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My Tools @Work

Bookworm | Jan 23 2006

The empty Windows section looked so sad, I thought I'd post something here. Any other Windows users hiding out there? [I can definitely understand the appeal of Macs (some wonderful software out there that's Mac-only, for one), but I've just always used Windows (or, *cough*, DOS) machines.]

Outlook for email, calendar, and a little task management

  • I've created @Action, @Reference, @Waiting, @Reading Material, @Someday/Maybe, @Open Issues (some things seem to fit neither Reference nor Waiting)
  • I flag emails to remind me of the specific action that must be taken; these can also pop up as reminders.
  • I've got it set up so that email from my boss gets flagged for immediate reading, has its own particular color text in the in-box and makes a sound upon arrival. (This would be total overkill when applied to every email!)

Bonsai desktop (for the bulk of my Next Actions, task, project management)

  • I posted about Bonsai in the PDA folder, but its desktop component is just as useful and for the same reasons: categories, filtering, easy to create hierarchical lists/outlines, etc.
  • It's not free, but might be worth the ~$35 price tag to someone looking for a powerful listmaking/outlining tool that seamlessly syncs from desktop to PDA. (I was lucky enough to receive a license to it as a Christmas gift.)

I'm just doing my best to record everything in one of these two tools -- contact information, tasks, projects, lists, etc.

‹ Anti-Distraction-Vana for Windows Task Management Software ›
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tomrokey's picture

Windows- yup. I dont...

Submitted by tomrokey on January 23, 2006 - 1:15pm.

Windows- yup. I dont think I have ever even used a mac, all they let me have is this worn out old windows 98 with office 97 and netscape 7. something.

My trusted system is one big text Excel file. I use it as an information store for contacts, keyboard shortcuts, bookmarks to files on hardrive, websites, or internet, quotes, passwords, all my work stuff, anything that I may want to recall in the future. The system is also my todo list manager for all next action, waiting, someday. And it is my indirect filing system for paper based items.

This whole list of stuff is simply in chronological order, that is I just plunk each entry on the next line and date it.
The format is like an electronic scroll, very similar to that of Evernote. My list is close to 5,000 rows (one item = one row) long now and I average about 10 entries per day. At normal monitor resolution, my scroll would be 80 feet tall. Excel allows for around 65,000 rows on a worksheet and the next version (Excel 12) coming out soon will allow 1,000,000 rows. So I am not worried about running out of space yet.

Once a "critical mass" amount of personal information has been captured, it is amazing how easily things can be found using a natural language kind of query

For example, when is Grandma's birthday? I search for Grandma & birthday there it is!
what is my password for this board?
(I really used this one just now) 43folders & password there it is!

what is holding me up on the Jones project? @waiting & jones there it is!
where did I file the TPS Cover Sheet template? TPS & .doc there it is!
what are my current next actions? @next action there they are!

The search tools That I use to navigate this information are a pair of vba macros that have grown up with this file:

Tool 1 displays pop-up windows for each search result in sequential order beginning with the most recent. Just pound through the pop-ups until you find what you want.

Tool 2 creates an ad hoc report on a new worksheet to report all items that contain the search string.

If anybody out there would like to test drive this system, drop me an email and I will send you a copy.

Tom

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