m | power

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 Read More...

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 Read More...

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 Read More...

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. Read More...

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 Read More...

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 Read More...

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 Read More...

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. Read More...

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 Read More...