Writing On Your Palm

00/01/04 - Planning for Success

A while back, I talked about the importance of using the Palm to organize as well as write. I mentioned the importance of relational databases for tracking things like submissions, and I talked about the excellent PIM ActionNames.

But that's only half the story.

The Palm can be more than just an organizer (big surprise hearing me say that). It can be a complete existence system, tracking roles, values and long range goals as well as the day-to-day minutiae of your life. And if you're going to be an effective writer, especially if you write book-length works, you need to know how to manage your time long-term. Here's some options for doing just that.

Franklin Planner

The obvious solution is to use the same existence system as most of the paper-lugging planners out there. The Franklin-Covey method has garnered a lot of accolades, mostly because it works. Essentially (and you're going to hear this a lot once you start looking for this kind of software) it helps you define what matters most to you, then plan your life around what you really care about. Franklin-Covey offers a full suite of PalmOS applications that integrate with its Franklin Planner Windows software. (Mac users are out of luck; Franklin-Covey has no plans for a Mac version of their planner software, but says that, although not officially supported, Mac users have had good luck running the Windows version on a Windows emulator.)

For what it's intended to do, the Franklin Planner for PalmOS software is top-rate. After you import your ToDo items (it replaces the Palm ToDo list rather than integrating with it), you can determine your mission (to be a world-class novelist), roles (writer) and values (storytelling, dedication), then link those to goals (write a great novel), then break down the goals into their manageable component steps (outline, develop characters, write chapter one...). Those steps can either go in a Master Task List for doing down the road, go directly into the Daily Task List for doing this week, or can take the form of appointments in the Datebook (meeting with agent).

Sounds great, right?

Well, yes and no. As great as the Franklin Planner software is, it falls short of the Zen of Palm. For one thing, it's designed primarily for you to do all of your planning on the Windows version, then sync to the Palm for reference. I prefer to do everything on the Palm, treating my PC as little more than a large, noisy backup facility for the Palm. Using the Franklin Planner software this way tends to lead to some odd errors, like it's not quite capable of keeping track of everything without the PC to keep things straight. Also, the Franklin Planner install replaces the existing Palm HotSync Manager and conduits, so you'll have to reinstall things like AvantGo and BackupBuddy. This also makes it tricky to hack it into working with the Visor and its USB cradle.

Mostly though, I missed the task and appointment integration of ActionNames, DateBk3 and the Visor's Datebook+. The nice thing about paper planners is that you have everything in front of you at once: your tasks in one column, your appointments in another column, everything visible at the same time. With the Franklin Planner for the Palm, you have to constantly switch back and forth between the Franklin Planner Task List and the Datebook. I missed things that way, like scheduling several tasks that required me to be at my PC on a day that I happened to have jury duty. Given that the memory requirements for the software are already pretty outrageous, Franklin-Covey should include a modified version of the Palm Datebook that includes their tasks.

Franklin Planner for PalmOS is still worth a look, and a lot of people swear by it. If they made it little more Palm-centric, I'd use it myself. It's about 500k, but that's not too painful for IIIx, Vx or Visor Deluxe owners. The software is available at computer stores everywhere for $99, but if you go to a Franklin-Covey retail store, you can get a discount for all Palm users and snag it for $39. The CD they sell you has version 7.0 on it, which you must install before downloading and installing the version 7.1.1 update. It has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Life Balance

Another recent addition to the Palm life-planning category is an old Newton favorite, Life Balance. This program takes a slightly different approach to the Franklin Covey method. It has you break your priorities into categories, displayed in a pie chart. Then, under each category, you list your goals, then break the goals into tasks. Instead of traditional 1-5 or A2, C1 priorities, Life Balance just has a slider bar that asks you how important a task is to its parent, the item directly above it in the outline. The program uses mathematical algorithms to decide for you what you should do next. It displays a simple looking task list that contains only the tasks that are most important to you when and where you are. You can also specify places in the program, so that it won't suggest that you work out when the gym is closed, for example. You can freely adjust your priorities as needed, and you can have the program look at what you've been doing versus what you want to do and give more emphasis to the things you've been neglecting.

Again, this is another great program, a really cool concept slickly executed, but I'm not using it. For one thing, I don't like the way it clutters up the datebook. For each task, it creates a datebook entry, and it's through those datebook untimed appointments that you control repeating tasks. While this does address the issue I had with Franklin planner of not being able to see my tasks and appointments on the same screen, it's less than ideal because I still have to switch applications to check them off, then they still appear in the datebook after they've been completed.

I also wasn't thrilled with the imprecise nature of the tasklist generation. Quite often, things I knew I'd set for "essential", things I had to tackle right away, weren't even on the first screen of tasks. I had to scroll down. I think a big improvement to the program would be for them to include due dates (yes, Life Balance is a task manager that doesn't really support due dates) and factor how close the task is to being due into its relative importance. Something due today should at least be seen without scrolling.

Lastly, at $50 (common for Newton software), Life Balance is a little pricey for the Palm. They have a thirty-day trial period and they urge you to use the whole thing before buying a license, and I'm inclined to agree.

Homegrown Solutions

In the absence of an integrated commercial solution, I decided to roll my own, as it were. As it turns out, this isn't too hard to do, but will cost you $58.95, nearly twenty bucks more than Franklin Planner and almost ten more than Life Balance, assuming, of course, that you don't already have these programs. (Visor Discount! It will only cost Visor owners $38.95, cheaper than either of the above two programs. Let's all bow to HandSpring...)

First off is DateBk3, from Pimlico Software. This powerhouse datebook does everything you need for short term scheduling. Based on the original Palm Datebook code, the interface is familiar, but feature-packed. In addition to what the stock datebook can do, DateBk3 adds:

• Full ToDo integration
• Floating events, appointments that can be checked off like ToDo items
• Two text-based weekly views (great for weekly planning)
• A highly-configurable list view
• A more-useful-than-you'd-think year view
• A daily journal feature
• Icons, timezones and a whole lot more!

The big advantage to DateBk3, as I'm sure you've guessed, is the ability to see appointments and ToDos on the same screen. This makes weekly planning so much easier, and nothing is missed. This is the central interface for the whole system, where you'll be doing all your daily planning, so you've got to have this to make whole setup work (although this and the ToDo+, below, could conceivably be replaced by ActionNames at half the price, but I don't personally think ActionNames would work as well for planning and it doesn't include floating events, crucial for compass items as detailed below).

This is also where Visor owners get a price break, as the Datebook+ program that comes with the Visor is a streamlined version of DateBk3. It's missing icons, timezones and a few other features, but all the important stuff is there.

Complementing DateBk3 is ToDo+, from HandsHigh Software. At first glance, ToDo+ doesn't look that different from the stock ToDo List. Same categories, same priorities, same data. A closer look reveals a number of new features that make it much, much more powerful than the list that came with the Palm.

First off, ToDo+ supports both repeating (every other Wednesday, the 12th of every month, etc.) and recurring (mow the lawn two weeks after the last time I mowed it, no matter how far behind schedule I was at the time) tasks. This is great for the things you have on your schedule that recur on a regular basis. I have all of my routine tasks set up this way, from car payment on the 12th of every month to emptying the catbox every five days. This lets me be secure that I won't forget these things, but at the same time I don't have to worry about entering them into my schedule each week.

ToDo+ also supports attaching drawings to ToDo items just like attaching text notes. This is great for small maps or sketches that you need to have when you perform the task. It allows you set alarms for ToDo items, something DateBk3 doesn't do, so you won't forget a time-critical task, but you don't have to convert it to DateBk3 floating event either.

Lastly, ToDo+ adds viewing filters to the ToDo List, so you can easily see just this week's tasks, the next seven days including past due, etc. This, again, makes it easier to plan your week.

Tying it all together is Arranger, from Olive Branch Software. Arranger can be used as a typical outliner. It supports multiple hierarchical outlines, and each list item can be up to 32k in size. But what really makes this one shine, especially for project planning, is that it can integrate itself with each of the "core" Palm applications. Arranger is the only outliner on the market that can incorporate ToDo items, Datebook appointments, Memos and Contacts into a hierarchical outline, even creating new items as needed. What this gives you is the ability to break your goals down into component parts and have those parts already be in the built-in application where they need to be.

(You've probably noticed that the big strength of all three of these applications is that they essentially enhance the presentation and manipulation of the data you already have. By using the built-in applications' databases, they ensure that not only will they interoperate, but that everything you do will get synced to the desktop, just as normal.)

Now, here's how I use this combination.

First, in Arranger I have a category set up called 1st Things 1st. (By the way, if you haven't read Covey & Merrill's First Things First, it's highly recommended. What I'm talking about here will make a lot more sense.) In there, I have outlines set up for Mission, Values, Roles and Goals. The first three are linked to Memos that define those traits, but the Goals outline is really the meat of it. In there, I have top level items for "categories" of goals, creative, professional, financial, etc. Under those I have long range goals, like Write "The Nemesis War" and $3.5M by 65. Under each of these, I have linked-in ToDo items and appointments that contribute towards the fulfillment of that goal. For example, under the above $3.5M by 65, I have a ToDo item dated six months from now called Open E-Trade account. Under Write "The Nemesis War", I have a ToDo item called Flesh out outline. And so on and so forth. This is a great way to break your goals down into manageable chunks, and have those chunks where they need to be for weekly planning.

Every weekend, I sit down with my Visor and consult ToDo+. In First Things First, the authors talk about a four quadrant approach to prioritizing your activities. If you draw a two by two grid and label the first column Urgent and the first row Important, you see that Quadrant I activities are important and urgent, Quadrant II activities are important but not time-critical, Quadrant III is urgent but not really important, and Quadrant IV is neither important or urgent. They also recommend that you have a Master Tasklist, a list of things to do that don't fit anywhere on the four quadrants because you don't need to worry about doing them for a while yet. This just so happens to work perfectly with the Palm ToDo List's five priorities. I assign priority 1 to things in Quadrant I, 2 for II and so on. Priority five items are my Master Tasklist, things that won't show up on my radar for a while (it's for this reason that when I create a goal step in Arranger and put it in the ToDo List, I always assign it a priority of 5). I review ToDo+, category by category, re-evaluating the things I didn't get done, reprioritizing them as necessary, and I decide which priority five items need to be done this week. I assign due dates and priorities to what I pick, and that about does it for tasks.

Next comes the compass. Covey and Merrill recommend that you have a compass to keep you on track for the week. This will include things that don't have to be done on any particular day, but things linked to roles you want to emphasize that week. For example, I might have a compass item derived from my Employee role to remind me to lend a hand and help train the less experienced people in my department. In Arranger, I have a "Roles" outline in my "1st Things 1st" category. In that, I have the various roles in my life (writer, employee, friend, son, etc.) and an additional role called "Sharpen the Saw". According to the Covey literature, this role is to focus on things you need to do to renew yourself. Under that role, I have four datebook appointments linked in, "StS-Physical: ", "StS-Social: ", "StS-Mental: ", and "StS-Spiritual: ". In Datebook+ (again, DateBk3 if you don't have a Visor), I've changed these to Floating Events and added an activity to each. For example, one of them reads, "StS-Spiritual: Slow down" as I've been going 100% all the time recently and am getting a bit frazzled. Other roles are handled the same way, by creating datebook events for them with aspect I want to focus on that week. Because they're floating events, they follow me from day to day until I check them off, and they have a check circle instead of a check box to differentiate them from ToDo items. The Floats changing dates doesn't seem to affect Arranger in any way; it can still track them just fine. In addition to the Sharpen The Saw items, I only pick one or two other roles each week, to avoid spreading myself too thin. I also don't always have each Sharpen The Saw item each week, so the ones I'm not using I'll reschedule to the following Saturday, which is when I do my weekly planning again.

Every morning, I consult Datebook+ for my schedule, ToDos and appointments. I keep an eye on that throughout the day to verify that I'm staying on track and doing the things that really matter to me. For example, "Drew Carey" is on right now as I write this, and I really enjoy that show, but writing this column is a Quadrant I activity, so here I stay. The Franklin-Covey folks call this "acting in the moment of choice", a flowery way of saying that you make sure you do what's important to you, because you know what's important to you.

So to sum up, I get up every morning and my datebook shows me:

• All the ToDo items I have scheduled that day, which I know are derived from my goals
• All of my Compass items that I haven't checked off yet this week
• All of my appointments for the day

And after all that, if you have to ask what goal-setting and dedication and focus have to do with writing, I've got a dunce cap with your name on it. Novels don't write themselves (usually).

Other Options

While any of the above will work, the great thing about the PalmOS platform is the variety of third party software. Here are some other programs you can spin into your own planning solution.

Maņana

If you opt not to use Arranger, Maņana is a good Master Tasklist. It's a clone of the stock ToDo List, but it uses it's own database. The author bills it as "a ToDo List for things you have no intention of doing", which is as good a description of a Master Tasklist as I've ever heard. There's one extra button at the bottom of the screen, called "Move". Tapping this button with a task selected will move that task to the "Unfiled" category of the real ToDo List.

ReDo

ReDo does much the same thing as ToDo+ but from a different angle. Instead of replacing the ToDo List, it supplements it by standing off to the side and adding the repeat items when no one's looking. This has an advantage over ToDo+ in that repeat items don't appear immediately, but rather a user-specified time before they're due. This gives the ToDo List a cleaner, more uncluttered feel. On the other hand, ReDo only does repeat items, not regenerating, meaning that it's not flexible enough to remind you to go to the grocery store seven days after the last time you went, but insists that you go every Saturday, even if you stretched it out with boloney sandwiches until Wednesday last time.

Hi-Note

Hi-Note isn't so much an outliner as it is a hierarchical MemoPad. The interface is nearly identical to MemoPad, and it also keeps all of it's data in a single database. For text-based data like mission statements and values, the interface alone makes it cleaner and more comfortable than Arranger, but it can't do action items at all.

Brainforest

Brainforest is the king of Palm outliners, a direct descendent of the original, Florent Pillet's Outliner. It alone can do a bang-up job for project management, complete with complete-percentage bar graphs for action items and parent items showing the average completion percentage of their children. I used this for quite a while, but its ToDo export capability didn't measure up. If you want to track all your action items in one application, Brainforest gives you considerably more control than Arranger, but Brainforest action items will not show up in DateBk3.

Well, kids, that's all for now (this is the longest Palm column I've written yet, and you're probably just as tired as I am, assuming you made it this far). I'll be back next week with a discussion of OEB, XML and the evil DRM, so keep on the lookout for some alphabet soup.

Jeff Kirvin
jkirvin@yahoo.com