The tickler file is another concept that I first encountered in David Allen's Getting Things Done, though its been around for quite a while. Definitions of what a tickler file is are on the web , but the basic idea is that you put reminders into a a file...

A column by Jason Fry in the WSJ (registration required) talks about how he's changing how he uses his email inbox and in the process, talks about how people see the purpose of an email inbox differently. This got me thinking about how I've used my inbox...

Admittedly, the titles of the last couple posts are misleading. Habits and Things aren’t in combat or anything; Neither are Getting Things Done and First Things First. I’ve just found that contrasting the different principles of Getting Things Done...

One of the challenges that I and many others face with David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) is that the number of next actions, someday/maybe items, and lists in general seems to be out of control. Mr. Allen recognizes this to some extent and encourages dividing next actions into lists by context. Ideally, this means I should only have to look at the next actions for the context I’m in. But of course, to make the right decision and do the most important things will require changing context (g...

As I thought about these issues and considered another attempt to use the First Things First system, I was struck by the personality behind each system. Both men, Stephen Covey and David Allen, are highly successful in business and both consider themselves successful in their personal and family lives also. However, I can definitely relate a lot more to Mr. Covey, just because he has kids....

Stephen Griffin has another great update for the replication API at http://blogs.msdn.com/stephen_griffin/archive/2005/09/28/475027.aspx .

I recently learned more about how hotfixes work for Outlook (and I assume, all of the Office apps). After we release a new version of Outlook, large companies occasionally come back to us and ask us to change something immediately. Sometimes it's a...

There is an update out for the Outlook Integration APIs documentation. It fixes some errors in the documentation and includes replication APIs that enable you to create your own store provider based on the pst store provider that can synchronize with...

So, I've been looking into why Office, and therefore Outlook, doesn't offer symbols to ISV developers creating Office solutions in the same way that Windows symbols are available to those writing software on Windows....

Well, I took the dive into ActiveWords . There is a lot of potential here, and I think the vision that the company has is awesome. For now, it's a great way to get my stuff done a little faster. I have found that it has also inspired me to learn more...

Buzz Bruggeman has started an interesting discussion about Outlook as a platform . Since starting at Microsoft, I've spent a lot of my time supporting (and trying to support) developers coding on top of Outlook, both within MS and outside of it. However...

OutlookSpy just added support for the Outlook Integration APIs . If you don't know what OutlookSpy is (from their website) ... OutlookSpy is the ultimate Outlook developer tool. Integrated directly into Outlook, it provides fast and convenient access...

For the last couple months I've been working to draft the Outlook Integration APIs . After I drafted them, they were then passed on to the User Assistance team, who created a set of help documents. After going through a few rounds of reviews, they were...

I found PocketInformant shortly after purchasing my PocketPC (Dell Axim), and have been very pleased with it since I got it. My favorite features are the saved views, category grouping, and drag-n-drop to change or add categories. I use categories extensivily...

Wes Haggard has created a great little utility for running apps - Run++ . I've started using WIN-R more and more often, and this is a great replacement. I love being able to shorten down all the programs I run regularly to one or two letters. This is...

My last Outlook as Organizer post about GMail like functionality got me thinking about the differences between Google and Microsoft. Google's biggest strength seems to be simplicity - their search is simple, their mail is simple, their news is simple...

Thanks to everyone who provided comments and feedback in my first Outlook as Organizer post. In my first response to comments from that post, I'm going to explain how you can set up Outlook to organize your email in the same way that GMail labels work...

As of a couple months ago, Outlook is my current organizer of choice. I've decided to start eating my own dogfood (I'm a developer working on Outlook). It's been an eye-opening experience so far, and I hope I can share some of the things I'm learning...

In my first post, I discussed the different views of your daily tasks that can exist, and how they can be used. Two really useful views for tasks would be to sort them by either importance or urgency. The original FranklinQuest system had the prioritized...

I recently responded to a request on an internal mailing list for an easy way to flag items automatically with date and time. The user wanted to know how to ensure that he didn't forget an urgent item that he couldn't attend to that very instant....

I've been thinking recently about daily tasks. I use Outlook and my Palm (standard ToDo app) and don't currently use daily tasks in either one. In my Palm I follow David Allen's advice to have next actions with no due date, so all my categories, except tickler, don't use a due date. I've set Outlook up the same way with flagged items and search folders, rather than using the tasks module. I just email myself tasks and flag them as appropriate. But sometimes I would like daily tasks - the 3-5 thi...