Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4
Getting back to your original post, do you have any ideas about what a better tool for you might look like, or do? Estimate your upcoming workload? Show you which tasks will get you the most return for the time invested? Build a work schedule or punch list for you?
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I've been trying to give this some thought. It is difficult to articulate.
For some of my projects and actions standard GTD concepts apply and I find that I use OF exactly as most people do. For example, maintaining the water softerner. I need a recurring task to check on the amount of salt in it. Pick up salt when I run out. Refill it when it needs it. There are those kinds of tasks in both my personal and work life.
But as I noted before, the vast, vast majority of my work has no use for OF. I rarely check it during the work day.
The bigger problem for me is keeping track and planning out a whole variety of projects and tasks that are not related to my work. I am involved in a couple of statewide and national organizations where I serve on boards and committees in a voluntary capacity. This work is very important and some is complex and intense. Other tasks may be simply reading some background materials or preparing for board or committee meetings. Some have very specific hard due dates, and others don't.
What I need to have is a trusted system that will keep me on track. I usually have to find time to make sure that I can get this stuff done and work it into my normal schedule. Some of these projects may be over many weeks or months. I have to be able to look at things and determine, for example, that I need to handle task X this weekend because it is going to take several hours and I am not likely to have an available block of time to work on it again for another month.
The main issue for me is planning out time and deciding when to work on what based upon when stuff is due or needs to be done, and when there may be time to do so. And juggle that with other competing interests, whether those are other projects or simply watching TV or reading a book.
It is much more of a big picture planning and management function.
I have about 5 big general areas of life focus that I have folders for in Project view. Recently I changed from the traditional "work, home, computer, phone, in person, etc." type contexts to just those 5 areas plus "waiting for" and "on hold". It will be interesting to see if having things in these new contexts provides any additional functionality. Or maybe I will just go to 3 contexts, "active", "waiting for" and "on hold".
Being able to do frequent reviews and bring things forward using flags is a big help. But it may be too binary, especially for long projects or tasks without a hard due date. I haven't tried using contexts as substitutes for prioritization and may need to give that a try.
I just think reading a variety of alternative schemes may trigger a rare creative thought in my brain, or give me something to copy that works better for me.