Sorry for the delay in replying. My focus recently has been on generating business :-)
I see MLO and Pomodoro as orthogonal. I use MLO to keep track of a large list of tasks. Mostly I just use the outline to remind of thinks I want to tackle. Daily I glance at the TODO view to make sure that there isn't anything that is date sensitive that I've lost track of. Once it comes to committing to tasks for a day I often use Index cards using MLO, email and anything else as inputs. At the end of a day (sometimes two) I take anything that remains in the card and put into MLO. Then I tear up the card *that's probably the most fun part*. Other habits - I sweep my tabs in firefox every few days and move stuff to reading lists in MLO. - Once/Twice a week I go offline and go through my email (which is how I'm answering this one). - Once a week I take some time to reflect - what is going well; needs improvement; what need do I have the energy to improve; what one thing can I do next week to improve it. Aka a retrospective. *This is the hardest one to maintain - because you're tempted to skip it and get more "work" done. Yet its the most important because it drives real improvement.* **I really only use the Pomodoro for: - a reminder to stay on task - a way of doing rough estimation every morning Also on a two monitor setup under Win7 I dock MLO on the far left and leave it in outline mode where I can always see other things I want to do. Other tools I use: ClipMate Explorer - because it allows me handle more than one item in the clipboard and to clean (i.e. remove html etc). BTW Thanks for asking this question, it will be the kernel of blog post sometime in the future. Cheers Mark *Mark Levison* | Co-Founder and Consultant - TheAgileConsortium<http://theagileconsortium.com/>| Agile Editor @ InfoQ <http://www.infoq.com/about.jsp> Blog <http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/> | Twitter<http://twitter.com/mlevison>| Office: (613) 761-9821 Recent Entries: Agile Mailing Lists a Survey<http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2009/06/agile-mailing-lists.html%20>, Why use an Agile Coach<http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2009/11/why-use-an-agile-coach.html> 2009/11/13 Richard Collings <[email protected]> > Yes - so I gather but as a peripheral member of that community, it had > completely passed me by up until now. > > One of the things that I liked about it from an initial scan was the fact > that he draws on the work of a range of other interesting people one of whom > is Tom Gilb who, it could be argued, originated many of the agile concepts > 15 years before they became fashionable and who has been one of my guiding > lights since the mid 1980's. > > Are you using MLO in a Pomodoro sort of way? If so, I would be really > interested to hear how. > > > > -----Original Message----- > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Mark Levison > *Sent:* 13 November 2009 1:41 a > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [MLO] Re: The Pomodoro Technique > > I and much of the Agile Software Development community have been using it > for years. > > On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 5:18 PM, Richard C <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> Has anybody come across this time management technique. It looks >> really interesting and aligns with some stuff I have been trying to do >> with MLO - namely short term planning (ie: for the next few days) >> which GTD and other time management just don't seem to address (but I >> am not an expert) >> >> The website is here http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/ >> >> I think there are any featues in MLO that could be used to work with >> this technique (or visa versa). However, the key thing that is >> missing from MLO is a better mechanism for recording estimated time >> and for adding up time. >> >> The Pomodoro technique uses 'Pomodoros' as its unit of effort >> estimation and time measurement which are half hour blocks (go to the >> website to find out why he calls them pomodoros) For each >> significant task, you estimate how many of these time blocks it will >> take to complete (eg this is a 4 Pomodoro task) and you then add up >> the total number of Pomodoros you have for the task that you have >> planned for the day and compare this to the number that you know you >> are able to complete in a day. >> >> So if was possible to calibrate the Task Effort slider using numbers >> (eg 1, 2, 3, etc) and if you could then show the total of the Task >> Effort for all the tasks in a group (eg a day), then this would really >> help with planning. >> >> And I feel sure that many of the other features of the technique could >> also be supported by MLO - either as is, or with some relatively minor >> enhancements which would (hint) potentially open up a new market for >> MLO (over 6500 people downloaded the book in one month). >> >> Just for the record: I have no relationship with the people other >> than the fact that it looks as if it addresses areas which I have yet >> to see any other technique address >> >> Richard >> >> > > *Mark Levison* | Founder and Consultant - > TheAgileConsortium<http://theagileconsortium.com/>| Agile > Editor @ InfoQ <http://www.infoq.com/about.jsp> > Blog <http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/> | > Twitter<http://twitter.com/mlevison>| Office: (613) 761-9821 > Recent Entries: Agile Mailing Lists a > Survey<http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2009/06/agile-mailing-lists.html%20>, > Do You Suspect You Have a Less than Productive Person on Your > Team?<http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2009/01/do-you-suspect-you-have-a-less-than-productive-person-on-your-team.html> > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<mylifeorganized%[email protected]> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en > -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. 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