Lesson 1: Setting the Daily List This screen is always the first one you will see upon entering TMPC. So, start from here to follow Tom through his daily procedure of setting today's workload for himself. As the first step, he presses [Down-arrow] (just once) to move to the screen below this one: Screen 5 16 In "Warehouse"* *Today's Date******* 1 Unassigned***** ***** 10 Single Date 2 Priority 1***** ***** 3 Repeating ******************* ******************** % *View To Do******** **********View Appt* ******************* ******************** TMPC by Acroatix*** *Status Today******* This screen, like the one above it, contains only corridors and information. Tom moves on without stopping by pressing [Right-Arrow]. Yet another screen appears: Screen 6 ** ***-01/11/84 Appts:------------------ ** ***11 1/2 Meet w/JRF re DFFI tests *p c**2 1/2 Group Meeting ** ***7 J.A. Meeting %p**-01/11/84 Memos:------------------ ** ***Call MEL *- +**EPG B'day ** **2-01/11/84 Ddlns:------------------ This screen shows today's appointments and memos. Notice the two numbers in the inverse video portion of the screen. The "0" means that there are no items in the list above what are shown; the "2" at the bottom means that two more items are off the bottom of the screen. Tom looks at the appointments. Both of the meetings are going to be relatively short, he knows; further, because he is a counselor for Junior Achievement, he normally works late on Wednesdays, in order to go straight there from work. Then, he presses [Right-Arrow] into the box with a "p", which stands for "page forward". Do this and you will see the screen change as follows: Page: 4 Lesson 1: Setting the Daily List Screen 6 ** **5-01/11/84 Ddlns:------------------ ** *** 2 Bdays:Activity Summary ** c** 5 Bdays: 10 Synquil Presentation ** *** %p** ** *** *- +** ** **0 Tom looks at these deadlines: a standard activity report due in just two more business days, and a sales-related presentation to a potential customer in a week. With a rough idea of how busy the day will be, and what the most urgent deadlines are, Tom proceeds to look at what remains undone from yesterday. Press [Left-Arrow] and [Down-Arrow] to show another screen: Screen 8 1 Grade C Stress* Overall Status***** 1 Grade B Stress* *********** 3 Appts 1 Grade A Stress* *********** 2 Memos ******************* ******************** % Select To Do****** ***********Add Appt ******************* ******************** ******************* Process To Do****** This screen enumerates the things to be done today. Since this is the first time Tom has entered TMPC today, these are things left undone from yesterday. TMPC categorizes activities in two different ways: # One of three levels of stress. Stress "A" jobs are exhausting, stress "B" jobs are average, and stress "C: jobs are light or enjoyable. Of course, you will have your own ideas about what is difficult and what is easy or fun. This screen categorizes to-dos by stress level. Page: 5 Lesson 1: Setting the Daily List # One of three levels of priority. Priority 1 to-dos should be done immediately; priority 2 to-dos should be done within a few days, and priority 3 jobs can be done when convenient. This screen shows nothing about priority, but other screens do. In our example, Tom sees that there is one of each type of project left undone from yesterday; he presses [Down-Arrow] to look at them. The following screen appears: Screen 11 ******************* ******************** % **************************************** ****Synquil Slides **** **** **** **************************************** ****Priority 1********Grade B Stress**** Cycle*****Done******Cancel****Delay*LPT* The text in the box describes one of the things left undone. Tom looks at all three by pressing the [F1] key ("cycle") several times. He decides that the two items for Synquil better be finished today. However, the 8086 reading is low priority; it should wait until some other time. He presses [F5] ("delay") to move the project back to the warehouse. There are two places where TMPC stores to-dos. The warehouse is a holding area where you put every task that you are thinking about doing or must do "some time". From the warehouse, you select a daily list at the beginning of each workday. Your goal should always be to finish all of your to-dos on the daily list before close of business. Tom left three things undone; he is not unduly annoyed, since an unexpected (and productive) conversation pre-empted three of his to-dos. There are no really pressing deadlines this week. Tom now has two to-dos on his daily list. Normally, he shoots for two with "grade A stress", two or three with "grade B stress", and a few with "grade C stress" - never more than ten in all. To complete the selection, he moves to another screen. Press [Up-Arrow] [Left-Arrow]. (On the way, notice that the "grade C stress" number is now zero, since that to-do has been moved back into the warehouse.) The screen you see will look like this: Page: 6 Lesson 1: Setting the Daily List Screen 7 ************************************* ** *Correspondence file: clear **** ** * **** ** ************************************* ** *Priority 1********Grade C Stress****% ************************************* ** ***********************************reset Cycle******Do*******Cancel************** The text shown is for the first to-do in the warehouse. The warehouse always sorts to-dos by priority first; within priority, it sorts by increasing stress. This is because you should do the fun, urgent things right away. Accordingly, the to-do displayed is priority 1 and stress level "C". Tom selects this one for the daily list with [F3] ("do"). The next item in the warehouse appears in the box. Using [F1] ("cycle") and [F3], Tom moves through the warehouse to select all of his daily list. We won't show each one here; instead, as an exercise, choose each of the following: Fix presentation slides J.A. marketing presentation Work out Beta Industries lab plan Write activity summary This selection makes a total of seven to-dos in the daily list. To verify the count, look at the summary in the screen to the right by pressing [Right-Arrow]. The summary shows one "C", four "B's" and two "A's". This is a moderately heavy amount of work for a day with two meetings and Tom rolls up his sleeves to get at them. You will undoubtedly come up with your own philosophy about daily list selection. Everyone has their won preferences, but we have one very important piece of advice: don't be too ambitious. Over-ambition is being dishonest with yourself, and in the long run will discourage you from using TMPC. If you face an impossible workload, face the situation squarely - don't pretend to be superhuman. Page: 7 Lesson 1: Setting the Daily List As the final step to his daily selection, Tom moves back to the "process to-do" screen. This is the first of several returns there today, as he completes the tasks he has assigned himself. Now, however, he simply presses [F8] ("print") to make a hard copy of the list. This step requires a printer. Finally, Tom exits TMPC by typing four up-arrows. This concludes the first lesson. As an exercise, we recommend that you move through the screens of TMPC on your own. Don't enter any "dead-end" corridors, since doing so can change the task file. Instead, move around the screens until you feel generally confident about "where you are" at any point. Page: 8