Carlos
30th August 2004, 08:11 PM
This topic applies mostly to people who are very mobile or travel a lot. If you're at a desk for most of the day, it probably won't help you much.
This is something that originally came to me while sitting outside a car wash waiting for my car to be done. It took about ten minutes, long enough to make a couple short calls, send a couple of e-mails, or review/approve a short document. Unfortunately, by the time I got done SORTING through the list of tasks to find something that I could do there, with the available resources, in the available time, my car was almost done. I ended up dialing a call just as the attendant had my car ready.
I've generally used categories similar to the ones built into Outlook; Clients, Business, Personal, etc. Those have very limited use, and the utility they do provide is probably not something that helps much.
My solution has been to use categories for a location/resource and the Pocket Informant priority letters to indicate the range of time required to complete the task. For example:
"Call Joe's Pizza to see if they have anchovies back in stock"
Category: Call
Letter: A
So this tells me the task is something that I can do any time I have access to a phone and have 5 minutes to kill. I've arranged the letters in this way:
A: 5 minutes or less
B: 5-15 minutes
C: 15-60 minutes
D: More than an hour
My categories are:
Anywhere (can be done anywhere without other resources, IE, on a plane)
Assigned tasks (things I've assigned to others, don't need to act upon)
Calls (anywhere I have phone access)
Home (something I can only do at home, like "marinate steaks for BBQ")
Low priority (things I don't want to forget, but have a "whenever" priority)
Office work (things that generally require being in the office)
Research (things I can do with my laptop and an internet connection)
I also have various client-name categories. These are things I can only do when I'm on-site at a client's office. Other client work which I can do off-site goes into one of the above categories.
I think I need to further refine the "research" category since I have a Phone Edition device, and have limited internet access anywhere I go. This means I could be working on simple research or basic client support tasks via Terminal Services. Maybe I should have a "laptop" category and an "internet" category...? I'll take creative ideas here.
Sometimes an item falls into two categories, and it can get complex here. A task could REQUIRE two categores, or could be POSSIBLE in either one of the two. I've generally standardized on the latter, since typically for me that's much more likely. For example, if I'm at home or the office I can assume I have full internet access and my laptop. On the other hand, many tasks could be done either at a client's office or in my own office.
I'd love to further refine this and brainstorm with other mobile task-oriented people. Tell me what you think.
This is something that originally came to me while sitting outside a car wash waiting for my car to be done. It took about ten minutes, long enough to make a couple short calls, send a couple of e-mails, or review/approve a short document. Unfortunately, by the time I got done SORTING through the list of tasks to find something that I could do there, with the available resources, in the available time, my car was almost done. I ended up dialing a call just as the attendant had my car ready.
I've generally used categories similar to the ones built into Outlook; Clients, Business, Personal, etc. Those have very limited use, and the utility they do provide is probably not something that helps much.
My solution has been to use categories for a location/resource and the Pocket Informant priority letters to indicate the range of time required to complete the task. For example:
"Call Joe's Pizza to see if they have anchovies back in stock"
Category: Call
Letter: A
So this tells me the task is something that I can do any time I have access to a phone and have 5 minutes to kill. I've arranged the letters in this way:
A: 5 minutes or less
B: 5-15 minutes
C: 15-60 minutes
D: More than an hour
My categories are:
Anywhere (can be done anywhere without other resources, IE, on a plane)
Assigned tasks (things I've assigned to others, don't need to act upon)
Calls (anywhere I have phone access)
Home (something I can only do at home, like "marinate steaks for BBQ")
Low priority (things I don't want to forget, but have a "whenever" priority)
Office work (things that generally require being in the office)
Research (things I can do with my laptop and an internet connection)
I also have various client-name categories. These are things I can only do when I'm on-site at a client's office. Other client work which I can do off-site goes into one of the above categories.
I think I need to further refine the "research" category since I have a Phone Edition device, and have limited internet access anywhere I go. This means I could be working on simple research or basic client support tasks via Terminal Services. Maybe I should have a "laptop" category and an "internet" category...? I'll take creative ideas here.
Sometimes an item falls into two categories, and it can get complex here. A task could REQUIRE two categores, or could be POSSIBLE in either one of the two. I've generally standardized on the latter, since typically for me that's much more likely. For example, if I'm at home or the office I can assume I have full internet access and my laptop. On the other hand, many tasks could be done either at a client's office or in my own office.
I'd love to further refine this and brainstorm with other mobile task-oriented people. Tell me what you think.