Schedule tasks as appointments
I've been struggling already a long time with this and have not found a way to do it. Now I'm so fed up with struggling, its really time to ask for help.
My setup:
I use both Lifebalance Windows (version 3.4.1) and Palm Treo 650. My Palm is synchronised (done with mNotes (version 4.3.0) synchronisation program with my desktop Lotus Notes (6.0.3) calendar, Memo, adres book, todo list as well. I do not use the Palm Desktop.
I work in the area of project support. So I have a lot of meetings and deadlines to guard. Life balance has proven itself there already months ago for me.
I have several weekly and biweekly meetings and I have to do them at that fixed timeframe. I need to prepare that meeting and I have work involved to wrap up the minutes/ actionpoints etc.
I would like to be able to schedule a recurring task, for example:"prepare the Core Team meeting" that task must then come up in my list with a lead time of some hours. So far this can be archieved by LB. But then I would like to be able to fix that time in my diary/agenda. To block my schedule.
Maybe this is a limitation of mNotes or Lotus Notes. But the routinely appointments do show up in my (Lotus Notes) agenda as All Day Events and not as a task which I can schedule from this time to that time.
Maybe I am looking too narrowly, so please enlighten me. Basicly I am looking for a way to fix a task in my calendar so that time is blocked and I can work on it.
Comments
Calendar or DateBk6
I am not familiar with Lotus Notes. I can describe how I set it up with DateBk6 (the same can be done with the built-in Palm Calendar) and maybe you can figure out Lotus Notes way.
Under Time for the weekly meeting, I select "By Date Book"
Since it's a new task, it's not in the Date Book yet. I "add" to Date Book. I also choose whatever lead time I want.
The Date Book window opens and I set the time for the meeting and how often I want to repeat etc... (all features of Calendar or DateBk6).
What this gives me is a weekly meeting blocked off on the Calendar and the meeting as a task will appear on my To Do list according the the lead time I set.
Oh, you need to remember to set the preference in LB to import and export tasks to Date Book.
Maybe something like that can be done with Lotus Notes?
Thanks petdr for your information
Thanks petdr for your information.
I am trying to follow your instructions, but since I don't have DateBk* I end up with an all day(no timed) entry in my palm calendar and with a timed meeting in my calendar (both Palm Calendar and Lotus Notes.) It gives me nothing in my tasks.
But I have never played around with exporting to and from the build tasks. I will try.
Thanks for the tip
Importing & Exporting Tasks
The steps should work with the built-in Palm Calendar; you don't need DateBk. If you have the initial meeting in LB tasks but not the subsequent future meetings, these are the possible causes I can think of:
1) If you did not enable exporting / importing tasks, you may need to give that a try. The subsequent or future meetings are generated by the repeating feature of the Palm Calendar. You then need a way to export those meetings from Calendar to LB (or import them into LB, depending on your perspective).
2) If you are checking LB for the tasks and don't see them, it may be because it is not "time" for them to show up in your tasks. You can test this by creating a meeting to repeat every week and set the lead time to 4 or more days. When you mark of the one meeting, the next meeting should show up on your task list.
3) As for the all day or no time entry, you should be able to click on the "no time" box and select the times.
Try the importing / exporting features of LB. It's under the Preferences. Decide whether or not you want to import the completed To Do's from Palm before you check that box in the preferences. They will clutter up your LB outline and a hassle to delete and sort later. I would delete the unimportant completed ones from Palm first before enabling the importing completed To Do feature.
The importing / exporting feature is probably my favorite of LB. Allows me to use other sources of data (tasks) entry, import them into the Inbox of LB, organize them on the outline during review, and later export any changes to my DateBk. If you have not used this feature, you may in for some nice surprises :)
Read the help section. Post with questions.
Good Luck!
interrupting with a question about something you wrote:
You wrote:
"
The importing / exporting feature is probably my favorite of LB. Allows me to use other sources of data (tasks) entry, import them into the Inbox of LB, organize them on the outline during review, and later export any changes to my DateBk. If you have not used this feature, you may in for some nice surprises :)
"
I am also using Palm and the latest DateBk. When I export the "changes" to DateBk the tasks in DateBk are useless because they don't show in the order they show on LB and they are not sorted out according to the Place like in LB.
I am interested how is the task list on DateBk useful to you under such limitations??
Thank you
gavriel
Depends on how you use DateBk and LB
gavriel,
Warning: it will probably sound convoluted when I describe it here but, in practice, it actually is simple.
[EDIT: I just realized that I've been referring to DateBk when it's really Tasks --- Palm native app. Datebk includes Tasks in its screens, hence my confusion. If you go to Tasks, you will see the settings described below. Sorry for the mix-up!]
I use LB Outline to plan and organize major aspects of my life --- probably similar to the way most of you do with the top level items. But I rarely work with the LB To Do List with the Places. I find it works best for me when I assign dates to the tasks I want done (not necessarily tasks with firm due dates (a la "hard landscape") but tasks I want done on that day). DateBk fits my needs well as I can look at a list of all Tasks for "today", "next 7 days", "last 7 days", etc... If I want to look at Categories, I can with the major (basic) categories i.e. @Call, @Errands...
"When I export the "changes" to DateBk the tasks in DateBk are useless because they don't show in the order they show on LB"
I am not sure what you mean by "the order they show in LB". Do you mean the tasks in the categories? Keep in mind LB "balancing" feature that may affect the order of the tasks. Whereas in DateBk, the tasks would be ordered based on your preference (due date, priority or category, priority ...etc.). So the list of tasks is not going to be in the same order in DateBk and LB.
That difference is actually why I use both LB and DateBk. Much as I like LB, I never got comfortable with the balancing feature and how that affected what showed up on the To Do List. I like to to be able to see tasks that LB think is either not important or "not the time" when I want to see it. If I enter a task with a short lead time in my humongous outline, I have a hard time finding it later. I had to use the Palm global search sometimes. Whereas with DateBk, I can easily find the tasks scheduled 4 weeks in the future.
*** Remember though, I enter new tasks into DateBk, not in LB. That's important to remember as if I enter new tasks in LB and set short lead time, that task will not show up in DateBk until LB generate the task and add that to the To Do List. (at least, that's how I remember it when I worked through things several years ago. Not sure if anything's changed with the updates).
"they are not sorted out according to the Place like in LB."
DateBk doesn't have the nested Places like LB, but it does have the basic Places (or Categories). So you are correct --- if you heavily use the nested Places feature of LB, Datebk does not work as well. I started out with the extensive Places in LB --- complete with close / open hours; separate @Online and @Tablet (where I had special software) and an @Computer which includes @Online and @Tablet, etc... --- but found that I did not need to be that detailed with my tasks. Got rid (actually I still have them, I just don't use them) of those Places and downsized down to the basic @Phone, @Computer, @Errands, etc.. And those places are synced over to DateBk similarly named categories.
[Note: make sure you set up to import/export categories (Places) properly in LB preferences.]
"I am interested how is the task list on DateBk useful to you under such limitations??"
Since I only use the basic first level Places in LB, DateBk categories are fine for me. Plus, most of my tasks are date-oriented more than Places (categories)-oriented.
Another reason Datebk is important to my system is its role in EssentialPIM (or EPIM). I use the desktop and portable EPIM to complete my PIM system. EPIM sync with the Palm (hence also DateBk) information and allows me to carry all my data and work on any computer off the usb key. When I'm back on my home computer where LB and Hotsync are installed, new information from EPIM is synced with Palm and hence LB.
So there you have it. Sounds like a lot --- LB, Palm (DateBk) and EPIM --- just to manage PIM but I learned that it was better to find the tools that fit my system than to design my system around one tool (software). We all have different needs. I was lucky enough to find the 3 programs that work well together and do what I need them to do.
Hope I answered your question!
Date Book Application in Preference
mr.de.jong
I was going through the steps under Preference as I described them in my earlier post and I saw that under Date Book (in Preferences), there's a drop down list of applications. Mine is set to DateBk6, but I see that it can be set on something else. Maybe on your Treo, the option for Lotus Notes or mNotes are there to be selected? Not sure it that makes a difference.
Just a thought.
It's a whole new world... I
It's a whole new world... I don't know how I could have overlooked this bit of the manual. I must have read it so many times without seeing it.
Exporting the tasks to the Palm build-in to do does the trick for me. That gives me entrys that I can schedule either in Notes or in the Palmdesktop.
Indeed clutter has happend, but it's always nice to ditch and delete!
If I run into more "challenges" I will post a bit quicker I guess.
___________________________
Treo 650 & Tungsten|C
It's something, isn't it? :)
I'm glad that did the trick for you. Do you know about the "Link with Date Book" feature? If not, take a look after you're done playing with the tasks export. "Link with Date Book" allows you to scan the calendar or Date Book for appointments and add them to LB Outline. This comes in handy if you schedule appointments in Date Book and need to add them to LB later (versus scheduling in LB and exporting them to Date Book).
Yes, post if you run into any "challenges" :)