[Design] stickies on the calendar

[Mimi Yin]

Yes you're right, David Allen does say to only put things on your  
calendar that are appointments, commitments to time that you will not  
break, not well-intentioned plans to get work done, that in all  
likelihood will get pushed aside as new emergencies come in to throw  
you off balance.

By simply maintaining a list of things you CAN do rather than trying  
to adhere to traditional notions of "time management" where you try  
and plot out exactly when you're going to complete tasks, is his way  
of maintaining a state of mind like water. You stay flexible, by not  
locking yourself down with a "schedule" you can't keep anyway.

I wonder though, if the stickies on the calendar is something  
different from "time management." The whole idea is that you keep  
things loose. You're not blocking out time to complete tasks (ie.  
Next Monday from 1-3PM, I'm going to write this proposal) which is  
simply unrealistic, because you have no idea what's going to have  
happened Monday morning that's going to blow away your plans.

Instead, you're simply placing reminders for yourself near and around  
the appropriate time period.

So think of the stickies as yet another way to display a GTD context.  
Time sensitive contexts. This is essentially what David Allen does  
himself with his month-based Tickler files. He puts items into  
folders labeled with each month of the year and the beginning of each  
Month, he dumps the contents of that Month's folder into his Inbox.

Instead of @hardware store or @computer, this is for things that are  
@October (ie. Go enjoy fall colors in the park.) or @Next week (ie.  
Pick up pastries for people at the Office on the way to work.)

Whenever you are looking at a week on your calendar, you are pulling  
up an @context list for things that are relevant to that week. The  
same way when you pull up an @context list for things relevant to the  
hardware store, you're asking yourself, what things can I get done at  
the hardware store?

So if anything, stickies on the calendar could be conceived of as the  
opposite of time management. Instead, it's a way for people to "be  
fuzzy" about when they do things and simply assign a loose date  
range. Over time, as things become clearer, as your calendar fills  
up, as new information comes to light, you may narrow the window of  
time...but like most other things in Chandler, it's an iterative  
process.

:o)

As for clutter, I generally believe that self-made clutter is okay.  
Some people thrive on it. What's overwhelming is when the UI comes  
pre-cluttered with concepts and gizmos you don't understand or when  
you have to navigate someone else's self-made clutter.

On Nov 8, 2005, at 5:20 PM, Daniel Vareika wrote:

> Mimi:
>
> Although it sounds compelling (to use real state that is in other  
> way unused, we would be promoting as for GTD a bad habit.
> If I was to stick to the rule of GTD that only those things that  
> one should do on a certain moment should be in the calendar, then  
> the concept of stickies shouldn´t go.
> On the other hand one is being too orthodox on this matter.
> It is extremely attractive the idea and the display, but again:
> would we be promoting clear, fast transmission of the info, or  
> clutter?
> I still prefer the Mac OS simplicity.
>
> I do not know how to make this powerful, attractive idea something  
> that empowers users instead of getting into the way.
> I would like feedbacks on that matter.
> I might be completely off
>
> I think it means much more than stickies whats in place in this one.
>
> Yours,
>
> Daniel
>
> I am being the devils advocate on purpose, not because I want to.
>
>
> Mimi Yin wrote:
>> Also sending out an idea that someone who is interviewing for the   
>> Scooby designer position came up with during their interview.
>>
>> The problem they were presented with was: There's all this free  
>> space  on the calendar that's not being used, how can we help the  
>> user  maximize screen real estate?
>>
>> It's potentially a really great way to simulate the way people  
>> use  paper calendars.
>>
>> Proposal: Floating stickies on the calendar.
>>
>>
>> <mime-attachment.png>
>>
>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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>

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