just an asterisk

To me, a productivity tool has to have three components:

1. It has to be invincible – rendered illegible by flying coffee or left on bus cannot be reasons to miss a task. I love paper, but hate that it burns, smudges, rips, etc. Digital was the only answer.

2. It has to be everywhere – Paper didn’t just lose because I’m a klutz – I’m also forgetful. A digital task system, accessible from every device I’ve ever owned AND anyone’s computer, was the perfect solution. I couldn’t leave it behind.

3. It has to be simple – If entering a task takes 10 minutes, I’m not going to do it. Duh.

When I decided on those 3 rules above, I never thought about the data that I would generate after using these tools for 4 years. On a lark, I went through three months of data today in Toodledo and was amazed. It’s actually interesting!

Although it’s thoroughly geek, I thought I’d share, just to show how powerful the data we’re generating can be. I’m not sharing anything personal, professional or even the numbers. The graphs of relative values speak volumes.

First thing I did was pull my tasks completed by month from Toodledo.

The result made sense: Late November, I started using Toodledo. December was spent working my tail off. January was when my little girl was born – huge dip there – but by February, I was completing tasks again at full force. March I started a new job, so mid-way through the month, we’re already heading for a record breaker.

Next I tried to find a trend, something to make it more than just a total. Here is how I complete tasks based on the days of the week:

Interesting eh? I come out of the weekend strong, completing fewer and fewer tasks until Friday, when I  push before the weekend. My theory here is one word: meetings. As the week goes on, I have more and more meetings, reducing the time I have to complete my tasks. There is something to explore here…

My personal tasks, often the lesser quantity, generally don’t get done on Saturday and therefore Sunday is higher. This probably contributes to that sinking feeling I get on Sunday when I have to pack in my tasks and try to enjoy the last of the weekend.  Again, something to explore…

Next I grabbed the planned due date of my tasks:

What I love about this data is that it shows how I think about tasks too… These are the tasks by the day I schedule them for. Notice that I tend to come out of the weekend with a lot scheduled for Monday, but Tuesday – Friday, I plan to complete pretty much the same number of tasks. To me, this supports the meetings idea – I’m adding tasks to the list because new things are coming up. However, as we saw before, I’m not completing them.

In a similar story, on the weekend, I tend to forget how hard is to complete tasks on Saturday and I schedule equal efforts for both days.

Finally, I decided to compare how I’m finishing tasks this month vs last month:

The month isn’t over yet, but it looks like I’m getting better at closing out  my tasks on Fridays and keeping a steady stream of completions going through the week. Thursday is still a low point for me. I’m sure it’s related to meetings, but it’s a point of focus for improvement!

After playing with all this data from Toodledo, I exported my data from Remember the Milk going back to 2007 and did the same sort of analysis, finding almost identical results. I’ll spare you the details, but one favorite was that I seem to start the year off strong in January every year, but slow down as the summer approaches. I guess that’s why my resolution each year is to be more organized :)

Thanks for indulging me. The bigger point is that I was collecting this data without really thinking about it. I wonder where else I’m capturing useful information that could improve my efficiency? I’ll poke around and get back to you.

~ab

Two lifehacker posts are the inspiration for this article (this one about hacking your password and this one about checking how secure your password is).

We’ve all experienced it – that infuriating moment just a day or two after a password change when you realize that you’ve forgotten what you chose (although you’re certain that it was witty and brilliant).  In truth, there isn’t much that I can do for your lost passwords… but I can probably help you create *better* passwords that might be easier to remember. Read more »

A while back, I wrote a pretty scant description of Texter from Lifehacker.com.  Please be forgiving, it was one of my first posts!  I bring it up because, although I don’t want to make a habit of rewriting old posts, I use Texter daily in ways that I never mentioned before.  Therefore, here are my updated uses for Texter:

1. Fast greetings: I sign most emails with either “Thanks, {Return}Alex” or “Best, {Return}Alex”.  To save some time, I use “t,” and “b,” for those phrases, respectively.  This permits me to quickly finish an email and then send (using Alt + s in Microsoft Outlook or Tab then Space in Gmail).

2. Personal data: If I type “Addy”, Texter types out my home address.  ”mynum” types out my phone number.  Both of these are simple time savers that I’ve used a lot while communicating travel plans or shipping information.  When I was in the UK, I used “uknum” for my local phone number.

3. Loyalty info: “starwood#”, “skymiles#”, “wbs#” and about a dozen other word + # combinations make up my library of travel numbers.  As a frequent traveler, I got tired to looking at my cards or a spreadsheet to keep track of all my numbers.  Instead, I just type “hhonors#” and Texter inserts my Hilton Honors number.

4. Dates: “dt” and “dts” are the Texter codes I use for long date and short date respectively.  One of the great features of Texter is the inclusion of built-in commands.  In this case, I put %dl in the replacement text for “dt”.  This tells Texter that when I type “dt”, I want today’s long date (Monday, 30th of July 2010).  %ds produces a mm/dd/yy value instead.

5. Email lists: I find that email programs are generally quite annoying when you want to maintain groups of people in mailing lists.  For each program you have to setup your contacts into lists.  Instead, if I have a group of people that I’m emailing often, I just create a “@emaillist” hotstring, which tells Texter to put in my list of email addresses.  This can be a great time saver if you switch between Outlook and Gmail regularly.

6. Quick replies: For the same reason as number 5, Form emails are another great use for Texter.  If I type @Comment into Gmail or Outlook, Texter asks me who I want to write to (a little prompt appears) and then puts in “Hi person, Thanks for your comment on Justanasterisk.com. I’ve posted a reply to your message which you can see on the site.  Best, ab”  Obviously, person is the name that Texter asked me to provide in the beginning.  If you want to try this, include %p in your script.

7. Meeting details: Meetings inevitably require a ton of similar information.  One thing that I use constantly is “mtg#’ which inserts my dial-in number and meeting ID for the participants.

In the end, Texter is a tool that can really speed up your Windows work.  I started with a small number of uses, but the list has grown.  I don’t recommend trying to think of every use for Texter at once.  Instead, it’s easiest just to start using it for a few things and then add as the inspiration strikes you.  Also, make sure you go back and delete the Texter hotstrings that you don’t really use.  I find that this helps avoid problems and unexpected results.

Good luck and share any cool ideas you have in the comments!

~ab

Has anyone ever asked you if you’ve defragged your hard-drive?  Ever wondered what the heck that means?  People often refer to this mystical process as something “you should do” or as the cure all for a slow computer.  The truth – it’s useful and important, but like the magic bullet of any get rich/healthy/smart quick scheme, on it’s own, it’s just a tool. Read more »

Now for the second part on shortcuts…  The last post was about shortcuts that lead you somewhere, but this one is going to be about the kind of shortcuts that save you time, also known as Keyboard Shortcuts.

Read more »

This is a two parter – mainly because there are two useful types of shortcuts available to the world.  The first, and the topic of this article, is the kind of shortcut you find on your desktop.

Read more »