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activity journalling / task management - strategies and tools?
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Posted by jimspoon
Oct 4, 2010 at 07:16 AM
I keep a detailed journal of my activities. I wonder if any of you do the same? I have found it to be a very useful habit. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed to remember something, and then gone back and found the information in my daily journal. Without my journal, my life becomes one big confused blur.
Now the trick is to find the best way to tie in my journalling with task management. Practically everything I do is in some way related to some project or task I’m working on. Ideally, every journal entry would get filed under the project and task and subtask to which it relates. That way, I could easily review my hierarchy of project / tasks / subtasks, and see the related chronology of activities. On any task, I could readily see what I had already done, where I left off, and where I needed to pick up again.
I need the ability to make my journal entries in one big chronological list, and then to be able to go back later and categorize each action to the appropriate project / task / subtask. Ideally - there would be some intelligence in the program, so that it would monitor what I’m typing, and figure out the related projects / tasks and let me confirm them. (I know, that’s asking a lot.)
I’ve been using Ecco for my journalling, but haven’t yet been doing much in the way of categorizing the journal entries. (For me a major problem with Ecco are the limits on the number of items. With my heavy journalling, I am very rapidly hitting the item number limits and getting error messages.) I’ve experimented a bit with InfoQube, but haven’t been able to find the time to work on learning it.
So, I am just curious regarding what you all might be doing in the way of recording your activities, and tracking your status and progress on your various projects, and what strategies and software tools you are using for that.
Jim
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Oct 4, 2010 at 01:32 PM
Jim,
This sounds likes something you could do very easily with Zoot (easily, that is, once you become familiar with how Zoot works). The new version is getting close to being released, I think. Truthfully, I haven’t used it much as it is enough different from the current version that I haven’t wanted to invest the time figuring it out—I’m waiting until the help documentation is ready. But even the current version could easily do what you’re describing.
Steve
Posted by Chris Thompson
Oct 4, 2010 at 11:25 PM
Provided you don’t need calendaring (i.e. task deadlines integrated with a calendar), OneNote might suit your needs fairly well. You use icons/tags to identify action items in diary entries, and file diary pages under appropriate projects in OneNote’s binder metaphor. If you need calendaring, OneNote is more questionable, since you have to sync with a separate program (Outlook). Some may view this as a plus. It’s worth a try.
I think the best solution for what you’re looking to do is Org Mode (http://orgmode.org). There is a bit of a learning curve to it, but it has an excellent manual and it’s certainly less perplexing than InfoQube. It’s a text-based outliner that does integrated project management, calendaring, filing and refiling, and a lot more. Give the manual a read before diving in.
Tinderbox is a nice solution here too (especially with the new timeline view), but it’s Mac-only.
—Chris
Posted by Lucas
Oct 4, 2010 at 11:51 PM
Chris Thompson wrote:
>
>I think the best solution for what you’re looking to do is Org Mode
>(http://orgmode.org). There is a bit of a learning curve to it, but it has an excellent
>manual and it’s certainly less perplexing than InfoQube.
>
Interesting… I’m currently finding InfoQube more approachable than Org-mode. I suppose we all brings different backgrounds, software experiences, tastes, etc. Certainly I think InfoQube, Tinderbox, and Org-mode are all worth checking out, not to mention ConnectedText and others I’m sure.
Lucas
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Sep 17, 2011 at 08:56 PM
These days I’m consolidating my software setup; I find that several programs have become redundant and can be uninstalled, while in other respects I am missing some specific functionality to complement my workflow. Within the latter context, I am looking for some good journaling software and, going through the archives, found this thread, as well as this one http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/612/
Jim’s description is actually quite representative of my own needs, though I would prefer something more easy to get going with than Org-Mode. So, rather than begin a new thread, I just post my interest here, in case there is any additional suggestion from some happy journaling software user…
(Almost) unrelated to the above, I am quite intrigued by Progoff’s Intensive Journal method, mentioned by Daly here http://www.outlinersoftware.com/archives/viewt/2259 (goodness, that was almost seven years ago!) so if someone has used software to implement it, I’d be interested to hear more.