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Achieve Planner User Manual

1. Resources Environment Tab e Resources Resources that you have at your disposal to help you complete this goal e Environment Changes that you can make to your environment or lifestyle to support you in completing and maintaining this goal You can include developing these as part of your strategy Team Tab A list of people who can help you achieve your goal Rewards Tab List of rewards associated with the goal and the conditions for getting them Progress Tab e Goal Progress Reviews Determine whether the goal is included in the goal progress tracking feature and with what frequency e Goal Progress List your numeric goal progress scores for different dates e Goal Wins List one time wins your goal moat milestones or accomplishments for Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 135 Achieve Planner Metrics Tab List of all the metrics directly associated with this goal Notes Tab Freestyle notes for this goal 10 5 Goal amp Result Area Images Achieve Planner allows you to link one or more images with result areas dreams and goals Keep in mind that these are only links to already existing images on your PC and they are not stored within the Achieve Planner data file itself Achieve Planner uses the directory and filename to find and display these images so if you move them in your hard drive Achieve Planner will not be able to find them That s why we recommend creati
2. Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 73 Achieve Planner Some of the definitions below only apply to active task which for schedule status purposes means a task that e Has an ancestor priority range value other than D e Is not Postponed or Completed e Is nota next action reminder task The following schedule status values are used Completed Reserved for projects tasks that have been completed Overdue The overdue status is only used for non completed items with deadlines It occurs if the deadline is in the past before Today s date Note The overdue status propagates up the hierarchy from child to parent If a child is overdue the parent is also marked as overdue Behind Schedule The behind schedule status value can occur for various reasons on non completed items e The item has a deadline and a target end date and the target end date goes past the deadline This is a warning that the current target end date would have you completing the task after the deadline This criteria only applies to tasks that are not postponed e For active items that have not been started in NS state with a target start date set if the target start date occurs before Today s date e For active items that have been started not in NS state with a target end date set if the target end date occurs before Today s date Note The behind schedule status propagates up the hierarchy from chi
3. 1 Click the New Time Chart button on the Weekly Schedule s time chart bar 2 In the General tab of the Time Chart Information form enter a name and description for the Time Chart Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 92 3 Achieve Planner ideal Week TimeChart Informa File Edit Actions Help i a Save and Close ed General Time Chart Areas Name Ideal Week Description Ideal Week Click the Time Charts Areas tab 4 At the top of the Time Chart Areas tab on the gray bar select the Note appropriate Result Area All new Time Chart Areas are color coded and labeled according to the last Result Area selected If you do not want to associate a Time Chart Area with a Result Area select None as the Result Area type Highlight the desired time slot either by dragging the mouse over the time slot or by holding down the SHIFT key while pressing the appropriate arrow keys Select Actions gt New Time Chart Area to add a time slot If you choose you can enter explanatory text into the time slot by clicking the time slot and entering text If this time slot is associated with a Results Area the text precedes the Results Area name which is now in parentheses When you are finished with this Time Chart click the Save and Close button 5 2 1 2 Editing a Time Chart Area To edit the Time Chart Area using the Time Chart Area Information form follow these steps
4. Customizing Views You can customize most of the main views in Achieve Planner In this example you will customize the Active Task Status Tasks view to include a Completed checkbox field in the view For more information see section 3 3 12 Be sure you are in the Tasks tab and that the View dropdown in the filter bar is Active Task Status 1 2 3 Select the View gt Customize Current View command In the left pane of the dialog Available Fields click Completed Click the Add button to move Completed field to the right pane Show Fields Click the Move Up button until the Completed field is at the top of the list Show Fields Active Task Status View Available Fields Show these fields in this order Actual Effort Completed Actual Start Date Abbreviated State Assignee s Priority Best Effort Estimate Name Cost to Date Expected Effort Date Completed Effort Left Description Place DescriptionN ame Deadline Effort Driven Percent Completed Expected Cost Schedule Status High cost estimate Edit Field s Keywords Lead Time Low cost estimate Max Effort Estimate Milestone Min Effort Estimate Predecessors State Reset Fields i Description Indicates if the task has been completed C Core Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 51 Achieve Planner 5 Click OK The view now shows a Completed checkbox in the first column C
5. By default completed tasks in Outlook are NOT imported into Achieve Planner If you want to import completed Outlook items you need to adjust the settings as described below 3 Click on the Sync Now button to begin the sync process 4 After the sync is completed click on the Close button Outlook Synchronization Status Syne completed successfully View Log File When the sync is completed any new Outlook tasks that have been imported into Achieve Planner are stored as tasks of a top level project called lt New Outlook Tasks gt This is how four newly imported Outlook tasks look like in the Outline tab Notice that the lt New Outlook Tasks gt project is not assigned to any result area Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 103 Achieve Planner lt New Outlook Ta one nSchedu NS New Outlook Tasks gt WN On Schedule ka NS B Outlook Task 1 None On Schedule ka NS B Outlook Task 2 None On Schedule ka NS B Outlook Task 3 None On Schedule A NS B Outlook Task 4 08 18 2006 On Schedule You can see that these tasks have a priority value based on their existing Outlook priority High priority maps to A Normal priority maps to B Low priority maps to C Any due dates in the tasks are stored as the Deadline of the item 6 2 1 Organizing Imported Outlook Tasks To organize your newly imported Outlook tasks you ll want to separate them into projects and tasks Step 1 Ident
6. a drop target indicator will show you the target row and position using red arrows Depending on the position of the mouse relative to the target row the drop target indicator is above drop before center and slightly to the right drop as child or below the target row drop after yo es 3 NS A Drop After 4 Ns Drop As Child 2 Drop Beforet Note Holding down the Ctrl key during a drag operation performs a copy of the dragged row rather than a simple move Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 63 Achieve Planner To drop a set of rows as a child of the target row simply drop the rows when the drop arrows are centered and to the right indicating a child drop of the desired target row To drag and drop multiple rows the entire row must be selected by clicking on the selector hold Ctrl key while clicking on the selector to make multiple selections 3 3 7 2 Using Pickup amp Drop Commands The Edit gt Pickup Row s command marks all the rows with selected cells You can tell which rows are marked because their selector is highlighted Once you have one or more rows picked up you can use the drop commands in the Edit menu to drop them on the active row containing active cell e Drop at Same Level Drop picked up rows at the same level as the target row and reprioritize rows e Drop as Child Drop picked up rows as children of the target row You can also drop copies of the picked
7. example you can select the columns displayed and you can change numeric settings and filtering that result in the displayed list The main task chooser window is shown below The Task Chooser Window Description table identifies the areas and behaviors of the main Task Chooser controls Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 118 Achieve Planner Result Areas Projects Tasks Weekly sche Notes ask Choose Project August Newsletter State Y Priv Name VY EffortLeft 7 Deadine Y Status vi NS A5 Check expiration date on passport Th 06 14 2006 Overdue NS Al amp inform contributors and advertisers of submission deadine 15 min 0673072006 Overdue NS Al Review past contributors and advertisers list Oh Not Scheduled NS A2 Prepare email and send Oh Not Scheduled NS A3 Prepare postcard and send Oh Not Scheduled NS Al List of volunteers with assignments Th On Schedule NS A2 Food and Beverages 1h On Schedule NS A3 Transportation th On Schedule NS AS Public radio announcement Th On Schedule NS AB Channel 19 s For Goodness Sake Th On Schedule NS A University newspapers UAH A amp M Calhoun Oakwood Athens Th On Schedule NS AS Sisters Tea Shoppe 1h On Schedule NS Ag Lady s Fitness Centers th On Schedule 1 2 3 4 5 6 eh 8 z 5 Q Work B 43 Neighborhood Associates On Schedule El B Al August Newsletter Overdue ka Al Inform contributors and advertisers of subm
8. ordered by project task priority All tasks of C priority projects ordered by project task priority D priority projects tasks are not scheduled You can also use project or task resource assignments to limit the amount of a resource that is available for a particular project task therefore making part of the resource available to spend some of his her time in other projects tasks with lower priority Note Project block scheduling described in a later section can alter the order in which projects and or tasks are scheduled for a particular day 7 2 5 Next Action Reminder Tasks A task with an expected and effort left values of 0 0 h is considered a next action reminder task and is not scheduled NOTE This is not the same as a Next Action Only list as used in the Outline Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 114 Achieve Planner These tasks are useful if you just want a reminder of where you left off or just want to add a quick sub note to a task without including it in the scheduling When you add a new child task to an existing task that has already been started or to a next action reminder task Achieve Planner automatically initializes the effort values of new tasks to 0 thus making it a next action reminder task as well Otherwise new tasks are initialized with an effort of 30 minutes 7 2 6 Summary Tasks A task with scheduled children is considered a summary task
9. something else without fully completing the task you can use the Actions gt Record Work Expenses command 1 Navigate to the Tasks tab and select a task for which you want to record some work 2 Select the Actions gt Record Work Expenses command This will bring up the Work Expense Record dialog Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 43 Achieve Planner Work Expense Record Name Get working unit Expected Effort 3h Effort to Date 0 min Add Effort Effort Left 3h Expected Cost 0 00 Cost to Date 0 00 Add Cost Follow up action leave blank if none Cancel 3 Enter 1h in the Add Effort box 2h in the Effort Left box and Lookup part number in database in the Follow up action box 4 Press the Add button The Work Expense Record dialog provides the following fields Name Name of the project task for which you are recording work Expected effort Your original estimate of the amount of effort it would take to complete the task Effort to Date This is the actual effort for the task so far Add Effort Enter the amount of work that you want to record for example 30m 2h Effort Left Enter your estimate of the amount of work that is still needed to complete the task Expected cost Your original estimate of the cost of the task Cost to Date This is the actual cost for the task so far Add Cost Enter the cost you want to ad
10. 1 In the Time Chart box at the top of the Weekly Schedule select the Time Chart to edit Click the Edit Time Chart button on the Weekly Schedule time chart bar Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 93 Note Achieve Planner You can also access the Time Chart Area Information form by selecting the Go gt Time Charts command From the list of Time Charts double click the one you want to change 3 When the Time Chart Area Information form opens make the necessary changes see Table 1 Editing Time Charts on page 94 4 When you are through making changes select the Save and Close option from the File menu Table 1 Editing Time Charts To change this Do this Name Type over the existing name Result Areas type 1 Click the Result Areas arrow to see the names from which you can choose Select the new Result Areas type Day Time Time Chart Area and Duration of the 1 Click the Day Time and Duration arrows to see the other options from which you can choose Select the new options Label 6 Ensure the Label check box is selected in the Time Chart Information form Click the Edit button To change the caption text color select a new color from Fore Color To change the label background select a new color from Back Color To add a hatch pattern to the label check the Hatch box and select a pattern from the Style box You can
11. 1 7 1 release the Task Chooser can also be used to display a Next Actions Only list by changing some of its task chooser settings for a view Checking the Only show next action s for project limits the display of tasks in the task chooser to next actions using the same interpretation used in the Outline with the following exceptions 1 The task chooser next action setting can be overridden at the project level using a checkbox available in the Project Information form s general page 2 To produce the same next action list as the Outline when using the alternate definition of next action described below you also need to check the Use task priority order for next project actions box in the settings Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 34 Achieve Planner 2 7 Tutorial 7 Creating a Time Chart Time Charts serve as visual reminders to help you focus and balance your week Rather than focusing on specific projects the Time Chart allocates blocks of time in your weekly schedule for different types of activities such as health finances work and so forth Each of these blocks is called a time chart area You can associate these time chart areas with specific Result Areas or you can also create independent areas For example you could use an independent time chart area to represent a break period or your lunch hour Showing a Time Chart in the background behind active appointment
12. Below the list is a graph displaying the progress scores for the selected goal over time By default the graph only displays progress over the last 30 days but you can view all the progress scores for the goal by checking the View all progress checkbox By default only the progress for the currently selected goal in the list is displayed in the graph You can view progress for multiple goals simultaneously by unchecking the Only graph progress for selected goal checkbox Here are some of the other options for this dialog Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 138 Achieve Planner e Only show scorecard goals Limit the display to goals that have the scorecard checkbox checked in their Progress tab Rewards button Review rewards associated with various goals My Wins button Review wins associated with various goals Print button Print the graph Exit Exit the dialog Scorecard button Export goal progress scorecard information to Excel in comma separated value format 10 6 1 Goal Progress Reviews The goal progress tracking feature also helps you perform a daily or weekly review to help you keep track of progress You can perform the review by clicking on the Perform Today s Review button A Goal Progress Review Wednesday January 16 2008 Enter progress scores for your goals ranging from 1 little progress to 10 great progress Change Date Goal Car
13. Note The due soon status may propagate up the hierarchy from child to parent Postponed An item with a postponed P state that doesn t have one of the schedule values already described above Need to Start An active task not yet started with a target start date of Today This is an item scheduled to start today Waiting Status for an item in the Waiting W state that doesn t have any of the other schedule status values already described Ongoing Status for an item that has been started is not in the Waiting state and either doesn t have a target end date or the target end date is more than 5 days in the future Not Scheduled Status value for items not yet started that are not ancestor scheduled Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 75 Achieve Planner A task is not ancestor scheduled if it or any of its ancestors e Has a priority range of D including ranked D s e Isa next action reminder task e Is not effort driven Note Some of the schedule status values like Overdue and Behind Schedule and Close to Deadline override Not Scheduled for items with deadlines A task that is not associated with a Project will also have a Not Scheduled status value since only Project tasks are scheduled as part of the automated scheduling feature On Schedule Status value for items that are generally on schedule and don t fit any of the other status values describe
14. Planner uses a tabbed user interface where you can display and interact with multiple main tabs simultaneously Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 9 Achieve Planner You can rearrange the tabs using drag and drop To close the active tab use the x button at the far right of the tab display ks a onta cts x You can also close a tab using the Close command of the context menu when you right click on the tab 1 2 2 Splitting the Views Achieve Planner supports split tab groups where you can have some tabs in a different tab group than other tabs Outi el Result Area Projects Tasks Notes 4 Weekly Schedule Viti Active Status vE Group by Category LCR Bitlis lt None gt Friday Sep1 l 2006 iii Ilcon Y Sta Y Pri v Name wY Deadine Y Status Y Fo VD 7 Romance None E mi Children None 10 00 AM Health amp Fitn None J Family None L il Fun None Friends None E Relaxation None Personal Dey None Spiritual None Financial None Career None Home None Community L None Work None OOF OOO oR OR OR OR oR oR oR ono 3 la a 3 a E a You can accomplish this using the split commands available from the right click context menu for the tabs New Horizontal Tab Group TT New Vertical Tab Group Maximize Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 10 Achieve
15. Projects tab a In the Projects tab select the project named Acme Routers Inc b Use the Insert gt Insert as Child command or press Ctrl I NSERT c Enter the subproject T1 Configuration Guide d Press ENTER and enter the subproject E1 Configuration Guide e If you added an additional row by mistake press ESC to cancel the new row 4 To view only the tasks for the Acme Routers Inc T1 Configuration Guide project select that project and use the Actions gt View Tasks command Ctrl T This will navigate to the Tasks tab and filter it for the active project 5 Save the file Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 23 Achieve Planner Now Jane is going to prioritize her projects using the Priority field To learn more about priorities and how they are used please see section 4 1 Note Note In the Priority field assign an A priority to the various customers Acme Routers amp Irish Mail Click on the priority field for the project and replace the current priority by typing the letter A For projects an A priority indicates that it is an active project that you want to work on in the current week A ranked priority A1 indicates you want to focus on that project in the upcoming week Now assign A B or C priorities to the various sub projects for each customer Sub projects and tasks are prioritized based on how important they are relative to th
16. Tabs using existing deadlines Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 79 Achieve Planner If you select Yes the lead time for all child items with existing deadlines will be set based on the date interval between the current Target Start Date and the Deadline of the child item This will preserve the same pattern of Target Start Date and Deadline in future instances of the child items when a new instance of the parent is created If you select No then the lead time values are not modified Selecting Cancel stops the recurrence and leaves the parent item unchanged 3 10 Focus Field Projects and tasks support a focus field which can either be set checked or unset Checking this field marks the project or task as part of your current focus The focus field primarily affects the positioning of the project task in the Task Chooser but it can also be used for filtering in the various grid views You can add the Focus field to any of the Projects Tasks or Outline views using the View gt Customize Current View command You can also set unset the focus field through the Project Information form or Task Information form Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 80 Achieve Planner 4 Using Priorities Achieve Planner uses the ABCD prioritization system which is a simple tool that helps you prioritize projects and tasks based on their importance and urgency With this m
17. add row after Shift Insert to add row before Ctrl Insert to add row as child Esc to cancel row insert You can toggle it on off using the Help gt Show Help Tips command A grid contains a number of rows and columns A cell occurs at the intersection of a row column The active cell is highlighted and contains the focus rectangle dotted line The grid must have the focus in order for the active cell to be highlighted 3 3 Working with the Master Outline The master outline provides a bird s eye view of your entire hierarchy including Result Areas Projects and Tasks Ilcon Y Sta Y Pri Y Name v Deadine Y Status VW 7 Community Legacy None B NS Habitat for Humanity Women s Buld 07 01 2006 Overdue a Work None B NS Al AllAround Routers Inc None On Schedule B NS Al T1 Config Guide None On Schedule A NS Al Get working unit None On Schedule B NS A2 E1 Config Guide None On Schedule B NS A2 amp Irish Mail Inc None On Schedule B NS Al Quick Start Guide None On Schedule 2 NS Al Get latest software None On Schedule B NS A2 User Manual None On Schedule FE NS A3 Help File None On Schedule B NS A3 Neighborhood Associates None On Schedule B NS Al August Newsletter None Overdue ra NS Al Inform contributors and advertisers of submission 06 30 2006 Overdue A NS Ad Follow up with contributors and advertisers 07 05 2006 Overdue 2 NS AS Provide copy to advertisers for their approval 07 18 2006 Overdue ra NS AB Edit a
18. as a child of the target row Edit the name and change it to Enterprise Help File 6 Update the priority of the new project as needed make it an A project Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 26 Achieve Planner 2 6 Tutorial 6 Viewing Next Actions for Projects Starting with version 1 7 Achieve Planner supports the concept of a Next Action List for projects in the master Outline and Task Chooser In this tutorial Jane Smith is going to create and plan a project for a birthday party and then use the Next Action List to focus in on the next actions for this project Here is what the birthday party project looks like in the Outline 5 Q Fun 6 B NS Al Plan Party 7 B NS Al 3 Make Reservations s NS A Find location g A NS A2 Call to make reservations 1 NS A2 S Order Cake A NS A Select from catalog 12 YJ NS A2 Call to order cake 13 A NS Ag Wait for cake order to complete 14 A NS Ad Pick up cake from baker 15 B NS A3 Print Invitations 16 ANS Al Make invitation list 17 J NS A2 Print invitations 18 A NS 43 Send out invitations The main Plan Party project has three sub projects Make Reservations Order Cake and Print Invitations The reason these are sub projects is that they represent multi step parts of the main project that are somewhat independent of each other and Jane could conceivably make progress on them in parallel Dependin
19. click the Date arrow on the Selection Bar and select the new date filter The following date filtering values are supported e None No date filtering is performed e Current Shows started tasks with In Progress IP or Should Delegate SD states or non started tasks with a Target Start Date of Today or earlier or no start date established or with an ancestor deadline on or before Today e Overdue Shows tasks with an ancestor deadline before today e Behind Schedule Shows tasks with a target end date before today or an ancestor deadline before today e Due Soon Shows tasks with a target end date or ancestor deadline that is due soon e Next Seven Days Shows tasks with a target start date target end date or ancestor deadline occurring in the next seven days or earlier e Next 14 Days Shows tasks with a target start date target end date or ancestor deadline occurring in the next 14 days or earlier e Next 30 Days Shows tasks with a target start date target end date or ancestor deadline occurring in the next 14 days or earlier The date filter only affects which tasks are displayed in the task chooser list but does not affect the scoring of the tasks Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 121 Achieve Planner 8 2 Changing Task Chooser Settings You can adjust the settings used to score items in the current view When you change settings the new settings will only app
20. com 125 Achieve Planner 9 Weekly Planning Wizard Achieve Planner Pro amp Productivity Suite editions contain a weekly planning wizard that supports the weekly planning process typically use the wizard as my first task Monday mornings just after doing a quick scan on my email to identify anything important that may affect how plan the week also do a quick review and reprioritization of projects before invoking the wizard since it is often easier to do this from the Projects tab or the Outline tab The wizard consists of five steps that pretty much follow the steps outlined in these articles 9 1 Stepl This step in the wizard combines the review of your result areas and main projects for each area Result areas represent your major life dimensions or roles Examples could be health amp fitness work finances career and personal development Your weekly planning routine is a perfect opportunity to give a quick review to your mission statements for each area just to get in touch with the general direction you want your life to take Doing this on a weekly basis allows you to take a longer term perspective into account during your short term weekly planning sessions For now just keep in mind that weekly planning helps you to connect your longer term perspective and goals with your short term planning efforts In this step you can also review your main projects for each area The purpose of this review is to m
21. date based on the project blocks scheduled in the Weekly Schedule view on that date Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 116 Achieve Planner For example if you have project blocks on Monday representing 5h of time for Project A and 1h for Project B then this is how much time will be scheduled for these projects on this date Any other projects will be scheduled as if there is no available time on this date Taking advantage of project block scheduling allows you to use weekly planning and account for interruptions and meetings when scheduling your tasks for the week If you only schedule 4 hours of project blocks for a given day Achieve Planner will only assume that you have 4 hours to work on your projects and the rest is taken up with interruptions meetings or other unscheduled activities Only project task blocks contribute to the automated scheduling The time chart areas which appear in the background of your weekly schedule are not used during scheduling and do not influence the scheduling of projects and tasks Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 117 Achieve Planner 8 Working with the Task Chooser This section describes the Task Chooser and provides instructions for getting the most from it To open the Task Chooser select it from the Go menu The Task Chooser helps you choose what task to work on next by displaying a list of leaf tasks and task le
22. effexis com 37 Achieve Planner 2 9 Tutorial 9 Using Project Blocks Achieve Planner uses project blocks as one of the main tools for weekly and daily planning Project blocks represent time blocks that you have committed to a certain project You can think of them as appointments with yourself to get your important work done Although AP does support the use of task blocks recommend scheduling time blocks at the project level because project blocks make it easier to adjust your schedule as things change or for example if you run out of time before you complete the next task on your project s task list Project blocks also work better for automated scheduling purposes as described later This tutorial shows you how you can create project blocks using the Weekly Schedule s Project pane as well as the Schedule Block command If you want to perform weekly planning an even better way to schedule project blocks is to use the Weekly Planning Wizard described in section 9 2 9 1 Using the Weekly Schedule Tab To schedule a project block using the Weekly Schedule tab 1 Navigate to the Weekly Schedule tab or use the Go gt Weekly Schedule command 2 You should see the Project s pane hidden at the right edge of the screen Hovering the mouse over the pane should display it C Show Completed Projects Group by Result Area C Show Tasks a lt expands to gt 73 Achieve Note If you don t see the Project
23. example the Edit gt Delete command has the shortcut of Ctrl D This means you have to press the Ctrl key and while holding it down press the D key X Delete Ctrl D Another example is Ctri Alt O for the Tools gt Options command where you need to press and hold the Ctrl and Alt keys and then press the O key Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 12 Achieve Planner Chord shortcuts consist of two consecutive set of key press combinations For example the Go gt Outline command has the shortcut Ctrl G L Outline Ctrl G L This means you have to press the Ctrl key and while holding it down press the G key This is the first part of the chord You will see in the status bar the following fore was pressed Waiting for second key of chord This means that Achieve Planner is waiting for you to enter the second part of the chord In this case you need to press the L key without holding down the Ctrl or any other key to complete the shortcut Some chord shortcuts require you to press a modified key Ctrl Alt or Shift on each of the two key press combinations For example the Edit gt Drop Copy as Child command Drop Copy as Child Ctrl Alt Shift Shift C This shortcut requires Ctri Alt Shift V on the first part of the chord and Shift C on the second part Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 13 Achieve Planner 2 Tutorials This section prov
24. in the current view to perform the coloring The Use Lowest Ancestor Priority for Coloring checkbox controls which style is used when coloring rows This figure illustrates the difference between the two approaches on a sample grid B NS B Project NS Al a Task 1 MNS c Sub Task 1 NS Al Sub Sub Task 1 eni Fa ee fl Standard priority coloring Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 82 Achieve Planner B NS B Project 2 NS Al Task 1 2 NS C Sub Task 1 Lowest ancestor priority coloring NS 4 Sub Sub Task 1 Notice how the Task 1 row is colored in purple in the second case even though the priority is A because the parent is a B Similarly Sub Sub Task 1 is colored black because its parent is a C Lowest ancestor priority coloring is more resource intensive than standard coloring If you notice performance problems try turning it off and see if it improves the performance 4 3 Prioritization Tools Achieve Planner provides several tools to help you work with priorities and prioritized lists The Insert Before Insert After commands automatically shift priorities of existing records to make room for the new items You can reprioritize existing records using Drag amp Drop Simply drag the row from the row selector and drop it on the target row Depending on the position of the mouse relative to the target row the drop arrows will either be placed above drop before
25. no current project block displays best overall instead Best work related Displays the best tasks across all projects belonging to work result areas in the Work category Best personal Displays the best tasks across all projects belonging to personal result areas in the Personal category Urgent Displays urgent tasks across all projects Has different scoring values for dates Deadlines Displays tasks with deadlines across all projects Has different scoring criteria for deadlines The Task Chooser uses a scoring formula to decide what best means in each view It is a combination of the weighted priority score taking into account the priority of the item and all its ancestors its deadline and the target start and end dates The meaning of best is configurable by changing the Task Chooser settings for each of the views see section 8 2 To change the view click the View arrow on the Selection Bar and select the new view Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 120 Achieve Planner 8 1 2 Changing the Number of Visible Tasks You can adjust the number of visible tasks by clicking the Show More and Show Less buttons on the Selection Bar The label in the middle indicates how many tasks are displayed and how many total tasks are available in the view In this case only 10 of 31 total tasks are displayed in the task chooser list 8 1 3 Filtering Tasks by Dates To change the date filter
26. or even C status Since Achieve Planner color codes tasks based on priority often don t even notice the B s or C s when I m focused on the A s Using Achieve Planner you can even filter the task list based on priority to help you stay focused on your top tasks L Updating Priority Values When you complete all your ranked tasks A1 A2 A3 etc for a project you can choose the next five to ten most important items from your A s and rank them appropriately Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 87 Achieve Planner usually like to quickly review my B s and C s whenever complete all my ranked tasks just to make sure that they are all in their rightful categories You can use this quick review to upgrade any tasks that have gained importance into A status When you run out of A tasks just go through your B s and either choose the next set of A s or delay working on them if they are not important enough for you to do right now This may be an indication that you need to lower the priority of the project to avoid falling into perfectionism or gold plating Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 88 Achieve Planner 5 Weekly Schedule This section describes the Weekly Schedule and provides instructions for using it The Weekly Schedule is a powerful tool to help you organize your schedule and manage your time effectively You can use the tool in several ways e Use Time Ch
27. or Event Information form 5 3 1 Creating a New Appointment or Event To create a new appointment follow these steps 1 In the Weekly Schedule select a time period 2 Right click and select New Appointment you can also select the Actions gt New Appointment command 3 Complete the Appointment Information form Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 95 4 Achieve Planner Click Save and Close when you are done To create a new event follow these steps 1 Note In the Weekly Schedule click the gray bar beneath the day s for which the event is scheduled Right click and select New All Day Event you can also select the Actions gt New All Day Event command Complete the Event I nformation form Click Save and Close when you are done To duplicate an existing appointment or event hold down the CTRL key and drag the existing appointment or event to the new location 5 3 1 1 Opening Appointment and Event I nformation Forms You can open the information forms in several ways Double click the appointment or event Select the appointment or event and press ENTER Select the appointment or event and from the File menu select Open and Open Selected Item s 5 3 1 2 Setting a Recurring Appointment or Event To set a recurring appointment follow these steps 1 Open the Appointment or Event Information form Double click an existing appointment or event At the top of
28. see the style in the Preview box Click OK color Description Enter or edit text in the description box Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 94 Achieve Planner 5 2 1 3 Deleting a Time Chart Area To delete existing Time Chart Areas follow these steps 1 In the Time Charts tab select the Time Chart containing the area to delete If the Time Charts tab is not displayed use the Go gt Time Charts command to display it 2 In the Time Chart Information form right click the Time Chart area to delete and select Delete 3 Click the Save and Close button Note If you unintentionally delete a Time Chart Area you can restore the area by selecting Undo Delete from the Edit menu of the Time Chart Information form 5 2 2 Displaying a Time Chart in the Background Viewing a Time Chart in the background can help you recognize time set aside for certain activities To view a Time Chart in the background follow these steps 1 In the Weekly Schedule click the Time Chart arrow and select the Time Chart you want to display in the background 2 Select None if you do not want to display a time chart 5 3 Working with Appointments and Events The Weekly Schedule lets you record appointments and events without using a Time Chart Appointments have a start and end time events are considered to last the entire day or days You add details about an appointment or event using the Appointment
29. the Result Areas dropdown in the Projects tab the project list is grouped by Result Area You can collapse expand individual groups using the expansion button or with the keyboard left to collapse right to expand The Outline gt Group gt Expand All Groups and Collapse All Groups commands can be used to expand or collapse all the groups simultaneously 3 3 10 Outline Levels For grids supporting parent child hierarchies you can expand collapse individual rows using the expansion button for the row You can also press the Spacebar key to toggle the expansion collapse of the row when the cell with the expansion button is the active cell The Outline menu contains several commands you can use to expand all the children of a row or expand collapse all the rows to a certain outline level 3 3 11 Rearranging Columns You can change the size and positions of the columns in the grid using the mouse To change the position of a column you simply drag it by the column header you must select it first and then drag it once selected and drop it in its new location To change the size of a column you click between the two headers after the cursor has changed to a resize shape and drag to the new size 3 3 12 Changing the Fields Displayed in the Current View All the main grids support customizing the displayed columns using the field customization dialog Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 65 A
30. the default resource for the project s result area if it has one Use the default resource for the result area category if there is one Use the standard default resource By default Achieve Planner uses the resources representing your own time Me w and Me p when there is no explicit assignment based on the result area category work vs personal Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 143
31. the form just below the menu bar click Recurrence In the Appointment Recurrence window select the Recurrence Pattern Select the Range start and stop dates Click OK Click Save and Close when you are done Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 96 Achieve Planner 5 3 1 3 Setting an Appointment or Event Reminder To set a reminder follow these steps 1 Open the Appointment or Event Information form Double click an existing appointment or event 2 Select the Reminder check box 3 From the Reminder list of times select the amount of time needed for the reminder Times range from five minutes to two weeks 4 Click Save and Close when you are done 5 3 1 4 Setting the Show time as Feature You can show appointment or event times as Free Busy Tentative or Out of Office To do this follow these steps 1 Open the Appointment or Event Information form Double click an existing appointment or event 2 Click the arrow in the Show time as box 3 Select the appropriate option from the list 4 Click Save and Close when you are done 5 3 1 5 Labeling an Appointment or Event You can label appointments and events with color coded descriptions such as Anniversary Business Must Attend and so forth To label an appointment or event follow these steps 1 Open the Appointment or Event Information form Double click an existing appointment or event 2 Click the
32. this using the Actions gt Move to Result Area command Just select the desired result area from the dialog and click OK 3 4 3 Working with Project Views The Projects tab supports multiple different views that show you your projects list from a different perspective You can change the view using the view selector dropdown in the Projects tab view bar Wile Active Project Schedule v You can also use the commands in the View menu available when the Projects tab is active Here is a brief description of each view e Active Project Status General status of active non completed projects e Active Project Schedule Scheduling details of active projects e Active Project Status Place Also includes place column e Active Project Description Includes the project description e Active Project Delegation Includes Assignee s column e Completed Projects Only shows completed projects e All Projects Shows all projects including active and completed Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 68 Achieve Planner e Active Project Recurrence Includes lead time for recurring project scheduling 3 5 Working with a Project s Tasks Tasks represent the action steps associated with a particular project You can use the Tasks tab in Achieve Planner to see all of your tasks or to focus in on the tasks of a particular project Note If you want to see the entire hierarchy of a project including tasks a
33. up rows instead of the originals using the appropriate command 3 3 7 3 Indenting and Outdenting The Outline gt Outdent command outdents all the rows with selected cells Outdenting a row moves it to the same level as its current parent The Outline gt Indent command indents the active row Indenting makes a row a child of its immediate predecessor 3 3 7 4 Expansion Indicator The expansion indicator associated with each parent row expands or collapses the view of the item s children You can toggle the expansion state of the active cell using the Spacebar key when the cell is NOT in edit mode move the cell to the parent row cell with the expansion indicator and press Spacebar You can also use commands in the Outline menu to change the outline level 3 3 8 Copying Rows You can copy one or more rows using one of the following methods Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 64 Achieve Planner e Drag amp Drop While dragging one or more rows press the Ctrl key to drop copies onto the target row Note that copying a parent row will automatically copy all of its children e Pickup and Drop Commands You can use the Edit Drop Copy at Same Level and Drop Copy as Child commands to drop copies of picked up rows onto the target row 3 3 9 Grouping Some of the grids in Achieve support grouping the information by one or more values For example when the All Result Areas value is selected from
34. update your project priority values as necessary 9 2 Step 2 In this step you can rewrite your major dreams and goals which you can define with the Achieve Planner Productivity Suite edition Rewriting your dreams and goals during the weekly planning process brings them into focus and ensures that you at least think about them during your short term planning 9 3 Step 3 In this step you can select your ideal week time chart based on the focus areas you chose in step 1 You can also block out any meetings or appointments that you have for the week so that you won t use them during the project block scheduling Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 128 Achieve Planner 9 4 Step4 This step is where you decide the amount of time that you want to commit to your various projects this week Achieve Planner automatically creates two resources for you when you create a new file One represents your work related time while the other represents your time for personal projects The time commitments you make in this step are used in the next step to determine how many project blocks to create for each project Time Commitment W Time Y Oh 0 As mentioned before you probably should not schedule 100 of your time using big rock project blocks unless you have a structured work environment You need to leave some free time to deal with unexpected events You can use the left field to guide you in
35. your decision of how much time to leave unscheduled By default Achieve Planner creates two default resources for you The first resource Me w represents your work time while Me p represents your personal time In Step 4 you will see the following information for each of these resources Resource Mefw Effectiveness 100 Overhead 0 Available Time 40h The values are based on the Resource information for the two default resources You can change the available time and other resource details using the Resource Information form Navigate to the Resources tab Go gt Resources and double click on the resource that you want to change 9 5 Step5 In the final step you use drag and drop to create project blocks for each of your big rock projects identified in step 4 Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 129 Achieve Planner This step helps you put your big rock projects into your schedule first and allows you to make time for important long term projects that may not yet be urgent The project blocks are ordered based on the priority of the items and whether you selected them as MVPs in step 4 MVPs go first You can use the controls in the form to change the project block size and the collision resolution Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 130 Achieve Planner 10 Using Achieve Planner for Goal Setting amp Achievement Achieve Planner
36. 18 NS AS Send out invitations None 17 You can see the relationships between the tasks in the Predecessor column For example you can see that Make invitation list is a predecessor for Find location Select from catalog and Print invitations because its task row number 16 is in the predecessor column for these three tasks Here is what the list looks like when you turn the Next Actions Only mode on 1 a Fun None 2 B NS Al PlanParty None 3 B NS Al Make Reservations None 4 Fy Ns A2 Order Cake None 5 B NS A3 Print Invitatons None 6 fy NS Al Make invitation list None You can see that Make invitation list is the only task shown The list also includes sub projects Make Reservations and Order Cake since they are sub projects rather than tasks Having these empty sub projects in the list reminds you that there are parts of the Plan Party project that you can t advance because you don t have any available next actions NOTE You can choose not to see these empty sub projects by changing some of the settings as describe later in the tutorial Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 32 Achieve Planner Here s what the list looks like when you complete the Make invitation list task Icon Y Stat W Priorit wY Name Y Deadine VW Predeces Y 1 Q Fun None 2 B IP Al Plan Party None 3 B NS Al Make Reservatons None 4 A NS Al Find loc
37. 3 This will bring up the Work Expense Record to Complete dialog 4 Fill in the effort and cost that you want to add and optionally provide the next task that you need to do for this project in the follow up action box 5 Press the Add button to complete the task or Cancel to cancel the completion Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 45 Achieve Planner Work Expense Record to Complete Name Get working unit Expected Effort 3 h Effort to Date 1h AddEffot Effort Left Expected Cost 0 00 Costto Date 0 00 Add Cost Follow up action leave blank if none Cancel Notice that the Effort Left box is disabled because you are completing the task so it won t have any effort left If you enter a task in the Follow up action box it will be placed immediately after the task that you are completing in the task list Name VY Effort W Effort Left Y Document working unit requirement 30 min 30 min In this case the Effort and Effort Left fields are initialized to 30 min which is the default value for new tasks This indicates that the task is an actual task and not a next action reminder How to turn off the Work Expense Record to Complete Dialog If you would rather not record work expenses when you complete a project or task you can disable this dialog in the General tab of the Options dialog Tools gt Options aai i neastens naesseosufvecennincsso
38. 8 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 131 Achieve Planner 10 2 Life Plan Tab The Life Plan tab is accessible through the Go menu Go gt Life Plan and provides a free form note editor where you can store your strategic life plan The details of developing a strategic life plan are beyond the scope of this guide so please visit www GoalsToAction com for more information 10 3 Result Area Information Form Result areas represent your top level life dimensions or roles You can view them as part of the Outline tab or through the Result Areas tab both of which are accessible through the Go menu The result area information form allows you to plan and store more details about each of your result areas You can access the form by double clicking on a result area row pressing Ctrl Enter or using the File gt Open gt Open Selected Item menu item These are the main components of the form General Tab e Name Name of the result area e Category Main category for the result area personal or work e Priority ABCD priority for the result area It s used for sorting the result areas and depending on the settings can be used in the task chooser scoring formula as well e Description Description of the result area e Importance Importance of the result area relative to other areas A value from O to 100 that is used in the task chooser e Label The label is used for blocks associated with this result area in time c
39. Edit gt Undo command Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 62 Achieve Planner 3 3 6 Power Paste Achieve Planner s power paste feature is useful if you want to change multiple cell values at the same time For example you might want to change the status deadline or priorities of multiple tasks to the same value A power paste lets you do this in one step rather than having to repeat the same action on each row To use the power paste 1 Change the cell value of the one of the rows you want to change to the new value that you want to propagate down to other cells below it 2 Select the cell containing the new value and copy its value to the clipboard using the Edit gt Copy command Ctrl C 3 Select all the cells that you want to change to the new value You don t need to include the cell you modified in step 1 You can hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on additional cells to extend the selection 4 Invoke the Edit gt Paste command to paste the value from the clipboard to all the selected cells in one step This is why it s called power paste 3 3 7 Changing Parent Child For grids supporting parent child hierarchies like projects and tasks you can arrange rows in several ways 3 3 7 1 Drag amp Drop You can drag one or more selected rows through their row selector small rectangle at the start of the row and drop them on a target row As you drag the rows
40. Effexis Software Achieve Planner User Manual Getting Started with Achieve Planner Copyright 2005 2008 by Effexis Software LLC This document is protected by U S and international copyright laws All rights reserved No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Effexis Software LLC o Oa N O ao FF WO N hk O Achieve Planner Table of Contents NW cas aaa eases deca Eara Eae earen a Eae EE EEEE eters eecceteeaese 2 1 Cod f oe E 14 Working with Projects and TaskS scsssessseesseeseeeneeeeenes 57 Using Priorities sisisi eee aa 81 Weekly Schedule cance ceciececsd ccc asec acncnd fe cnc dedecechd cue acndadtvntetan 89 Importing Data from Outlook sccccceeceeseeeeeeseeeeteseeeneenenenees 102 Automated Scheduling cscceecseeeeeneeeeeneeeseeneeeseeneeeseneeeneees 110 Working with the Task Chooser csssscsssseseeeeeeneeseeeneeeeeees 118 Weekly Planning Wizard scsssessesssessesseeseeeseseeeseseeesees 126 Using Achieve Planner for Goal Setting amp Achievement 131 Appendix Advanced Automated Scheduling Settings 141 Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 1 Achieve Planner 1 Overview Achieve Planner AP for short is a powerful time management and goal setting software system that helps you get organized plan your projects work more effectively a
41. File NS A3 Neighborhood Associates NS Al August Newsletter Task Tasks are the action steps associated with a project Tasks are usually things like Call Fred Read the file or Write outline for memo Tasks can have a hierarchical structure with tasks sub tasks and sub sub tasks Although you can have Tasks directly under result areas Achieve Planner works better if tasks are part of projects Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 3 NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS E E EEE EEEE A3 Al Al Al A2 A3 A2 A3 A4 Achieve Planner Neighborhood Associates August Newsletter S Inform contributors and advertisers of submission deadine Review past contributors and advertisers list Prepare email and send Prepare postcard and send Follow up with contributors and advertisers Provide copy to advertisers for their approval Edit all documents and copy ABCD Priorities Achieve Planner uses ABCD priorities throughout the software to help you categorize and rank various items based on their relative priority Prioritization allows you to focus your time amp energy on things that are important to you Wer WEEN LI Ney Achieve Planner uses priorities to sort your projects and tasks at each level in the hierarchy with respect to its siblings Priorities consist of a priority range A B C D and an optional rank 1 2499 Achieve planner ranks items with a priorit
42. Goals C Motivational images from this folder zi Limit the display to 5 random images In addition you can also select to view motivational images from a particular folder in your hard drive by selecting it in this dialog 10 6 Goal Progress Tracking This feature helps you track your progress for different goals by assigning a numeric score between 1 and 10 where 1 represents very little progress while 10 represents good progress for this goal You can choose whether to enable goal progress tracking and how frequently to track the progress for each goal in the Progress tab of the goal information form The main goal progress tracking functionality is available from the Tools gt Goal Progress Tracking menu item Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 137 Achieve Planner A Goal Progress Review Result Area A Goal Three Career Only show progress review goals Daily review goals V Weekly review goals C View all progress Progress Goal One V Only graph progress for selected goal CI Only show scorecard goals Scorecard Rewards My Wins Print Exit The top list displays a list of goals filtered based on the checkboxes below the list e Only show progress review goals Check to only show goals that have daily or weekly progress review e Daily review goals Show daily review goals e Weekly review goals Show weekly review goals
43. Outline gt Clear Zoom command The normal outline should now be displayed once again You can zoom to a specific item in the Outline using the Outline gt Zoom to Item command This command displays a dialog box that lets you select the item that you want to use as the new zoom root in the Outline Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 22 Achieve Planner 2 4 Tutorial 4 Using the Projects Tab This tutorial shows you how Jane can use the Projects tab to view an overview of all the projects for the Work result area For more information on the Projects tab see section 3 4 Note Only projects and subprojects are displayed in the Projects tab Tasks are created displayed in the Tasks tab If you want to see both projects and tasks together use the Outline tab The following steps illustrate some of the Projects tab options 1 If you are in the Tasks tab you can navigate to the project for the current task in the Projects tab using the Actions gt View Project command Ctrl Shift J You can also view the Projects tab using the Go gt Projects command 2 If other result areas contained projects they would also be visible in the All Result Areas filter of the Projects tab To view only the Work result area and filter out the other areas click the Result Area arrow on the left side of the filter bar and select Work from the list 3 To add subprojects to the Acme Routers Inc project using the
44. Planner The Maximize command will toggle the maximized state of the current tab group When a tab group is maximized the other tab groups are hidden and out of view You can also move tabs from one group to another using drag and drop 1 2 3 Performance Issues with Multiple Tabs By default Achieve Planner attempts to restore your layout of tabs and tab groups when you open a data file Depending on your system resources having a large number of tabs open simultaneously could significantly increase the load time for a data file Normal load time for Achieve Planner is between 8 and 15 seconds even with multiple open tabs Some users have reported load times of 30 seconds when restoring more than a few open tabs and a drop to about 13 seconds with only one tab If you are experiencing long load times with multiple open tabs you can use the following suggestions to improve load time 1 Use one of the Fast Load Layout options available in the Display tab of the Tools gt Options dialog Fast load layout None v None Layout 1 Qutline Task Chooser Schedule Layout 2 Projects T asks Schedule Layout 3 Qutline Schedule Selecting None will restore your exact layout including all open tabs Selecting one of the other options will only restore the specified tabs and only if they were open when the file was saved and could improve load time 2 Close all Tab windows before saving the data file and closin
45. Productivity Suite edition contains several features to help you identify set plan track manage and achieve your goals This section describes some of the main goal setting features and shows you how to use them however describing the goal setting and achievement process that the software is based on is beyond the scope of this manual For more information about the process of setting and achieving goals including how to use these various tools please visit www GoalsToAction com 10 1 The Master Outline The master outline tab Go gt Outline menu item provides a bird s eye view of all your result areas dreams goals projects and tasks It s one of the primary ways to view the relationships between result areas which represent your life dimensions or roles your dreams goals which represent targets that you are aiming for and projects tasks that are used to move toward these targets Achieve Planner s dreams amp goals are treated as a special kind of project in the sense that you can have a goal at any point in the hierarchy that you would have a project NOTE Even though you technically can have goals as children of projects we recommend against this practice To add a dream or goal in the master outline simply insert a new record for example as a child of a result area and select dream or goal as the record type Select Child Type omme u Dream Goal B Project Task Copyright 2005 200
46. R after Neighborhood Associates you will have a blank row Remove the row by pressing the ESC key now which will cancel the insert of the new row Save the file as Tutorial ach using the File gt Save command Making Automatic File Backups The first time you save a data file you will see the following dialog Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 17 Achieve Planner Auto Backups for Data File Wa Achieve Planner can make backup copies of your data file every time you save it 7 Would you like to enable auto backups for this data file If you select Yes Achieve Planner will make a backup copy of your data file every time you save it The backups are stored in a subdirectory located in the same directory where you are storing your data file If you select No Achieve Planner will not make backups of your data file You can always change your auto backup settings in the Options dialog Tools gt Options command 2 1 2 Adding Subprojects Notice that the projects are assigned default priorities starting with Al and increasing with each new row You can learn more about priorities in section 4 Using Priorities Complete the following steps to add two subprojects User Manual and Help File to the Irish Mail project 1 Highlight I rish Mail Inc project by clicking on the row header 2 Select Insert gt Insert as Child 3 Select Project in the Select Child Type dialog to indicate that
47. across all your projects The task chooser sorts this list according to an algorithm that gives each item a score based on several factors including its priority deadline and status Notes The Notes tab provides a hierarchical outline where you can keep track of notes and general purpose information Achieve Planner notes provide direct support for textual information only While storing graphics and images is possible doing so can cause performance degradation Contacts The Contacts tab displays a list of your contacts using various views File Organizer The File Organizer tab displays a list of records representing paper based documents notes and other files You can also use it to keep track of other items like your CD collection or books Resources The Resources tab displays a list of all the resources that you can assign to your projects and tasks Time Charts The Time Charts tab displays a list of all the time charts that you have defined Wish List The Wish List tab displays a list of your wishes for a particular result area or grouped across all result areas Goals The Goals tab displays a list of your goals for a particular result area or grouped across all your result areas You can also group your goals based on their parent dream Metrics The Metrics tab displays a list of the metrics that you have defined either as stand alone or as part of an existing dream goal 1 2 1 Working with Tabs Achieve
48. ake sure that all your projects are getting the time and attention they deserve and that the priorities that you ve assigned to them are still valid for this upcoming week recommend that you review all your active projects not just the ones for this week by doing this you can easily catch projects that you ve been neglecting or that you may have forgotten about Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 126 Achieve Planner If you notice that the priorities for one or more projects are not reflecting what is most important in your life right now or you have some new projects that need to be prioritized reprioritize them now before continuing You may also want to think about any new projects work action items commitments or anything else that you need to get done that is not already in your master project list 9 1 1 Focus Areas During your review you should also begin to think about the areas you want to focus on this week A week is often too small of a period to cram all the different types of activities that are part of your life Rather than try to do a little bit of everything each week you may want to give each week a focus and concentrate more deeply on a smaller number of areas Most people do very well with three main focus areas each week although you can add more if you need to This doesn t mean that you should ignore all the other areas it just allows you to focus more on som
49. and End keys to move to the first last cell in the row Use Ctrl Home to move to the top row and Ctri End to move to the last row in the grid The Tab key will move to the next cell and advance to the first cell of the next row when the last cell is reached while Shift Tab will move to the previous cell For grids supporting parent child relationships like projects and tasks you can move to the parent row by pressing the Ctri Left keys cell must not be in edit mode in order to move to parent row Pressing the Left key while the focus is on the leftmost cell in a row will also select the parent row When a cell is in edit mode the cell s editor uses the cursor keys to move the caret You can still move the active cell by using the Alt Cursor Key combination to exit edit mode and move to an adjacent cell You can also use the Tab key to move to the next cell and the Enter key to move to the cell below the current cell If you press Alt Enter while editing a cell the grid saves the value and moves the selection to the cell below without creating a new row Pressing the Shift key while moving the active cell using the cursor keys will select multiple cells both columns and rows Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 61 Achieve Planner As you move the active cell the Status Bar displays a brief description of the current column in the grid 3 3 3 Editing Cell Values To edit a cell s value the cell nee
50. arrow in the Label box 3 Select the appropriate label from the list 4 Click Save and Close when you are done 5 3 1 6 Assigning a Priority to an Appointment or Event You can assign a priority to appointments and events by entering the priority into the Priority box of the Appointment or Event Information form Double click the appointment or event to open the form For more information on priorities see section 4 Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 97 Achieve Planner 5 3 1 7 Assigning an Appointment or Event to a Project You can assign an appointment or event to a project by selecting a project from the list that appears when you click the Project button of the Appointment or Event Information form Double click the appointment or event to open the form For more information on projects see Working with Projects and Tasks 5 3 1 8 Adding Notes and Details to Appointments and Events You can add additional information about appointments and events by entering text in the text box at the bottom of the Appointment or Event Information form Double click the appointment or event to open the form 5 3 2 Editing an Appointment or Event Using the Weekly Schedule After you have created an appointment or event you can easily change subject date time and duration through the Weekly Schedule instead of opening the information forms You can also duplicate the appointment or event and drag it to a n
51. arts to set aside blocks of times for certain activities and show these times in the Weekly Schedule background see section 5 2 Working with Time Charts e Enter appointments and all day events directly into the Weekly Schedule see section 5 3 Working with Appointments and Events e Add blocks of time which are allocated for working on a specific project or task see section 5 4 Working with Project and Task Blocks 5 1 Setting Weekly Schedule View Preferences You can set up the Weekly Schedule view in many ways so that it works best for you For example by default the Weekly Schedule uses a 15 minute resolution and a five day week However you can change these and other settings Z Outline Result Areas Projects Tasks Weekly Schedule Notes x Time Chart jest tine Chart l New Time Chart Jl Today P Tuesday August1 Wednesday Aug 2 Thursday August3 Friday August 4 Saturday August 5 4 August 2006 bi 2006 SMTWMTFS OI 23 45 9 i A 6 7 8 9101112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2 00 PM 4 27 28 29 30 31 September 2006 u SMTWT FES 3 00 PM 12 3456789 10 11 12 13141516 J 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 4 00 PM y October 2006 SMTWTFS 1234567 al i 3 8 91011121314 5 00 PM 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 v lt Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 89 Achieve Planner 5 1 1 Cha
52. ate based on effort estimates as part of automated scheduling effort driven or it will have to be set manually Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 112 Achieve Planner 7 2 2 Project Start You can set the target start date for the project manually or leave it blank If you leave it blank it will automatically be set to Today during scheduling You can use the Project Start value to specify that a project will begin sometime in the future rather than now If you ve previously specified a project start date but now want the project start to be adjusted when projects are rescheduled you need to clear the existing value clear using backspace key on Target Start Date cell before issuing the reschedule command 7 2 3 Effort Values Achieve Planner uses level of effort values to measure the amount of work needed to complete a task The level of effort is the amount of work that it would take an average person in your team to complete the task if they spent 100 of their time on it It is not the same as the calendar duration of the task which depends on factors such as resource assignments holidays vacations weekends etc With the effort measure you can compare one task against another irrespective of what else was going on during that time The level of effort is the same whether you can devote one hundred percent or only fifty percent of a resource s time to the task You can use the following units wh
53. ation None ooy 5 B NS A2 Order Cake None 7 B IP A3 Print Invitatons None 8 B NS A2 Print invitations None 00y The previously dependent tasks are showing as next actions because their predecessor task is now completed The OOV in the Predecessor field indicates an out of view predecessor that is not visible in the current view In this case this is the task you just completed that is not visible in the Active views 2 6 5 Filtering Empty Projects amp Sub Projects To automatically hide empty projects and sub projects from the Next Actions Only display you need to enable the Filter Outline to only show items with tasks setting in the Options dialog Here is what the original Next Action Only list advanced NA definition looks like when this setting is enabled Icon Y Stat Y Priont W Name Vv Deadine VW Predeces Y 1 Q a Fun None 2 B NS Al Plan Party None 5 B NS A3 Print Invitatons None 6 fy NS Al Make invitation list None As you can see the empty sub projects under the Plan Party project are now filtered out of the display You can tell that the column filter is active because the funnel icon on the Icon column header is blue You can change or disable this filter manually by clicking on this funnel icon and selecting All from the dropdown Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 33 Achieve Planner 2 6 6 Viewing Next Actions in Task Chooser Starting in the
54. b h Effort Left Oh Actual Effort 0h Effort Driven 2 Lead Time None K As well as in the project information form s General tab No Recurrence Effort Driven C Expanded Status In Progress v Sensitivity Private Lead Time None v It is also available as a default column in the following views you can always add it yourself to any of the other views e Active Project Recurrence e Active Task Lead Time e Active Task Recurrence For example if you set the lead time to 10 days the target start date is set to 10 days before the deadline You could do this for example to set the start date for your Thanksgiving Dinner project to 20 days before the big date Lead time based scheduling only applies to items with deadlines Projects tasks without deadlines will not be affected by the lead time values The Tools gt Options dialog contains a setting that controls whether to always use lead time based scheduling for items with deadlines and valid lead times irrespective of whether they are effort driven or not or whether to only do this for projects tasks that are not effort driven Please refer to the help file for more details on this setting Always use lead time scheduling for projects tasks with deadlines The target end date is not affected by the lead time Depending on whether the item is effort driven or not Achieve Planner will either automatically compute the target end d
55. center and slightly right drop as child or slightly below drop after the target row The dragged row will assume the appropriate priority based on the target row AP automatically shifts the priority of all other sibling rows accordingly You can also use drag amp drop to rearrange the order of unranked rows of the same priority You can also use the Edit gt Pickup rows s and Edit gt Drop at Same Level commands to perform the drop operation using the keyboard In this case the drop is always considered to be a drop before the target row The Outline gt Move Up and Outline gt Move Down commands also reprioritize rows when used in a prioritized list The Outline gt Remove Priority Gaps command will reprioritize the records to remove any gaps between priority values For example assume you have 5 records with priorities A4 A7 A B4 and B7 After removing the priority gaps the record priorities would be Al A2 A B1 and B2 Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 83 Achieve Planner The Outline gt Reprioritize Unique command will reprioritize the selected record so that it is the only one with the given priority value and shift the priority of other records accordingly For example assume that you ve changed the priority of a record from A5 to Al and now there are two records with A1 priority but you want the new Al to be the only record with an A1 priority Invoking the Reprioritize Unique command
56. chieve Planner To customize the fields for the current view use the View gt Customize Current View command This command will bring up the View Customization Dialog for the current view Using this dialog you can add remove and change the position of fields associated with the current view For example to add a Completed checkbox field to the Active Item Status view of the outline follow these steps 1 Select the Active Item Status view in the Outline tab 2 Invoke the View gt Customize Current View command 3 Select the Completed field in the Available Fields list on the left hand side of the dialog 4 Click on the Add gt button to move the Completed field into the right hand side list containing fields being shown in the view Alternatively you can double click on the field to move it to the shown fields list 5 Adjust the desired position of the field using the Move Up and Move Down buttons To remove a field from the view select it from the shown fields list and click on the lt Remove button Editing Field Properties You can also edit individual field properties of the fields being shown in the view by selecting the field in the shown fields list and clicking the Edit Field button 3 3 13 Navigating to the Outline Tab The Outline gt View in Outline command is a convenient tool to navigate to the Outline tab from any of the other detail tabs like Proje
57. cific project You can think of it as an appointment with yourself to get your work done Achieve Planner provides several tools to help you work with project blocks in your weekly schedule This is what a project block looks like in the weekly schedule In this case the name of the project is Sample Project Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 5 Achieve Planner i Sunday August 6 M Sample project Appointment An appointment represents time in your weekly schedule that you have allocated for a specific purpose Examples include meetings project blocks and doctor s visits Meet with John All Day Event An all day event is a special type of appointment that occurs on a given date but not at a specific time Tuesday August 8 me All Day Event 1 1 Task Chooser The task chooser available via Go gt Task Chooser command displays a list of your top tasks across all your projects using a combination of priority and other factors to sort the items You can use various views to filter the tasks that you want to display in various ways For sorting tasks in the Task Chooser sub item priority ranks are relative to the parent If you change the parent priority or rank the Task Chooser automatically adjusts the importance of all its sub items relative to other items in the list At every level in the hierarchy when a parent becomes more important higher priority the childre
58. cts or Tasks The active item in the detail tab is displayed and selected in the Outline tab 3 3 14 Viewing Item Details While working in the Outline tab you can navigate to the detailed view for the active row using the Actions gt View Details command For example if the active row is a project row the View Details command will navigate to the Projects tab and display the active project in that tab Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 66 Achieve Planner This is a convenient facility for navigating back forth between the detail tab and the Outline tab 3 3 15 Zooming in the Outline Tab The Outline tab support zooming functionality to focus on a particular branch of the outline For example if you only want to see the sub projects and tasks for a particular project you can zoom to the project so that only this particular branch of the outline is displayed The Outline gt Zoom In command will zoom the outline so that only the branch rooted at the active row is displayed When the outline is zoomed in on a particular branch the grid caption displays the name of the zoom root node The Outline gt Zoom Out command zooms out a single step in the outline to the parent of the current zoom root For example if the outline has the following hierarchy A gt B gt C gt D and is zoomed on node C zooming out a single step will zoom the outline on node B which is the parent of C The Outl
59. current project task block only items belonging to the current project or task appear in the list 3a You can choose to allow overdue and behind schedule items to override the project block filtering If that is the case the items will be shown in the list if they are overdue or behind schedule respectively This is useful if you want to be aware of overdue items regardless of project or project block 4 If the list is filtered to fit in the current project block only items that can be worked on within the current block based on effort left appear in the list Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 123 Achieve Planner For example if the current project block has 45 minutes of time remaining and the task list has items of 15 minutes 2 hours and 30 minutes ordered based on their score only the 15 minute and 2 hour tasks are shown 5 Only items that don t have children or whose children are all completed are shown An exception is made for tasks with incomplete next action reminders in which case the parent task and all the reminders are shown in outline form Note that this rule will also allow active projects to appear in the list if they have no tasks or sub projects or if all their children have been completed but the projects themselves have not been marked as completed 6 If the list is filtered to a certain number of items any items over the limit that were not filtered by any of the pre
60. d checked definition of Next Action It s set to basic definition by default Hide Result Areas that don t contain children controls whether to hide result areas that don t contain children when displaying the Next Action list in the master outline Hide D priority items in Next Actions Only list controls the display of D priority items and their descendants in the Next Action list of the master outline If the box is checked then D priority items and their descendants will not be included in the next actions list If Filter Outline to only show items with tasks is checked whenever the Next Actions Only mode is turned on the Outline tab will automatically be filtered in the Icon column so that only items containing tasks are included in the list Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 29 Achieve Planner The filter is automatically removed when Next Actions Only mode is turned off You can use this setting to control the display of projects sub projects that don t have any next actions available 2 6 4 Using the Advanced Next Action Definition If you want more control over which tasks are Next Actions you can use the advanced definition by enabling it from the Options dialog With the advanced definition Next Action tasks are defined as tasks that either don t have predecessor tasks defined or that only have completed predecessor task
61. d above 3 9 Project Task Recurrence Projects and tasks can be marked as recurring A recurring project or task generates a new instance of itself whenever the current instance is marked as completed Note Recurring projects tasks create a new instance immediately after the current instance is completed The new instance includes copies of all children of the original regenerated instance initialized to the Not Started NS state Date values are only set for items that have deadlines established If the recurring project or task doesn t have a deadline a new instance is still generated but none of its date values are set The recurrence pattern is used to determine deadline values associated with the newly created instance 3 9 1 Recurrence Patterns Project task recurrence supports two types of recurrence patterns date based and regeneration based Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 76 Achieve Planner Recurrence Recurrence Pattern O Daily eEvey 1 week s on Weekly C Sunday C Monday C Tuesday C Wednesday Monthly C Thursday Friday C Saturday O Yearly Regenerate new item 1 week s after each instance is completed Range Start Fri 07 28 2006 No end date End after 10 occurrences End date Fri 09 29 2006 Cancel Remove Recurrence Date recurrence patterns are similar to recurring appointments and follow a fixed pattern of dates For exa
62. d for this task or leave blank Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 44 Achieve Planner e Follow up action Allows you to add a next action reminder task as a child of the current task to serve as a reminder of where you left off In the example above after entering the above information the task list for this project would contain Name VY Effort Y Effort Left w Lookup part number in database Oh Oh Notice that the Effort Left field has been reduced from 3h to 2h because this is the amount entered into the Effort Left box of the dialog In addition a new child task called Lookup part number in the database was added to the Get working unit task This is a next action reminder task because its effort values are both set to Oh This tells Achieve Planner that it is not an actual task but just a reminder of where you left off and what you need to do next when you continue working on the Get working unit task 2 12 3 Completing a task When you have completed a task or project you can use the Actions gt Complete Task command to complete the task and record the work that you spent on it 1 Navigate to the Tasks tab and select the task that you want to complete 2 Select the Actions gt Complete Task command also available from context menu when you right click on a task Note You can also complete a project task by changing its state to C Completed
63. ds to be in edit mode You can enter edit mode in the following ways Press F2 to enter or exit edit mode for the active cell click on a cell using the mouse or start typing if the cell accepts alphanumeric input which replaces any existing value in the cell with the typed text In addition some types of cells have shortcuts for setting their values e For cells with a dropdown dates lists you can drop raise the dropdown using the F4 key and Spacebar key for lists e For cells with a checkbox you can press the Spacebar key to toggle the checked state of the combo without entering edit mode Pressing the Esc key while in edit mode will cancel the edit operation and restore the original cell value 3 3 4 Displaying the Information Form In most grids you can usually obtain a form with more details for the active row by doing one of the following e Double clicking on a row e Pressing Ctrl Enter key combination e For top level grids you can invoke the File gt Open gt Open Selected Items Command For the Master Outline grid this will display the Information Form associated with the selected item 3 3 5 Deleting Rows You can delete the active and or selected rows using the Edit gt Delete command Be aware that deleting a row will automatically delete all the children rows as well and deleting a project will also delete any associated tasks for that project In most cases you can undo a row deletion using the
64. e Planner Quick Task Entry Alternatively you can use the quick task entry HotKey defined in the general tab of the Options dialog Tools gt Options This HotKey is available even while working on other applications Quick task entry hotkey C Ctl C Shift Alt Win pur The default HotKey is Alt Win T key combination The following Quick Task Entry dialog appears when you use the HotKey or notify icon context menu Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 53 Achieve Planner A Quick Task Entry Achieve Planner Enter multiple tasks one per line with indent to create subtasks C Activate Achieve Planner when tasks added If you check the Enter multiple tasks checkbox then you can enter multiple tasks one per line and use indentation spaces to create subtasks at any level For example if you enter the following tasks Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 2 and Task 3 will be children of Task 1 By default Achieve Planner inserts the new tasks into a top level project called lt New Tasks gt You can also directly specify the parent for the new tasks using the Parent button Check the Activate Achieve Planner box if you want to activate the main Achieve Planner window when you add the tasks Leave it unchecked if you want to return to the application you were working on after you add the tasks You can add notes to the new tasks by using t
65. e Smith from the tutorials Result Area all Result Areas View State WPY Name Y Taky ODeadine Y Status Y Date Complet Y Result Area Career 1 item NS g WinWriters Conference 09 02 2006 OnSchedule None E Result Area Community Legacy 1 item NS Habitat for Humanity Women s Build 0 07 01 2006 Overdue None Result Area Work 9 items NS Al AllAround Routers Inc None OnSchedule None NS Al T1 Contig Guide None On Schedule None NS A2 E1 Config Guide None On Schedule None NS A2 9 IrishMail Inc None OnSchedule None NS Al Quick Start Guide None On Schedule None NS A2 User Manual None On Schedule None NS A3 Help File None On Schedule None NS A3 Neighborhood Associates None OnSchedule None NS Al August Newsletter None Overdue None 3 1 Demo Data File Achieve Planner includes a demo data file that you can use to see many of these concepts in action You can select the File gt Open Demo File command to open the sample data file in a new window 3 2 Achieve Planner Grids Achieve Planner uses grids extensively to display edit and insert tabular information At the top of the grid is a Help Tip which is provided by default for all top level views grid must have the focus in order for the tip to be displayed This tip displays the keyboard shortcuts for inserting rows into the grid Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 58 Achieve Planner Press Insert key to
66. e of them for this particular week You can then vary the focus from week to week to add more balance over time This approach allows you to give a meaningful amount of time to each area while at the same time creating long term balance and variety over a period of several weeks Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 127 Achieve Planner A Weekly Planning Wizard 8 22 2005 8 28 2005 File Edit Wizard Actions Help a Commit and Close lt gt gt Step 1 Step2 Step3 Step4 StepS Step 1 Review Result Area mission and guiding principles Use Wizard gt Next Ctrl N for next area Result Area work Description Represents my main work job responsibilities Mission a v Guiding Principles Priority il Description Now choose whether to make this Result Area a focus area for this week and update the projects as needed C Make this a Focus Area for this week Projects State YPY miy Y Deadine Y Status Ya Al B Achieve Ongoing J fe ae C C CD Achieve 1 3 0 Release 0 None On Schedule D Future Releases 5 4 None Ongoing NS Al CapitalOne Statement Capital0ne 0 None Behind Schedul Press F1 for Help You can review the mission statement and guiding principles for each area designate whether you want to make it a focus area for the week and review your projects This is also a good place to add projects for the result area or
67. eer Goal One Strategy Actions Date Wed 1 16 2008 Progress Score 1 to 10 IE Comments Win C Include Weekly Review Goals Skip Goal Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 139 Achieve Planner The dialog goes through all your goals that have progress review enabled and allows you to enter a progress score from 1 no progress to 10 great progress for the goal You can add a comment to help you remember why you entered a particular score on a given day special challenges that you faced or ideas to help you do better in the future You can also include a win for the day if you hit a particular milestone or achieved something significant Once you ve entered the score click on the Next button or press Enter key to move to the next goal on the list You can also click the Skip Goal button to advance to the next goal on the list without entering a progress score for the current goal The Don t Review button not only skips the current goal but also disables the goal progress tracking feature for that goal Include Weekly Goals checkbox determines whether goals that are flagged for weekly review as opposed to daily review are also included The Settings button allows you to schedule an automatic reminder time for performing the daily goal progress review You can also set or change the goal progress review settings from the Tools gt Options menu item For more informatio
68. eir immediate parent For the purposes of this tutorial the priority you assign doesn t make that much of a difference Just note that items in the projects and tasks tabs are automatically sorted based on priority Now assign an Al priority to one of the projects Assigning a numeric rank to projects is a convenient way to designate they are your main focus for the week You can repeat a similar process to prioritize the tasks in the task lists Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 24 Achieve Planner 2 5 Tutorial 5 Using Project Templates If you have certain project types that require the same set of common tasks a project template can help you quickly create new project instances without having to manually enter all the same tasks each time For example Jane Smith writes help files and always begins with the same common set of tasks Therefore creating a Help File Template is a sensible thing to do Here are the steps 1 In the Outline tab under the Work result area create a new project called Templates 2 Set the priority to D to ensure that template projects are not scheduled 3 Add a subproject named Help File Template as a child of Templates 4 Enter the tasks that are performed each time as children of the Help File Template project e Install latest software e Create menu tree x ref to window e Create window tree x ref to menu e Create outline Once the template p
69. en setting effort values Minutes m or min 5m Hours h 20 5 h or 20 30 h 20 hours 30 minutes Days d 2 d a day is considered to be 8 hours Weeks w 1 w a week is considered to be 40 hours When a project has no tasks associated with it it is treated for scheduling purposes as if it had a single task with no dependencies constraints and with the same target start and effort left as the project Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 113 Achieve Planner You can specify the target start date for a project which will be used to schedule all tasks for that project 7 2 4 Default Task Scheduling Order The scheduling algorithm processes tasks in order of project amp task priority Al tasks before A2 tasks etc using the specified resource allocation until the task is completed If multiple projects tasks share the same resource projects tasks with higher priority take precedence over projects with lower priority as follows A priority tasks of all A priority projects ordered by project task priority B priority tasks of all A priority projects ordered by project task priority A priority tasks of all B priority projects ordered by project task priority B priority tasks of all B priority projects ordered by project task priority C priority tasks of all A priority projects ordered by project task priority C priority tasks of all B priority projects
70. es cover this in much greater detail www GoalsToAction com General Tab e Title This is a short description of the goal that you can use to recognize and distinguish this from other goals Example Reach 170 pounds by the end of 2008 e Result Area The result area that the goal belongs to You can change it here or through the master outline e Range Range of the goal month quarter year etc e Priority Priority of the goal compared to other sibling goals of the same parent e Status Status of the goal Not Started In Progress etc Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 133 Achieve Planner Dream Checked if this is a dream unchecked if it s a regular goal Deadline Deadline for the goal Planned Start Planned start for the goal if it has one Values Values that the goal contributes to These are available during the daily goal review Question A question that helps you think about the goal and the actions you can take to make progress Affirmation A statement affirming the goal or a key belief associated with the goal Definition More detailed definition of the goal Purpose Purpose or main reason why this goal is important Benefits Tab A list of the benefits associated with this goal Listing benefits is a way to uncover the real reasons behind the goal and provide additional motivation and reasons why it s important to complete it Vision Tab Vision A mo
71. eservatons A NS Al Find location B NS A2 Order Cake ka NS Al Select from catalog B NS A3 Print Invitatons A NS Al Make invitation list You ll notice that the Outline now only shows one task under each sub project following the Outline priority sorting order When you complete a task in any of these sub projects the next available task under that project is displayed For example this is what the outline looks like when you ve completed the Find location task of the Make Reservations project Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 28 Achieve Planner v Fun B IP Al a PlanParty B IP Al Make Reservations ka IP A2 Call to make reservations B NS A2 Order Cake 2 NS Al Select from catalog B NS A3 Print Invitations A NS Al Make invitation list You can see the next action Call to make reservations is now in the list 2 6 3 Next Action Settings The Options dialog Tools gt Options has some settings that control the display of the Next Action List in the Outline and Task Chooser General Save Display Grids Scheduling Calendar Next Actions C Use task predecessor for Next Action Only lists Hide Result Areas that don t contain children Hide D priority items in Next Actions Only list C Filter Outline to only show items with tasks Use task predecessor for Next Action Only lists controls whether to use the basic unchecked or advance
72. ethod you go through each item in your list and assign it one of four labels A The A s are assigned to projects and tasks that are important or valuable or that need to be completed right away because of an impending deadline B The B s are assigned to projects and tasks that are under review because they are not as important as any of the A s but they are still worth considering You may need want to do them at some future point but you haven t committed to them just yet C The C s are assigned to projects and tasks that you may want to do at some future time but you are not even considering doing them right now because they are not important or valuable enough compared to everything else on your plate D The D s are assigned to projects and tasks that you are not planning to do at all They are not worth your time and energy It may seem strange to leave the C D projects and tasks in your lists but if they made it there it s because at some point you thought you might need or want to do them Rather than loose track of them just keep these items in your list in case they pop up again or you change your mind and decide that you would like to work on them By default most of Achieve Planner s grids sort using priority values Sorting takes place at each parent child level in the hierarchy Only the siblings of a particular row affect its sorting 4 1 Entering Priority Values You can enter priority value
73. ew location e Subject To change the subject click in the appointment or event and enter the new text e Time or Date To change the time or date drag the appointment or event and drop it on the new time or date To move multiple appointments or events hold down the CTRL key and select them with the mouse Then drag and drop them as a group at the new location e Appointment Duration To change the duration of an appointment position the pointer at the top or bottom edge of the current allotment of time the pointer changes to a vertical double arrow Drag the appointment to its new time duration e Event Duration To change the duration of an event position the pointer at the left or right edge of the current allotment of time pointer changes to a horizontal double arrow Drag the event to its new time duration e Duplicating an Appointment or Event To create a copy of an existing appointment or event and place it in a new location hold down the CTRL key and drag the appointment or event to the new location Release the mouse to drop the appointment or event in place Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 98 Achieve Planner 5 3 3 Deleting an Appointment or Event To delete an appointment or event right click the appointment or event and select Delete 5 4 Working with Project and Task Blocks Achieve Planner supports the concepts of project and task blocks which are blocks of time that y
74. f your projects using as many levels as you need Achieve Planner separates the concepts of projects and tasks allowing you to view and track your high level outcomes projects independently from your low level actions tasks Your projects list will be shorter easier to manage and it will give you an overview of all the outcomes you are working on You can store all the details as tasks and have easy access to them when you need them A task is something that you need to do as part of a project All your to do s should either be projects or tasks of a project It is quite common for simple projects not to have any tasks and for complex projects to have tens or even hundreds of tasks You can keep track of the tasks for each project in the Tasks tab where you can create hierarchical multi level task lists using as many levels as you need If you need to you can easily convert tasks into projects promote or convert projects into tasks demote This section will help you understand the Projects tab in Achieve Planner and how to use it to keep track of and update your projects Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 57 Achieve Planner You can learn more about the difference between projects and tasks as they are used in Achieve Planner in the following online article http www timethoughts com timemanagement effective todo list htm Here is an example of a potential Project list for Jan
75. ference between projects and tasks as they are used in Achieve Planner in the following online articles http www timethoughts com timemanagement effective todo list htm Achieve Planner has the following restrictions regarding parent child relationships between result areas dreams goals projects and tasks Record Allowed Children Result Area Result Area Dream Goal Project Task Dream or Goal Dream Goal Project Task Project Project Task Task Task Thus a project can only have projects and tasks as children and a task can only have other tasks as children Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 15 Achieve Planner 2 1 Tutorial 1 Capturing Projects in the Master Outline The master outline provides an overview of all result areas projects 3 and tasks fa In this tutorial Jane uses the master outline to add three main projects and two subprojects to the Work result area For more information on working with the master outline see section 3 3 This is what the grid of the master outline looks like when you first create a new data file Press Insert key to add row after Shift Insert to add row before Ctrl Insert to add row as child Esc to cancel row insest Icon Y Stat Y Prior Y Name v ODeadine VW Status Y Romance None Children None Q Health amp Fitness None Family None Q Fun None eG Friends None Relaxation None Personal Develo
76. ffort you think it will take to complete the project task This is your best guess before you start working on the project task e Effort Left This is the amount of effort that is still required in order to complete the project task For items that have not been started the effort left should be the same as expected effort Once you ve worked on a task the effort left should go down appropriately based on how much work is left to do e Actual Effort This is the actual amount of effort that you ve spent on the given project task to date To add effort estimates to tasks Jane will be using the Tasks tab viewing it across all projects 1 Go to the Tasks tab select Go gt Tasks command or click on the tab 2 Select the All Projects value in the Projects dropdown in the view bar This will display a list of all tasks grouped by project 3 Use the Effort column which represents the expected effort to set the effort value for each of the tasks The actual values are not important for this tutorial J ust enter values ranging from 2 hours 2 h to 3 days 3 d For example 5h 4h 1d 12h etc Note Setting the expected effort for items that have not been started State is NS also sets the Effort Left to the same value Once the item is in progress changes to expected effort are no longer propagated to the Effort Left column Effort v Effort Left W 5d 33h Th Th Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www
77. for scheduling purposes and does not contribute directly to the level of effort for tasks All the scheduling information for the children is used to calculate the values for the summary task The only meaningful fields are Dependencies Dependencies placed at the summary task level affect all children Resource Assignments Any resource assignments at the summary task level are used by default by any child tasks that don t have explicit assignments Note If a parent task only has next action reminder tasks as children then it is NOT considered a summary task and will be scheduled 7 2 7 Project Block Scheduling When using project block scheduling Achieve Planner s scheduling algorithm proceeds in two stages The scheduling algorithm proceeds in two stages e Stage 1 uses ONLY the project task blocks in the weekly schedule up to a user defined date to determine how much time is available for different projects and or tasks e Stage 2 uses the project task priorities and resource assignments to determine in what order to schedule the projects and how much time is available for each one Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 115 Achieve Planner Because AP can t know when stage 1 should end and stage 2 begin it relies on user settings to distinguish between them Whenever you perform a Reschedule operation Actions gt Reschedule the following dialog is displayed unless you ve explicitl
78. fy different types of conflict resolution in the advanced task settings including always use Achieve Planner data always use Outlook data flag the AP task and continue without changes or manual resolution to allow you to choose how to handle each case Please see the help file section on the advanced task settings for a description of how to change the conflict resolution 6 6 Importing Email If you use Microsoft Outlook XP 2003 you can track action oriented emails as projects tasks in your schedule Here s how it works During the first Outlook synchronization Achieve Planner adds a couple of folders under your Inbox Todo Postponed and WaitingFor When you receive an email message you want to track simply move it to one of these folders Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 108 Achieve Planner 3 Inbox Postponed Processed Todo LJ WaitingFor During the next Outlook synchronization Achieve Planner will create a task for each new email in these folders and set its status accordingly The task will remain linked to the email message so you can easily view it even if you move it out of the Todo folder NOTE In order to import emails from Outlook you must set the Outlook settings to Import Email AND select the folders from which you want to import Import Todo Import Postponed Import WaitingFor Both of the checkboxes must be checked All new emails are imported under a project ca
79. g AP You can close all open tabs using the Window gt Close All Windows command 1 3 Terminology This section describes some of the terminology used in this manual and in the Achieve Planner documentation Grid A grid refers to the spreadsheet like interface used throughout Achieve Planner to display information using rows and columns Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 11 Achieve Planner Columns y a State Y Prion Y Name Y Effort Y EffotLe 7 Place VW ODeadine VW VW Status VW 1 os A Task 1 30 min 30 min None 0 On Schedule l NS 4 Task 2 30 min 30 min None 0 On Schedule Parent Child Achieve Planner supports hierarchical tree like outlines where items can have sub items associated with them For example a task can have sub tasks The main task is called the parent and the sub tasks are called the children State Y Prion Y Name VY Effort Y 4 NS A Parent Task 30 min 2 NS Al Child Task Oh 3 NS Task 2 30 min Menus Achieve Planner uses menus extensively This manual uses the gt symbol to represent following a menu and selecting a sub item of that menu For example Go gt Outline represents selecting the Outline menu item of the Go menu 1 4 Keyboard Shortcuts Achieve Planner supports keyboard shortcuts associated with menu items and toolbar buttons There are two types of shortcuts Regular shortcuts consist of a single key press combination For
80. g on your preferences and how you use Achieve Planner you could also represent them as top level tasks of the Plan Party project instead of sub projects 2 6 1 Viewing the Next Action List in the Outline You can toggle the display of the Next Action List in the master outline using the Next Actions Only checkbox available in the Outline tab or using the equivalent keyboard shortcut Ctril Shift 8 Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 27 Achieve Planner When the Next Action Only mode is enabled the outline is filtered so that only next action tasks are displayed under each project View E Group by Category Show Result Areas Show Goals Show Tasks W NextActions Only There are two versions of Next Actions a simpler beginner s version for new users and an advanced version for more experienced users who want more freedom in defining what a next action is You can change the definition of Next Action used by Achieve Planner in the Next Actions tab of the Options Dialog Tools gt Options as describe later in this tutorial 2 6 2 Using the Basic Next Action Definition By default Next Action tasks are defined as the first task under each project in the Outline priority sort order This is what the Plan Party project would look like with the Next Actions List filter turned on v Fun B NS Al 5 PlanParty B NS Al Make R
81. harts e Default Resource Default resource to use for projects tasks in this result area If left blank the default resource for the result area category work personal is used instead e Reason The reason why this result area is important or not as important as other areas Mission Tab The mission tab is where you capture your mission statement and guiding principles specific to this result area Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 132 Achieve Planner Vision Tab Capture your ideal outer what you ll experience on the outside and inner what you ll feel and think on the inside vision for this result area You can also associate one or more images with this result area using the Images button Wish List Tab Capture the wish list for the result area NOTE You can also capture the wish list using the Wish Brainstorming Wizard SWOT Tab Perform your SWOT strengths weaknesses opportunities threats analysis for this result area 10 4 Goal Information Form The goal information form helps you plan and store more detailed information about each of your goals You can access it by opening the goal rows from the Outline or Goal tabs double click Ctrl Enter or File gt Open gt Open Selected Item menu A detailed description of what each available item in this form means and how to use it to achieve your goals is beyond the scope of this manual Our Goals to Action cours
82. how Tasks C Group by Result Area This will move all the selected tasks into the chosen project Just repeat this process until you ve assigned projects to all your Outlook tasks 6 3 Performing 2 way Synchronizations By default the Outlook sync settings are setup to only import data from Outlook without making any changes in Outlook If you want to perform a 2 way sync so that changes you make in Achieve Planner get propagated to Outlook and vice versa you need to change the settings Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 106 Achieve Planner Outlook Synchronization Settings Import Restricted Outlook Data Show Tooltips Email V Import Email V Import Todo V Import Waiting For V Import Postponed Move completed to processed Move deleted to processed Import sender receiver Import Body Length 500 Appointments Import Appointments C Import Private Import Changes Export Appointments C Export private _ Export Project Appointments Date Wed 7 1 2 2006 l C Esport Deletes _ Import Deletes Tasks Import Tasks Export Tasks Advanced Settings Contacts Import Contacts C Import Private Import Changes Export Contacts C Esport Private _ Export Deletes Clear Deletion History Clear Syne History Confirm Outlook Deletes The various Import Export checkboxes control the direction of data exchange between Achieve Planner and Outlook for the various items like Appoin
83. ides several tutorials that demonstrate how you can use Achieve Planner to get organized track projects and tasks and schedule your time In the following tutorials Jane Smith is a contract writer She has several customers multiple projects and many many tasks Jane has decided to use Achieve Planner to help her keep track of her projects and stay on schedule For the purpose of this tutorial Jane will list her customers as projects She will then add subprojects representing the actual projects she is working on for each of these customers and add any relevant tasks to these projects In addition she will customize views create project templates for reuse and create a time chart to help her allocate work and personal time You can follow along with these tutorials using a blank file or you can see the result in the tutorials sample file This is an excerpt from the projects tasks section later in the manual section 3 Projects and tasks replace the traditional to do list used in other time management systems They are a central concept in Achieve Planner A project represents a high level outcome or result in your to do list that you are tracking or actively working on It could be a complex multi step project like developing a product organizing an event or preparing a presentation but it could also be something simple like paying a bill responding to an email or checking out a website In general an
84. ify Outlook Tasks that Should be Projects The first thing you should do is identify any of your tasks that should be projects instead of tasks This is easiest done from the Outline view When you find such a task 1 Select the task s row using the row header 2 Select the Actions gt Convert into Project command to convert the given task into a project Ctri Shift C P When you do this the task is converted into a sub project of the lt New Outlook Tasks gt project For example if you do this for Outlook Task 2 in the example above the result is B NS lt New Outlook Tasks gt y NS B Outlook Task 2 a NS B Outlook Task 1 A NS B Outlook Task 3 A NS B Outlook Task 4 Notice that the icon for Outlook task 2 has been changed into a project icon and that it is now sorted above all the other tasks 3 Repeat this process for all the other imported Outlook tasks that should be projects Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 104 Achieve Planner Step 2 Move New Projects to Appropriate Result Areas Using the master outline drag and drop your newly created projects from the lt New Outlook Tasks gt project and drop them as children of the appropriate result area For example work related projects can go into the Work result area Make sure that the red drop arrow is in the middle and slightly to the right of the result area where you want to drop them this indicates a chi
85. ine gt Clear Zoom command clears the zooming from the outline and displays all the top level items 3 3 16 Actions The Actions menu contains several commands that may be available for some of the items in the outline but not for others For example the Complete Item s command is available for project and task items but not for Result Area items that cannot be completed 3 4 Working with the Projects Tab This section describes how to work in the Projects tab with more detail The Projects tab gives you a good overview of all the different outcomes that you are pursuing 3 4 1 Filtering Projects for Different Result Areas You can use the result area dropdown in the Project tab view bar to filter the project list and only show projects for a particular result area For example if you only want to see projects in the Work result area just pick that result area from the dropdown Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 67 Achieve Planner Result Area Work Select All Result Areas if you want to see all of the projects for all the result areas in the same list The Show Groups checkbox toggles the grouping of projects by result area on off The Show Groups checkbox is only enabled when you use the All Result Areas filter Show Groups 3 4 2 Moving a Project to a Different Result Area There may be times when you want to move a project to a different result area You can easily do
86. irectly into the block click and type To change the appointment information use the Appointment Information form See section 5 3 1 1 Opening Appointment and Event Information Forms Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 100 Achieve Planner 5 4 3 Deleting a Project or Task Block To delete a project or task block right click and select Delete You can also select Edit gt Delete command 5 4 4 Viewing Tasks in a Project Block To view the tasks associated with a project block right click the project block and select View Tasks You can also select Actions gt View Tasks command Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 101 Achieve Planner 6 Importing Data from Outlook Achieve Planner supports synchronization of task appointment and contact data with Outlook In addition you can import email messages as Achieve Planner tasks to help you keep better track of them By default Outlook synchronization only imports data from Outlook but does not make any changes to Outlook If you want to perform a 2 way synchronization or to export Achieve Planner data to Outlook you will need to change the synchronization settings 6 1 Performing a Synchronization To perform an Outlook synchronization select the Tools gt Outlook Synchronization command This will bring up the Outlook Synchronization Dialog Outlook Synchronization Status Progress C Log Outlook Sy
87. is com 72 Achieve Planner Cn Cancelled Project Task is marked as cancelled and will not appear in Active views You can only see Cancelled items in the All Items views D Delegated Project Task is marked as delegated This is just a reminder that you ve delegated the task but nothing else changes about the task IP In Progress The project task is in progress You can enter into this state by changing the state directly or by recording work associated with the item NS Not Started You haven t started work on this project task This is the default state for new items P Postponed You ve decided to postpone work on the item PR Proposed A project task that is only proposed at this time SD Should Delegate This is just a reminder flag indicating that you should delegate this item instead of doing it yourself It is different from D delegated in that you haven t actually delegated it yet W Waiting This is a reminder that you are waiting for something associated with this item and can t proceed until you get it 3 7 Completing Projects amp Tasks Please see section 2 12 3 for a description of how to complete a project or task 3 8 Schedule Status Values The schedule status values appear in the Status columns for Projects and Tasks Status VY Due Soon Due Soon Not 5 cneguiegd On Schedule On Schedule This section describes the various status values and how they are determined
88. ission deadline 6 30 2006 Overdue Task Chooser Window Description Name Action Description Selection Bar e View button selects the current view that affects the scoring and filtering of the tasks displayed in the chooser e Settings button changes the scoring filtering settings for the current view e Show Less Show More buttons control the number of items displayed in the list e Date dropdown change the date filtering for the current view e Project displays the name of the project associated with the current selected item Grid Displays the items in the list sorted by their score Parents Docking Displays the parents of the selected item in the Panel outline Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 119 Achieve Planner Name Action Description Double click or Navigates to the item s row in the corresponding CTRL ENTER Project or Task List any row item File gt Open gt Opens the Information form associated with the Open Selected item Task Information or Project Information or CTRL O 8 1 1 Changing the Task Chooser View Achieve Planner currently supports the following task chooser views Note Best Overall Best tasks across all your projects regardless of result area Best in Project Block Displays the best tasks in the current project block weekly schedule for the current time If there is
89. ks One common question is how to choose between a sub project and a task In general use sub projects when e It represents a well defined outcome result in and of itself or e It is something that you will work on in parallel with other projects sub projects If the items are all part of the parent project not really outcomes and you are planning to work on them sequentially it might be better to do the breakdown in the task list rather than using sub projects For example if you want to break down a development project into several iterations and then break each iteration into several phases like planning design implementation and testing you may want to represent these in the task list rather than using sub projects e Iteration 1 o Planning B Planning Task 1 B Planning Task 2 o Design B Design task B o Implementation o Testing The reason for this is that the various items don t represent independent outcomes and they are being done sequentially and not in parallel Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 70 Achieve Planner You may argue about whether iterations should be tasks or sub projects Fortunately you don t have to get it perfect the first time You can easily convert a summary task in the task list into a sub project and you can convert a sub project into a task using simple built in commands From the Tasks tab you can convert a task into a sub project using the Actio
90. labels without providing a rank use A s for tasks which must be done B s for tasks that should be done if time permits C s for tasks that would be nice to have but are not really necessary and D s for tasks that I m not planning to do at all 4 6 1 Ranking the I tems Once have assigned a priority label to all tasks focus on the A s and assign individual priority rank values to the top five to ten items A1 for the most important A2 for the next most important and so on You can usually tell which of two items is more important just by looking at them If you are having trouble deciding just ask yourself If could only complete one of these but not both which one would choose Your choice represents the more important task If you think two tasks are equally important just assign the same priority value to both of them If you have more than ten items at any given level you don t have to assign rank numbers to all of them J ust rank the top five to ten items and leave the others with their general priority labels A B etc One important benefit of prioritizing is that it allows you to focus on your most important tasks without getting overwhelmed by everything that you need to do That s why suggest you only rank five to ten items it allows you to focus on a small number of tasks at any given time If you still find your large task list overwhelming or distracting simply move more of your tasks to B
91. ld drop Drop As Child meji If you have a large number of projects that you want to drop into the same result area you can select multiple rows via the row header by holding down the Ctrl key as you make your selections before starting the drag You can also use the Pickup amp Drop commands in the Edit menu to do this see section 3 3 7 2 for details Step 3 Add Any Missing Projects to the Appropriate Result Areas If there are any other projects that you would like to include you can add them directly from the Outline tab See section 2 1 for an example Step 4 Move Remaining Tasks to the Appropriate Projects This last step is easier to do from within the Tasks tab so navigate to the Tasks tab Go gt Tasks command and filter it to show tasks for the lt New Outlook Tasks gt project Project lt New Outlook Tasks gt State W Priort W 1 BE B Outlook Task 1 2 NS B Outlook Task 3 3 NS B Outlook Task 4 Now select one or more tasks that you want to move into another project and invoke the Actions gt Move to Project command This will display the move to project dialog where you can select the project where you want to move the tasks Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 105 Achieve Planner A Move Tasks Move selected tasks into project lt New Outlook Tasks gt lt No Project gt Project One Project Three Project Two C Show Completed Projects _ S
92. ld to parent If a child is behind schedule the parent may also have a status behind schedule Close to Deadline As the name implies the close to deadline status value indicates that the item is getting close to a deadline but has not exceeded it yet This status value only occurs for non completed items with deadlines when Today s date is within one day of the deadline Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 74 Achieve Planner Note The close to deadline status propagates up the hierarchy from child to parent If a child is close to deadline the parent may also have a status close to deadline No Slack A no slack status value indicates that the target end date is close to the deadline meaning that you haven t provided much spare or slack for moving the target end date without running into the deadline This status value only occurs for non completed non postponed items with deadlines when the target end date is within one day of the deadline Note The no slack status may propagate up the hierarchy from child to parent Due Soon A due soon status value indicates that the deadline or target end date for this item occurs within the next 5 days in the following circumstances e A non completed item with a deadline occurring less than 5 days from Today s date e An active item that has been started and has a target end date occurring less than 5 days from Today s date
93. lect Cake from Catalog Make Invitation List I Call to Order Cake Print Invitations I I Wait for Cake Order to Complete Send Out Invitations In this diagram each box represents a task and the arrows point to the predecessor task For example before you can do the Print Invitations task you must do the Make Invitation List task first That s why Make Invitation List is the predecessor As you can see you can have predecessor tasks in a different project In this example Make Invitation List is also a predecessor for Find Location because you can t find a suitable location until you know how many people are invited This is how you would represent these predecessor relationships in the Active Planning view of the Outline Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 31 Achieve Planner Icon Y Sta Y Prior Y Name Y Deadine wY Predecessor Y 5 Fun None 6 jj NS Al Plan Party None 7 B NS Al a Make Reservations None sf NS Al Find location None 16 g IP A2 Call to make reservations None 8 10 3 NS A2 S Order Cake None 11 NS Al Select from catalog None 16 12 0 NS A2 Call to order cake None 11 13 ka NS AS Wait for cake order to complete None 12 44 A NS Ad Pick up cake from baker None 13 15 NS AB Print Invitatons None 16 ka NS Al Make invitation list None 17 NS 42 Print invitations None 16
94. ll reserve some time for other A projects leave the rest of the projects with an unranked priority A to remind me that they are important but not my top focus for this upcoming week The Weekly Planning section describes a simple mechanism you can use to allocate some time to projects with long term importance each week You would be surprised at how much progress you can make by giving even a small amount of time to your important long term projects on a regular basis assign a priority of B to projects that are under review They may very well be worth moving forward but they are not important enough to devote time to them this upcoming week You can then revisit your decision during your next weekly planning process One common mistake while prioritizing is to automatically assign an A priority to urgent things and to push back important long term projects to B or even C status If a long term project truly is important you should make it an A and commit time to it on a regular basis even if it is only 30 minutes per week usually leave urgent but non important projects tasks as either B s or C s which helps me to productively procrastinate on them until can truly determine if they are worth doing Since review them regularly don t have to worry about them falling through cracks or becoming a crisis The C priority category represents projects that may want to do at some point in the future but definitely
95. ll documents and copy 07 17 2006 Overdue Achieve Planner has the following restrictions regarding parent child relationships between result areas projects and tasks Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 59 Achieve Planner Record Allowed Children Result Area Result Area Goal Project Task Project Project Task Task Task Thus a project can only have projects and tasks as children and a task can only have other tasks as children 3 3 1 Inserting New Rows To insert new rows into a grid you can use the Insert key in your keyboard or the appropriate item in the Insert menu e g Insert After Note the grid must have the focus in order to use the keyboard shortcuts for the insert commands Some of the items in Achieve Planner like Projects Tasks and Goals support prioritization see section 4 Using Priorities while others like File Items Notes and Contacts do not Achieve Planner sorts items that support prioritization using their priority value Al before A2 A before B and so on For grids supporting ordering you can use the Insert gt Insert Before Shift Insert and Insert gt Insert After Insert commands to insert the new row into the grid before after the active row and automatically shift the priority of the other items Some of the items in Achieve also support a tree like hierarchy of items parent child task subtask etc For example a task can have subtask
96. lled lt New Email Tasks gt visible from the master outline You can move this project under a result area for new imports If you rename this project a new one will be created in its place Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 109 Achieve Planner 7 Automated Scheduling Achieve Planner can help you estimate when you can expect to complete your various projects amp tasks based on your effort estimates your prioritization and your weekly schedule This process is called automated scheduling because Achieve Planner determines the target start end dates of your active projects and tasks based on information that you provide Achieve Planner performs project task scheduling for active projects and tasks that are not completed postponed or in the D priority category when you invoke the Actions gt Reschedule command This section describes the process that Achieve Planner uses when scheduling projects and tasks Some benefits of automated scheduling include e Get a quick estimate of when you ll be able to complete your various projects amp tasks via the target end date which is based on your own effort estimates priorities and project blocks e Determine ahead of time if you might be unable to meet a deadline The schedule status will warn you with a Behind Schedule status so that you can take corrective actions such as increasing the priority of a project task or delaying work o
97. ly to items in the current view Other views will retain their own unique settings To change the settings click the Settings button on the Selection Bar 8 2 1 Scoring Formula The task chooser scoring formula uses the priority value of each item and all its ancestors to determine the priority multiplier of the item which is a number between 0 and 1 To compute the priority multiplier each priority value in the item s outline hierarchy is converted into a number between O and 1 based on the priority s A B C D category as well as the rank The value is then adjusted based on the depth of the item in the outline The deeper the item the less its priority affects the overall multiplier For result areas in the outline either the result area importance or its priority is used to compute the multiplier depending on the settings All the priority values for the item and its ancestors are then multiplied together to determine the overall priority multiplier For example assume that your outline looks something like this with the individual priority multiplier for each item shown in parenthesis e Project A 1 0 o Task 1 0 9 B SubTask 1 0 9 In this case the overall priority multiplier for subtask 1 would be obtained by multiplying the priority multiplier values of it and all its ancestors 1 0 0 9 0 9 0 81 Once the priority multiplier is determined each item is awarded a number of points for things like impo
98. mple you can set the date recurrence pattern to occur every 2 weeks on Friday The occurrences follow a fixed pattern Regeneration recurrence patterns don t have set dates to follow because they are based on the date when the current instance is completed For example you can set the item to regenerate 5 days after completing the item The date of the next occurrence is not fixed It depends on when current instance is completed 3 9 2 Making a Project Task Recurring To make a project or task recurring you can use the Actions gt Set Recurrence command use the Set Recurrence toolbar button or use the Recurrence toolbar button in the Project Task s information form This will bring up the recurrence pattern dialog described above where you can specify the type pattern and range of the recurrence You can identify recurring projects tasks in the various grids using the recurrence icon J on the item s row Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 77 Achieve Planner 3 9 3 Removing Recurrence To remove the recurrence of a _ project task use the Actions gt Set Recurrence command use the Set Recurrence toolbar button or use the Recurrence toolbar button in the Project Task s information form Once the dialog is displayed click on the Remove Recurrence button This removes the recurrence from the item 3 9 4 Skipping a Recurrence In some cases you may want to skip a
99. n about the process of setting and achieving your goals please visit www GoalsToAction com Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 140 Achieve Planner 11 Appendix Advanced Automated Scheduling Settings This section describes some more advanced details of the automated scheduling capabilities of Achieve Planners You don t need to review this section unless you are planning to use some of the advanced features 11 1 Resources Resources represent potential for work associated with one or more people Typically each resource represents a single person working on one or more projects 11 1 1 Project Resource Assignments Project resource assignments can help you improve the accuracy of your target end dates beyond the upcoming week Because the default scheduling algorithm uses priorities to determine the scheduling order of tasks beyond the current week it can give too much time to some of your projects and too little to others To improve your estimates you can limit the amount of work that you are planning to do on a given project by using a project resource assignment For example if you know that you won t be spending more than 50 of your time on a given project the resource assignment will ensure that this is the maximum time scheduled for this project on any given week Note If you are using Project Block scheduling on a given week the project blocks override the resource assignment settings fo
100. n become more important as well When a parent becomes less important lower priority its children are also considered less important Bonus ranking in the task chooser Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 6 Achieve Planner e Focus Achieve Planner adds a priority bonus for any project or task with the Focus field checked e Deadline Achieve Planner adds a priority bonus to items as their deadline approaches or becomes overdue e Start amp End Time Achieve Planner can also add a priority bonus as start and end dates approach These factors are configurable via the Task Chooser settings To learn more about the Task Chooser please see chapter 8 Next Action List Achieve Planner supports the concept of a Next Action List in both the Outline and Task Chooser tabs This is useful if you want to focus on just the actions that you can take right now across all your different projects Please see Tutorial 2 6 in chapter 2 for a detailed description and examples of how to use the Next Action list Getting Started We suggest that you take your existing to do list and separate the outcomes from the actions required to make the outcomes occur The main outcomes become your Projects and possibly sub projects Then prioritize the Projects first Prioritize any sub projects after you have the structure and the Project prioritized Finally add the tasks You can add any deadline
101. n non essential projects e Determine if you are trying to do too much at the same time based on the target end dates for your various projects Only tasks that are children of projects are included in the automated scheduling Tasks that don t have a parent project e g that are direct children of result areas are not included 7 1 Turning Off Automated Scheduling If you would like to perform all start end date scheduling yourself you can disable the automated scheduling feature of Achieve Planner from the Tools gt Options dialog General Display Grids Perform start end date scheduling on reschedule Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 110 Achieve Planner You can still use lead based scheduling if you would like by checking the Always use lead time scheduling box 7 2 How Automated Scheduling Works You supply the level of effort dependencies resources and project block scheduling and Achieve Planner will calculate the target start and end dates for the tasks and associated projects Each task within a project has the following scheduling values e Target start date The target start date for the task e Target end date Estimated end date for the task e Effort Left Amount of effort that is still required to complete the task this is effort and not calendar duration This is the value that is used for scheduling e Resource Assignments Resources that are assigned to
102. n the task chooser list taking into account deadlines and other scoring criteria which may not necessarily be the topmost task in the project s task list 8 4 Task Chooser Settings Each view has its own set of settings which can be different from other views This means that one view can score items in a completely different way than another view For a detailed description of the task chooser settings please refer to the help file or press F1 in the Task Chooser Settings dialog 8 5 Focus Projects Tasks Projects and tasks have a field called Focus that you can use to tag projects and tasks that represent your current focus The focus field is available in several of the standard project task views but you can easily add it to any of the others Foc VW oO Fl The focus field affects the scoring of projects amp tasks in the task chooser by adding a bonus to any item that has its focus field checked or that has a parent with the focus field checked The bonus value is configurable through the task chooser settings For example if you focus tag a project all its tasks receive the focus bonus If you only tag a particular task only that task and any of its children get the focus bonus The focus bonus is an easy way to make certain projects amp tasks appear higher in the task chooser than they would otherwise based only on their natural score Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis
103. nd make better use of your time This manual provides the basics that you need to get started quickly and describes several best practices to help you get the most out of Achieve Planner The primary focus of this manual is on the time management aspects of the software keeping track of what you need to do creating a schedule and using AP to help you get your work done Section 10 in the manual describes some of the main goal setting features in Achieve Planner The Achieve Planner Training center contains the latest version of this manual plus other tutorials to help you get the most out of Achieve Planner http www effexis com achieve training You can learn more about specific features and concepts related to Achieve Planner by visiting the Goals to Action blog www goalstoaction com blog category achieve planner You can find out more about the time management concepts principles and ideas behind AP by reading the articles in www TimeThoughts com This is not a comprehensive manual it is designed to help you get up to speed quickly on the most commonly used features of Achieve Planner NOTE This manual describes functionality that is available through the Achieve Productivity Suite edition of Achieve Planner Other editions may not contain all the features described in this manual Please refer to the feature comparison chart for the features that are available in each edition http www effexis com achieve fea
104. ne View Log File Quick Task Sync Full Task Sync When you are ready to perform the synchronization click on the Sync Now button If you need to change the settings before starting the synchronization click on the Settings button You can get specific help for the synchronization dialog by clicking the Help button or pressing F1 6 2 Importing Your Data from Outlook If you use Outlook you ll probably want to import your tasks appointments and contacts from Outlook to populate your Achieve Planner data The default sync settings only import data from Outlook without making any changes to the Outlook data If you would like to propagate changes you Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 102 Achieve Planner make in Achieve Planner back to Outlook or export any other items that you ve created in Achieve Planner to Outlook you ll have to adjust the settings as described below The rest of this section describes how to import your tasks into Achieve Planner and how to organize them after you ve imported them Note To avoid synchronization problems please make sure that Outlook is running before starting the sync operation 1 Use the Tools gt Outlook Synchronization command to bring up the synchronization dialog 2 The default settings import email tasks appointments and contacts from Outlook Since this is what you want you don t have to make any changes to the settings Note
105. ng a special folder in your hard drive where you can store all images that you plan to associate with result areas or goals For example c Goallmages 10 5 1 Associate mages with Result Areas To associate images with result areas click on the Images button on the Vision tab of the result area information form You can add edit or remove images from the dialog You can also review existing images by clicking the Review button on the same tab 10 5 2 Associate Images with Goals To associate images with goals click on the Images button on the Vision tab of the goal information form You can add edit or remove images from the dialog You can also review existing images by clicking the Review button on the same tab 10 5 3 Reviewing I mages You can use the Tools gt Motivational Images menu item to review all your motivational images Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 136 Achieve Planner If you use this menu item from the result area or goals tab you can choose to display only the images associated with the select result area s or goal s by ensuring the Selected items only box is checked Otherwise you can check the All Result Areas Active Goals and Completed Goals to select which images you want to view Motivational Images Select the motivational images that you want to view C Selected items only All Result Areas C Completed
106. nging the Time Display Resolution To change the resolution of the weekly schedule time display follow these steps 1 Right click an empty cell on the Weekly Schedule 2 Select the number of minutes you want for each hour increment Choose either 5 6 10 15 30 or 60 minutes 5 Minutes 6 Minutes 10 Minutes v 15 Minutes 30 Minutes 60 Minutes 5 1 2 Changing the Number of Days Displayed To change the number of days displayed that is the number of columns in the weekly schedule select One Three Five Seven Ten or Twenty Days from the View menu One Day Three Days Five Days Seven Days Ten Days Twenty Days 5 1 3 Viewing Reminders To view any active reminders when the Reminders Window is closed select View gt Reminders Window command 5 1 4 Setting the Week Mode The Weekly Schedule can be viewed as a five day work week Monday through Friday or the traditional seven day week Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 90 Achieve Planner You can toggle between the two views by selecting View gt Work Week Mode command A check mark next to Work Week Mode indicates the five day work week is selected Note The work week mode setting works independently of the date selection You can use work week mode while viewing more than five days If there are any appointments or events during a weekend while in work week mode you will see a red indicator on the date header between
107. not right now Once I ve decided that a project is a C won t even consider committing any time to it during the upcoming week Finally reserve the D priority for projects and tasks that I m not planning to do at all They are simply not worth my time Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 85 Achieve Planner 4 5 Review Your Priorities Weekly One of the dangers of using priority values especially for projects is that you will never make progress on any of your B or C projects and tasks because there will always be more important A s Most of the time this is actually beneficial because of productive procrastination but only if your projects are prioritized properly That is why the weekly priority review as part of your planning routine is very important Think about priorities in terms of your commitment to the project Your A projects should be projects that you are willing to commit time to on a regular basis to either complete them right away or at the very least to keep them moving forward Pay special attention to your B projects which are the ones under review that you haven t yet decided to commit to If you neglect a B project long enough it could turn into the latest crisis Only you can know whether that B project is worth doing or not If it is not worth doing right now it should remain a B or even a C 14 Prioritize Your Tasks Prioritizing tasks is slightly differen
108. ns gt Convert to Project command From the Projects tab you can convert a sub project into a task of the parent project using the Actions gt Convert to Task command NOTE These commands are also available in the Outline tab from the Actions menu You can read more about converting between projects and tasks in Tutorial 2 11 3 5 3 2 Handling Single Step To Dos If you have single step items like Pick up dry cleaning or Take Rover to vet you can track them as either top level projects or as tasks One reason to track these items as projects is that they don t belong to a higher level outcome they are the outcome Keeping them in your master project list allows you to see them along with all your other outcomes and avoid losing track of them as you plan your projects You could also create a Miscellaneous or Errands project to capture all these items as tasks but personally prefer to keep them in the master project list That way your master project list always gives you an idea of all the outcomes in your plate at any given time regardless of their size It really depends on how many of these items you have to deal with If your master project list starts to become cluttered with too many of these small projects converting them into tasks of a grouping project like Errands might be the best alternative 3 5 4 Working with Task Views The Tasks tab supports multiple different views that show you your task
109. o separate the task name from the note text Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 54 Achieve Planner For example Task 1 1 These are the notes that will be associated with the task Note The Quick Task Entry HotKey can only be associated with a single Achieve Planner main window If you have multiple files open simultaneously the HotKey will only work for one of them If you find that the HotKey is not working once you close all other Achieve Planner windows invoke the Quick Task Entry from the system tray icon context menu to rehook the hot key Please see the Capturing amp Organizing Projects and Tasks tutorial for more ideas on how to organize tasks you ve captured with the Quick Task Entry method Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 55 Achieve Planner 2 17 Tutorial 17 Printing the Grids You can print most grids using the File gt Print or File gt Print Preview commands These commands use the current layout and relative size of the current display grid when printing You can change the font size used for printing in the Grids tab of the options dialog Tools gt Options Grid Print Font Microsoft Sans Serf Size points 10 Make sure to check the box if you want to override the default font Some people have noticed that reducing the size of the main Achieve Planner window has an effect on the printout The reason for this is that AP
110. oject dropdown in the Tasks tab view bar which might say All Projects This will filter the task list to only show Tasks associated with the selected project ie eee ee ee he Active Task Status vE GroupbyArea becomes Project Irish Mail Inc User Manual 3 Press INSERT key to add a row for the first task and enter Get latest software 4 Press ENTER key for a new row at the same hierarchical level and enter Create menu tree 5 Press ENTER key for another row and enter Create windows tree Although more tasks are probably necessary for this project you need only enter these 6 Save the file Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 20 Achieve Planner State W Priont Y Name Y Effort v Effort Le Y 4 NS Get Latest Software 30 min 30 min 2 NS Create menu tree 30 min 30 min 3 NS Create windows tree 30 min Now add some tasks to the Help File project To add the tasks follow these steps 1 Use the Actions gt Switch Project command Ctril H This will bring up the Select Project dialog Select the Help File project from the list and press ENTER NOTE This is equivalent to selecting the Help File project from the Project dropdown in the view bar 2 The Task list should now display the Help File project s tasks Since it doesn t have any the list will be empty Press INSERT to add a new top level task for this project and enter Develop help outline 3 Pres
111. ome children of the newly created task Note When you convert a project into a task you may lose some project specific details like objectives risks issues etc that are available in the Project Information Form To convert a task into a subproject from the Tasks tab 1 Select the task that you want to convert using the row header 2 Select the Actions gt Convert to Project command The task will become a subproject of the original task s project Note When you convert a task into a subproject you may lose some task specific details like predecessors and resource assignments Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 42 Achieve Planner 2 12 Tutorial 12 Recording Work and Completing Projects Tasks Achieve Planner provides two convenient commands to help you record your work and complete projects tasks 2 12 1 Project Task States The state column denotes the current state of a project or task You can use this column to change to state of the item or to mark it as completed C Click on the dropdown arrow to see the various state codes NS v Get Latest Software Code Description Completed Delegated In Progress Not Started C NS P Postponed State Y 4 NS 2 NS 3 NS Should Delegate Waiting For a description of the various states please refer to section 3 5 6 2 12 2 Recording work for a task When you have done some work on a task and are ready to move on to
112. omp W Stat Y 4 O NS 2 15 1 Editing Fields In some cases you may want to edit some of the shown fields and change some of their settings For example you can change the column header label or make a particular field multi line To make the Name field of the Tasks tab multi line Be sure you are in the Tasks tab and that the View dropdown in the filter bar is Active Task Status 1 Select the View gt Customize Current View command 2 Select the Name field from the right column in the dialog Show these fields in this order 3 This should enable the Edit Field button Click on it 4 This will display the Edit Field dialog Edit Field Label Description Name of the project NOTE Set the Min or Max Width to 1 to remove width limit Width 10 Min 10 Max 1 C Multiline 5 Click on the Multiline checkbox and click OK 6 Close the field selection dialog Click on OK button The Name field should now be multiline Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 52 Achieve Planner 2 16 Tutorial 16 Quick Task Entry This tutorial shows you how to use the Quick Task Entry feature in Achieve Planner to add some quick tasks to your outline even if you are working on another application The Quick Task Entry form is available by right clicking on the Achieve Planner icon in the system tray area and selecting the command from the menu Open Achiev
113. on Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 99 Achieve Planner 5 4 1 2 Using Projects or Tasks Tabs to Schedule Blocks To add a project or task block using the Projects or Tasks tabs follow these steps 1 2 From either the Projects or Tasks tabs select a project or task Right click and select Schedule Block Alternatively you can select Actions gt Schedule Block command Drop the project or task onto the Weekly Schedule When you are through placing the block s press ESC to close the block 5 4 1 3 Using an Existing Appointment to Schedule Blocks You can link existing appointments to project or task blocks as follows 1 2 3 4 In the Weekly Schedule select an appointment Right click and select Set Project Alternatively you can select Actions gt Set Project command Select a project or task check the Show Tasks box from the list Click OK 5 4 2 Editing a Project or Task Block Achieve Planner provides many ways to edit project and task blocks To change the project and task links right click and select Set Project You can also use the Actions gt Set Project command To copy a block to a new location hold down the CTRL key and drag the block to the new location You can also the Copy and Paste commands from the Edit menu To move blocks to a new time or date simply drag and drop the blocks at the new time and dates To add additional text d
114. on t have explicit assignments Each resource assignment takes the following form resource_name optional assignment where the resource name is the name of a defined resource and the optional assignment is a percentage value indicating the percentage of the resource available for the task For example the following assignment says that John can only work 50 of his time available for the project on this task Assignee s Y John 50 By default all resources without the optional assignment use a variable assignment which means that the resource works on tasks in order of priority devoting 100 of their available effort on top priority tasks until completed and are shared equally among tasks with the same priority You can combine multiple assignments by separating them with commas JoeSmith J ackRiley 45 Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 142 Achieve Planner Task assignments are combined with the project level assignments if any For example if a task assignment for Task A is JSmith 50 and resource JSmith is already constrained to 50 availability at the project level J Smith is only 25 available for Task A If a task doesn t have an explicit resource assignment the default resource assignment for the task is determined as follows Use the resource assignment of the closest parent task with an explicit assignment Use the default resource for the project if it has one Use
115. ou allocate to work on a specific project or task These blocks are central components of weekly planning They represent appointments that you have made with yourself to get your important work done The most common way to add project blocks to the Weekly Schedule is to use the Weekly Planning wizard see section 9 Weekly Planning Wizard However you can also add project and task blocks manually to the Weekly Schedule 5 4 1 Manually Adding Project or Task Blocks You can manually add project or task blocks to the Weekly Schedule using the Project Explorer the Projects and Tasks tabs and an existing appointment 5 4 1 1 Using the Project Explorer to Schedule Blocks To open and use the Project Explorer follow these steps 1 Ensure that you are in the Weekly Schedule 2 Select the View gt Project Explorer command Note Depending on how you last used Project Explorer it may open as a small tab to the right of the calendars if they are turned on or it may open in its own pane To auto hide the pane click the symbol To keep the Project Explorer open click the push pin symbol 3 If you want to add a task block check the Show Tasks box in Project Explorer If you are only adding a project block skip this step 4 To add a project or task to the Weekly Schedule as a block select drag and drop the project or task onto the Weekly Schedule You can reposition this block by dragging and dropping it at a new locati
116. ou drag it When the block is over the desired date and time release the left mouse button to complete the drop Alternatively you can select the project block select the Edit gt Cut command move the selection to the new time for the appointment and select the Edit gt Paste command To copy project blocks you can use standard drag amp copy drop I Click on the project block you want to copy and while holding down the left mouse button move the block to its new location Press and hold down the CTRL key as you drag the block You ll notice that the cursor changes to include a sign indicating a copy of the block will be made and the original project block is now in its previous location When the block is over the desired date and time release the left mouse button while still holding down the CTRL key to complete the copy drop Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 41 Achieve Planner 2 11 Tutorial 11 Converting Between Projects and Tasks You can easily convert a subproject into a task of the subproject s parent project or convert a task into a subproject of the task s project To convert a subproject into a task from the Projects tab 1 Select the subproject that you want to convert using the row header 2 Select the Actions gt Convert to Task command The subproject will become a task of the parent project Any subprojects or tasks of the converted subproject bec
117. pment None Spiritual None Financial None Career None Home None Community Legacy None work None Complete the following steps to add three customers Acme Routers Inc Irish Mail Inc and Neighborhood Associates 1 Click the Outline tab in the main window If the tab is not visible select the Go gt Outline command 2 From the list of result area Names highlight Work by clicking on the row header _ at the start of the row 3 Select Insert gt Insert as Child command or press Ctrl INSERT keys Alternatively you can use the Insert as Child toolbar button Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 16 4 Note N oO a ey Fait Note 8 2 1 1 Achieve Planner Select Project from the Select Child Type dialog to indicate that you want to add a child project to the Work resul area Select Child Type P Result Area re Project This will create a new Project row 33 under the Work result area Enter the name of the first customer Acme Routers Inc and press ENTER key to add a new row at the same hierarchical level Pressing ENTER after adding a row creates a new blank row at the same level immediately below it Enter the next customer Irish Mail Inc and press ENTER Enter the name of the third customer Neighborhood Associates a Work NS Al Acme Routers Inc NS A2 Irish Mail Inc NS A3 Neighborhood Associates If you pressed ENTE
118. r that particular week Each project can also be given a default resource which is used by default for tasks that have no assignment at the task level none of the task s ancestors have an assignment You can specify the project resource assignments for each project in the Team tab of the project information form Project Resource Assignments press lt Insert gt key to add new row Name Assignment Constrained Start End Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 141 Achieve Planner This assignment indicates that you Me w is your work resource are only planning to spend 50 of your time on this project Constrained refers to whether this is an ongoing assignment unchecked or constrained to a certain time period only checked You should only have to enter these types of resource assignments for long term projects if you are concerned about getting a very accurate estimate for the expected end date of the project For most projects the default settings should work well and give you a good indication of the changes you need to make to priorities to meet your deadlines 11 1 2 Task Resource Assignments You can explicitly assign the resources assigned to each task using a task resource assignment using the Assignee s field in the Active Task Schedule Details view or in the Task Information Form Any assignments applied to summary tasks will be used by default for all children that d
119. re detailed vision of the outcome associated with the goal and what things will be like when it is completed Images Link images in your PC with this goal Review Review images associated with this goal Kind of Person The kind of person you will need to be or become to complete this goal successfully Personal Changes Specific personal changes you will need to make to complete this goal Obstacles Tab Baseline The baseline is the starting point or current state of your goal Limiting factor The limiting factor is the single biggest bottleneck that is most preventing you from making progress Obstacles List of obstacles associated with the goal Uncovering obstacles and figuring out how to overcome them is a great way to develop a winning strategy Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 134 Achieve Planner Strategy Tab e Strategy A description of the strategy you are planning to use to achieve this goal This is your high level plan e Actions Actions refer to ongoing actions or activities that you will take on a regular basis as part of your goal as opposed to one time steps or projects that you need to complete NOTE If you prefer you can also capture actions as recurring projects or tasks associated with your goal Beliefs Tab e Empowering beliefs These are beliefs that you want to have about your goal to counteract any negative or limiting beliefs that you may have developed
120. recurrence instance instead of completing the current item You can do this using the Actions gt Skip Recurrence command This command advances the date values on the current item and its children just as if you had completed it but it does not actually create a new instance of the item or its children Note When skipping a recurrence instance the completed child items of the item skipping the recurrence will not be uncompleted like they are when a new instance is generated 3 9 5 Recurrence I tem Lead Times The Lead Time field for projects and tasks controls how the Target Start Date field is initialized for newly created recurring instances You can set the Lead Time field using the Project Information Form General Tab or the Task Information Form Schedule Tab You can also use the Active Task Recurrence or Active Project Recurrence views in the Tasks tab and Projects tab respectively If the lead time is set to any value other than none and the recurring project task also has a deadline the target start date is initialized to lead time days before the new deadline value in the recurring instance For example if the lead time is set to 5 days the new task instance will have a deadline set to follow the recurrence pattern and a target start date set to 5 days before the new deadline value Note Lead times are also used as part of Lead Time based scheduling for non recurring project
121. roject is ready you can create a new instance of a help file project using this template For example Jane needs to create a new project for the Enterprise Help File she is going to develop for Acme Routers Inc You can do this by following these steps 1 Ensure that you are in the Projects tab and Work result area is selected on the filter bar 2 Press and hold down the left mouse button on the row header for the row corresponding to the Help File Template This highlights the whole row 3 While still pressing the left mouse button press and hold down the Ctrl key and drag the Help File Template row to the Acme Routers Inc project row As you drag the row you will see the red arrow target indicator move accordingly Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 25 Achieve Planner Z mw 3 NS A Drop After Ns Drop As Child 2 _ Drop Beforet Note Holding down the Ctrl key during a drag operation performs a copy of the dragged row rather than a simple move 4 When the target indicator is over the Acme Routers Inc project indicating a child drop red arrow is in the middle and slightly to the right of the target row release the mouse to drop the template Make sure that you hold down the Ctrl to ensure that you make a copy of the template 5 A new copy subproject of the dragged template containing copies of the common tasks and any other project details has been created
122. rt area with the left mouse button to put it in edit mode and enter Exercise as the name You ll often want to create repeated instances of the same time chart area in your time chart You can do this using a drag copy operation as follows 8 Hold down the Ctrl key and drag amp drop the time area to Wednesday at 6 30 AM This will create a copy of the time chart area at the drop location 9 Repeat the process to create another copy of this time chart area on Friday at 6 30 AM 10 Now select the Friends result area from the dropdown in the grey tab 11 Select the time 1 00 PM 2 30 PM Sunday 12 Select the Actions gt New Time Chart Area command or press Ctri N 13 Click the Save and Close button Note To show this time chart in the background of your Weekly Schedule select the Ideal Week time chart from the Time Chart box on the blue bar UGIR IELAN Ideal Week v Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 36 Achieve Planner 2 8 Tutorial 8 Adding Effort Estimates to Tasks In this tutorial Jane is going to add effort estimates to the various tasks that she has entered into her projects If you plan to use automatic scheduling see section 7 would advise you to add effort values soon after entering the tasks often add them immediately after typing the name of the task Achieve Planner maintains three types of effort values for projects and tasks e Expected Effort The amount of e
123. rtance item status overdue behind schedule etc how close the item is to its deadline or end date and the target start date These points are then added together to obtain the total number of points for the item Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 122 Achieve Planner The overall score of the item is the product of the priority multiplier and the total points Both the points and the overall priority multiplier of the item are used to determine the score Tasks in the chooser are sorted according to the overall score of each item 8 2 2 Item Filtering In addition to the sorting of items in the list based on their individual scores the task chooser also performs filtering of items to limit the number of items displayed The following factors affect the filtering in different views Whether the item has active children The project associated with the item The amount of time remaining in the current project block The result area category for the item The position of the item in the list filter by number of items The schedule status of the item behind schedule overdue Target Start Date and or Deadline of the item for date filtering How are items included in the list 1 Only active not completed items are shown in the list 2 If the list is filtered by result area category only items belonging to the selected category appear in the list 3 If the list is filtered by
124. s You can establish the task predecessor relationship between tasks using the Task Predecessor field column available in the Outline and Tasks tabs The Task Predecessor column is available in the Active Planning view of the Outline You can also add it to any of the other views using the View gt Customize Current View command To establish a predecessor relationship between two tasks you enter the Row Number in the gray header at the start of each row of the predecessor task in the Task Predecessor cell for the dependent task For example if you have Task A and Task B and Task B cannot start until Task A is completed then you would say that Task A is a predecessor of Task B The Actions gt Link Tasks command helps you establish this type of predecessor relationship based on the order of the tasks in the Outline You need to select all the task rows that you want to link and then use the Actions gt Link Tasks command to link them in the order they appear in the outline In the birthday party planning project example let s say that the predecessor relationships between the various tasks look like this Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 30 Planning Birthday Party Project Achieve Planner Make Reservations Find Location I Call amp Make Reservations Order Cake Print Invitations Se
125. s amp tasks See section 7 for details Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 78 Achieve Planner 3 9 6 Deadlines Lead Times for a Recurring I tem s Children When a new recurring instance is created the deadline dates of the children of the new instance are also updated based on the new recurrence date This only happens for children either projects or tasks that already have a deadline value defined when the new instance is created Achieve Planner updates the deadline values of child items so that the same date interval that currently exists between the child deadline and the parent deadline is maintained in the new instance For example lets say you have the following setup where the deadline is the date in parenthesis e Recurring Project 11 25 06 o Task 1 11 23 06 o Task 2 11 24 06 When you create a new recurring instance for this project for the next month the deadline values are updated as follows e Recurring Project 12 25 06 o Task 1 12 23 06 o Task 2 12 24 06 Notice that the deadlines of the tasks Task 1 amp Task 2 are the same relative to the new project deadline as they were in the previous instance 3 9 7 Initializing Lead Time Values for Child Items When you first create a recurring project or task the following dialog is displayed to help you initialize the lead times for its children Lead Times for Recurrence de J Initialize lead times for children of
126. s from a different perspective You can change the view using the view selector dropdown in the Tasks tab view bar Wie Active Task Schedule v Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 71 Achieve Planner Brief description of each view e Active Task Status General status of active non completed tasks e Active Task Schedule Scheduling details of active tasks e Active Task Description Also includes description field in the grid e Active Task Schedule Details Includes schedule details like assignee and predecessor e Active Task Estimation Includes effort estimation columns e Active Task Budget Includes budgeting columns e All Tasks Shows all tasks including active and completed e All Tasks Schedule Scheduling information for all tasks including completed e Active Task Recurrence Includes lead time for recurring task scheduling 3 5 5 Converting Tasks into Projects and Projects into Tasks Please see Tutorial 2 11 for more details of converting between projects and tasks 3 5 6 Quick Task Entry Please see section 2 16 for a description of quick task entry 3 6 Project Task State Values Projects and Tasks can be in one of several states as indicated in the State column State W 4 IP 3 P 3 INS The following states are supported C Completed Project Task is marked as completed and will not appear in Active views Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effex
127. s or you can also create independent areas For example you could use an independent time chart area to represent a break period or your lunch hour Showing a Time Chart in the background behind active appointments in the Weekly Schedule can help remind you that you intended to pursue a particular activity at a specific time If you prefer you can also display the weekly schedule without a Time Chart See section 5 2 2 Displaying a Time Chart in the Background for additional details You can create as many different time charts as you need and easily switch between then in your weekly schedule display By doing this you can change your focus from one week to another For example in one week you may focus on your finances and career while the next week you focus more on relaxation and recreation activities 5 2 1 Using the Time Chart Information Form Use the Time Chart Information form to create and edit Time Chart areas time slots This information form provides two tabs General and Time Chart Areas Use the General tab to enter a name and a description for the Time Chart Use the Time Chart Areas tab to define and edit Time Chart areas To open the information form click either the Edit Time Chart or New Time Chart button from the time chart bar of the Weekly Schedule Un Bele Ideal Week v Edit Time Chart New Time Chart 5 2 1 1 Creating a Time Chart Area To create a new Time Chart area follow these steps
128. s start dates and end dates as you go or at the end Deciding Between Making an Item a Sub project or a Task In general if an item 1 Represents an outcome or result in and of itself OR 2 It is something that you work on simultaneously with other projects subprojects Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 7 Achieve Planner It s typically better to make it a sub project and not a task You can always change it into a task or convert a task into a sub project later if necessary Storing Detailed I nformation in Achieve Planner When using Achieve Planner you may sometimes feel like there is too much information to record about your projects and tasks For example the Project Information form allows you to record the purpose objectives vision risks issues and other specific details of your project While it can be very useful to think about and capture these details when planning a large or complex project it could be overkill for many smaller projects where just the purpose and objectives is usually more than sufficient Just because you can record something in AP doesn t necessarily mean that you need to The key is whether adding the details is valuable or not You can use the various fields and tabs as reminders so you can at least think about these things and consider whether capturing the details would be useful If it is not useful don t record it In the various grid views yo
129. s well as subprojects and their tasks the master outline is a better way to view this 3 5 1 Viewing the Tasks of a Project To view the tasks of a specific project you can use the Project dropdown in the Tasks tab view bar J ust select the project you want to filter from the list Project Email Select the All Projects filter to view tasks for all projects grouped by project A convenient way to view tasks of a different project is to use the Actions gt Switch Project command This command brings up a project selection dialog that you can use to filter the task list on a different project Just select the project you want to view from the list and click OK 3 5 2 Navigating Between Projects and Tasks Tabs You can navigate between the Projects tab and the Tasks tab using commands in the Actions menu On the Projects tab e Use the Actions gt View Tasks command to view the tasks associated with the active project row On the Tasks tab e Use the Actions gt View Project command to view the project associated with the active task row Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 69 Achieve Planner 3 5 3 Adding Tasks to a Project You can add tasks to a project using the Outline tab or via the Tasks tab Please refer to Tutorial 2 2 for details 3 5 3 1 Choosing between Sub Projects and Tasks Achieve Planner allows you to add two different type of children to Projects sub projects and tas
130. s ENTER key for another row and enter Fill help topics 4 Press ENTER key for another row and enter Add diagrams to topics Although more tasks are probably necessary for this project you only need to enter these tasks 5 Save the file Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 21 Achieve Planner 2 3 Tutorial 3 Zooming In the Master Outline The Outline tab provides zooming also called hoisting capabilities that allow you to see only a particular branch in the outline For example if Jane only wants to see projects in the Work result area She can use zooming to view this particular branch of the outline only 1 Select the row of the outline where you want to zoom in by clicking on the row header This row will be the new root of the hierarchy In this case select the Work result area row 2 Select the Outline gt Zoom In command The outline should now be zoomed in on the Work result area showing only its children You can tell when the outline is zoomed because the caption of the outline grid displays the root of the zoom hierarchy Zoom Work Result Area If you want to see more of the hierarchy you can use the Outline gt Zoom Out and Outline gt Clear Zoom commands Zoom Out This command zooms out by one increment to the parent of the current zoom root e Clear Zoom This command clears the zoom completely and returns the outline to its normal state To continue 1 Select the
131. s as children In these grids you can also insert a new row as a child of the active row using the Insert gt Insert as Child Ctri nsert command For example in the Demo file the Project Proposal for New J oint Product project is a child of the ACME Account project You can also use the Insert gt Insert at Top Level Ctri Shift Insert command to insert a new top level row with no parents When you insert a row through any of the means described above the grid will enter insertion mode and provide a blank row where you can enter your Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 60 Achieve Planner data Pressing the Enter key while in insertion mode saves changes to the current row and adds a new sibling row immediately below the current one If you ve accidentally added a blank row to the grid you can cancel the insert by pressing the Esc key which will remove the blank row and return the grid to normal mode Once you change any cell in the new row you can no longer cancel the insert using the Esc key but you can use the Delete item in the Edit menu to delete the row 3 3 2 Moving the Active Cell The active cell is either in edit mode when you are actively editing cell contents or in selected mode highlighted When a cell is in selected mode you can move the active cell in various directions using the cursor keys left right top bottom page up page down You can also press the Home
132. s directly into the grid in the Priority column in text format Achieve Planner supports both uppercase and lowercase formats and automatically adjusts them to uppercase for display Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 81 Achieve Planner Each priority value consists of a range and an optional rank The range is the label A B C D while the rank is a numeric value from 1 to 2499 The rank is an optional numeric value from 1 to 2499 with smaller values having higher priority than larger values Al is a higher priority than A2 You can also leave the rank off with only the letter as the priority for example A Unranked priority values are placed after ranked priority values A2499 is a higher priority than A As a special shortcut you can use the value aa without the quotes to represent Al 4 2 Priority Colors Achieve Planner color codes rows based on the priority value of the row For example the default color for A s is blue You can change the colors associated with each priority range using the Tools gt Options command Display tab Priorities As priority color LC Blue v Bs priority color C Purple v Cs priority color Oo Black v Ds priority color o Gray v C Use Lowest Ancestor Priority for Coloring When coloring rows Achieve Planner will either use the priority of the row directly or it can use the lowest ancestor priority of the item
133. s in the Weekly Schedule can help remind you that you intended to pursue a particular activity at a specific time If you prefer you can also display the weekly schedule without a Time Chart In this example Jane is going to create a time chart to remind her that she would like to exercise three days a week and meet with friends once a week For more information see section 5 2 Create a time chart called Ideal Week by following these steps 1 Select the Go gt Weekly Schedule command or click the Weekly Schedule tab 2 Click the New Time Chart button on the time chart bar ee hie ee Ideal Week Edit Time Chart Time Chart _ New Time Chart J Time Chart 3 In the General tab of the Time Chart Information form enter the name Ideal Week ideal Week TimeChart Informa File Edit Actions Help i a Save and Close g General Time Chart Areas Name Ideal Week Description Ideal Week Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 35 Achieve Planner 4 Click the Time Charts Areas tab and select the Health amp Fitness result area from the result area dropdown in the gray bar 5 Select the time from 6 30 AM 7 30 AM on Monday on the calendar using the mouse or keyboard 6 Select the Actions gt New Time Chart Area command to add that time slot CtrI N This will create a new time chart area associated with the Health amp Fitness result area 7 Click on the time cha
134. s pane you can display it using the View gt Project Explorer command Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 38 Achieve Planner 3 Click on one of the Projects in the tree and while holding down the left mouse button drag it into the weekly schedule area 4 As you drag the mouse over the weekly schedule area you should see a Project Block for the project Drag this block to the desired location on the weekly schedule and release the left mouse button to drop it You should now have a project block for the selected project in the weekly schedule 2 9 2 Using the Master Outline Projects or Tasks Tab To create one or more project task blocks from the master outline tab 1 Navigate to the Outline tab or use the Go gt Outline command 2 Select a Project or Task for which you want to create a project block using the row header 3 Select the Actions gt Schedule Block command or right click on the project task row and select Schedule Block from the context menu 4 The Weekly Schedule tab should become active and enter into drop mode As you move the mouse around the screen there should be a project block attached to it 5 When you are ready to drop a project block just click and release the left mouse button at the desired location This will drop a block at the chosen location 6 The weekly schedule will remain in drop mode allowing you to continue dropping more blocks on the
135. schedule 7 When you are finished dropping blocks press the ESC key to get out of drop mode Project blocks work just like appointments so you can move them edit them and copy them just like other appointments See section 5 to learn more about working with appointments in the Weekly Schedule 2 9 3 Changing the Project Associated With an Appointment or Project Block You can change the project associated with an appointment or project block as follows Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 39 Achieve Planner 1 Right click on an appointment or project block in the Weekly Schedule 2 Select Set Project from the context menu 3 Chose the destination project from the tree 4 Press ENTER key or press OK button The appointment should now be associated with the project that you selected You can also accomplish the same thing from within the appointment information form but the right click method is often quicker Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 40 Achieve Planner 2 10 Tutorial 10 Copying Project Blocks As your schedule changes you ll often find it useful to rearrange your project blocks by moving or copying them To move project blocks you can use standard drag amp drop 1 Click on the project block you want to move and while holding down the left mouse button move the block to its new location You should see a floating image of the block as y
136. sing the Tools gt Options command Display tab Priorities As priority color H lue v Bs priority color l Purple v Cs priority color Black y Ds priority color f Gray v C Use Lowest Ancestor Priority for Coloring For a full description of priority colors please refer to section 4 2 Achieve Planner provides two useful tools to help you prioritize Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 47 Achieve Planner ALAL The Outline gt Reprioritize Unique st command shifts priority values so that the current row has a unique priority value only for ranked priorities For example this is a before and after shot of the reprioritize unique applied to the first row Al Al Al A2 A2 A3 fl becomes Notice that the priority of the second row A1 becomes A2 leaving the first row with a unique priority value A1 Also the third row is shifted down so that its priority becomes A3 aLa TE The Outline gt Remove Priority Gaps command shifts priority values to remove any gaps between the ranked values Here is a before and after shot of the remove priority gaps command applied to a short priority list A4 Al AB A2 Ag A3 fl becomes Note that this command applies to ranked items in the current view including items that are filtered using the column filters or collapsed Items that are not part of the current view are not processed Au
137. ss projects across all your projects sorted using a scoring formula that is intended to display the best tasks to work on based on priorities deadlines and other factors It helps you choose the next task to work on and answer the question What is the best use of my time right now The Task Chooser uses a numeric score value to sort the items It also provides several filters to include or exclude certain items in the list For sorting tasks in the Task Chooser sub item priority ranks are relative to the parent If you change the parent priority or rank the Task Chooser automatically adjusts the importance of all its sub items relative to other items in the list At every level in the hierarchy when a parent becomes more important higher priority the children become more important as well When a parent becomes less important lower priority its children are also considered less important Bonus ranking in the task chooser e Focus Achieve Planner adds a priority bonus for any item with the Focus field checked e Deadline Achieve Planner adds a priority bonus to items as their deadline approaches or becomes overdue e Start amp End Time Achieve Planner can also add a priority bonus as start and end dates approach These factors are configurable via the Task Chooser settings 8 1 Understanding the Task Chooser Window You have a lot of control over the look and behavior of the Task Chooser For
138. ssnacevendauedt satanallcensuessconscucdceosencrsenuactteousancssomsned Just uncheck the box and the dialog will no longer appear Check the box to restore the dialog when you complete a project task When you complete a project task the completion date is recorded in the Date Completed field Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 46 Achieve Planner 2 13 Tutorial 13 Working With Priorities One of Achieve Planner s strengths is the widespread support of ABCD prioritization learn more about using priorities in section 4 This tutorial will show you how to change priorities and use some of the prioritization tools in Achieve Planner You can change priorities directly through the Priority column in the grids or via the item s information form Priorit W Al A2 Al To change the priority value simply select the cell you want to change using mouse or keyboard and type in the new value using either upper case or lower case letters e g al b3 A2 A b etc Achieve Planner automatically converts all priorities to uppercase when displayed Achieve Planner supports both ranked A1 and unranked A priority values You can also leave items unprioritized by clearing the priority value leaving it blank Achieve Planner color codes rows based on the priority value of the row For example the default color for A s is blue You can change the colors associated with each priority range u
139. t than prioritizing projects In general projects are things that you are going to work in parallel during the week so the project priorities help you decide which projects to work on as well as how much time to devote to them On the other hand you normally work on tasks for a given project sequentially You work on the most important thing first until completed and then you move on to the next most important thing and so on Task priorities help you decide the ordering of tasks within a given project While prioritizing tasks sub tasks and even sub projects you should assign priorities based only on how important the item is relative to its parent Let s say you have a project with four tasks Three of them are important for the project and one is not that important would assign an A priority to the three important tasks irrespective of the priority of the project i e even if the project is a B or C and a B to the remaining task You don t need to worry about any other projects or tasks you may have just consider how important the item is relative to its parent Achieve Planner automatically considers the parent priority when comparing child items Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 86 Achieve Planner The same holds true for sub tasks prioritize them based only on their importance relative to the parent task When prioritizing tasks usually start by categorizing them into one of the ABCD
140. the Friday and Monday dates Friday August 4 Monday August 7 5 1 5 Using Monthly Calendars When selected Monthly Calendars display to the far right of the Weekly Schedule Use the calendars to advance to an upcoming date by clicking the right arrowhead next to the name of the month To return to a previous month click the left arrowhead Double clicking on a date in the monthly calendar will scroll the weekly schedule display to that date To turn the monthly calendar display on and off toggle the View gt View Monthly Calendars option 5 1 6 Changing the Date Display You can change the date displayed in the weekly schedule using various methods In addition to the horizontal scroll bar you can use the Go gt Go to Date command to pick a date that you want to display You can also scroll the display to Today s date using either the Go gt Today command or the Today button in the time chart bar of the weekly schedule display 5 2 Working with Time Charts Time Charts serve as visual reminders to help you focus and balance your week Rather than focusing on specific projects the Time Chart allocates blocks of time in your weekly schedule for different types of activities such Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 91 Achieve Planner as health finances work and so forth Each of these blocks is called a time chart area You can associate these time chart areas with specific Result Area
141. tments Tasks and Contacts Checking the Import checkboxes means that data is imported from Outlook into Achieve Planner Checking the Export checkboxes means that data is exported from Achieve Planner to Outlook Checking both the Import and Export checkboxes performs 2 way sync of data between Achieve Planner and Outlook Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 107 Achieve Planner To learn more about the various options please refer to the help file for this dialog click the Help button or press F1 6 4 Advanced Task Settings The advanced task settings allow you to control various aspects of task synchronization including the Outlook task folder encoding of priority and task information in exported task subjects and other details Please refer to the help file section of this dialog for a detailed description of each option 6 5 Conflict Resolution A conflict occurs when there are changes to both Achieve Planner and Outlook data since the last time a sync was performed For example if you change a task s subject in both Achieve Planner and in Outlook For appointments and contacts Achieve Planner uses automatic conflict resolution based on where the item came from originally If the item was imported from Outlook then Outlook data is overwrites AP data in a conflict If the item was exported from Achieve Planner to Outlook the AP data is used in a conflict For tasks you can speci
142. tomatically Remove Priority Gaps when Completing a Project or Task Achieve Planner supports automatically removing priority gaps when completing a project or task You can enable this behavior off by default from the Tools gt Options gt General Tab using the Auto remove priority gaps on project task complete checkbox When enabled Achieve Planner will remove priority gaps of the siblings of a project task when it is completed via the grid 2 13 1 Filtering Priority Values You can use the column filters on the Priority column Y to filter the current grid for specific priority values 1 Click on the column filter icon Y in the Priority column Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 48 Achieve Planner 2 Select the filter you want to use from the dropdown All a Only As 7 Only As amp Bs Only As Bs amp Cs Only Bs Only Bs amp Cs Only Cs Only Ds hee The display should now be filtered based on the filter you selected To remove the priority filter follow the same steps but select the All filter from the dropdown Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 49 Achieve Planner 2 14 Tutorial 14 Importing and Organizing Tasks from Outlook Rather than repeating the same information here please see section 6 for a description of how to do this Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 50 Achieve Planner 2 15 Tutorial 15
143. ture comparison htm 1 1 Achieve Planner Concepts This section describes the basic time management concepts and terminology used in Achieve Planner Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 2 Achieve Planner Result Area A result area represents a life dimension or role in your life Examples include Health amp Fitness Finance Romance Children Personal Development Career Work etc Here are some examples of result areas in the master outline view Children eG Health amp Fitness Family Project 3 A project represents any high level outcome that you want to track whether it includes a single or multiple steps Projects give you an overview of everything that you are working on at any given time Projects can be complex multi step sequence of tasks like developing a product organizing an event or preparing a presentation but they can also be something as simple as paying a bill responding to an e mail or taking the dog to the vet In general if the item is an outcome you should enter it as a project read this online article for a more detailed description of the difference between projects and tasks Since the project list is hierarchical each project can include sub projects using as many nested levels as you need NS Al 3 AllAround Routers Inc NS Al T1 Config Guide NS A2 E1 Config Guide NS A2 3 Irish Mail Inc NS Al Quick Start Guide NS A2 User Manual NS A3 Help
144. u can easily customize which columns each view displays so you only see the information that you need and actually use 1 2 Achieve Planner Main Tabs This section describes the main tabs available in the Achieve Planner application You can access all the tabs using the Go menu If a tab is not already displayed the Go menu will display it and navigate to it otherwise it will just become the active tab Outline The Outline tab provides a bird s eye view of the entire outline including Result Areas Dreams Goals Projects and Tasks Result Areas The Result Areas tab displays a list of all your result areas sorted by priority This tab gives you a quick overview of all the result areas you are tracking Projects The Projects tab displays a list of all your projects sorted by priority You can filter the list to only show projects for a particular result area or grouped by all your result areas The Projects tab can also display goals and projects together Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 8 Achieve Planner Tasks The Tasks tab displays a list of your tasks sorted by priority You can focus on tasks for a specific project or on all your tasks across all your projects Weekly Schedule The Weekly Schedule tab provides a multi day calendar view where you can schedule project blocks appointments and all day events Task Chooser The Task Chooser tab presents a filtered list of your tasks
145. uses the relative column sizes in the display when creating the printout which is scaled to fit in a page Reducing the width of the main window also affects the width of the columns and the resulting printout If your printout is too small even with larger font settings try reducing the width of the main Achieve Planner window before printing This may help reduce the scaling that takes place Use the Print Preview to get a better idea of what will be displayed before printing Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 56 Achieve Planner 3 Working with Projects and Tasks Projects and tasks replace the traditional to do list used in other time management systems They are a central concept in Achieve Planner A project represents a high level outcome or result in your to do list that you are tracking or actively working on It could be a complex multi step project like developing a product organizing an event or preparing a presentation but it could also be something simple like paying a bill responding to an email or checking out a website In general any to do item that is not part of something larger should be stored as a project Doing this will help you think and plan your time in terms of outcomes rather than just actions which is an important step in becoming more results oriented You can keep track of your projects in the Projects tab where you can create hierarchical multi level lists o
146. vious rules will not be shown The Show More Show Less buttons in the task chooser extend the limits of the filtering to change the number of items shown In general show more will extend the fit in project block rule to allow more items in the current project block to be shown as well as extending the total number of items shown Show less has the opposite effect 8 3 Only Show Next Item for Project In some cases you may want to view only the next task for each project in the Task Chooser list rather than all available tasks across projects This can greatly reduce the number of displayed tasks and can make it easier to select the best task to work on next C Only show next item for projects C Use task priority order for next project items The task chooser supports this filtering logic using two flags in the Task Chooser settings dialog can be set independently for each view Only show next item for project enables or disables the filtering of the task chooser list to only show one item per project Use task priority order for next project items controls which task associated with each project is displayed in the Task Chooser list If this flag is checked then the task displayed is based on the priority order in the project s task list Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 124 Achieve Planner If the flag is unchecked then the task displayed is the highest scoring task for the project i
147. while the record is selected will shift the priority of the other Al record to A2 and shift all the other A records accordingly Automatically Remove Priority Gaps when Completing a Project or Task Achieve Planner supports automatically removing priority gaps when completing a project or task You can enable this behavior off by default from the Tools gt Options gt General Tab using the Auto remove priority gaps on project task complete checkbox When enabled Achieve Planner will remove priority gaps of the siblings of a project task when it is completed via the grid 4 Prioritize Your Projects You should start by prioritizing your projects which represent your outcomes based on their importance Ved VO WEES LE wrerey S Youc Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 984 Achieve Planner normally assign an A priority to ongoing projects that I m actively working on as well as important long term projects that want to continue moving forward by committing time to them this upcoming week Your A projects represent outcomes that you have decided are important enough to commit time to on a regular basis then use ranking to add an element of focus to my projects Those that are both important and urgent get a high rank A1 A2 A3 etc For me priority ranking identifies the items that I m currently focusing on These projects will get the bulk of my time during the week but l Il sti
148. work on the task If you leave this blank the default resource for the project and or result area is used instead see below e Dependencies Specify when a task can start in relation to other tasks By default priorities are used as an implicit dependency in the sense that higher priority tasks are scheduled ahead of lower priority tasks Most of the time you don t need to add explicit dependencies e Constraints Place limits on when a task can start end Achieve Planner only schedules projects and tasks that are marked as Effort Driven which is the default Non effort driven projects will use the date and effort values manually set for their tasks but will not automatically compute them based on resource availability or effort values You can set the Effort Driven flag in the Project Information Form or Task Information Form or via one of the Active Recurrence views 7 2 1 Lead Time Based Scheduling Lead time based scheduling provides a convenient way to schedule the target start date for projects tasks with deadlines The Lead Time field value available through the project task information forms and or scheduling views specifies the number of days prior to the project task deadline when you want to start the project task Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 111 Achieve Planner Here is the lead time in the task information form Schedule Contacts Attachments Details
149. y range but no rank e g A as opposed to A1 or A256 as though its priority is A2500 and puts it at the bottom of the A s Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 4 Achieve Planner Time Chart A time chart allows you to designate times in your weekly schedule for different types of activities like health finances or work The weekly schedule displays time chart areas in the background behind your active appointments Time charts serve as visual reminders to help you give focus and balance to your week Here is an example of a time chart shown in the background of the weekly schedule without any appointments which would appear on top of the time chart areas Sunday July 10 Monday July 11 Tuesday July 12 Wednesday July 13 Thursday July 14 Friday July 15 Saturday July 16 2005 8 00 AM Week Planning Work 9 00 AM 4 10 00 AM 4 H Work Spiritual 11 00 AM 4 12 00 PM Lunch tunch Lunch 1 00 PM Email Work Email Work Email Work Email Work Email Work 2 00 PM L Work L Work L Work L Work L Work 3 00 PM 4 00 PM 4 5 00 PM 6 00 PM 7 00 PM 8 00 PM 9 00 PM 4 10 00 PM H fwork 11 00 PM Kl lt E Project Block A project block is a time block that you ve committed to a spe
150. y to do item that is not part of something larger should be stored as a project Doing this will help you think and plan your time in terms of outcomes rather than just actions which is an important step in becoming more results oriented You can keep track of your projects in the Outline amp Projects tabs where you can create hierarchical multi level lists of your projects using as many levels as you need Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 14 Achieve Planner Achieve Planner separates the concepts of projects and tasks allowing you to view and track your high level outcomes projects independently from your low level actions tasks Your projects list will be shorter easier to manage and it will give you an overview of all the outcomes you are working on You can store all the details as tasks and have easy access to them when you need them A task is something that you need to do as part of a project All your to do s should either be projects or tasks of a project It is quite common for simple projects not to have any tasks and for complex projects to have tens or even hundreds of tasks You can keep track of the tasks for each project in the Tasks tab where you can create hierarchical multi level task lists using as many levels as you need If you need to you can easily convert tasks into projects promote or convert projects into tasks demote You can learn more about the dif
151. y turned it off by checking the Don t ask again checkbox Project Block Scheduling Options Project block scheduling options Don t use project blocks for scheduling In this dialog select Don t use project blocks for scheduling if you would like to perform default priority based scheduling Stage 2 only while bypassing stage 1 and not considering your weekly schedule project blocks Select the Use project blocks for scheduling until the following date option and provide an end date if you would like to consider your weekly schedule projects blocks Stage 1 until the given date Normally this is the end of the current week Any tasks scheduled beyond the end of the date range will revert to the default priority based scheduling algorithm stage 2 You can also use the Tools gt Project Block Scheduling Options command to modify the settings and uncheck the Don t ask again box Stage 2 Resources Achieve Planner creates two default resources to represent your personal and work time These resources are Me p for personal and Me w for work Shot Name Y Description bd Me p Resource representing my time for personal projects Me w Resource representing my time for work related projects For tasks assigned to your personal and or work resources which is the default when there is no assignment at the task or project level you can specify the amount of effort available on a given
152. you want to add a child project to the Irish Mail Inc project 4 Type the project name User Manual for the new row 5 Press ENTER for a new line at the same hierarchical level and enter Help File as the name for the name project 6 Save the file File gt Save Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 18 NS NS NS NS NS Al A2 Al A2 A3 Achieve Planner Work Acme Routers Inc S Irish Mail Inc User Manual Help file Neighborhood Associates Copyright 2005 2008 Effexis Software LLC www effexis com 19 Achieve Planner 2 2 Tutorial 2 Adding Tasks to Projects With the projects listed it is time to add some tasks There are several ways you can add Tasks to Projects One way is very similar to the way you added the subprojects in Tutorial 1 except that you choose Task as the child type instead of Project For this exercise you will focus on the User Manual subproject of Irish Mail using the Tasks tab to enter tasks For more information on adding tasks see section 3 5 3 Note The Tasks tab only displays tasks and sub tasks While projects can be displayed as groups in the All Projects filter if you want to see the entire project task hierarchy you should use the Outline tab To add tasks follow these steps 1 Click on the Tasks tab If the tab is not visible use the Go gt Tasks command 2 Select the Irish Mail Inc User Manual project by clicking on the Pr

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