Improve the Scheduling of "Calls" and "Tasks" within Outlook

G

Guest

I suggest you add "Calls" as a separate event object (like Appointment's and
Tasks) and add additional calendaring capabilities to "Tasks" to enable
better scheduling.

Calls should be a separate item because they are not adequately handled
currently. Currently your only option for scheduling a "Call" for a specific
date on the calendar is to create an Appointment or Task for that day.
Neither approach is particularly satisfactory.

Appointments don't work because more often than not while I want to schedule
a call for a given day I do not want to assign a time. Currently if you
create an appointment it defaults to a time. Also, I don't need location for
Calls but I do want to see the contact name and the phone numbers.

Tasks don't work because I don't want to see a Call on the task list in
advance of the date scheduled for the call but I do want to see a list of
calls scheduled for any given date on the calendar. Further with Tasks, the
contact name and phone numbers are not displayed automatically.

Lastly in the Today view, in addition to appointments and tasks I would like
to see a list of Calls to be made.

With regard to better scheduling of Tasks, I need date specific
functionality for Tasks without having assigned appointment times. I want to
be able to assign a specific date to do a task without having to assign a
time. I also need to see date specific tasks listed on the Calendar but have
the option to not have them appear in the Task List prior to that date (it is
pointless to have them appear on the Task List prior to that date if you
cannot or do not intend to take any prior action)
 
J

Judy Gleeson

Well you're a clever one. I see that you understand sound time management
principles - you just haven't worked out the magical settings. These will
help you with your challenges. I can MAKE TASKS WORK!

Here you are:

To see Tasks you need to do each day, set Start Dates for them and then View
| TaskPad View set it to Active Tasks for Selected Days. Now the TaskPad in
the Calendar will show you Tasks according to when you want to get on to
them (just as you asked). So if I want to call you next Wed, I make a Task
with a Start Date of Wed. It will appear on my TaskPad on Wednesday and stay
there until I do it.

You can ad the Contact field to the TaskPad and their phone number too!!
Right click the grey column header above the TaskPad and select the Field
Chooser. Add those 2 columns and there Ya Go Mate!

Judy Gleeson
Acorn Training and Consulting
Canberra, Australia


see what Outlook training can do to improve productivity:
www.acorntraining.com.au/pdfdocs/ProductivITwithOutlook.pps

www.acorntraining.com.au/productivit.htm
 

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