KAY’SCORNER
10 DECEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 382
T~EòT~EĚAŴȂIcaught sight
of my to-do list in Outlook, and
realised that mostof the items
had been languishing on there
formonths, if not years. In my
defence,this is my personal
to-do list rather than my
work-related one,but it did
make me thinkIreally oughtto
do something about my
procrastination problem.
Fortunately,byt he time I’d
watered the greenhouse,hung
out the washing, hadacup of
teaand playedacouple of
games of Spider Solitaire,the
feeling had dissipated.
LOTUS POSITION
For‘real’ work,Iuse the calendar
in Outlook, but that doesn’t
really workforthe sortsof tasks
that don’t haveadue dat e.
Personally,Istill mourn the loss
of Lotus Organizer (there’s a
blast from the past).Forthose
of you who don’t remember
Organizer,itl ooked like a
Filofax, and you could easily
set up separate‘pages’ for
subsetsof tasks such as
‘garden’or‘kids homework’.
What Iliked about it was the
wayyou could enter tasks then
cross them out, and still see
what you’d achieved.
Iworked with one colleague
who usedto writethings like
‘make acup of tea’ just so she
could get the rewardof the
noise it made when you finished
atask. The closestIget to
Organizer these days is the
back of an old envelope and
ahandwritten list, and that’s
asad stat eofa ffairs for
someone who spends so
many hours onacomputer.
There are modern snazzy
organisers such asToDoIst,
which many people swearby,but
none of the ones I’ve tried has
motivated me like Organizer
used to.This month, however,
someone sent me detailsof a
new to-do organiser called Gone.
This usesareally scarytechnique
–every item only shows upfor
24 hours, then it’s gone.
MAKING PROGRESS
What happens is that when you
createatask, it appears on your
to-do list, butover the next 24
hours aprogress bar appears
and fills up.Once the bar is
completely full, the task
disappears–gone.Ita cted as a
strong motivatorto begin with,
but Ifound afterawhile that
rather than rushingto finish a
task in time,Iwas adding it
again to get another 24 hours.
Gone’s agood idea, however,so
long as you liveby its rules.
One slight problem with Gone
is that it’s web-based, so you
only see the tasks if you open
Gone asatab in your web
browser or if you click on the
tab while you’ve got other tabs
open. However,ify ou open the
tab and see thatatask has only
ashort timeto live,itg ives a
feeling of urgency that is a
good incentiveto actually get on
and finish that item.
The fact you haveto
rememberto look at the tab on
your web browser isadrawback.
If you’re busy enoughto fo rget
to finish atask, chances are
you’ll forget to check what
tasks you’reforgetting.
One suggestionforhow
to make the urgency more
apparent isto use aNew Tab
Redirect add-onforyour web
browser and set itto show your
Gone pageevery time you open
anew tab ,and this isauseful
thing to know about whether or
not you’re using Gone.
New TabRedirect is
something that’s usefulfor
more than this particular
situation. As the name suggests,
it lets you specifyapage to
appear when you openanew
tab.Iknow some people who
chooseto show their recent
browser history,for example,
making it easierto find apage
you’ve recently used.
Depending on which browser
you’re using, you can also set
the tabto open alocal file.
This might provideauseful
alternativeto Gone; you could
createanH TML page where you
have your currentto-do list, and
see the contents whenever you
open anew tab –without the
items disappearing inaday!
REDIRECTACTION
Thereare NewTabRedirect or
Override add-onsforChrome
and Firefox, and if you chooseto
install the appropriateadd-on
you’ll get the chanceto specify
the URLof your Gone page.If
you’re using MicrosoftEdge as
your browser,you can set an
alternative start page from the
Settings, More,Settings, Launch
option, where you can choose a
specific pageto be used.
So am Iusing Gone,and has it
stopped me putting thingsoff?
I’m still giving itago, and it has
made me get on and finish one
or two things that would
probably still be languishing on
my list without its nagging.
However,ina dditionto adding
jobs back onto Gone once
they’re aboutto expire,I’ve
found myself adding tasksto
Gone...and thento my ‘usual’
to-do list manager in Outlook,
just so Ican’t forget them.
Once aprocrastinator,always
aprocrastinator.
KAYEWBANK
Software guru andShopperlegend
[email protected]. uk
Shelivesby themaxim ,‘Neverdot oday what youcanputoffuntiltomorrow’.
ButKayEwbankhasdiscoveredatoolthatmay help hertackleher to-dolist
IthoughtIoughttodosomething aboutmy procrastination problem. By the
time I’dwatered the greenhouse,hung out thewashing, hadacup ofteaand
playedacouple of games of Spider Solitaire, the feeling had dissipated
