[chandler-users] how I use Chandler

[Rick Rawson]

Mimi,

Some notes about how I use Chandler. WARNING: this will be about as 
interesting as describing how I make toast in the morning, unless you're 
a Chandler principle who's keenly invested in such details.

-- Review TODAY
          ** any tasks/events not finished TODAY are moved to a future 
date (usually tomorrow).

          ** review TODAY's events/tasks and change their status to 
DONE. (The psychological impact is not trivial.)

-- Plan for TOMORROW
          ** stamp all tasks that are relevant to TOMORROW as events 
marked with tomorrow's date, but without associated times, so they 
appear at the top of my calendar for TOMORROW'S date. Now, everything I 
have to do TOMORROW appears ON the calendar. Then, I figure out WHEN I'm 
going to accomplish all of the listed tasks, blocking out time on my 
calendar as I work through my list of tasks. This involves nothing more 
than inputting times in the detail area of each "timeless" event. When 
individual tasks take too little time to qualify as events, but are 
nevertheless important, they will be lumped together into one event, 
with the details area documenting the specific little tasks. The point 
is that everything I have to do is identified with a block of time. 
Being able to stamp items as both tasks and events facilitates this process.

          ** simultaneously, review TOMORROW'S events and tasks, 
evaluate whether or not I can actually get done what I have planned, 
potentially move some items to a different day, and then change the 
status of remaining items to NOW. Everything else is tagged as LATER or 
DONE. I now have my plan for tomorrow and I go home.

-- Plan for the NEXT WEEK (or weeks)
          ** Periodically, look ahead in my calendar to discern whether 
there are upcoming events for which I need to develop a task list now, 
so I don't get caught unprepared. Chandler allows me to quickly 
brainstorm a task list for those future events. "/t newTask <enter>" is 
all it takes...one after the other. They all end up in the NOW section. 
Then I can go to Task view where I'll see a list of all those tasks and 
optionally set a tickler and/or a calendar date. Very fast. And not just 
a to-do list. It's a list with reminders and, potentially, time blocked 
off on my calendar.

-- I use the detail area to retain information about what needs to be 
done in reference to specific events and tasks. This nearly makes a 
mini-project out of a task or event, where the event name is the project 
name, and the detail area contains all the sub-tasks that comprise that 
project. Often, I add entries into the detail area while I'm doing 
something else and a detail about a particular event pops into my head. 
Chandler gives me a place to put that detail and then I can forget about 
it. (This email is a good example. I've been creating it piecemeal over 
many days.) As I work on the sub-tasks (details) for a project (event), 
I can check off each of the sub-tasks in the detail area (by writing 
DONE after each sub-task). This is not a subversion of the Triage list. 
See P.S., below, for an example of a "mini-project."

-- My colleague has her own collection, to which I subscribe. As her 
supervisor, I keep track of what she has planned (in a rather hands-off 
way). The number of details that we must manage collaboratively is very 
large and it usually takes two of us to remember every one of them. If a 
new task occurs to me, or if I need to delegate a task to her, I create 
a new task in her collection or, alternatively, update one of her tasks, 
stamp it as an email, and click SEND. She is thereby notified that I've 
edited a task/event. It took a little doing (practice), but we finally 
figured out how useful UPDATE is.

-- When I receive an email in Thunderbird that requires future action on 
my part, I copy the email to my Chandler Mail folder in TB, then SYNC 
Chandler. I find the email in Chandler, stamp it as a task or event as 
appropriate, set a tickler, and then forget about it (until later, of 
course). The task/event that I just created contains the text of the 
email I received, information that is usually germane to the task. 
Everything's in one place.

-- Each screen (All, Mail, Tasks, Calendar) maintains its own window 
configurations and, in my hands, each is different. Calendar, for 
example uses a narrow details area, while Mail uses a wide detail area. 
This is one of those features that is easy to take for granted but is 
really important. Sort of like shoelaces.

-- Personally, I prefer working with software that lets me work the way 
I want to work. Such software provides me with tools that have 
sufficient flexibility that I can construct my own environment. IMO, 
Chandler does this better than, say Google Calendar. This is, perhaps, a 
reflection of the limitations of the browser (web-based) environment and 
the inherent flexibility of the desktop.

-- Setting ticklers is essential and I set one for every event/task. 
Ticklers are preferable to having to constantly look at a long list of 
items in the LATER section, every day, to be sure I've not forgotten 
something important. For example, a tentative event was put on my 
calendar one month in the future. The tickler was set 15 days ahead of 
that date, to remind me to check with my administrative assistant to see 
if the event had been confirmed. When the tickler date arrived, Chandler 
set off an alarm AND moved the event to NOW, even though the event would 
not occur for another 15 days. Chandler did my remembering for me. All I 
have to do now is remember to set the tickler! :)


Rick


P.S. -- example of a mini-project

The event ("Edit curriculum documents") appears on my calendar for 
Tuesday, 1:00-5:00pm. The details area contains two kinds of 
information: (1) a list of items that I need to be sure to check in 
every document and (2) a list of the document names so that I can make a 
note when I have finished editing each document. This ensures that every 
document gets a thorough treatment AND answers the question, "How am I 
doing? Did I miss any documents?" In this example, Raffy has not been 
addressed, yet.

Project (event name): Edit curriculum documents
Sub-Tasks (details area):
	For each document check the following:
		-- change date at top of case
		-- match "Other Activities" with current schedule
		-- check that all references are current
		-- check that the list of resource people is still relevant
		-- check last year's Guide and your copies of cases for possible updates
		-- delete ! from abnormal data in all the documents

	Documents
		-- Max (DONE)
		-- Raffy
		-- Dream Street (DONE)
		-- Toby (DONE)