Managing To-Do Lists

From ml2sig

Current revision

[edit] who is here

• Dave Carter, User:superman, superman@
• Britain Woodman User:britainw
• Mike Creech, Grad Library
• Nicole Scholtz
• Edward Vielmetti, User:emv, emv@, http://annarbor.com/vielmetti
• Molly Kleinman, Library Admin
• Kamala Nautiyal, Library South Asia Collectin
• Patricia Anderson, User:pfa, pfa@, emerging technologies librarian
• Kate Saylor, Library Outreach Librarian
• Drew Burton, ams
• Julie Weatherbee, Library Desktop Support Services
• Ken Varnum, Library Web Systems User:varnum, varnum@
• sevi
• Melissa Levine, Library Copyright Officer
• language resource center
• Sue Wortman, Social Work Librarian
• Kat Hagedorn, Digital Library
• Aaron McCollough, Scholarly Publishing
• Suzanne Chapman, Interface Specialist. Evernote. Copresenter.
• Shana Kimball, Scholarly Publishing. Things. Copresenter

[edit] what do people use

wins and fails, getting things done, task management.

• google notebook; not currently supported
• evernote
• google docs
• "things", mac only and iphone; $$$
• Microsoft Exchange.

[edit] URLs mentioned

• http://profhacker.com - productivity in higher education
• http://culturedcode.com/things/ - Things software
• http://www.profhacker.com/2010/01/14/putting-the-things-in-gtd-managing-an-academic-life-with-cultured-codes-things/
• http://www.evernote.com/
• http://culturedcode.com/things/wiki/index.php?title=Is_there_a_Quicksilver_plugin_for_Things%3F_(FAQ) quicksilver + things
• http://www.appigo.com/todo/ - "appigo todo", iphone app
• http://rememberthemilk.com - "remember the milk"
• http://www.basecamp.com - Base Camp, project management
• http://www.myintervals.com/ - project management, time tracking
• http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda - hipster pda
• http://journler.com - development has ended, company shutting down, still nice.

[edit] using Things

Things can be used to do the Getting Things Done style of personal task management, which is based on managing lists, creating contexts, tasks, categories.

• Things: difference between projects and areas; focus area, "some day"
• keyboard shortcut command-spacebar from anywhere to create new tasks.
• projects: all kinds of activity for a specific date, that is checked off and done when it's done
• areas: long lived categories where there are things to do inside a set of focus, undated
• logbook: things that are done but you keep track of them, vs. trash for things done and gone. use for weekly, monthly reporting.

Sync: between Things and Things for iPhone; only works on wifi or plugged in, or sync with DropBox. Profhacker post

Not synchronized with Outlook and Exchange; separates tasks from calendars and events.

Separation of "note to self" vs. task lists. Shared with a team in Google Docs; capture thoughs in Evernote. Things has a notes field, plain text not a fancy word processor.

[edit] using Evernote

• http://www.evernote.com
• http://blog.evernote.com

less task based organization.

doesn't use tags; forces lexical sorting e.g "/// MASTER TODO" sorts at top.

uses: master todo list, meeting notes, recipes, design morgue, collection of inspirational, things that look cool for different reasons, cool icons etc etc. isiring scrapbook. commonplace book.

[edit] pros

don't like a way to share things, only if they are evernote users, doesn't share inside the interface; have to go into the other application.

space limitations for free account. everything lives in the cloud, all synced to the cloud, but don't need to be connected to net to use the computer. fails occasionally in mobile.

local computer has a copy of everything that's stored, which means you get spotlight too. ocr's all of your stuff, including handwriting, import via webcam.

clipping service via firefox plugin, import via twitter, email, etc.

[edit] cons

export isn't great; sharing isn't great; tables don't work well