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Task management help.
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Posted by Jack Crawford
Jan 5, 2009 at 10:17 PM
Jim
I’ve found out the hard way that (for me at least) a successful task management implementation must start with understanding the wider context i.e. where your tasks are coming from. Are your tasks coming from another person (e.g. your boss) or from yourself? How do they usually get to you - by email, verbally, your own ideas etc etc.
Once you understand the context, the trick is to design a hardware/software solution that best fits the context. Too often I tried to implement a task management approach because I liked the look of particular software. This usually involved moving data around between applications. Unsuprisingly, I soon stopped doing it - and felt guilty for doing so.
After I realised that most of my tasks were coming out of emails, my personal solution was to make more effective use of Outlook using the Linenberger approach. I haven’t looked back.
So it’s horses for courses. Build something that works for you and your situation.
Jack
Posted by jamesofford
Jan 6, 2009 at 06:03 AM
I knew this was a good place to raise the questions, both because of the helpfulness of everyone here, and also because I figured that many of you had struggled with the same issues and found some solutions.
Alexander, Chris, and Stephen: As you might imagine since I frequent this site, I am fond of outliners. Stephen, the pointer to Taskpaper and TpDoPaper are good-I’ll check them out. Part of my issue with outliners is the ease with which I can enter info. As I said, the more transparent the better.
Chris-Procrastination isn’t really the issue. I don’t resist doing the tasks, I just need to be able to keep them in my focus. However, I will check out The Now Habit, thanks for the suggestion.
Jack-My tasks come from all over the place. Partly emails, partly stuff that comes up in informal discussions, partly meeting stuff. For email, I have been using Clearcontext. It runs in Outlook, and does a great job of allowing me to file things, and also to set up tasks based on emails. The problem has been figuring out how to keep those emails in my foreground. If I had a way to set up my lists and then have them pushed to me like an RSS feed that might be a handy to do things.
I have also followed the GTD phenomenon. I haven’t been able to make it work for me, but part of the reason may be that I haven’t really done the full Monty. I haven’t sat down and done my collecting, and all the rest. It seems that my time isn’t such that I can stop and do that and then start things up again with everything broken down into Next Actions.
Anyone with experience with sliding into GTD slowly, and have any suggestions? Or do you have to go the full David Allen route to make it work?
These have all been good suggestions. Thanks a lot for your input. I will be mulling this over for the next few days, then I will be trying to implement something. Once I have something figured out, I will let everyone know where I am headed.
I’ve managed to be fairly successful for a long time by keeping things in my head. Unfortunately, now I don’t just have my own work to deal with, I have two teams that I am leading, a lab with a bunch of people I manage, and long term, strategic issues that I have to deal with. I am really hoping that you can teach an old dog new tricks, ‘cause this old dog needs to make some changes.
Jim.
Posted by Jack Crawford
Jan 6, 2009 at 08:01 AM
Jim wrote:
>...................
>For email, I have been using Clearcontext. It runs in Outlook, and does a great
>job of allowing me to file things, and also to set up tasks based on emails. The problem
>has been figuring out how to keep those emails in my foreground. If I had a way to set up my
>lists and then have them pushed to me like an RSS feed that might be a handy to do things.
I also use the Outlook/ClearContext combination. It is particularly powerful when used with a task methodology such as the Linenberger approach. If you haven’t seen it, have a look at; http://www.michaellinenberger.com/clearcontext.html.
In short the approach is to extract the tasks immediately from the emails and then clear the in-box by archiving or deleting the emails. The system then presents the tasks to you inside Outlook according to the way you have priortised them. There is a book that outlines the system in some detail and is the most practical productivity book I’ve read for years. You’ll see it on the Linenberger site.
>Anyone with experience with sliding into GTD slowly, and have any
>suggestions? Or do you have to go the full David Allen route to make it work?
David Allen’s books have been very important in developing time management theories since the 1980’s. However, as I’ve said before on this site, I have a great deal of scepticism about the messianic aspects of his theories and the fanaticism of some of GTD’s devotees. The paperback is worth a quick read and there are condensed audio versions available on CD.
As for whether it is all or nothing, some aspects of GTD remain powerful, irrespective of whether you want to try and implement a total GTD approach. Recent approaches from people like Michael Linenberger and Mark Forster specifically credit Allen for particular concepts which they then use and develop into their own “systems”.
My suggestion FWIW is to be an ideas thief and use the bits that appeal to you and work for your personal environment. Be wary of one system that claims to have all the solutions. It doesn’t exist.
Hope that helps
Jack