Get Everything Done

AF4 is great!

I've been happily using it on my personal Blackberry for personal tasks with a fairly slick implementation.

However, I 've just started doing some work for a large corporate client during the day that only has vanilla Microsoft Outlook 2007 available for use on-site, so I'm being forced into using that for daily client-based tasks. (I know there is always the option of using paper but I'd prefer to remain electronic)

I'm currently implementing AF4 in one single simple task list with tasks sorted by "Date Created" order. I have the divider line implemented as a task with the subject of "=====".

It's a bearable approach but everytime I want to move a task to the bottom of the list, I have to recreate it from scratch so that the "Date Created" stamp on the new task (with the same subject) becomes the current date/time...which is proving to be a bit cumbersome.

Not having the task list sorted at all (i.e. leaving it in a natural, drag and drop order) is another possibility but then I have to ensure manually that every new task is moved to the bottom of the list.

Has anyone got any tips for a slick AF4 Outlook implementation?

Thanks.

Frank,
Can you detail how you implement your blackberry scheme for your home tasks? I am very interested in it. Thanks.

BTW, I use OneNote for Autofocus for work tasks and it has been working for me especially with tagging and so forth. Is that a possibility for you rather than Outlook?

GC

Why not use the Modified Date? This would automatically bump any task that you touch to the end of the list, which is exactly what you'd want.

I don't find copying the text to a new task a major problem. (Set current view to allow in-cell editing).

You could always use a sequence number starting the subject and sort by subject. This would also allow a "cheat" where you could keep similar tasks next to one another. That would not change the way AF works, but might make things easier to see. I'd probably do that if I were using an electronic implementation.

Frank

The best pure Outlook task management system I have seen is Michael Linenberger's. His book IMO is a must-read if you are going to use Outlook intensively. A quick guide to the system is contained in his current newsletter http://www.michaellinenberger.com/NewsletterSept1-09.html.

To answer your specific question I am experimenting (so far successfully) with a hybrid Outlook/AF4 system. It basically involves putting all tasks into Outlook using the Linenberger approach, printing out the taskpad tasks each morning and then working the list as an AF4 list. This includes adding new tasks by hand to the printed list. At the end of the day I insert new unfinished tasks back into Outlook and then start again the next morning. Where the printed list ends and the hand written list starts creates a natural barrier between new and old tasks.

I'm finding that this hybrid system gives me the benefit of both worlds - software automation as well as personal engagement with a hand-written list. In a nutshell, I use Outlook to build the task list and AF4 to work the list.

Hope that makes sense.

Jack

@ Greenchutney

I'm not using the built-in Blackberry tasks software but a third-party addon called ToDoMatrix but I think the principles should apply to other software.

But the basic trick is that I use two separate folders of tasks, one for the backlog and one for the active list. ToDoMatrix allows you to move tasks between folders very easily, and the same goes for moving an entire folder of tasks to another folder.

Also, tasks are sorted in DateCreated order for both lists and set to regenerate immediately after completion (by using a 1 min regeneration interval).

I hide all completed tasks in both lists to keep the lists uncluttered on a small screen.

As soon as I work on any task in the Backlog list, I mark it as complete so that the creation date/time on it is updated and then move it immediately to the Active list so that it should now appear at the bottom of that list.

In my active list, I have a regenerating task called ">>> RETURN TO BACKLOG <<<". As soon as I enter the active list, I mark it as complete so it moves to the bottom of the active list. Then I work my way down the active list until I hit that task and move back to the backlog list again.

At the bottom of the backlog list, I have a regenerating task called ">>> REVIEW MARKER <<<"

When I get around to marking tasks for review (this is theory, not had to do it yet), I will simply copy the entire folder of active tasks into the backlog folder. They should all appear under "REVIEW MARKER". That means that every task above that is now up for dismissal. Once I delete/re-enter those "on-notice" tasks, I can then mark the "REVIEW MARKER" as complete which should regenerate it back at the end of the backlog list tasks.

Hope that makes some sense. :)

There's no reason you couldn't implement this approach with other task management software. They key to the slickness of usage of this approach is having the ability to regenerate tasks immediately on completion.

I forgot to mention that there is a feature in ToDoMatrix which allows you to have default settings for each new task you create - and I have this set to automatically create new tasks with a regenerating 1 minute interval.

This saves me from having to fiddle with any task settings on creating the task...I just enter a task on the list and I know it will recur immediately until I delete it off the list (which is how I mark tasks as finally complete).

Another thing I forgot to mention!

Tickler items are handled automatically. I have both lists filtered to not show any future tasks. So let's say I need to check if the house bins need emptying but I only need to start checking every 2 days.

I create that task "Empty house bins" and then change the regeneration interval to 2 days.

So once I mark the task complete, it will not regenerate immediately like the other tasks but just vanish.

After two days have elapsed, it will show up on my list again. If I had previously marked it complete while in the backlog list, it will show up there while if I had previously marked it complete in the active list, it will show up there instead.

I can live with the fact that it might show up in either list because it will still get noticed by me at the right time.

>>>The best pure Outlook task management system I have seen is Michael Linenberger's. His book IMO is a must-read if you are going to use Outlook intensively.<<<

I also use Linenberger's method for Outlook, it's the best implementation I've seen for Outlook. I was plannig on ditching electronic lists but the recurring items as an electronic tickler and the Calendar work so well I decided I was cutting my nose off to spite my face.

AF is brilliant at actually processing tasks but there are some advantages to electronic that I haven't been able to give up yet. You mentioned house bins, the only alarm I actually use on my phone is one to remind me to put out my bins on a Monday night - the amount of times this has saved me from missing the refuse collection is unreal :-D

>>>The best pure Outlook task management system I have seen is Michael Linenberger's. His book IMO is a must-read if you are going to use Outlook intensively.<<<

Just wanted to chime in as another advocate of this book/approach.

--Ken

With so many recommendations for Michael Linenberger's book, I guess I'll have to take a look at it. :)

For now, Seraphim's recommendation of using "Modified Date" instead of "Created Date" is working pretty well.

Frank, how do you mark a task for review?

(I use a category, but this would reset the modified date.)

Cheers,

Will

@ Will

I haven't had to put any tasks up for review yet :)

But wouldn't just adding a new dividing line ("========" etc) at the bottom of the list when declaring the "backlog" (while leaving the previous line in place) do the trick of separating the review tasks?

Frank,

Yes, in theory you shouldn't need to mark the tasks for review because the act of closing the open list means that the old closed list is up for review.

And yet Mark still plies the highlighter.

I'm in two minds. It would be nice to keep notes and attachments by simply copying and pasting the whole task, which could then include supporting checklists and so on. On the other hand, I do like my categories. an simple simulation of paper.

Oh dear...

Will,

You can still use a specific category for "Review" - you just modify your normal View so that (using the Advanced tab of the Filter facility) you filter by 'Categories doesn't contain "Review"' (or whatever you call it), thereby exclusing all such tasks from appearing in that view. You can then add/modify another view that filters for 'Categories contains "Review"', which will then show all such tasks - and no others - for use when you want to actually do a review.

Note: if you use a mobile device (or often use OWA) in addition to the normal Outlook client you need to think about how this will work for them, as they don't have quite the same level of functionality.

Steve

SteveB,

Get thee behind me!

Tempting, though it is, I've already got views for printing and also for reviewing daily achievements. Switching views in the middle of processing is crossing a line, though.

Then again, it would be nice to carry whole tasks through...

Will,

I take your point - views certainly can start to propagate like rabbits!

It shouldn't really lead to much switching, though - all the time you're circulating around the closed/open lists, selecting tasks to do, is working from only the 'main' view (without Review tasks); i.e. probably >95% of the time.

It'd only be when the "Review dismissed tasks" (or equivalent) action stands out and you actually are in the process of doing the review that you'd change, and then change back at the end of the review to complete that task and select the next from the main list.

I see that as equivalent to your "review daily achievements" or "printing" views - different perspectives used very occasionally and briefly (relative to the total time using the list) when performing a specific action; after which you "return to normal".

But that's where we get into personal perspectives and working-styles, not to mention mental thresholds for the number of "specific additional features (views)" we care to tolerate, so YMMV as they say!

Very broadly you get to choose between:
1. Delete dismissed tasks and assume they'll come back into mind (and be added as new items) if appropriate,
2. Retain dismissed tasks in the "normal" view, and perhaps use conditional formatting to de-emphasise them, or
3. Retain them but remove them from the normal view either by filtering or by moving them to a second tasks folder - and switch to the separate 'review' view/folder and back again when you actually do a review of those tasks.

"You pays your money and takes your choice." :-)

Hi guys,

I do use Outlook AF4 only for emails - having the task "clear emails" in my AF4 paper work list.

The setup is lean: take away all distractions from the inbox by customizing the view "messages" in "other settings": no grid lines and no show items in groups - looks like a list now :)

Add some "automatic formatting" rules for colouring and font styles for the open list starting at "on or after" a certain date, which marks the previous messages as being part of the closed list, while sorting the view by received date ascending.

All new messages will appear at the bottom of the window, like in the paper version :)

I've created only one additional "Review List" folder under the inbox to separate this type of items, if needed - still hasn't been necessary though!

If you mark the message your currently working on with the completed flag status and add an "automatic formatting" rule for changing the colour, you've got a nice simple system in place.

Works like a charm for me.

Cheers

Just made one change in my setup mentioned above: deleted the rule to change the colouring of emails "on or after" a specific date and just sent an email to myself with the subject "---------" being the new "End of Closed List" marker and added the rule to change the colour to gray for this email only, i.e. with the specific subject. Now all other emails have the same default colouring, i.e. black.

Reason being: the different colours were distracting and didn't ease the viewing of the "tasks" ;)

All the best

Since using a notebook for Autofocus I have found working the list has definitely been more effective and I've used this for the last month or so with decent results. The one area I found tiresome was re-entering tasks which recur on a regular basis which Outlook handles very well. I also find that it's much easier to track if these items have been done as they are dated automatically, whereas with written items you have to manually mark each task.

At the moment I am keeping two lists, one in Outlook for recurring items and one in my notebook to keep on top of more long-standing tasks. I am not altogether happy with this and I might just try and tweak Linenberger's Outlook set up to reflect AF4 as best I can. Having two seperate lists to maintain is too much overhead and I'd rather just have one list to look at to keep things as simple as possible. Besides, as my Outlook already synchs with my phone, portability isn't a problem, it's more a case of just choosing a method and then having the discipline to stick with it. Mobile phones aren't the best screens to work a list from when you are out and abouut but then I've found there are problems whatever implement you choose so best just to pick one and get on with it.

SteveB,

I'm trying the modified date approach. Thinking that I'll see the tasks for review when I get to the end of my new closed list, so I'll do the review at the same time anyway.

What I didn't foresee, stupidly, was that every time I mark an item as the current task it scoots off to the bottom of the list.

Not the end of the world: I can simply click on the current task to highlight it, at least until I close down the machine. And I'll just have to remember where I got to.

Hi Jack,
I tried that newsletter link but couldn't retrieve anything re Michael Linenberger's Outlook e-mail handling system? Please can you check the link is correct or summarise what it involves?
Thanks,
Carol

http://www.michaellinenberger.com/NewsletterSept1-09.html

On gtdwannabe.com, there is a series of Outlook macros for tasks, among them one to duplicate a task and mark the old one complete:

http://gtdwannabe.com/2005/08/an-outlook-macro-to-duplicate-tasks-good-for-pigpog-and-sense-of-accomplishment/

This should give you a new task with correct (new) creation date.

Unfortunately, the line breaks of the macro are messed up, so you'll need to have an idea how the macro should look correctly and repair the line breaks.

In addition, almost all links in the blog are broken, because they point to the old blog. But from what I've seen, all articles are still there (albeit a little hard to find).

I don't use this macro, but used to, and it seemed to work back then. Unfortunately, I'm not able to tell you the correct code (I've forgotten all I kew about Outlook macros, it wasn't much anyway), you'll have to find it out yourself.

Outlook is pretty flexible and can be set up quite easily for AF4 out of the box from what I can see. In the default mode, all previous tasks are highlighted in red font the next day so they could be treated as the closed list. In Linenberger's system the older tasks filter to the bottom but are no longer underlined, so they also could be treated as the closed list. I'm sure there are probably other ways of making this system reflect AF4 on paper, but the basic process is the same.

If anyone particularly wants a "duplicate task" macro of the type Alex W refers to, let me know - I have one as part of a wider set of macros I use.

It will however take a little time to remove/adjust a few bits that won't work / make sense without other aspects of my overall solution (i.e. to make it stand-alone), and I'm not sure how to make it available if it's too long to post here, but if there's a demand for it...

It works in OL2007, but I believe it should work in OL2003 as well - although in that case I think you only retain any formatting applied to the Task's Notes (Body section) if the option to use Word as the email editor is set.

N.b. At some point, assuming it calms down into a steady state, I hope to share the wider set of macros along with usage/setup guidance in case anyone's interested... covering some other things that may be of interest to Outlook users (whether for AF4 or just for email/etc), such as:
- automatically assigning whatever Categories are assigned to Contacts that're the sender/recipients of an email to that email item
- marking a task as 'current' and then automatically recording the time taken when it is completed, with an option to record that time-block as a calendar item as well
- a workaround for the fact that Outlook doesn't support tasks with a start date but no due date (which makes regenerating undated tasks impossible by default), and which also supports automatically-recreating all future-start-dated, recurring and regenerating tasks so that they have the "correct" creation date (useful for AF!)

...but that may take a while (if I even get around to it ;-)

Anyway, if there's a call for a cleaned-up copy of the duplicate-task code I'll try to find an easy way to share it.
-Steve

SteveB,

I would certainly value a duplicate task macro. I really miss my current task marker.

:'o(

Will (& anyone else interested),

With apologies for the delay, you should be able to find the "standalone" (i.e. without anything relying on other functions in my set of macros) macro code via http://www.sbaker.me.uk/outlookmacros (click on the macro title for the txt file).

(N.b. there's no real site around it, I've just added a page in a dommain I setup to test Google Apps before setting it up for my Parents!)

Note the comments at the start about referencing the Word Object library and preventing Outlook's macro security warnings.

You can run it from Tools->Macros, but far more convenient is to set it up as a toolbar/menu item. For Outlook 2007 I've done the following:

1a. Right-click on menu bar and select "Customize...".
1b. Select the Macros category on the left and then drag the "Project....CreateNewTaskFromItem" entry onto the menu bar (e.g. to the right of 'Help'.
1c. Right-click that new 'menu' item and change the Name to: "&1. Create New Task From Item" (or whatever you like, though the "&1" is recommended for reasons below).
1d. Close the 'Customize' dialog

Now if you press "Alt+1" from the main Outlook window, a new Task will be created based on whatever object(s) are currently selected.

In order to have the same "Alt+1" shortcut do the same thing when you have an individual Task/Email/whatever open in its own window, do the following:

2a. Open an existing Task, Right-click on the Menu Bar, and select "Customize Quick Access Toolbar...".
2b. Select Macros under "Choose commands from:", and dd the CreateNewTaskFromItem to the toolbar items on the right, and move it to the top.
2c. Select the macro item and click "Modify..." below the list, and set its Display Name to whatever you want (e.g. "Create New Task From Item").

Quick Access Toolbar shortcuts can be initiated with Alt+n where n is the number of their position in the list, so as the top item Alt+1 will now run the macro. (This is why I have the macro on the main window's actual menu bar (with "&1" in the name to set the access key as "1") as opposed to on the toolbar or a menu sub-item - it can have the same keyboard shortcut!)

To enable this for items other than Tasks, repeat 2a-2c but opening an existing Email/Appointment/etc. instead - the Quick Access Toolbar list is separate between each Outlook Form.

Hope it works well for you...
Steve