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How to configure an ongoing single task Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Hello, I have a usability question...

I have a task that has taken/will continue to take a long time to finish. To be specific, we have a contact management system that we are dropping, and it's my job to go into each contact and download each file attachment from its record. Each contact has anywhere from 0 to 200 documents, and this is a low-level maintenance kind of thing (meaning, no hard deadline, not super-critical), so I don't want it on my task list unless I have a light day. Problem is, depending on the contacts I run into (I'm going in alpha order), I may get through 2 contacts or 20 for each block of time. I never know how much I'll get through or when I'm going to have time to work on this next.

So... What I'm looking for is a way to have this be a recurring task that regenerates upon completion, but with no set start or end date. At least, I think that comes closest to the best solution. I want it to show up as an available action, so that when I do my daily review, I can choose to add it to my daily list if I have a little time.

Thoughts on how best to implement this?

Thanks,
Robin
 
Not a direct response to your question, but have you thought about breaking down by something other than alpha? Or just limiting the number of contacts to review by task?
 
Well, what I've been doing with such things is to make "n minutes spent on XYZ" as the task, set to start again every day. If I don't do it, it's still there the next day in my "tickler" view as something that became available before today. The "tickler" just is a context view perspective showing available actions grouped by start date, with most of the groups closed. I try to work as many of them as I can the day they appear, but don't sweat it when they don't all get done; anything that needs to get done by a certain date will also have a due date.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
Well, what I've been doing with such things is to make "n minutes spent on XYZ" as the task, set to start again every day. If I don't do it, it's still there the next day in my "tickler" view as something that became available before today. The "tickler" just is a context view perspective showing available actions grouped by start date, with most of the groups closed. I try to work as many of them as I can the day they appear, but don't sweat it when they don't all get done; anything that needs to get done by a certain date will also have a due date.
This sounds like a good way to do it. I guess it's no big deal if I have a daily repeating task that doesn't get done, I just didn't want to get numb to it and automatically click it off without thinking about it. But probably the easiest way. Thanks!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hypotyposis View Post
Not a direct response to your question, but have you thought about breaking down by something other than alpha? Or just limiting the number of contacts to review by task?
Since each contact has a variable number of attachments, there is no good way to have an plannable outcome each time I go in. I think the fixed amount of time is probably okay, although I have run into contacts that have hundreds of attachments, and I have had to finish so that I don't have to remember where I left off. The whole thing is a pain, I wish it were more quantifiable, but anyway, I think the idea given here was good.
 
If you run into one that is clearly going to be a much bigger chunk of work, you could make an action just for it, with an estimate of how long it will take, then toss it back in the pond and pick some other set of contacts that you can get done with the time/effort/enthuasiasm available.
 
 


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