Using the iPhone app TaskTask and Matching it to the Outlook To-Do Bar

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

As may know, my favorite iPhone tasks app is called TaskTask. This article is on how to make sure that it matches your Windows Outlook To-Do Bar task list.

TaskTask is great because it synchronizes its task list with either Exchange or Outlook.com. And there are easy and quick ways to set up TaskTask so that it matches either of my two task management systems: MYN or 1MTD.

I have a very complete write up about TaskTask, and how to use it with either MYN or 1MTD at this link. That link is really the place to start if you are using TaskTask.

Matching the Windows Outlook To-Do Bar

The goal, of course, when using any smartphone tasks app like TaskTask with Exchange is that you can see and edit your tasks both in Outlook and on your iPhone, and presumably to have the two lists sync and match exactly. Most of my clients use Windows Outlook, and for them I recommend using the To-Do Bar to view and edit their tasks in Outlook.

But sometimes that’s hard to do, to get an exact match in both places. This article is to help fix that.

At the start of this article I am going to focus on why, if you are using my 1MTD system and trying to get drag-to task sorting to match, they might not match and how to fix it.

And in the rest of the article I go over other reasons Outlook and TaskTask might not match, reasons that apply to MYN as well. Again, I identify fixes.

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Toodledo Adds Start Date Underlines Feature

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

The Toodledo team just added a new feature which is quite important for my MYN system users. It’s the ability to display underlines on tasks that have a start date of today.

This Is Important for Two Reasons

First, in MYN methodology, if you set the start date of a task to the future, the task is hidden. Then on that date the task reappears at the top of the corresponding priority section in your visible task list, ready to work on.

In Outlook with MYN settings, it appears there on that day underlined. The underline draws your attention to the task, reminding you that it just appeared that morning, and that there might be a significant reason you scheduled it for today. It helps the newly arriving task stand out.

Toodledo never had that capability, but now it does.

The second reason it’s important is that in the MYN methodology, there is an optional 4th urgency zone called Target Now (see Lesson 16 in my Toodledo-MYN video set or Lesson 15 in my Outlook-MYN video set). The Target Now section lists non-critical opportunity now tasks that you really want to act on today. It’s a great way to add focus to your day.

The way tasks are tagged for that in Outlook MYN settings is to for you to set the start date to today, which causes it to be underlined, and so it stands out clearly at the top of the normal priority section.

Toodledo never had that underline capability, but now it does.

Interestingly, this was one of the few features Toodledo lacked, with respect to MYN. Given that it is now here, and given that Toodledo handles due dates much better than Outlook, I’d say that Toodledo is now the best MYN platform out there.

Okay, so next, let’s talk about how to activate this new feature.

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Coming Soon: Microsoft To-Do and Using it for 1MTD

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

You may have read my recent article where I said the new Microsoft To-Do app is not for serious task managers. In it, I mentioned that it does have possibilities for my simpler One Minute To-Do List system (1MTD).

UPDATE May 15: See my warnings in my above linked article. Don’t activate this app on your existing MYN task list without a lot of thought about what might happen.

Well, I’ve been working on that, designing a simple way to use To-Do with 1MTD. I am only part way through that, but I’ve become rather encouraged by the possibilities. I’ve decided that the designers of Microsoft To-Do have done a rather nice job of creating a simple set of task tools, and so I am warming up to it.

I am finding, though, that it does take some thought on how to do a 1MTD port into To-Do —how to do it right. So if I were you, I wouldn’t jump right into it without some guidance, which I hope to have for you soon. I will announce in this newsletter when I have that 1MTD porting to Microsoft To Do completed. I do have the list of lessons done, view them here.

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My Obsession with DESKTOP Outlook

Posted on April 20, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

You know, it seems almost old fashioned these days to not primarily be using a web or smartphone version of a mail app, or anything else, really.

Obviously, Gmail and the Google Docs started that trend to web-based apps being primary, and then Microsoft responded swiftly and smartly with their web (and smartphone) product line. And there are a ton of other web-based productivity tools out there, of course.

But, when I have a choice with Microsoft Office, I just can’t bring myself to use the web-based versions much. Rather, I am still obsessed with the desktop versions—the Windows desktop versions specifically.

For good reason of course, they are so incredibly feature-rich compared to all other versions, and I use a lot of those features.

Case in point. I use Quick Steps all the time in Windows desktop Outlook. Probably 40 times a day. I’d feel super cramped without it. And it does not exist anywhere else. Not in Mac desktop Outlook, not in Outlook online, and of course not in the Outlook smartphone app.

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Microsoft’s New To-Do Module—Does it replace Tasks?

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

About once a month I get a note from someone asking: “When are you going to show us how to use the new Microsoft To-Do with MYN or 1MTD?”

Well, for MYN, my short answer is: “not until they add a ton more features. And it may be a while, by the way.”

UPDATE May 15: See my warnings below and in comments. Don’t activate this app on your existing MYN task list without a lot of thought about what might happen.

For 1MTD, there are some pretty good possibilities for use, but only if you are willing to stop using desktop Outlook’s task module as your main task interface. So, I will write up how to use To-Do with 1MTD in a bit, for those that need a simple app like To-Do.

The main issue is this: Microsoft To-Do is designed for a different audience than my MYN audience, and so it lacks some really important task management stuff that MYN users come to expect. Here’s the list:

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Something to Consider: Creating Multiple Processed Mail Folders

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

As you probably know, I recommend using a single-folder filing system to speed filing and finding mail. Typically, I recommend you create a subfolder of the inbox and name it Processed Mail. Or, in newer copies of Outlook, I recommend that you use the new Archive folder and button that Microsoft provides in many recent versions of Outlook.

Clearly, if you use such a single-folder approach, it’s going to collect a lot of mail over time. And with the huge storage limits we have these days on Exchange—50 GB in many cases—there seems to be no reason to not let that single folder expand as much as needed. As long as you don’t exceed 50 GB total storage, why not simply let that folder grow?

Item Count Limits on Folders

Well, it turns out that the Outlook system gets a bit cranky when single folders have too many items in them.

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Price Reduction on MYN Outlook Video Training for Ninja Course Owners, (and visa versa)

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

Starting immediately, if you own either of the Outlook Inbox video courses, you can purchase the MYN Outlook video course for roughly $65 off (new price: $235). To get to that price, log into your Ninja course, then go to this link.

There is a small amount of overlap between the two courses, and we wanted to adjust the price to give credit for that overlap.

Price reduction on Ninja Course for MYN Course owners

Also, if you already own the MYN Video Course, and would like to purchase either level of the Ninja course, then the price has been reduced for you by $50. Again, this is to give credit for the small amount of overlap between the two courses.

To get this price, log into your MYN course and then go to this link: https://www.michaellinenberger.com/amember4/signup/tSplMLDH

By the way, previously we had announced a coupon code of MYNNIN to get that price reduction. But we’ve cancelled that code and instead built the price reduction right into the price.

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Letting Go of Excess Tasks

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

I read an interesting article today about how the prevalence of Burnout at work is getting out of control.

Almost no one will disagree with that, but it also reminded me that while nearly all of us really are overloaded, there are some overloaded people who don’t burn out. In fact, many of them have the gift of enjoying work, and life, in spite of their overwhelmed work demands: they are able to stay positive about it and above the fray.

There are, of course, a ton of ways to attain that positive view. Stress reduction, balanced life style, positive thinking, etc., all are good examples. But you need to add to that the following: effective management of your workday.

An “Ah ha” Experience

I want to reflect on an experience that I had the other day that’s illustrative of the latter of those as a way to avoid burnout.

As background, I recently wrote an article on how to dig out of an overloaded task list. I wrote it because I had allowed my own MYN task list to exceed the MYN/1MTD size limits (see that link for details), and it was bugging me: I was starting to feel overloaded.

So I followed my own recommendations, and worked to get my list under my recommended size limits. I ended up with fewer than 25 items in my entire visible task list. Fewer than 5 were critical and the rest were optional for the week (in 1MTD/MYN language, they were Opportunity Now tasks).

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Windows Outlook Tip: Hiding Select Conversation Email. New Free Video

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

Have you ever been cc’d on an ongoing email conversation that seems to go on forever in Outlook and you don’t want future messages from the conversation clogging up your Inbox anymore?

There are two commands in Windows Outlook that can help you process these automatically, essentially stopping future messages in those conversations from entering your Inbox. They are the Ignore command and the Always Move command. One deletes the future messages, and the other moves them to another folder as they come in.

I’ve just made a new video that shows how to use these quick commands, it’s Lesson 1.13 in the Outlook Inbox Ninja Course, and it’s free to anyone who wants to watch it. Go to that link, scroll to Lesson 1.13, and watch it now.

Or if you prefer to read about this topic, the text below is a short subset of what’s in that new video lesson.

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Help, My To-Do List it Way Too Long!!!!

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Michael Linenberger

I just read an interesting and entertaining article about how all to-do lists tend to get too long after only a few weeks or months of use, and then we give up on them. It’s a funny and informative article, and it describes the problem well. However, I definitely don’t agree with the author’s solution (Sticky Notes—Really?). As a 1MTD or MYN user, you already have the solution.

But in any case, here’s the link to the article: https://medium.com/swlh/why-high-performers-dont-use-to-do-lists-5d298045444d. Perhaps the problem statement in that article resonates and inspires you to take action (just don’t get serious about his fix).

You Already Have the Fix to an Overloaded To-Do List

You know, the thing is, both my 1MTD and MYN to-do list systems solutions are designed from the ground-up to solve that overloaded-list problem. In both 1MTD and MYN, the use of Urgency Zones and size-limits in each zone are phenomenal solutions to the typically overloaded to-do list. And the use of start dates in MYN takes it to the next level (if unsure about which system to use, be sure to see my recent article about the difference between 1MTD and MYN).

A Derailed System?

Now, even the best plans can get derailed, and even though you are using one of my systems, I bet many of you have more than 5 high priority items and more than 20 normal or medium priority items.

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