Re: Your To-Do List

[Sean Wheller <sean -at- inwords -dot- co -dot- za>]

On Wednesday 10 January 2007 18:36, Nancy Allison wrote:
> What do you use to handle your ongoing to-do list? I want to find a
> program that does these things:
>
> 1. Relates the list to a daily calendar. Ideally, I'd like to have this
> calendar start up automatically, so as soon as I log in, it opens and
> displays the current day's list.
>
> 2. Carries forward all tasks from the previous day that I haven't marked
> as complete.
>
> 3. Keeps a historic record of each day's tasks, so I can see what I was
> doing a year and a day ago if I want.
>
> 4. Enables me to print out the to-do lists for a range of days (or months).
>
> 5. In the best of all possible worlds, enables me to link to my address
> book, the emails I've received and sent for a particular day, and notes
> (for a day, a task, whatever).
>
> I've been using an elderly copy of Mozilla, a relic of my desire to give
> Microsoft a wide berth. At this point, I'm desperate to get my calendar
> and tasks coordinated, and I'll bow to Microsoft if Outlook or some
> other product is the best for the purpose. (I will say that I tried to
> use the Outlook feature at my last job and found it odd. Hard to read,
> obscure procedures. But maybe I just didn't learn it well enough.)
>
> I have GOT to get my s--t together. Thanks for all help.

I dunno about meeting all the requirements, but when it comes to maintaining 
and executing according to a todo list it is a never ending job. So I changed 
the workflow to be more open and associate my writing todo tasks with a 
ticket request number in a system called trac.

Anyone can add a ticket and when doing so they must give some type of 
priority. Now most times, I am already the owner of a ticket and therefore 
working on it. I only own tickets that I accept and will therefore work on. 
When I accept a ticket I add time in days to completion. This information 
roles up into a roadmap against defined milestones.

Everyone can see the tickets I own and what is still unassigned and any  
person creating a new ticket can see and has to judge the priority oof their 
ticket in light of the information they have on other ticket. If they need 
something more urgently, then it is up to them to change the priority and of 
course negotiate with the current or other ticket reporters about what I do, 
in what order.

So instead of me maintaining the todo, the customer and their management do. 
Want something done? Well, raise an ECO and create a ticket for it. Without 
that, I won't even look at it.

Solves an endless amount of problems.
-- 
Sean Wheller
Technical Author
email: sean -at- inwords -dot- co -dot- za
im: seanwhe -at- jabber -dot- org
skype: seanwhe
cel: +27-84-854-9408
web: http://www.inwords.co.za
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