bennettweb

Change of plan. I’m putting songcompare.com on hold for the time being, and focussing on finishing another project I started a while ago around todo’s and tasks. As you can probably guess, it’s a todo list manager. I know that there are plenty of them out there, and used to be a big fan of rememberthemilk.com, but it no longer does exactly what I want it to. I want my todo list manager to be simple, without the option of due dates (which only lead to overdue items). I don’t want lots of different views, just one simple list, with the oldest stuff at the top. I want the freedom to move tasks wherever I want, from todo to done, and back again if necessary. I want the ability to see when I completed something. I want to be able to add wiki style notes to a task. I want a clean interface. I want search.

I’ve only just ported the code, but I’m thinking that the first version should be online to play with in the next couple of weeks all going well. I’ve shown an earlier cut of the functionality to a few people, and they seemed to like it – so now I need to focus of getting rid of the bugs and styling it up. And coming up with a name and logo…

So I tried to buy a can of Lilt from our overpriced vending machine at work and would you believe it, it gets stuck.

Suggestion of how to remove it please, reply to @stevebennett with #getmycanout. Buying a bottle of diet coke (on the row above) is not an option because as we all know, everyone hates diet coke.

Once again, another really busy week at work, and as such I’ve not really had much time to work with songcompare.com. I’ve managed to make a start on the wireframes after writing a couple of dummy programs to connect to Amazon and iTunes and pull back prices and album details.

At home, we’ve had a new warm air heating system installed, however the new hotter water seems to have knocked out the thermostat on our shower. So now we’re left without a proper shower, which is a bit of a pain. Time to get the plumber back in I think…

In recent weeks I’ve been trying to get myself more organised, and had tried applications such as Evernote, tiddlywiki and Remember the Milk to manage my todo lists. However, in the end I’ve turned away from technology and back towards pen and paper. I’ve got myself a simple A5 office notebook and matched it up with a multi-function pen (red, black and pencil). I then use the following process to keep track of my tasks.

1. Review the previous days tasks and make sure those that have been completed have been checked off.
2. Look over the list and find any tasks that need to be deferred for an amount of time. Write these in the back on the notebook.
3. Find any tasks that are to be carried over to todays list.
4. Start a new page, and date it.
5. Start the list by pulling in any tasks that have been carried over.
6. Now complete todays list by adding any more tasks.
7. Start working on your list, starting at the top.
8. Rinse and repeat.

A note on the list in the back of the notebook. The idea is that these tasks should be reviewed on a regular basis, to see whether they can be bought into one of the day lists.

After a week of trying this method, it seems to work. By starting from the top you ensure that the tasks that we carried over are completed first. It also seems to help me focus, and get things done during the day. The lists also form an interesting journal of what I’ve done in a day, week or month.