To-do list app

I had been searching for a good to-do list app for some time now, trying and rejecting half a dozen apps in the process. 
My search seems to have ended, for now, with To-Do Prime. 

It has most of the features I was looking for, syncs across multiple devices, can work offline, has no ads, and is free.

theme-based weekdays

In a fleeting conversation, I heard of "theme-based weekdays" and began to think how it could be implemented. Here's a possible approach.

Monday: The begin day. For many of us, the major hurdle to getting anything done is to actually start it. Hence Monday would be the day to begin all new activities.

Tuesday: Bill clearance day and repair day. The day when you pay all the monthly bills, EMIs and other dues. And place service calls to repair anything broken. Car servicing, AC maintenance, electrical repairs... And most importantly, health checkups.

Wednesday: Study day. Search for new certifications or courses. Read a book. Write a blog. Do a review of the study progress of your kids. Learn a new software.

Thursday: Communication day. Call up friends and relatives. Chat with distant ones. Wanted to meet an old friend but didnt know when? Go out and have dinner on this day. Also, this would be a buffer day to contain in any tasks that may have overflown from previous days.

Friday: Inventory day. Take a stock of your finances, as well as anything is needed in home. Check the balance sheet. Any risks? Any opportunities for more RoI? Plus, this would be a hobby day and/or social activities day, parties etc.

Saturday: Clean-up day. Remove obsolete papers and other stuff. Take backups, make space for new things. In addition, you may use this day to contribute back to the society in whatever way possible to you: Donating material to orphanages, teaching kids or planting trees.

Sunday: Family day. Spend time with your family at home. And if you need to go out, take them with you. Sunday could also be your planning day, where you sit back and think not only about the week or the month ahead but also about the medium and long term goals.

The idea here is not to limit yourself only to the activities specified for each day, but to have one focus area for every day of the week. Of course, the days and activities allotted to them would change as per each individual.

[Presentation] The ONLY 3 productivity tools you will ever need

About 4 years ago, I has posted a blog about the 3 productivity tools you will ever need.

It is heartening to see that this belief has stood steadfast and true over the years; even after four years, these three tools continue to make the biggest impact on my productivity.

I have now converted the blog article in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. It is available for viewing and download on SlideShare. 

The 3 productivity tools you need

You want to streamline your work, be more productive, and be more efficient. You take a look around and find productivity tools and techniques galore, enough to intimidate you back into the un-managed ways.

So, what is the easiest -- and probably the best! -- way to go about getting started with getting things done in a systematic way, without investing too much time and effort into myriad approaches?

From personal experience, I would say just three tools are sufficient to do the trick:

1. To-Do list
2. Checklist 
3. Reminder mechanism

Let's see how to use these...

•  THE TO-DO LIST: WHAT to do A good to-do list should consist of two parts. One part should have the task-lists. Tasks are the chores that you need to repeatedly perform with some regular frequency, such as sending out a status report every Friday, or, washing your car every 15 days.
  
  More details about creating task-lists can be read here. The second part of the to-do list should have action items specific for the particular day (or week), such as a meeting with software analyst or attending a wedding reception at 9 PM.
  
  Tools: 
  For the office work, I used StickyPad earlier. But now I use the Tasks feature of Microsoft Outlook. It integrates nicely with e-mail and calendar features (see below) and has almost all the features one could ask for. 
  For personal work, I extensively use the Notes and To-Do List features of my cellphone.
  
  Success Mantra: The key is to have specific, actionable items on your to-do list. For example, "I want to reduce weight" is merely a wish; you need to convert it to something like "Jogging for 30 minutes every morning from 7 AM to 7:30 AM". Now, this becomes an action-item.
  Some say that the best time to chalk out a to-do list is just before you go to sleep or early in the morning before you set out for the day. Well, I don’t have a specific time to update the to-do list; but just go on adding to it whenever a task presents itself.

•  THE CHECKLIST: HOW to do
  Checklists are a list of items that help you either to perform a task in the best possible manner or to verify if a completed task meets the requirements. Hence, the checklists can basically be of two types: pre-emptive and corrective. For example, a checklist that you use while conducting a software release is a pre-emptive checklist, whereas a code review checklist is a corrective checklist.
  
  I have always been big on checklists, so reading The Checklist Manifesto by Dr Atul Gawande was a comforting feeling!
  
  Tools:
  As of now, I am not using any particular tool to create and manage the checklists. They are mostly scribbled on a paper notepad or saved in MS-Excel.
  
  Success Mantra: 
  The key is to be honest with oneself while using the checklists. It’s a tall order, but you can always try! You need to force yourself to acknowledge that you have skipped some essential steps during a procedure or that your finished work doesn’t satisfy all the expectations. This will not only help you brace yourself for any glitches ahead but will also –hopefully – forewarn you against making the same errors again in future.

• REMINDERS: WHEN to do
  Most of us use reminders. The hitch is that most of us don't really act on them when the alarm goes off, instead preferring to hit the snooze button.
  It helps if you set two reminders for each task, one for any preparatory actions you need to perfrom and the second one for the actual task.
  For example, your buddy's birthday is on 1-September and you wish to get your buddy a present.  Then it's not a good idea to set only one reminder for 1-September. Better set a reminder a week before so that you have sufficient time to go out and buy that gift.
  
  Tools: For office work, I use the Calendar feature of Microsoft Outlook. It integrates nicely with e-mail and Tasks feature (see above) and has almost all the features one could ask for.
  
  For personal work, I use the Calendar as well as Reminders features of my cellphone.
  
  Success Mantra:
  The key here is to make your calendar sacred, something that no one can override… not even you, not without a good reason at least. If you mark a time-slot for studying Linux then hanging out in a mall with friends during that time should be avoided, however tempting it might be.
  
  Of course, you cannot always have things your way. If you mark a Friday evening to watch a football match on TV and your wife informs, “We are visiting my folks today evening”, it would be wise not to insist too much on preserving the integrity of your calendar.

Using these three basic tools in a disciplined way is guaranteed to bring a huge improvement in your productivity and efficiency.

Using Task-Lists

In the office, we are required to send a weekly status report and a monthly timesheet report to our customers. Once having to rush them at the last moment due to temporary memory lapse, I set up tasks for these two items in Microsoft Outlook and configured them to run on weekly and monthly basis.

Since then, there was never a missed report.
And that got me thinking: how about extending the idea of task lists?

A significant amount of the tasks that we do routinely iterative in nature; be it shopping for grocery or paying our bills. Yet, more often than not, we keep forgetting to do them on time, just because we forget. The idea of task-list is to set up a process that will take the pain out of remembering.

It can be broken down in a 5-step process:

1. Identify:
Sit down and make a list of all the tasks you do. Brainstorm. Ask your spouse, parents. Ask your office peers. Consider all the facets of your life:

• Financial (paying bills, loan premiums)
• Social (calling up friends, visits to relatives)
• Professional (sending status reports, taking data backups)
• Spiritual(yoga classes)
• Recreational (watching movies, reading books, going to gym, swimming classes)

Jot down as many tasks as you can. Having said that, also keep in mind that identifying the tasks is not a one-time job. As days progress, you will think of more and more tasks.

 2. Classify:

From the list, classify the tasks depending on their frequency, as follows:

• Weekly
• Monthly
• Bi-Monthly
• Quarterly

A few tasks could even be on a yearly basis.
Some tasks will classify themselves. For example: a weekly status report will go in a Weekly task-list. Payment of bills and premiums is most likely to be a Monthly task.
For the tasks that are not so clearly well-defined, you will need to take into consideration their priority and importance. For example, consider washing/servicing of your vehicle. Do you need to do it on a weekly basis, or will once a month suffice? It will depend on the nature of its use. Weekly and monthly are the major task-lists.

3. Configure:

Set up the task-lists using a medium on your choice. The lists can be maintained on your computer, mobile phone or even on paper. It wouldn’t be advisable to carry them in your head though, for the primary purpose of creating task-lists is to free yourself from remembering tasks to be done!
  
4. Implement:
The most important part is to actually implement the task-lists. It might come difficult for a first few weeks, but once you realize how they make life easier, you will feel encouraged to use them!

 

 5. Review:

Review all the task-lists to add/edit/replace/remove the necessary tasks. In fact, include the task-list review as an action item in preferably a Quarterly task-list!

Hushsh! Seems like a lot of work, does it? Well, rest assured that it worth the effort, for it saves the headache.

A few pointers:

• Note that task-lists work best for activities that are iterative in nature.
• Be flexible. Do not let the task-list rule you. In case of an impromptu event, such as a quick movie plan or a last minute invitation to attend a party, feel free to ignore the scheduled tasks for a while. Over a period of time, you will be better than striking a balance.
• If you find a particular tasks being side-lined all too often, consider changing its scheduled time, day, or even shifting its frequency. For example: it’s not really necessary to defrag you system once every week, you can set it to every month or so.
• Although tasks-lists are meant to be an individual activity, it is recommended that you share your task-lists with people close to you, especially spouses, parents and close office colleagues. Not only does this give them a better idea of your schedule, you will also be able to delegate some of the tasks to them.