RE: Mutlitasking and time management

["Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com>]

Thinking about your ABC time management system, I'm reminded of an idea
I had a while ago which I'm surprised nobody's developed (if someone
actually has, tell me, I want this!)

It's a piece of software that allows you to specify due dates and
escalation paths for projects.  For example, you could specify:

Essential projects: C until two months before due date, whereupon it
becomes B until one month before due date, whereupon it becomes A
Nice-to-haves: D until one month before due date, whereupon it becomes C
until one week before due date, whereupon it becomes B

You just enter each project with a due date and an escalation path, the
software automatically escalates the importance as the project due date
approaches, and every day a little window pops up to tell you what it's
most important for you to be doing.

If I could be bothered to learn the appropriate languages, I'd write it
myself :)

----------------------------------------- 
Sarah Bouchier 
Technical Author 

exony 


>Going back to a time-management class that I took about 6 or 7 years
>ago, at lunch time today, I'm going to write down all of the things
that
>I have to do (in no particular order). I will categorize each of these
>things as A, B, or C where:
>
> A = Must be done ASAP
> B = Should be done soon
> C = Nice to do/doesn't need to be done soon
>
>After each item has a letter, those in the A category will get a number
>with 1 being the most important. No two items are allowed to have the
>same number. When I'm done with that, I can see exactly what I have to
>work on first, and it might be easier to make myself stick to it. No B
>and C items will be allowed to knock my attention from the A item that
>I'm working on. When I check off item A1, I will move onto item A2, and
>so on. Every now and then, when I get a free moment, I can try to work
>in a B or a C, but it can't make me stop working on the letter A items.
>
>When I used this method years ago, it was surprisingly effective, but I
>stopped doing it because it does take some time to do, and I had
>convinced myself that I didn't have the time to do it. What I'm finding
>now is that I don't have the time NOT to do this. Alternating between
>four things for 15 minutes an hour in eight cycles a day is not the
same
>as devoting 2 hours to each one. The first method will result in little
>or no progress while the second will allow me to check some things off
>as "done" on a regular basis.
>
>
>I hope this helps some other people who are stretched too thin and
don't
>know what to do to start. Happy Friday, everyone!
>
>Donna
>
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