It's only been 5 days, but I'm already more organized!
Written: Oct 16 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Best to-do manager, bar none. Intelligent logic re-prioritizes items on the fly.
Cons: No desktop interface (yet).
The Bottom Line: If you wear several hats a day, and everyone wants a piece of your time, you've got to give this program a try!
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| dtoombs's Full Review: Life Balance |
Wow ... I never thought I'd feel compelled to write a review of a piece of PDA software, but Life Balance is just important enough that it's worth mentioning!
First, let me give you a bit of my background -- I'm an employee of a high-tech Internet company, the owner of my own consulting business, and a part-time journalist/public speaker. In addition to that, I have family members that I need to take care of and make sure are in good health, and I try to have somewhat of a social life whenever I can. It's certainly a lot to balance.
I'm going on my 5th year with the Palm platform, and I've deleted more applications than I can remember. Life Balance is an application that I will keep and use for years to come! So, what's so exciting about this application? Let me tell you....
The most intelligent to-do list, ever
Ok. So we've all made to-do lists. And we've checked off items. So what? Well, to-do lists are inherently short-focused by nature. Looking at things like "Pick up present for Dad's birthday" and "Submit expense report for business trip" are perfect examples of typical to-do list items, but they don't think about the longer goals in life. Also, those types are events are one-time events. What about those other types of events that are recurring things, like changing the oil in the car, taking the kids to the dentist every 6 months, etc. etc. Regular to-do lists simply do not suffice for these type of responsibilities that are constantly in our lives.
Enter Life Balance - a new way to organize your life. Folks, believe me when I tell you that I was skeptical. I've been to the Franklin Planner seminar. It was of no use to me. I've looked into other systems, but they were just too much work. Life Balance is an intelligent To-Do list, which makes sure that your life is balanced out among the top-level categories you define (i.e.: work, family, leisure, home, etc.)
Let me see if I can explain it to you by showing you how a normal to-do list falls short.
Life Balance Sample Scenario 1: Time-aware to-do's
Let's say it's 11:40pm, and you look at your regular Palm to-do list. You might have a high-priority item on there for "Call Brother". However, at 11:40pm, it's a bit late to be calling him (unless it's an emergency) so having that item in your to-do list is useless. You can't check it off, but it's taking up space and making your list look bigger than what it actually is. What if your to-do list could recognize the fact that it's a bit late to be calling your brother and not even show you that item?
That's one thing that Life Balance can do. You can define "places" where certain actions take place - and then those to-do items will only pop up when it's possible to complete them. For example, in my place defined as "home", I have certain hours that are valid - in the evenings after work, and on the weekends. That way, certain chores that can only be done at home - such as "Do Laundry" - will only appear when it's possible to complete those items. Wow!
Life Balance is also pretty smart when it comes to places. If you associate several places together (i.e.: the "mall" contains "department store" and "music store") it will group tasks together if you have to go to one location for one item.
Life Balance Sample Scenario 2: Recurring & One-Time to-do items
To-Do lists have typically been focused on one-time items. "Complete expense report", "Submit next quarter's budget", and "Return sweater to department store" are all examples of things that you do once and that's it. But what about those things that need to happen on a regular basis? Things like dental visits, oil changes, quarterly tax payments? These are things that also need to be done, but are not well-designed for to-do lists. Life Balance will take care of all of these things for you!
Life Balance will let you set up tasks that are to be completed once, completed by a certain date, or recurring at regular intervals. Need to remember to give the dog his heartworm medication once a month? Enter a to-do item in Life Balance and set it up to be a recurring monthly event. When you give the dog the medication, check off the to-do item. Magically, it will come back again next month the next time it is due! Life Balance will even give you a few days' advanced notice before the actual time the event must be completed.
Life Balance Sample Scenario 3: Assigning relative importance to categories & to-do items
Ok, so we all know that some things in life are more important than others. Simple To-Do lists have handled this through "1, 2, 3" type priorities. Life Balance takes this much further and allows you to assign relative importance priorities in relation to everything else. For example, which overall category is more important to you - work, or leisure? Let's say leisure should be more important (which it should be for all of us). By giving the top-level category "Leisure" a bit more importance than work, those events will have a bit more priority in creeping their way up your to-do list. It's hard to explain until you see it, but it's truly revolutionary.
I'm only about 4 or 5 days into this program, but I can already see that this is the one thing that I've needed to make sense of my insanely hectic life! The 30 day trial that they give you is a godsend, because it definitely takes a few days to get up to speed on this new concept of managing the things you need to do in life. However, once you've seen how it works, if you apply it it'll definitely get your life more organized. I guarantee it!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dtoombs
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Location: Washington, DC
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Technology consultant and part-time author.
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