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Nancy Allison wondered: <<What do you use to handle your ongoing to-
do list? I want to find a program that does these things...>>
I'm a do-it-myself kind of guy, plus I'm a cheapskate <g>, so I
manage my tasks using the simplest of all possible solutions.
Context: I primarily do small (typically up to 1 day's work per job)
scientific editing and French translation for a large number of
clients. So I get a shipload of small jobs that arrive over the
course of the week. Home office, so no need for any particular
security precautions.
For things that work well on a calendar, I use nothing more
complicated than the iCal software that comes with every Mac. I've
set the computer to boot up automatically every morning and set iCal
to launch automatically, so when I arrive at my desk, the first thing
I see is the day's and week's schedule. It's easy for me to use the
calendar to visually display my coming day, week, or month, and to
shuffle stuff around as priorities change. For manuscript- or project-
level to-do lists, I use nothing more complex than a Word file, with
bulleted entries for the steps; as appropriate, I add milestone dates
to various bullets.
To keep my life organized, I created a folder called "Editing work"
that sits on my desktop. This folder contains aliases (what Windows
calls "shortcuts") to each client's folder or to subfolders for
different types of jobs. Each folder contains the aforementioned Word
file with details of what needs to be done. Each alias is named using
a standard naming convention: due date + client name. So a typical
alias might be named "Jan. 18--Hart report editing". The Mac desktop
(technically, the Finder) is smart enough to sort these folders into
correct date order based on these titles, so reading the list from
top to bottom shows me exactly what I have to do first, and when all
the other work is due.
Since some deadlines are firm whereas others are soft (i.e., I said
I'd try to get it done by that date, but warned the client it might
take a bit longer if the prevous jobs took longer than expected), I
use the color label property offered by the Finder to distinguish
between the two types of deadlines: jobs actually due on the
indicated date are labeled red; the others aren't. If a soft deadline
does have an eventual deadline, I change the date to a range of due
dates (e.g., Jan. 18-25--Hart report), but add the red color label to
remind me the end of that date range is firm.
All I need to do each morning is glance at the folder, and compare
the dates in the aliases with the current date, and voila: my work
for the day is instantly prioritized. The first file in the list gets
done first, unless the deadline for a red-labeled file is approaching
soon.
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