Using Tudumo to Manage Tasks

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Here's a user-story from customer called Mark Rice who has been pretty busy doing his MBA. That takes some serious time management!

Saving time

My end goal is support for prioritizing across projects and saving time. I now stay on the most productive tasks better than before, and I use additional pockets of time that are sometimes wasted.

First, to stay productive, I had to be able to see next tasks ACROSS several endeavors/projects (called headings). Tudumo handles this easily; I get my core needs with only three views:

1. The entire list of tasks (no filters).

all tasks in one list

2. A single project/heading with details (by pressing space on that heading). This eliminates all others while I'm focused on that project. (Space again brings back the others.)

One project with all the task details

3. THIS VIEW IS CRITICAL and it keeps me on the RIGHT task: A view of all next tasks ACROSS ALL headings (by control-1 or by the menu: See All / Only Next Actions - Control-5 brings all tasks back).

Focusing on most important tasks, or next actions

Focusing on most important tasks, or next actions

These views help me stay on the most productive tasks across all of my endeavors.

Using Tudumo, I also use pockets of time that are often wasted. One of the best tools for this is tags. They help sort/visualize tasks across all headings that have special restrictions. One obvious example concerns tasks that require a computer, so the '@computer' tag can help. One great but less obvious example is the set of tasks that only require 'thinking' so I turned that into a tag and tagged all tasks that requires some up-front thinking. Now I click on 'thinking' (near the bottom of the screen) and instantly have a cross-project list of things I can think about while driving (or waiting in line somewhere, e.g. for a haircut). While not revolutionary, this type of 'cross project' filter adds to productivity because it lists tasks that are right for the time pocket I have.

Using tags to filter tasks

Others tags to consider: phone (calls to make), name of a business associate (things to discuss/show/deliver for that individual), and geographic description (tasks or things to take).

These uses were gained very quickly (the program is not hard to learn) and I can see that the multiple filter types and search capabilities will yield even more as I learn. This is a strong tool that won't take much time before it gives time back.

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