Filling your calendar for the week, increase productivity! Mileage may vary

I like to ensure my calendar gets filled for the next week, this way I know what is happening and it is hard to book a last minute meeting to surprise me. I guess this is a productivity hack. If you book more than a week out then you can take whatever time you want that is open.

Ideally no one books last minute but they do and it is really annoying to deal with. Just call me!!

MYN/1MTD and setting the Start Date in Outlook automagically.

If you are using Outlook and want to force the start date to be set with a due date in the future by default you can use a macros which automatically runs for any new task item. In the VBA editor (Alt+F11) open up ThisOutlookSession In the code window add the following: [code lang=“vb”] Option Explicit Public WithEvents Items As Outlook.Items Private Sub Application_Startup() Initialize_handler End Sub Public Sub Initialize_handler() Dim objNS As Outlook.NameSpace Set objNS = GetNamespace(“MAPI”) Set Items = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks).Items End Sub Private Sub Items_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object) On Error GoTo errHandler Dim objNS As Outlook.NameSpace Set objNS = GetNamespace(“MAPI”) If TypeOf Item Is Outlook.TaskItem Then Dim Task As Outlook.TaskItem Set Task = Item ‘1/1/4501 is None in the Outlook world. If Task.StartDate = #1/1/4501# Then Task.StartDate = Now() Task.DueDate = Now() + 3000 ’ A due date a long way into the future. Task.Save End If End If Exit Sub errHandler: MsgBox “Error " & Err.Number & “: " & Err.Description & " in “, vbOKOnly, “Error” End Sub [/code]

Using the 1MTD

So I have been using it for a while, pretty clean system overall. I have added contexts and trying to add projects to it. I want to avoid the tree in toodle do as it gets to complext to handle at the moment.

Setting Outlook to use ISO values for week number.

If you want to set outlook to follow the ISO week you need to make the following changes: Outlook 2007 and previous Tools-> Options…-> button Calendar Options… Outlook 2010 File-> section Options-> section Calendar   Set the following Options: First day of week: Monday First week of year: First 4-day week

Application Tracker

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“132” caption=“Photo by alancleaver_2000”][/caption] I have been meaning to upload this for a while. I use the Time Management App from An App A Day site. I have modified it a bit from the source, as it is GPL I have released my variation with source. It uses click once for deployment and modified the loging a bit. Go to the app tracker page to get it.

Automating OneNote with AutoHotKey to be a Journal V1.1

Here is Version 1.1 of the script, it has some logging and I have tried to make the config simpler. I use OneNote more and more in my daily work. I wanted to have the ability to make a journal function accessible from anywhere. Goal:To be able to hit Win+J and have OneNote open the right page and date and time stamp the entry. Outcome: When I hit Win+J it opens OneNote at the right week (I have one page per week with the heading of Week 1, Week 2, …, Week 52) goes to the end of the entry and inserts a line and then makes a check box with the date and time as the value. This allows me to simplify my weekly review as it is hard to miss a checkbox with a date in it. Also it now has the start as a ever increasing number so the tasks are soreted in the list for review time. I also created a second function Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Win+J which makes 52 pages in OneNote (You need to have the section open that you want the pages created in) for the journal. Configuration: You will need to modify the OneNote Url in the code. This is at the top of the file. OneNoteJournalSection := “onenote:< PATH TO SECTION STORING WEEKLY PAGES >” Example: Using a Windows Live SkyDrive synced path. This will open the local copy of the OneNote file. OneNoteJournalSection := “onenote:https://wh7jutsd.docs.live.net/fac74a8d9c9b9a9c9d/%5e.Documents/My%20Journal/2011%20Journal.one” Code: [code lang=“autohotkey”] ; Goes to the week in OneNote for the journal. ; Created by Jon Bullen (http://blog.sytone.dev) ; Leave a comment on the site if you have issues. ; V1.1 ; Added logging and set default to the ISO week. Play with number if you need to shift the week number. ; ; V1.0 ; - Inital Version to the World ; ; #SingleInstance force #NoTrayIcon ; ; Set the path below to the section containing the week pages. ; OneNoteJournalSection := “onenote:PATH_TO_SECTION_STORING_WEEKLY_PAGES” ; ; If you need to offset the week modify the offset below. ; JournalWeekOffset := 1 #j:: ; ——————————————————————————————— ; You should not have to modify anything below here.. I said should :) ; OneNoteUrl := OneNoteJournalSection . “#Week%20” FileRecycle, %A_ScriptFullPath%.log FormatTime, TimeString , , hh:mm:ss StringRight, WeekNumber, A_YWeek, 2 FileAppend, %TimeString% WeekNumber: %A_YWeek% `n, %A_ScriptFullPath%.log FileAppend, %TimeString% WeekNumber: %WeekNumber% `n, %A_ScriptFullPath%.log ;StringReplace, WeekNumber, WeekNumber, 0, ,All FileAppend, %TimeString% WeekNumber: %WeekNumber% `n, %A_ScriptFullPath%.log ; Allows you to offset the week if needed. ;FWIW… I found a solution for Win7 in this old thread: http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic991.html ;HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\iFirstWeekOfYear WeekNumber := WeekNumber + JournalWeekOffset FileAppend, %TimeString% WeekNumber: %WeekNumber% `n, %A_ScriptFullPath%.log FileAppend, %TimeString% FullURL: %OneNoteUrl%%WeekNumber% `n, %A_ScriptFullPath%.log Run, %OneNoteUrl%%WeekNumber% ; Generate Date and Time Stamp FormatTime, TimeStringShort,, yyyyMMddHHmmss FormatTime, TimeStringLong,, dddd MMMM d, yyyy HH:mm:ss WinWaitActive, Week %WeekNumber% - Microsoft OneNote Sleep, 500 SendInput, ^{End} SendInput, ^{End} Sleep, 500 SendInput, {Enter}{Enter} SendInput, ———————————————– Sleep, 500 SendInput, {Enter} SendInput, ^1 SendInput, (%TimeStringShort%) %TimeStringLong% SendInput, {Enter} return ; Create all the weeks in the year in the current section. ; To use this Create a new section on OneNote ; Click in the title of the first untilted page. ; Press Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+J and it will make the pages. #+!^j:: ;Run, %OneNoteUrl% Loop, 52 { SendInput, ^n SendInput, Week %A_Index% Sleep, 300 } return [/code]

Automating OneNote with AutoHotKey to be a Journal

I use OneNote more and more in my daily work. I wanted to have the ability to make a journal function accessible from anywhere.

**Goal :**To be able to hit Win+J and have OneNote open the right page and date and time stamp the entry.

Outcome: When I hit Win+J it opens OneNote at the right week (I have one page per week with the heading of Week 1, Week 2, …, Week 52) goes to the end of the entry and inserts a line and then makes a check box with the date and time as the value. This allows me to simplify my weekly review as it is hard to miss a checkbox with a date in it. I also created a second function Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Win+J which makes 52 pages in OneNote (You need to have the section open that you want the pages created in) for the journal.

Enabling the query builder for outlook views

 You can use an undocumented Registry key to display a Query Builder tab on the Filter dialog box associated with the View Summary dialog box. After you use the Query Builder to construct your query, you can then copy the Filter syntax displayed on the SQL page and paste it into your code. Do not attempt to add the Query Builder page Registry setting unless you are familiar with the Windows Registry Editor.

A Touch of Paper

With my new role come a lot of recording, now that I do not have a tablet PC (and the fact that tablet PC’s are not ’there’ yet) I am using a paper diary. Now thoes of you who know me, no I have not gone mad! To be honest it feels good to be writing again, I have a nice A5 diary with plently of blank paper it it. A monthly calendar to mark anything down I need to and sections for tasks and projects. Since I try to use the Getting Things Done methadology I am using some print outs to support this. The Diary has the following sections: