I'm a book editor by day and a writer and programmer by night, which means I have dozens of projects going at any one time, and numerous tasks for each project. I've been looking for a way to manage all that and have finally figured out a system (using Microsoft Outlook) that seems to work. Hoping others might find my system useful, I decided to pass it on in this newsletter. Here's the procedure (which is not as complicated as it looks with all this explanation):
1. Create broad Outlook categories for the areas you need to manage (click Edit > Categories). For example, I have categories for Editorium, Home, Personal, Publishing, Work Chores, Work Projects, and Writing. But the actual category names look like this:
$Editorium
#Home
#Personal
$Publishing
*Work Chores
*Work Projects
$Writing
Why the symbols? So the categories will sort like this--
$Editorium
$Publishing
$Writing
#Home
#Personal
*Work Chores
*Work Projects
--thus grouping the categories by broader areas. (You'll notice I have three categories that I hope will make some money aside from my day job. There's always that possibility!)
Unfortunately, Outlook doesn't (at least in the 2002 version) handle subcategories, but you can overcome that limitation by creating "compound" categories like these:
$Editorium:Programs
$Editorium:Documentation
$Editorium:Marketing
I also have categories for the *kinds* of work I have to do:
.Editing
.Reconciling proofs
.Checking corrections
.Indexing
.Marketing
.Programming
.Debugging
I'll explain why later.
2. Create an Outlook task (CTRL + SHIFT + K) for each project you need to work on. For example, a few of my projects are:
Revamp website
Create new program
Write editing book
As you create a project, assign it to one of those broad categories you created earlier (click the Categories button on the lower right of your task). For example, "Revamp website" has the $Editorium category. Give each project a due date.
3. Create at least one task (CTRL + SHIFT + K) for each project. In my "Revamp website" project, for example, one of my tasks is "Create new design." Give the task the same category as the project it belongs to (in my case, $Editorium). Then click the Details tab, and in the space for Billing Information, enter the name of the project: "Revamp website." This task is now associated not only with the category but also with a specific project under that category. (Note that you can have multiple projects under one category.) Give your task a start date (the date on which you want to do the task) but not a due date. Why? Because projects have due dates but tasks do not.
4. So you can see and manage all of your projects and tasks in context, create a View for them (in just *14* easy steps--yow!). You'll only need to do this once:
a. Make sure you're in the Tasks folder (toward the bottom of the Folder List).
b. Click View > Current View > Define Views.
c. Click the New button.
d. Enter a name for your view, something like "My Projects," and click OK.
e. Click the Fields button.
f. Under "Select available fields from," select "All Task fields."
g. Under "Available fields," select "Billing Information.
h. Click the Add button. You'll now see "Billing Information" at the bottom of the list on the right.
i. Click the Move Up button until "Billing Information" is just below "Attachment."
j. Also add "Start Date" and move it just before "Due date." You can add other fields you think might be useful, but don't get too carried away. Click OK to get back to the "View Summary" dialog.
k. Click the "Group By" button.
l. Under "Select available fields from," select "All Task fields."
m. Under "Group items by," select Categories. Under "Then by," select "Billing Information." Click OK.
n. Click OK again, and then click Apply View.
What you're now looking at are expandable/collapsible groups for all of your categories and the projects under those categories. Go ahead--click some of the little + boxes on the left to see what you've got. Pretty slick, eh? Note that to work with the tasks, you don't have to open them individually (by double-clicking). You can change the information right in the table you're looking at. I don't like mousing around, so I use the cursor keys, the F2 key, and the ENTER key to quickly modify entries (try it!). To sort by one of the columns, click the column header at the top of your screen.
I also recommend creating other Views to fit your needs. For example, you might want to create a View that groups projects by Due Date and another View that groups tasks by Start Date.
Remember those categories for *kinds* of work?
.Editing
.Reconciling proofs
And so on?
A task can have multiple categories, so if I'm editing the manuscript for a certain project, I'll give it the .Editing category as well as the *Work Projects category. Then I can see, in a group, all of my editing tasks at once.
Okay, now let's get some of those individual tasks into specific times on your calendar:
1. Click the Calendar folder in your Folder List.
2. Click View > Work Week (Month is also useful, but not right now).
3. On the right you'll see the TaskPad, which is a list of tasks.
4. Click View > TaskPad View > Active Tasks for Selected Days. (You'll only need to do this once--unless you change it later.) That will set the TaskPad to show only the tasks that start on the day you've selected in the calendar. Click a different day, get a different list of tasks.
5. In one of the days in the calendar, click a time you want to schedule a task. Then drag a task from the TaskPad onto the calendar. The task will open with the selected start time already in place. Click Save and Close to put the task away.
6. You'll now see the task as an appointment on your calendar, and you can adjust the start time and end time by using your mouse. You can also drag the appointment to a different day or time.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for other tasks you want to schedule.
8. Unlike me, actually do and check off (in the TaskPad) the tasks, following the schedule you've laid out in the calendar. This, by the way, is the key point.
Do you have a better system? Please let me know, and I'll share it in the newsletter.
mailto:editor [at symbol] editorium.com
By the way, the most tedious part of all this, for me, is dragging the tasks to my calendar. There ought to be an easier way. I'd also like to do more than just schedule things; I'd like to know if I can actually do my tasks in the time I have available. In other words, I need to know if my deadlines are realistic (not). For anyone in the publishing field, that's essential. It's possible to do that with Microsoft Project or other complex project-management software, but I really have no interest in Gantt charts and the like, and for me to use project-management software would be like swatting a fly with a baseball bat; I simply don't need that much power.
So, I've found an alternative that is almost perfect for what I need. It does the job without being overly complicated; in fact, it's easy to use. It's a brilliant Outlook add-in called Taskline. For more information, see today's Resources column.
_________________________________________
READERS WRITE
After reading the article "Divide and Conquer, Part 2," Erika Remmy wrote:
My second pass is usually to go through and fix en and em dashes--making sure the right kind of dash is used in each place and getting rid of stray spaces. (The copy I work with involves a lot of date spans, so there are always en dashes aplenty.)
I do it manually, with some search-and-replaces. (I can't figure out an automated way for a macro to specify what correction is needed in each instance. For example, " -" [space hyphen] could need to be an em dash or an en dash, or could be a situation where the hyphen is correct and the space in front of it just needs to be deleted. I could try to learn how to do dialog boxes, but I can't picture that method saving any time in this dash cleanup step, because there would be so many permutations to allow for.)
-------------------------
Hilary Powers wrote:
The Editorium wrote:
* Editing all headings at the same time to make sure they match in tone
and are parallel in construction:
> 1. Click View > Outline.
> 2. In the middle of the Outline toolbar, click the "Show Level" dropdown
list (*not* the "Level" list, on the left) and select the depth of the
heading levels you want to show.
Easier, and allows you to see the context at the same time:
Click View > Document Map.
Right-click on the pane that opens.
Select the heading depth you want to see.
Clicking on a heading in the pane moves the insertion point in the main document pane to that heading, so you can see what it modifies as you work on it while still seeing all its companion headings.
The idea was to start by editing the really big stuff (such as paragraph
styling), then move down to medium stuff (spell check), and finally get
down to the nitty-gritty of line editing.
Me, I run the spelling checker last, to make sure I didn't introduce any errors in the course of the job. I fix errors that jump out at me during the edit, but don't look for them - and my select-o-vision pretty much ignores things the spelling checker will catch, while zeroing in on unusual stuff and misused words likely to slide by it. It's gotta happen at the end, anyway, so why do twice what once will take care of?
Re Gretchen's
"I think people need to be reminded that 'Replace All' can be dangerous
if you have references. 'Labour' might be the correct spelling in a
reference. What I would do is start just above the references and do a
backward replace."
"Replace All" is dangerous, period. I use it a lot anyway, though. Safety tips: Except for the most mechanical sorts of changes, and for carefully vetted wildcard replaces, track changes should always be on when it's in use, and the relevant portion of the file should be selected if there are bits like reference sections where it's likely to do more harm than good. AND never ever use it on text that won't be read all the way through again.
---------------------------------------
Many thanks to Erika and Hilary!
_________________________________________
RESOURCES
Taskline is an Outlook add-in that will automatically schedule your tasks, based on the total hours you specify for each task and on the hours you have available in your work week. You can learn more here:
http://www.taskline.com
When I first saw the program, I was afraid it would take control of my schedule and do things I didn't like. After actually using it, however, I now understand that it actually gives me more control, and in a broader way, than I had when I was scheduling my work manually.
To use Taskline, I follow the procedure I outlined in today's article, with just a few differences:
1. Instead of specifying a project under "Billing Information," I specify it under "Project," a new field that Taskline provides. Nice! I also modified my View to include Project rather than Billing Information.
2. Rather than specify a start date and a due date, I use one of the Taskline "Constraints," which include:
* Start on
* Start on or after
* Finish on
* Finish on or before
That last one is perfect for setting production deadlines. You can also specify which tasks must be done before others are started.
3. I specify Total Work so Taskline will know how many hours to schedule for the task. That automatically clears the checkbox (included in my View and checked by default) for "Ignore this task" (a Taskline exclusive) for the tasks I want scheduled.
4. I set task order based on Priority, which means that if I've set a priority of High (!) for any of my tasks, they'll be scheduled first. (Taskline can also use priorities set by letter and number--A1, B3, and so on--but I don't feel the need to get that specific.)
5. I run Taskline.
The program schedules all of my specified tasks (on the Outlook calendar) based on the parameters I've set. If it can't schedule something (because I have too much work for the time available), it tells me which tasks are causing the problem. Rescheduling is a piece of cake--two simple clicks--and I was surprised at the flexibility the program provides.
Taskline really is an ingenious piece of work. I highly recommend it. Again that address is:
http://www.taskline.com
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