Personal versus Business Actions and Projects

[Anonymous]

I know DA says not to separate business from personal items and just to keep it all together based on context, but I am finding times where I need them to be separate. If I should be reviewing my lists with my boss, I don't necessarily want him to see a personal call on my @Calls list, or an action under @Computer that may be something personal that can be done at lunch on my office computer, or from home on my home computer.

Any recommendations on how to separate them in Outlook, but still have them available in the right context?

 

[Anonymous]

Business vs Personal Tasks

If you can find a way to flag an item as "personal" or "business" then you can create a custom view which filters to show only "business" items, and use that for the discussion with the boss.

You can mark a task as "Private" using the check-box in the lower right-hand corner of the task, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to filter on that field. (It doesn't show up in the advanced filter tab on the custom view filter dialog.)

You are able to assign multiple categories to a task. Perhaps you can try creating a new category called "Business" or similar, and attach it to all business-related items. Then, create the custom view which filters to include only those items that are in the "Business" category. Brute force but it should work.

Unfortunately, you may have trouble with categories if you synch your Outlook over to a PDA. My Palm Vx will only accept one category, and I'd have to check to see if it is the first one in the alphabetical list. (So your filtering category might become ZZZBusiness!) This may not be a limitation for newer Palms or other PDAs.

Good luck,

Claudia

 

[mochant]

Re: Business vs Personal Tasks

Unfortunately, you may have trouble with categories if you synch your Outlook over to a PDA. My Palm Vx will only accept one category, and I'd have to check to see if it is the first one in the alphabetical list. (So your filtering category might become ZZZBusiness!) This may not be a limitation for newer Palms or other PDAs.

The newer Outlook workalikes from Chapura (KeySuite) and Dataviz (Beyond Contatcs) are able to track multiple category assignments and are the best way to overcome this Palm OS limitation.

Also, the GTD add-in for Outlook allows you to attach both Project and Action (context) to tasks so you have two ways to view your to do list. I tend to use the @Home context a lot for purely personal tasks so that view is pretty useful.

 

[bhiggs]

Re: Business vs Personal Tasks

You can mark a task as "Private" using the check-box in the lower right-hand corner of the task, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to filter on that field. (It doesn't show up in the advanced filter tab on the custom view filter dialog.)

Look under "All Contact Fields"

Bill

 

[kglade]

On the netcentrics web site there is an article in the knowledge base section that tells how to set up meta-categories by re-assigning a seldom used field to represent, for example, "home" or "work." Then, by grouping or filtering on that field, one can keep the two areas separate.

-Ken