M
Magnus Eriksson
Since 6 months ago I am writing a diary in view to get stastitics over
the time I spend on different projects, to follow up my planning, and
to improve my time management. Unfortunately, keeping this diary is
not efficent time management. The outlook journal should in theory be
able to automate this task and make it less time consuming, but its
weaknesses makes it impossible to use.
Here are a few suggestions for improvement of the Outlook journal:
LOGGING OF ACTIVE WINDOWS
The journal should automatically register how long time each window is
active, instead of registring the time a document is open in the
background (which could be weeks in my case). It should not only
register Office documents, but any window including web sites, e-mail,
and non MS applications. It should also register the time of
inactivity, for example based on the automatic screen saver. The
journal should be presented together with the IE history, the computer
l. In the result, I might want to see that today, in the time slot
between 10-12am, this document has been active 35 minutes, and the
computer has been inactive 10 minutes.
PROJECT ORIENTED
The journal should be project oriented rather than application
oriented. It should identify the project that the active window is
related to, and sumarize the time spent on each project. Here are a
few suggestions how to do this:
- Default, the project should be identified as the file map of a
document, the outlook folder of an email, the IE bookmark folder of a
web site, the cathegory of a Outlook calender event/task/contact, etc.
- The Outlook journal should be used for following-up on planned
projects (in MS Project) and planned tasks (in Outlook). On a
constantly visible activity panel, you may chose which project and
which of today's tasks you are working on for the moment. The
alternative project names on the menu may be fetched from MS Project,
from the file structure of My Documents, from the email folders, from
the bookmarks folder, and from the task/calender/contact cathegories.
The system automatically registers the time spent on each project and
task. It should be possible to present the project planning or the
task list in one column, together with the related journal events in
another column.
- This assumes that the user organizes MS Project, the folder
structures and Outlook object cathegories in a similar fashion.
Outlook may suggest a way to reorganize My documents, the bookmark
folder, the Outlook folders and cathegories, the MS Project
project-structure, etc.
- Outlook as a whole should be project oriented rather than tool
oriented, and help you to focus on a certain project. Outlook should
only show email folders, email accounts, calendar events, tasks,
contacts, document file folders, IE bookmarks, etc, that are related
to the project you chose. A project overview shows all items related
to that project, and makes it possible to easily link between related
items, such as planned calls, by means of drag-and-drop. A project
should easily be divided inte sub-projects and tasks. A project may be
represented by a folder in the Outlook folder list. The journal
register which project you chose in the folder list.
- Windows as a whole should be project oriented. Each project may have
its own "virtual screen". A virtual screen only shows the windows, the
documents, the bookmarks, the applications, the Outlook objects, etc,
that are related to the project you have chosen.
DIARY AND BLOG SUPPORT
The Outlook journal and/or the Outlook notes could be further
developed into a diary and a web-log. It should support notes during
phone calls, meetings, lectures, etc, and associate them with contacts
and calender items. If you make a note in an Office document, the note
should also be visible in the diary. If the note is cathegorized as a
planned task, it will also be visible in the task list.
BETTER USER INTERFACE
The user interface should simplier. Instead of producing a database
screen for every new event, you insert a line in a table.
/Magnus Eriksson
Sweden
the time I spend on different projects, to follow up my planning, and
to improve my time management. Unfortunately, keeping this diary is
not efficent time management. The outlook journal should in theory be
able to automate this task and make it less time consuming, but its
weaknesses makes it impossible to use.
Here are a few suggestions for improvement of the Outlook journal:
LOGGING OF ACTIVE WINDOWS
The journal should automatically register how long time each window is
active, instead of registring the time a document is open in the
background (which could be weeks in my case). It should not only
register Office documents, but any window including web sites, e-mail,
and non MS applications. It should also register the time of
inactivity, for example based on the automatic screen saver. The
journal should be presented together with the IE history, the computer
l. In the result, I might want to see that today, in the time slot
between 10-12am, this document has been active 35 minutes, and the
computer has been inactive 10 minutes.
PROJECT ORIENTED
The journal should be project oriented rather than application
oriented. It should identify the project that the active window is
related to, and sumarize the time spent on each project. Here are a
few suggestions how to do this:
- Default, the project should be identified as the file map of a
document, the outlook folder of an email, the IE bookmark folder of a
web site, the cathegory of a Outlook calender event/task/contact, etc.
- The Outlook journal should be used for following-up on planned
projects (in MS Project) and planned tasks (in Outlook). On a
constantly visible activity panel, you may chose which project and
which of today's tasks you are working on for the moment. The
alternative project names on the menu may be fetched from MS Project,
from the file structure of My Documents, from the email folders, from
the bookmarks folder, and from the task/calender/contact cathegories.
The system automatically registers the time spent on each project and
task. It should be possible to present the project planning or the
task list in one column, together with the related journal events in
another column.
- This assumes that the user organizes MS Project, the folder
structures and Outlook object cathegories in a similar fashion.
Outlook may suggest a way to reorganize My documents, the bookmark
folder, the Outlook folders and cathegories, the MS Project
project-structure, etc.
- Outlook as a whole should be project oriented rather than tool
oriented, and help you to focus on a certain project. Outlook should
only show email folders, email accounts, calendar events, tasks,
contacts, document file folders, IE bookmarks, etc, that are related
to the project you chose. A project overview shows all items related
to that project, and makes it possible to easily link between related
items, such as planned calls, by means of drag-and-drop. A project
should easily be divided inte sub-projects and tasks. A project may be
represented by a folder in the Outlook folder list. The journal
register which project you chose in the folder list.
- Windows as a whole should be project oriented. Each project may have
its own "virtual screen". A virtual screen only shows the windows, the
documents, the bookmarks, the applications, the Outlook objects, etc,
that are related to the project you have chosen.
DIARY AND BLOG SUPPORT
The Outlook journal and/or the Outlook notes could be further
developed into a diary and a web-log. It should support notes during
phone calls, meetings, lectures, etc, and associate them with contacts
and calender items. If you make a note in an Office document, the note
should also be visible in the diary. If the note is cathegorized as a
planned task, it will also be visible in the task list.
BETTER USER INTERFACE
The user interface should simplier. Instead of producing a database
screen for every new event, you insert a line in a table.
/Magnus Eriksson
Sweden