Customizing calendar/task views in Outlook

  • Thread starter Thread starter StevenT
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StevenT

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I was looking for a better way to organize and manage my work flow, and initially had tried Franklin Covey's PlanPlus add-on for Outlook. I subsequently dropped PlanPlus once I learned of GTD. I'm now in the learning stages of GTD.

However, the one thing I miss from PlanPlus was the compass view, which displays a calendar in the upper half of the screen (one work week), and displays a taskpad in the lower half of the screen. However, unlike the normal Outlook taskpad, this taskpad is actually multiple "daily" taskpads, one below each day of the week which displays only those tasks associated with that day.

Does anyone have any idea on how I can create a similar view in Outlook (without having to buy and install PlanPlus, which I simply can't justify just to obtain one view)? I suspect this PlanPlus view is HTML-based, and doubt it can be duplicated with the normal Outlook customization capabilities.

All I want is to display/associate tasks with their corresponding date in a calendar.

All suggestions appreciated.
Thanks
Steve
 
I don't know how to do that.

Maybe the answer is that day-specific tasks should be calendar items instead?

Unlike many other organizing approaches, GTD de-emphasizes prioritization, including assigning dates to tasks. As a result, the view you're looking for is not really needed.

Katherine
 
The only method I can think of that comes close is to:

1. Switch your Calendar to Work Week view.
2. Enable the Taskpad
3. Switch Taskpad View: View -> Taskpad View -> Active Tasks for Selected Days.
4. Remove undated tasks from Taskpad: View -> Taskpad View -> (uncheck) Include tasks with no due date.
5. Right click on the taskpad column heading and select Customize Current View...
6. Click the Group by button.
7. Select Due Date (ascending).

If you see tasks from dates beyond the work week shown, check them to see if they have a start date. Part of PlanPlus' daily task list required setting the start and due dates to be the same, to show the task on only that day (A task with no start date, but due in the future is considered active.)

Try it out, and maybe you'll get some ideas.

Brian
 
Thanks for the responses everyone.
Also, thanks to Brian for the suggested workaround. I think this will work for me.
 
What about GTD concept of daily reminders

I am in day 1 of taking the GTD course, and one of the concepts I was wondering about automating is the following: Would it be possible to have a rule that creates an all day event on your calendar when a particular task has a due date? The calendar is supposed to have (1) time-specific actions, (2) day specifc actions, and (3) day-specific information. I would think that a task with a due date would fall into category 2. Just curious.
 
Day specific actions...

Would it be possible to have a rule that creates an all day event on your calendar when a particular task has a due date? The calendar is supposed to have (1) time-specific actions, (2) day specifc actions, and (3) day-specific information. I would think that a task with a due date would fall into category 2. Just curious.
Click to expand...

It's important to ensure that day-specific things happen. What I do is review my calendar in this order: (1) Today's calendar for appointments. (2) Today's calendar for day-specifics. (3) The other action lists for which I'm in their context (Calls, Computer, etc.) There are many days that I don't even look at my action lists because the time-specific and then the day-specific stuff fills it up.

So, if I have a task with a due date, I'll have that on my calendar. And, oh, I will often give myself a window...what I mean is, I'll put on the Monday of the week a big project is due "3 days until the draft is due to the editor." That gives me the info I need, especially if it's a hectic travel/work week.

You need to ensure that the day-specific stuff really is day-specific. In other words, if you don't do it, it can't get done (because that day is the ONLY day it can happen.) If you are putting "really like to, but it's really OK if it's not done" kind of things, then you'll subliminally know you don't HAVE to pay attention to what's on there.
 
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