[Note: a slightly different and more bloggy personal version of this post appeared today at my livejournal blog, travelertrish.]
When I stop stuffing myself with sugar, get thin, exercise every day, walk those five miles, stop smoking once and for all, and get a really good haircut, I'm going to overhaul my life and go Open Source Everything. Until, then, however, Microsoft is what came with the machine.
Call me lazy. Call me politically incorrect. Most of my international clients are in the same boat, though I'd hesitate to call them any of THOSE names.
Several weeks back from my last trip to Nepal, I was still feeling unproductive, groggy, foggy, and just not particularly effective. Oh, the board meeting went all right, and the handicraft sales are sending reassuring little trickles into the Worlds Touch bank account. But it felt as if I were working hard all day, every day, and then...? What had I done all day? Where did the time go? Why did it feel like a huge funnel, sucking me under?
I resolved to send Christmas cards this year, first time in YEARS. So I popped into Outlook, emptied all four of my address books into the Contact List. That got me exploring the calendar and appointment functions and the task list, with all its nifty information about how far along I've got. I put the Today in my startup file, so it's the first thing I see when I boot up the computer.
Here's what I like these days:
--I LIKE the little reminders for appointments on my calendar. These
days, I'm likely to be so focused on what I'm doing, I forget places
I'm supposed to be, people I'm supposed to call or write. Twice, I
forgot to go visit a woman I really like, a potential friend and soul
mate. Now, a little bell rings.
--I like the task list, with
options to rate their priority, to estimate how finished they are, to
label them with categories. I like the way they get crossed off and
LOOK crossed off, giving me some concrete idea of what I've actually
accomplished.
--I like putting my contacts into categories and
then seeing only the household guys like electricians or seeing only
family, or only Nepalis.
--I like the journal, though I just
started using it again yesterday and I'm not really with it yet. You
can simply note, as the day goes on, what you've done in terms not of
little tasks but progress on projects, and the journal marks it with
the time of day on a timeline. Or, you can set the timer and see how
long a task takes you.
Or you can use it to keep track of the number of hours you are spending on a client's job. I wish I'd used it with my Nepali partner, so I could say, I spent X number of hours. At the going rate of $60/hour, it would have cost you $YYYY. Even at Nepali rates, it would have been Rupees ZZZ. It helps to see how much time something takes, and when I get lost in a project, I have no idea how much time has passed or when I started or anything.
So the journal is good for billing, good for keeping track of a day. I look at the timeline for yesterday, and I SEE where my day went. I'm crossing things off my task list. I'm putting phone numbers and email addresses directly into my contacts list. I'm scheduling stuff I've promised to do. I'm feeling organized. Very satisfying.
Now, all I need is an Open Source equivalent, so that when I really get healthy, I can drop sugary, cigaretty old Microsoft and go with something lean and socially just.
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