Mobile analogue or hybrid organisational and time-management system

Posted by dan7000
Feb 19, 2018 at 08:04 PM

Re: The problem of tracking depleting time resource and re-allocating accordingly:

This is one of the main problems I try to solve with my scheduling. I need to be able to know if I have overcommitted myself and, if so, move deadlines back / delegate / get help. And the answer to that question changes constantly based on unexpected new tasks and distractions, shifting priorities, shifting deadlines, and changing task durations (especially if my estimates are not accurate).

I’ve posted about this a couple times here over the years. And I’ve tried numerous software solutions to solve the problem. I use software that automatically schedules my tasks for me based on various rules (different software allows different rule complexity). So it’s a task manager and calendar, and each task has scheduling rules associated with it. I see if the software can successfully schedule everything based on the deadlines I have given it. If it can’t, I have to make changes. If it can, I either get to work.

Here is the list so far of software that does this:
TimeTo (ancient/Windows)
AboveAndBeyond (essentially TimeTo)
Focuster (new, web-focused with ios app, getting better all the time, not very complex rules which is good for some, not for others)
SkedPal (my current tool. Very granular rules. Tasks can be assigned to time maps you define, e.g. “weekend 9-6” or “monday afternoons.” Complex recurrence options.)
Sheldomize (web based, some odd quirks)
TImeful (defunct, ios/web. The best of breed in some ways, bought by google apparently to kill it.)
Timeline (excellent, very flexible and complex rules, but it’s a Windows-only outlook plugin so you are stuck in that environment but can view the results anywhere you can view outlook tasks and calendars).

There are a few others, including some that are Android-only. I have notes on all of them in Evernote but don’t have time to look them up (according to Skedpal :))

But here is an example. I planned to work this weekend because i have a big deadline Tuesday morning. On Saturday morning Skedpal was filled with red icons telling me I couldn’t get everything done. So I deferred a bunch of tasks to after Tuesday. Still red icons. So I changed some tasks to my “emergency: work til 2 am” time map. That worked. All the red was gone. Still on track for tomorrow morning.
Skedpal also lets you have settings for mental breaks, gaps between tasks depending on task length. But I also add a task called “emerging” that’s one hour long each day in the afternoon just to cover me for unexpected things that come up. I mark that task done at around 3 every day.