It's totally useful and awesome for me, and prevents a ton of follow-up questions because I can send status reports on each task.
Setting a task is as simple as setting a calendar event, and you can invite people to view your tasks just like you can invite them to view your calendar.
I use it for things like host/hire package for a foreign national, where i have to get a butt ton of approvals, several pieces of paperwork, and I'm on a strict schedule to get them in. So I can just put in something like:
4/7/10 Task: Hire ita, citizenship Jamaica. Due Date: 6/21/2010
And then I can just open the task and put in all the notes as they happen:
4/9: Received passport and CV. Informed host of J1 visa.
4/12: Sent memo for signature
4/12: Package sent to NASA
5/12: Approval received. Travel in process. J1 in process.
6/14: Ports activated. Technology Transfer Control Plan in place. Computer and phone ordered; delivery by 6/16.
And at any point, if someone walks into my office in a state of panic about whether ita's hire package is on schedule, I can click "status report" and send it all to the Chicken Little so they can clearly see that I wasn't posting at Buffistas all day and got my shit done.
Okay, sounds good. Thanks, Allyson and Nora.
Has anyone here used jira?
I've used it for issue tracking for the last few years here. It's highly-customizable to a kind of irritating degree. But it works as well as any other issue tracking system I've used.
Also, JPL smells like maple syrup.
Does anyone use Outlook to keep track of tasks and To-Do lists? Or have another recommendation? I need some way to deal with low-priority things, things that don't have a specific due date, and other miscellaneous stuff, in addition to straightforward tasks.
My quick and dirty outlook method was starring emails with tasks in them. It's not exactly GTD but it keeps them from dropping down the rabbit hole.
Dentist has been visited. Nice guy, comfy offices. Apparently when I had that crown put on originally that dentist hadn't removed all the temp material, leaving space for yucky stuff to get in. He reglued the crown on for now and I go back in a couple of weeks for him to rework what is left of the tooth and prep a new crown. Oh joy.
I told him I was dental-phobic. I'm usually ok once I'm in the chair, but just getting psyched up to go is the crazy hard part. They have nitrus and tv's with wireless headphones to distract me if I get overly anxious.
I seem to have lost one of my new house keys. The one with the pink monkey. am sad.
I've tried to use Outlook, and hated it, but the stuff it does well is stuff I don't need. Plus I find it rather ugly and unpleasant. But I want to track of all kinds of tasks outside work, and since I don't have Outlook at home it wasn't a functional option for me on any level.
I liked the Palm's old task manager a lot, which is a shame since my Palm died. As best I can tell nobody emultates it because, I dunno, it was too simple and flexible or something?
Some people just can't catch a break:
Wombat bites Australian bush fire survivor
A man who survived last year's deadly bush fires in Australia is recovering in hospital after falling victim to a rare attack by a wombat.
Bruce Kringle, 60, was pulled to the ground by the animal and bitten on the legs and arms after apparently stepping on it by mistake.
He escaped after killing the wombat with an axe.
"The wombat proceeded to get rather nasty and attacked him and inflicted some wounds to his lower legs and also to his arms as well," ABC News quoted Mr Gill as saying.
"It took about 20 minutes. He did try to exit the area and get away from the wombat but my belief is that it kept coming at him."
Also, JPL smells like maple syrup.
Mmmmm. Maybe they can figure out why -- did they ever figure out why that happened in NYC?
Also, it is apparently 90 (!!) degrees here. I am feeling very good about the current coolness of my apartment. Although, of course, that's just one day. But middle brownstone + only morning direct sunlight should = not too bad in summer, I'm hoping.
