, but for me I need much more ease with that, so I use Resco stickies, which gives me real functionality over my Today screen itself.
In My view PI is big-biG-bIG-BIG, and it is left to our creativity to expand to our need. So to respect PI and to always remember what PI can do, I use SPB Diary, good and tiny today plug-in which does allmost all things, which is what really is required to be done at Today. Offcourse Pocket breeze is very advanced, it starts simulating PI is many ways, and make me confused. With SPB Diary, I know when I have to do real thing I must open PI, & for small thing I can do it through SPB Diary like: Resheduling, searching contact database, and just seeing all of them.
Regards,

[Phillip Dyson]

Thanks for the reply. Very detailed.
It sounds like you've even found a very good use for the Timeline View. Something that I'm still not sure about.

The one thing that I feel is most unfortunate is the fact that many of the great features in PI don't transfer to Outlook. And I think this is the biggest bottleneck. Because I use them both between work and home, I have to develop a strategy for the lowest common denominator.

Having to redo links and relationships between the two is in my view inefficient.

[kushaaal]

Greetings!
That's true, and more so it is disheartning when you work on both! I learned from PI developers, they were/are even thinking of PI desktop replacement. If that is true, our lot of blues will be gone.
Regards,

[Phillip Dyson]

Greetings!
That's true, and more so it is disheartning when you work on both! I learned from PI developers, they were/are even thinking of PI desktop replacement. If that is true, our lot of blues will be gone.
Regards,

That certainly sounds great. But its also a tall order.
I wonder if this tool would include groupware integration. Especially Exchange.