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Programming is fun and challenging. It involves constant change and improvement to attain optimal performance and efficiency. Below is a collection of previous coding projects and experiments.
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Time Management Related Files
Attached Time Management Files
Note: All Microsoft Office attachments can be opened with this free application: www.OpenOffice.org
- Time Management Worksheets.xls: An Excel
spreadsheet with the following worksheets: - One Week Activity Log
- Interruption Worksheet
- Time Waster Worksheet
- Goals-Objectives Template.doc: A Word document for creating goals and objectives.
- Time-Life Management Overview.ppt: A PowerPoint presentation of the TM process.
- WCC Tool Overview.ppt: A PowerPoint presentation of the "Web Calendar Cell phone Tool process.
Day Planner Tool
"Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"
-- Author unknown
I. Introduction
Traditional paper based day planners are a popular tool for organizing scheduled activities. They are simple, convenient, proven and readily available. This is a general time management tool case study that does not focus on a particular brand of day planner or method.
II. Day Planner Process Overview
Setup: Purchase a convenient day planner: (How) (Learning):
- The planner should be a convenient size that will allow you to carry it at all times.
- The planner pages and views should be large enough to
accommodate your daily tasks, TODO lists, contacts and notes. - The planner should have monthly, daily and/or weekly views.
- Consider buying a two-year planner around mid-November to allow scheduling of future appointments.
Usage: (How) (Learning)
- When starting a new planner, consider transferring important
contact details such as phone numbers, doctors and "critical" holiday events. - Post appointments, birthdays and other important events in the planner.
- Review your planner in the beginning of the day and then as needed throughout the day.
- Use a pencil to allow erasing mistakes or making changes.
- Consider using color coded, erasable pencils to make it easy to see different types of events or items.
- Consider using paper clips or bookmarks to make it easy to find important pages.
III. Time Management Tool Requirements: Day Planner Comparison
Ranking Scale: Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Very Poor.
Must Have Features:
-
The tool must allow convenient access and modifications to the schedule.
- Score: Very Good
- Pros: Day planners are designed and purchased for their
convenience. They can be very simple to use and convenient to carry. This allows instant access to important schedule information. - Cons:Day planner "convenience" is subjective. Some people may find it inconvenient to carry and update a planner.
-
The tool must allow the data to be legible and easy to read.
- Score: Fair
- Pros:People who have neat writing may have legible planners.
- Cons:People who don't have neat writing may have hard to read planners.
Nice To Have Features:
-
The tool should allow the data to be easily imported and exported.
- Score: Fair
- Pros:The 2 year day planners make transferring annual data
easier. - Cons:Planners do not have automated import/export
capabilities, which could be a serious problem if the planner is lost. All data transfers are manual activities.
-
The tool should provide notifications before a scheduled event.
- Score: Good
- Pros: Planners are convenient so accessing a list of scheduled events should be easy.
- Cons: Event notifications are not automated. The user must
remember the events or look at the planner often to avoid missing
events.
-
The tool should be easy to convert to a new year.
- Score: Fair
- Pros: Two year planners are available to make this task easier.
- Cons: Transfering events is not automated. Each future event must be manually entered.
-
The tool should allow easy access to past and future years.
- Score: Fair
- Pros: Two year planners are available to make this task easier.
- Cons: Day planners do not have search capabilities.
-
The tool should use open standards versus proprietary to protect the data from vendor control.
- Score: Good
- Pros: A user can choose from a variety of planner brands and
styles. The data is hand written and is not affected by technology
constraints. - Cons: None.
-
The tool should allow the data to be synchronized to other formats.
- Score: Poor
- Pros: None
- Cons: Day Planners can't be easily converted to other formats. It would be inconveient to scan the day planner pages.
Total Score: 3.75 (almost "good")
References.
"How to Use Your Day Planner for Maximum Efficiency,
Organization"Online website by AssociatedContent.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/58158/how_to_use_your_day_plann...
"Learning to Use a Day Planner (WWK11)" Online website by the National
Resource Center on AD/HD.
http://www.help4adhd.org/en/living/organdtime/WWK11
- Show quoted text -
Web Calendar-Cell Phone Tools
"Lost time is never found again"
--Benjamin Franklin
I. Introduction
Cell phones are popular communication tools. Their text messaging capabilities provide interesting PDA functionality. They can interact with web based Calendar (Google 1) and Short Message Service (Short) applications to allow scheduling, event notifications, driving directions and other information from the Internet. Text messaging is usually less expensive than web access for cell phones. This case study focuses on the Google Calendar application and all generic cell phones.
II. WCC Process Overview
Setup:
- Sign up for a Gmail account (Create).
- Create a Google Calendar (Google).
- Add your cell phone number to your calendar account settings page.
- Add cell phone notifications within your account settings.
- If your cell phone is "syncML" compatible you could synchronize your cell phone calendar with Google Calendar (GooSync).
Usage:
- Post your appointments, birthdays and other important events in the calendar. Mark re-occurring events as needed.
- Create your personal Google Home Page and add your Google Calendar and email "gadgets".
- Only delete Calendar notifications from your cell phone when they have been completed. Your text message inbox is your "TODO"
list! - Send appointments to your Google Calendar from your cell phone (Google 2)..
- Learn and use SMS text messaging to get important information when you need it.
- If your cell phone is not "syncML" compatible, print your calendar periodically, and put in your wallet or purse. To print a smaller sized calendar:
- Open Google Calendar in the month you want to print and click on the printer icon next the Day view tab.
- The print icon will download the calendar as a PDF file, open this file.
- Copy the calendar to the "clipboard" by clicking on the "snapshot" tool (camera icon).
- Open your favorite word processor application.
- Paste the clipboard contents into the open document.
- Click on the calendar and resize it as needed.
- Print the calendar, cut to size as needed.
III. Time Management Tool Requirements: WCC Comparison
Ranking Scale: Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Very Poor.
Must Have Features:
-
The tool must allow convenient access and modifications to the schedule.
- Score: Good.
- Pros: The WCC model allows the user to view/edit the
calendar online or synchronize with the cell phone calendar if it is
"syncML" compatible. New events can be easily added via the cell
phone. - Cons: Most phones are not "syncML" compatible and this
process may cost the user air time minutes. You need access to an Internet connected computer and be computer literate.
-
The tool must allow the data to be legible and easy to read.
- Score: Very Good.
- Pros: The web based calendar is text based, intuitive and easy to read.
- Cons: The user must learn how to enter the data.
Nice To Have Features:
-
The tool should allow the data to be easily imported and exported.
- Score: Very Good.
- Pros: This WCC model uses the Google Calendar application, which provides data import and exporting capabilities using standard formats (Import).
- Cons: None.
-
The tool should provide notifications before a scheduled event.
- Score: Very Good.
- Pros: Google Calendar can be configured to send notifications to the cell phone at a specified number of minutes before the event.
- Cons: There is only one default time setting for all event reminders.
-
The tool should be easy to convert to a new year.
- Score: Very Good.
- Pros: Google Calendar events can be configured to repeat in a
variety of ways. - Cons: None
-
The tool should allow easy access to past and future years.
- Score: Very Good.
- Pros: Google Calendar has a powerful search utility for finding past and future events.
- Cons: None.
-
The tool should use open standards versus proprietary to protect the data from vendor control.
- Score: Good.
- Pros: Google Calendar is a web based application that can be
accessed with any operating - system using the most popular browsers. It also uses standard import/export formats.
- Cons: None.
-
The tool should allow the data to be synchronized to other formats.
- Score: Fair
- Pros: This is a powerful feature if your phone is "snycML" compatible.
- Cons: Most phones are not "syncML" compatible and this process may cost the user air time minutes.
Total Score: 4.5 (between good and very good)
References.
"Create a Google Account – Gmail" Online website by Google.
https://www.google.com/accounts/SmsMailSignup1
"Google Calendar"Online website by Google.
http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/overview.html
"Google Calendar SMS Interaction" Online website by PainInTheTech.
http://paininthetech.com/google_calendar_sms_interaction
"GooSync Beta Home Page". Online website by GooSync.
http://www.goosync.com/Default.aspx
Time Management Tool Case Studies
Description
This page contains document links to various Time Management planning tools.
My Stuff
This is a handy place to store "My Stuff" that has has accumulated over the years. Yes, some of it is weird, but it was a learning experience and fun at the same time...