Lesson 2: Maintaining the Warehouse In the last lesson, we showed how Tom begins each workday by selecting a daily list from a warehouse of to-dos. In this lesson, we will examine the warehouse more closely. As with any warehouse, the notion of "in" and "out" is very important, so keep it in mind during the lesson. The Inspiration Sporadically throughout the day, Tom will enter TMPC with an "inspiration", which is a sudden idea for a to-do. These inspirations can result from reading magazine articles, getting phone call, or conversations with fellow employees. When they occur, Tom likes to record inspirations quickly, then get on with his business. In this way, he avoids daydreaming and remembers things later. As Tom is fixing the presentation slides, he suddenly realizes that a simulation program may give better results with a different kind of input. He enters TMPC. (Do so yourself to follow along.) Then, he presses [Left-Arrow]. The screen appears: Screen 1 **************************************** * ******* * *edit** ************************************* ** * % * ***************** ***************** ** ************************************* ** *Unassigned********Unassigned******** ** Then, he presses [Up-Arrow]. At this point, TMPC enters the TEXT program on the Model 100. Tom knows how to use TEXT; if you don't, see page 19 of the Model 100 owner's manual. Meanwhile, Tom enters in a quick description, such as "alternate simulations runs". Then, he presses [F8] to exit TEXT. He now sees the same screen as before, except with the new inspiration on it. After a quick check of the text, he exits TMPC by pressing [Right-Arrow] [Up-Arrow]. You should get in the habit of recording your inspirations with TMPC. Page: 9 Lesson 2: Maintaining the Warehouse The Warehouse Cleanup The to-do warehouse, like any warehouse, becomes cluttered and disorganized unless it receives regular attention. Tom spends some time each week attending to this organization. He chooses some time when he is at his best - attentive and decisive. It is hard work, since he must evaluate to-dos for stress and priority, and break up large to-dos into smaller ones. These tasks require judgment. You may have noticed that the inspiration above had no stress or priority assigned to it. Instead, both showed as "unassigned". With a few exceptions, most inspirations go into the warehouse unassigned. However, TMPC will not allow you to select them for the daily list until you assign both stress and priority. It is a discipline; it forces you to learn what you do best and what your real priorities are. If you're like most people, the results may surprise you. Some inspirations are for entire projects - much more than a few hour's work. TMPC cannot prevent you from putting these large to-dos on your daily list, but it is a bad idea. You should try to break to-dos up into small enough units that 5-10 of them will fill a day. If your vocation naturally involves large projects, break them down into smaller tasks. Otherwise, you will quickly lose all interest in tracking your to-dos. It makes little more sense to put a two-week project on the daily list than to put the words, "do my job". You will not benefit from the monitoring, the reinforcement, or the archiving functions unless you break big projects down to size. If it seems like useless work to do so, you should think carefully about your working habits. If may be that this approach to to-dos is genuinely ill-suited to your job; if so, however, you are a rare exception. Thus, the three main tasks associated with a warehouse cleanup are prioritizing, assigning stress levels, and breaking up big projects into manageable tasks. In addition, you may have second thoughts about a to-do in the warehouse and decide to discard it of defer it indefinitely. We will follow Tom as he goes through this process in miniature. Enter TMPC and press [Down-Arrow]. You will see a summary of the to-dos in the warehouse: Page: 10 Lesson 2: Maintaining the Warehouse Screen 5 13 In "Warehouse"* *Today's Date******* 2 Unassigned***** ***** 10 Single Date 0 Priority 1***** ***** 3 Repeating ******************* ******************** % *View To Do******** **********View Appt* ******************* ******************** TMPC by Acroatix*** *Status Today******* The number to watch is the number of "unassigned" to-dos, since these will be the focus of the warehouse cleanup. (The number of priority 1 to-dos is interesting as well; if all your to-dos are priority 1, something is probably going haywire.) After examining the count of unassigned to-dos, Tom moves into the warehouse by pressing [Left-Arrow]. The following screen appears: Screen 4 --Unassigned:---------------------**0 ** Drynan results *** ** Alternate Simulation Runs **-2+* --Priority 1:---------------------*** ** A: E.I. Design: Error Handling **p% A: E.I. Design: Analog Devices *** ** A: E.I. Design: Sensors *** ** A: E.I. Design: Digital Devices **7 ** If you remember the list of the day's appointments and deadlines, you will notice the similar format. You may also remember that the "p" box moves the list forward by one page. Notice the headings for priorities and for unassigned items. The first item listed on the screen (shown in inverse video) is the "selected" item. Press [Up-Arrow] to move between the "+" and the "-" boxes. These boxes will move the selected item up and down in the list. Tom selects the second item ("alternate simulation runs") by pressing [Right-Arrow], then presses [Up-Arrow] to move to the screen above the warehouse: Page: 11 Lesson 2: Maintaining the Warehouse Screen 1 **************************************** *Alternate Simulation Runs ******* * *edit** ************************************* ** * % * ***************** ***************** ** ************************************* ** *Unassigned********Unassigned******** ** This is the same screen you saw above in the "inspiration" section, except that the text-display area contains the selected to-do. Tom has decided that this to-do is priority 2, stress-grade "A"; accordingly, he presses [Left-Arrow] to move over the priority box, presses [Down-Arrow] twice, presses [Left-Arrow] to move over the stress box, presses [Down-Arrow] once, then presses [Right-Arrow] twice. When he returns to the warehouse by pressing [Down-Arrow], the to-do will be in its proper position, and the next to-do in the warehouse will be selected. You can also change priorities and stress levels after you have assigned them - Tom finds he must often "upgrade" the priority of a to-do as it becomes more urgent that he finish it. Tom decides that "Drynan Results" is too large to be a single to-do. So, he selects it (by pressing [Left-Arrow]) and moves back to the editing screen with [Up-Arrow]. Then, he moves into TEXT by pressing [Up-Arrow] again. Once in the editor, he changes it to look as follows: ---------------------------------------- |Check Drynan Lab Report | |Make Drynan Slides | |Get Sales Approval for Drynan - call TSD| | | | | | | | | | | ---------------------------------------- Page: 12 Lesson 2: Maintaining the Warehouse Notice that the ENTER key separates the three to-dos in the file. Then, Tom presses [F8] to leave TEXT. The screen looks as follows: Screen 1 **************************************** *Get sales approval for Drynan - ******* *call TSD *edit** ************************************* ** * % * ***************** ***************** ** ************************************* ** *Unassigned********Unassigned******** ** As always, the screen shows the last to-do in the group he added. Tom assigns it priority 3, stress grade "C", and moves back to the warehouse. By pressing [Left-Arrow], he selects the next previous to-do from the file he entered; he assigns it priority 2 and stress grade "B". Similarly, he selects the first to-do in his expanded file and assigns it priority 2 and stress level "C". A quick return to the screen to the right (press [Right-Arrow]) shows that there are no unassigned to-dos left in the warehouse; the cleanup is almost complete. As the final step, Tom cycles through every item in the warehouse in the selection screen. (This is where we selected a daily list in the last lesson. To get there, press [Down-Arrow] [Left-Arrow]). Tom uses [F1] to examine each item; he decides that "JFFI Research memo" has been sitting too long, and there is no time to do it. So, he deletes it with [F5]. At this point, we have shown all of the basic techniques for using the warehouse. To-dos enter the warehouse through "inspirations", and by breaking down large to-dos into smaller ones. (you can also return to the warehouse from the daily list, as we showed in Lesson 1.) To-dos move from the unassigned area to the assigned area when you give them priority and stress ratings. They leave the warehouse by deletion, or by selection into the daily list. We highly encourage you to think of your job in terms of tasks to be done, and to track them with TMPC. Page: 13