Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-)
I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it.
Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries?
A blog *might* do what I want but I need easy ways to search and/or browse through entries by date and a way to remind myself to do things. I don't think blogs usually allow one to create future entries and or planning sections do they?
I suppose a project planning utility might be what I'm after but they often seem a bit too much oriented towards large multi-person projects. I will go and do some looking on this front though as it isn't a way I've thought of going before.
Could you do something with google docs/calendar? At least its web based and all secure behind your google login. Could always use the blogger which google own too
James Elsey
2010/1/8 Chris G cl@isbd.net:
Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-)
I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it.
Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries?
A blog *might* do what I want but I need easy ways to search and/or browse through entries by date and a way to remind myself to do things. I don't think blogs usually allow one to create future entries and or planning sections do they?
I suppose a project planning utility might be what I'm after but they often seem a bit too much oriented towards large multi-person projects. I will go and do some looking on this front though as it isn't a way I've thought of going before.
-- Chris Green
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On Fri, Jan 08, 2010 at 03:05:54PM +0000, James Elsey wrote:
2010/1/8 Chris G cl@isbd.net:
Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-)
I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it.
Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries?
A blog *might* do what I want but I need easy ways to search and/or browse through entries by date and a way to remind myself to do things. I don't think blogs usually allow one to create future entries and or planning sections do they?
I suppose a project planning utility might be what I'm after but they often seem a bit too much oriented towards large multi-person projects. I will go and do some looking on this front though as it isn't a way I've thought of going before.
Could you do something with google docs/calendar? At least its web based and all secure behind your google login. Could always use the blogger which google own too
It's possible, I don't know what the Google apps look like really, I'll go and have a play (I do already have a Google ID).
One thing I've realised that I really *DO* want is a way to present future events which isn't day/week/month based. What I want is a simple list of events, if there are ten events in the next two days I will see a list of ten lines, if there are ten events in the next year I will see a list of ten lines. I don't really care how far ahead or how far apart the events are, I just want to see what the next 'n' things I have to do are.
Thinking a little further my ideal would be a web page with an entry (one or two lines) for each event with a date/time and a short description. Clicking on the entry would take me to a page dedicated to that even with links, more details, etc.
It could be built simply as HTML but it would be nice to have some facilities for raising alarms etc.
On Fri, 2010-01-08 at 15:57 +0000, Chris G wrote:
It could be built simply as HTML but it would be nice to have some facilities for raising alarms etc.
Adding to my previous message on the subject Remember The Milk has the facility for periodic reminder e-mails and the mobile phone clients have the option of notifications with sound etc.
Also, on the ToodleDo website is a comparison table that lists various other similar services which could be a good start.
http://www.toodledo.com/info/compare.php
Steve.
On Sat, Jan 09, 2010 at 06:43:16PM +0000, Steve Fosdick wrote:
On Fri, 2010-01-08 at 15:57 +0000, Chris G wrote:
It could be built simply as HTML but it would be nice to have some facilities for raising alarms etc.
Adding to my previous message on the subject Remember The Milk has the facility for periodic reminder e-mails and the mobile phone clients have the option of notifications with sound etc.
Also, on the ToodleDo website is a comparison table that lists various other similar services which could be a good start.
Thanks for this and other pointers. During my searches I too have come across "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I think he highlights my reasons for not finding a calendar/diary to my liking but his alternatives don't really do it for me either.
Looking at the (fairly simple) task lists in Evolution, Sunbird, etc. they do quite a bit of what I want *but* they really don't link well with web pages. Links in Evolution tasks are just broken (for me anyway, and others report the same issue), links in Sunbird work OK but pop up in Firefox running on a different screen (if that's where it's running) which isn't integrated enough for me I'm afraid.
I have installed a caldav server (davical) and that provides multi-user web based tasks etc. but, as far as I can tell, there are few good caldav clients, especially not web based ones.
I'll keep looking, I may just end up using web pages I build myself (using reStructuredText to make it easy) and a task list of some sort in the background.
On 09-Jan-10 22:09:40, Chris G wrote:
On Sat, Jan 09, 2010 at 06:43:16PM +0000, Steve Fosdick wrote:
On Fri, 2010-01-08 at 15:57 +0000, Chris G wrote:
It could be built simply as HTML but it would be nice to have some facilities for raising alarms etc.
Adding to my previous message on the subject Remember The Milk has the facility for periodic reminder e-mails and the mobile phone clients have the option of notifications with sound etc.
Also, on the ToodleDo website is a comparison table that lists various other similar services which could be a good start.
Thanks for this and other pointers. During my searches I too have come across "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I think he highlights my reasons for not finding a calendar/diary to my liking but his alternatives don't really do it for me either.
Looking at the (fairly simple) task lists in Evolution, Sunbird, etc. they do quite a bit of what I want *but* they really don't link well with web pages. Links in Evolution tasks are just broken (for me anyway, and others report the same issue), links in Sunbird work OK but pop up in Firefox running on a different screen (if that's where it's running) which isn't integrated enough for me I'm afraid.
I have installed a caldav server (davical) and that provides multi-user web based tasks etc. but, as far as I can tell, there are few good caldav clients, especially not web based ones.
I'll keep looking, I may just end up using web pages I build myself (using reStructuredText to make it easy) and a task list of some sort in the background.
-- Chris Green
It may be worth loking at 'plan':
http://www.bitrot.de/plan.html
There is more to it than meets the eye at forst sight! Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Jan-10 Time: 23:42:01 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On Sat, Jan 09, 2010 at 11:42:03PM -0000, Ted Harding wrote:
On 09-Jan-10 22:09:40, Chris G wrote:
I have installed a caldav server (davical) and that provides multi-user web based tasks etc. but, as far as I can tell, there are few good caldav clients, especially not web based ones.
I'll keep looking, I may just end up using web pages I build myself (using reStructuredText to make it easy) and a task list of some sort in the background.
-- Chris Green
It may be worth loking at 'plan':
http://www.bitrot.de/plan.html
There is more to it than meets the eye at forst sight! Ted.
Unless I have missed something it has the same fundamental problem (for me) that many other programs have, it's locked into the week, month, year view of things that I don't want.
On 08/01/2010 14:45, Chris G wrote:
Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-)
I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it.
A text editor of some sort, and remember to read it, then you can't forget.
Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries?
I am not sure, but if not you can most definitely put notes.
A blog *might* do what I want but I need easy ways to search and/or browse through entries by date and a way to remind myself to do things. I don't think blogs usually allow one to create future entries and or planning sections do they?
Wordpress for one, does. But then that is self hosted.
Failing this I have it on good authority that a combination of tikiwiki/unison may be the way to go.
At Fri, 8 Jan 2010 14:45:58 +0000, Chris G wrote:
Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-)
I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it.
Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries?
A blog *might* do what I want but I need easy ways to search and/or browse through entries by date and a way to remind myself to do things. I don't think blogs usually allow one to create future entries and or planning sections do they?
I suppose a project planning utility might be what I'm after but they often seem a bit too much oriented towards large multi-person projects. I will go and do some looking on this front though as it isn't a way I've thought of going before.
My biased opinion would be org-mode http://orgmode.org/. It's very "textful" (as you put it) and doesn't impose many restrictions on how you organise your stuff. Essentially, you just make (structured) lists and can tag items. Org-mode provides built-in semantics for tags which are dates (scheduling or deadlining), and for TODO and DONE statuses. It also provides methods for viewing and searching your notes based on various criteria (such as date, TODO status).
You do need to be quite comfortable with Emacs, but that's never a bad thing.
There are numerous tutorials available, including one by me! It covers Emacs, org-mode, David Allen's "Getting Things Done" method, and using org-mode for GTD. http://musariada.mus.uea.ac.uk/~richard/orgmode-gtd.pdf
On Fri, 2010-01-08 at 14:45 +0000, Chris G wrote:
Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-)
I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it.
Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries?
I have recently been reading the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. One of his recommendations is that one only uses a calendar or diary for things that must been done at exactly the time concerned (which is usually because you are meeting someone else to do it).
For things that must be done by a certain date, or which can be started any time after a certain date he recommends a "To Do" list where the items are organised both by project and by context, where context is such things as location and the availability of equipment like a phone or PC which enables you to do the task. The idea here is to maximise the use of an opportunity so, for example, if you live in the county and have tagged all those tasks that need to be done in town, whenever you go into town you can view just those tasks and see how many you can complete on that visit.
There are on-line "to do list" managers some of which support this methodology to varying degrees and some of which sync with various other things.
I am currently using "Remember The Milk" http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ which enables items to be put onto one of a number of lists and tagged with a due date, a location, a time estimate, a priority, a URL and various user defined tags. Notes can also be attached to a task to give supporting information.
By default tasks can be viewed by due date or by which list they appear on though there is a search facility and it is possible to save a set of search criteria into a virtual list so one can see, for example, all tasks tagged as "next action" (not waiting for anything else), all tasks of a certain priority, due on or before a specific date or need a phone or the internet etc.
There is a mobile-optimised version of the web interface (I haven't tried it) and there are some dedicated client programs for some smart phones (includes iPhone, Android, Blackberry Windows Mobile) as well as some integration options (including Gmail and Google Calendar).
Another similar service is ToodleDo (http://www.toodledo.com/) which looks promising but I am not currently using because of the lack of a good Android application for it.
I suppose a project planning utility might be what I'm after but they often seem a bit too much oriented towards large multi-person projects. I will go and do some looking on this front though as it isn't a way I've thought of going before.
David came to the same conclusion - that formal project planning packages are usually to formalised and complicated for managing one's own personal projects.
HTH, Steve.
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Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk