Okay, so MLO Light isn’t going to work for me - no date functions. Fine, let’s see if the pro edition pleases me for the next 45 days - isn’t that nice - a month and half trial! I can always just buy the somewhat cheaper Standard version. Although, it would be sooooo cool to be able to push recurring tasks into Outlook when they come due.

I’ve posted a rather long post on the MLO user forum. Let’s see if I get any help from there :)

Categories: GTD, outlook, MLO

I decided to go back to MLO again and see if I couldn’t beat it into submission. An old post from Bob on the MLO User Forum suggests downloading the testers version of the sync specification and reading it. I’ve just tried this. It gave me the idea that maybe if I put my project name in [ ] AFTER the task (in the subject line), then MLO should be able to figure it out. Nope. No go. No joy for me.

Then the document suggests using the Palm Standard mode for syncing. Still have the same problems with losing my [project] from my outlook tasks. In addition, tasks that are brought over from MLO now have strange alpha-numeric prefixes, like ·A01· New Task. Sigh……

Maybe I’ll post a question or two over on their forum and see what happens. Wish me luck.

Categories: GTD, outlook, MLO

I’ve heard good things online about My Life Organized and so it was one of the first programs I turned to in my search for the ultimate checklist and recurring task program. (I took a brief look at Life Balance but decided it was too heavy-weight and besides, I know my life is unbalanced!)

I use Outlook with my Palm. I was intrigued by how MLO was supposed to be able to integrate with the Outlook task list. Unfortunately, I’m obviously not smart enough to figure it out. The first time I tried to sync MLO and Outlook, I promptly LOST ALL OF MY OUTLOOK DATA. All of it! ARGH! Thankfully, I had just performed a hotsync and was able to recover everything by having my Palm override the desktop. Phew. That was scary.

Then I decided to start experimenting with MLO and syncing to Outlook - people do it, so I should be able to figure out. Three hours later, and I’m stumped. I finally got it to the point where MLO tasks copied themselves over nicely, with MLO projects being turned into [Project] in the subject line, which matches nicely with my Outlook setup, where [ ] at the beginning of the subject line populate the Project field. Even the deadlines came over. I was even able to get the Places in MLO to translate to Contexts in Outlook - and that was a serious pain. All in all, you need to use the Advanced syncing features and be very very careful with the settings (and don’t forget the mapping between MLO places and Outlook categories).

The only thing I couldn’t get to work was importing tasks from Outlook nicely into MLO, everything I did basically stripped the project information from the task. Which wouldn’t be such a big deal, since I’m not giving up on Outlook and don’t mind if the info is missing in MLO. But the information was being stripped in Outlook too! Argh.

So, I decided to just push the MLO tasks (the ones that would be visible in that program’s To Do list, so I could just import the next few days worth of stuff) into Outlook. But there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that. The options for syncing are Outlook -> MLO, MLO -> Outlook, MLO Outlook. The last one was making me lost my project information so I figured that MLO -> Outlook would be perfect. Except that it doesn’t just import the tasks into Outlook - it OVERWRITES them. In other words, what I ended up with was the MLO tasks only. Sigh.

And then (imagine my voice rising in pitch with every paragraph), I decided to try one more time - and what happened? I LOST EVERYTHING IN BOTH PROGRAMS. ARGH. This seems to have something to do with a bug/feature in MLO that after you change sync settings, you really need to do some fancy footwork so you don’t lose/corrupt your data. Yeesh.

So much for a trusted system. Even if I figured out what the heck I was doing wrong, I still don’t think I could trust this system. What happens if all my NAs get overwritten? How will I remember what was supposed to be in that list? I’m really disappointed. I even tried surfing through their FAQ and member forum, but couldn’t find anything on point. I’m thinking about just forgetting about this program for now.

On the other hand, all of this fancy syncing stuff is available in the Pro version only, which costs $$$. They do offer a lite-version, that I’m going to look at next. Perhaps I don’t really need to be able to sync with Outlook (and then Palm). I could just put one recurring task in my Outlook task list that tells me to check MLO to see if any recurring tasks are due today. I shall try that next. After I restore my Outlook data.

Categories: GTD, outlook, MLO

On my way to finding a better alternative for checklists and recurring tasks, I ran into a blog post about Cheklist Power & Scheduling Procrastination. No help on the software front, but I thought that the concept of scheduling in the “not-so-good” things into your day intriguing. I’ve taken to surfing blogs at lunch time, which I don’t count as procrastination, because it is my lunch break after all. That way, I know I’m going to get my fix, and I don’t feel guilty about it. There’s definitely something to be said for not feeling guilty :).

Categories: GTD, productivity

There have been many posts on the David Allen Company GTD Forum, discussing the concepts of checklists and recurring lists. How to implement these beasts in Outlook, on the Palm, etc. I have tended to skim these posts only, since I thought I had a pretty good solution. 1. I don’t really use checklists, and those that I have, I just keep as scrap notes in Outlook notes. 2. I’ve been using the Stickies program to create reminders/ticklers for my recurring tasks. (Create a sticky note on your desktop and put it to sleep until you want to be tickled. Can also set up recurring tasks. One of my favourite programs!)

However, I decided today that I was getting too many recurring tasks - it’s all well and good to use stickies for say a dozen reminders, but more than that and I start to wonder. Is the system really “trusted” for me? Can I easily answer the following questions: Have I input recurring task X? When does task Y happen again anyway? And really, what about backup?

As an aside - note that I don’t just put recurring tasks strait into outlook because I don’t want to see that many tasks in my next actions lists. I mean really, do I want to have a task for watering the rubber tree? I need one, because I only water it every other week, but I don’t need to see that in my outlook lists.

In addition, the stickies aren’t that great for checklists, such as my newly minted “End of Month Project List Review”, where I decide which of my projects really deserves to be current. Sure, I could keep the items in a note, or a sticky, but I really want to have something that I can use as an actual checklist, i.e., ticking little boxes.

So, we’re off to experiment…

Categories: GTD, Outlook