Thursday, March 27, 2014

How I Use Iqtell.com to Keep Track of What I Need to Do



Iqtell.com is a great web app and mobile app for Android and IOS. While it is intended mostly for people who work outside the home and must manage projects etc. on the job, I am finding it very useful for the "home executive".

Here is how I use it:
I've created "Projects" for the various areas of my life.  For example, here are my "Projects":
Daily Repeating Tasks
Marriage
Home Organization
Port Cities Home Educators
Personal Growth
Fun Stuff
Misc. Stuff
Health
Errands
Pets
Home-school/Life Skills Training
Birthday Prep
Home Maintenance
Yard Work
Stuff to Read
Earning Money
Travel
Family Vacation to Friday Harbor
Ladies Tea
Get a Job
Move to Prayer App

That's a lot of projects!  Whew!

Then I list tasks that are related to each of those projects. Here is the list again with just one related task, so you get the idea:


Daily Repeating Tasks
  1. Straighten Main/Dining/Kitchen
Marriage
  1. Date Night
Home Organization
  1. Clean out Inbox & do filing
Port Cities Home Educators
  1. Upload photos from testing
Personal Growth
  1. MS Academy Windows 8
Fun Stuff
  1. Work on Scrap Books
Misc. Stuff
  1. Cancel Amazon Prime
Health
  1. Exercise
Errands
  1. Return wheel chair
Pets
  1. Daisy's Toe Nails
Homeschool/Life Skills Training
  1. School Record Keeping
Birthday Prep
  1.  
Home Maintenance
  1. Unclog Shower
Yard Work
  1. Spray Weeds
Stuff to Read
  1. Getting Things Done
Earning Money
  1. Scan UPC Codes for Receipt Hog
Travel
  1. Financial All Staff ~ Moses Lake
Family Vacation to Friday Harbor
  1. Get someone to house/dog sit
Ladies Tea
  1. Decide on decorations
Get a Job
  1.  
Move to Prayer App

Each of these actions can have a context such as computer, home, iPod, calls, errands, personal, paper/pen,  etc.  You can set up contexts to suit your own needs just like you can set up "projects" to suit your own needs.

The beauty of this is that if you are going to be at the computer and want to get a bunch of stuff done while you are there, you can sort your task lists according to that context and group all the tasks together that need to be done at the computer.  If you are going to be making some phone calls and you have a few of them to do, you can group those tasks together that have "calls" as the context.  If you have to run to town and want to make the most of your time out, group your tasks according to context so all the "errands" are grouped together or if you have an errand "project" you can just bring up that folder with the errands in it so you don't forget what you have to do while you are out.

The mobile apps can be used without WiFi or cell phone connection, which makes it nice for iPod users like me.  In fact, since the sync function tends to slow the app down a bit, I often shut off WiFi when updating my task list from the mobile app.  Then I turn WiFi back on to sync it with the computer app.  I especially like the fact that all my tasks are synced to the computer app because if I ever lost my iPod or it quit working, I have not lost brain.  It is kept safe.

Another nice feature is the email integration.  If there is an email that I need for reference with a task, I can make it into a task and my email is right there.  I don't have to search through piles of archived emails for that email.

My most favorite feature is the "Next Actions" list.  Each day I go to the "Actions" list and I star all the items I want to work on the next day.  This causes all those tasks to show up on the "Next Actions" list.  This way anything that is not starred doesn't show up on my screen and it helps to cut down on overwhelm.  If I finish everything on the "Next Actions" list (a rare thing), I can always go back to the "Actions" list and star a few more items to work on.

Below is a photo of what one of the screens might look like on the mobile app just to give you an idea.  This screen shows a project file open and the associated emails with it.

I know it all looks overwhelming.  It does take a small learning curve to learn how to use it, but so worth it once you get on to it.  On the web they have lots of tutorials and tips for how to use the apps. If you are a housewife like me, you will need to transfer that knowledge to your home environment and personalize it for your particular needs.



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