ZAURUS - FRANKLIN PLANER In the absence of hard data, I would surmise that the primary reason most people by PDA's is for mobile telecommunications. A close second, though, has to be their capability to bring order out of chaos as a personal organization tool. Problem is, the humanoid on the other side of the keyboard has to have a methodology or an approach for taking advantage of the PDA's personal organization features. The better that approach, the more orderly the chaos becomes. One of the most proven personal organization approaches developed in recent years is Franklin Quest's Day Planner. Franklin Quest, established in 1986, trains over 25,000 people monthly and has over 3 million "graduates" of their time management course, TimeQuest. They have developed a highly-rated software product for Windows and the Macintosh, Ascend, that allows users to turn their computer into a Franklin Planner. But they haven't done much about PDA's. That's what this article is for. I want to take one of today's popular new PDA's, Sharp's Zaurus, and show you how to use it as a Franklin Day Planner. Whether or not you have been to Franklin's training, this article will help you take advantage of all of the Zaurus's personal organization features; it will introduce you to an outstanding approach to time management and personal organization; and it may even help you bring a little order to that chaos on a daily basis. There are five key components to a Franklin Day Planner: The Left Hand Page, which includes the Prioritized Daily Task List, the Appointment Schedule, and the Daily Expenses sections; the Right Hand Page; the Productivity Pyramid; the Colored Tabs; and the Red Tabs. We will basically look at them in that order. The Left Hand Page When you buy an annual refill for your Franklin Planner, you get 365 of these babies, one for each day of the year. This is the main intersection of the planner, so we'll spend some time here. As I mentioned above, there are three main sections on the left hand page. Let's look at them one at a time. The Prioritized Daily Task List As part of the TimeQuest curriculum, participants make a commitment to spend 10-15 minutes each day formally planning their day. Although this may seem radical to some of you, it makes a big difference. (If you want to find out how big, you need to go to their class.) Anyway, a good portion of that planning time is spent building a Prioritized Daily Task List (PDTL from now on.) A PDTL looks a lot like a "to do" list, and I actually use the Zaurus "to do" application to build mine. One of the key differences between a "to do" list and a PDTL, though, is that you spend some time thinking about the value of the tasks facing you, and sort them into one of three categories: "A" items, which are vital and have to be done that day; "B" items, which are important and should be done that day; and "C" items, which are optional. If you are a devoted Franklin user, you would then sort through these activities one more time and rank them within those categories. You would end up with an A1, an A2, an A3, a B1, B2, B3, and so on. You can do all that on a Zaurus, almost. The capability to enter the daily tasks is clearly there; the prioritization capability is there too, but must be adapted. The Zaurus only allows one character for prioritizing tasks; numbers take precedence over letters. Here's what I do. When I am tossing tasks out into the future (I need to call Jeff next Tuesday, or whatever) I enter them in my Zaurus and assign them an A, B, or C. When I get to next Tuesday, I might have 4 "A's," half a dozen "B's," and several "C's" waiting for me. In my planning session, I turn my A's into numbers=1,2,3,4 and so on. That way, they appear first on my "to do" list, and they appear in sequence. I don't sequence my B and C tasks. Another feature of the Franklin system I wanted to emulate on my Zaurus is the ability to show the status of various tasks. In the Franklin Planner, there is a small column where, using various symbols, you can indicate if a task is done, in progress, delegated, deleted, or planned forward. On a Zaurus, you check a small box if a task is completed; it is "checked off" and sent to the bottom of that day's list. You then have a permanent record of which tasks you finished on which days. To show a task that's in progress or delegated, I take advantage of Zaurus's "To-do Label" capability. You can identify as many as 35 label categories for your to-do list, and assign as many of five of them to one task. You can then filter and display your to-do's by label. So I have one label for "in progress" and one label for "delegated." During the day, you can quickly pop up a list of which tasks you've started and not finished, and which tasks you've let someone else had all the fun doing. (If you have a small group of people you delegate to consistently, you might create a label for each individual). Something else I use thilabel function for is identifying and grouping similar tasks--all my phone calls in one group, for example, and all my E-mail in another. Deleting a task is also easy; you just press the "DEL" key. Planning forward is where things get a little tricky. At the end of the day (I suppose at the stroke of midnight, although I've never stayed up to watch) the Zaurus automatically converts any tasks you did not complete into ! tasks. It converts whatever you put in the "priority" box into an exclamation point, and moves them to the next day. I think this is a good feature. It prevents tasks from falling through the cracks. During my daily planning session, I turn all those ! into A's, B's, or C's, or reschedule them to some more appropriate date in the future. (Actually, the process is a little more complex than this-fertile ground for a future upgrade, you Sharp people. The exclamation point for forwarded tasks is only displayed on the "day" display. When you click on a task and go to the detail entry box for that task, the original A,B, or C priority is still retained in the priority box. You touch the "Due Date" box and scroll it to today, or whatever day you want to move the task to. What would be really handy is if you could touch the date you want to move it to on a floating monthly calendar today, then touch the "Due Date" box for that task. Ref. The HP200XL.) One other hint for Zaurus users: When you are creating a new "to do" item, unless you brought up the new "to do" item box from the edit menu on the day you want to create the new task, the "due date" box comes up empty. Just click in the box and press "2nd" and then "D". This automatically enters today's date. The Appointment Schedule This one's a lot easier. I basically just use Zaurus's appointment scheduler features right out of the box, and it works the same as my Franklin Planner. The only caution I would raise is the same one we raise in the TimeQuest class: Don't use the appointment scheduler for tasks, and don't use the Prioritized Daily Task list for appointments. I cheat every now and then and enter a task as an appointment so I can set an alarm. But not very often (Whoops! Gotta go-my alarm's beeping. Think I'm supposed to call Dad). Daily Expenses Franklin Quest doesn't devote a lot of room to this, and I won't, either. In a small section at the bottom of the Prioritized Daily Task list, you can record what you spend on a daily basis. Not a bad habit to get into. I have just set up one of the Zaurus's three user-definable databases as my expense record. I have a field for the date, one for a description, the amount, whether it was business or personal and so on. Hopefully, one of the first add-on software packages for the Zaurus will be a spreadsheet and I will be able to move this function over there. The Right Hand Page There are 365 right hand pages, too, and they are very important. This is where a devoted Franklin user recrds notes, ideas, plans, commitments, journal entries, and other critical information during the course of the day. I have adapted my Zaurus so it really shines in this area. I set up my second user-definable database for my "right hand page." It's even simpler than my expenses. It has three fields: Date; Header/Name; and Notes. When I need to write somethig down, I call up a blank record by pressing the "New Entry" key; I date and time stamp it using the "2nd D" and "2nd T" features; I put in a simple header description; then I go to the notes field and type my notes. Because I am comfortable with the Zaurus keyboard, 80% of my "Right Hand Page" entries are done through this simple database. the other 20% are done through the Zaurus notes feature, which is an application where you can handwrite notes right on the screen. I use this when I'm in a big hurry and know it will be a short entry, like for hotel and flight confirmations. One of the critical requirements for right hand page entries, though, is that they have to be "cross-referenceable." Let's say I type a quick note on June 1st in my "Right Hand Page" database that says: "Talked to Gilbert. Meet with him on June 15th, his office, 10:30 a.m.. Finish the Delphi project plans before that meeting. Make sure Debbie is aware of what's happening." That entry needs to be cross referenced three other places in my planner. I need to set up an appointment for June 15th, I need to set up a task to finish the Delphi project sometime between now and then, and I need to tell Debbie about all this stuff. Now, I could drop everything and make those three entries right now, but inevitably the phone will ring or someone will come into my office or if I'm driving the guy in front of me will stop (scary, huh?). So I don't make those entries now. Instead, I have set up a folder in my file drawer titled "Grass Catcher." I just click on the "File It" icon from my right hand page database, and file it in my grass catcher. Each morning, in my planning session, I dump out the clippings and make sure all the tasks and appointments are covered. I make extensive use of the "Link to" feature from my right hand page entries. When I enter the task for the Delphi project, for example, I will just go to the To-do application for the appropriate date and enter a new task called "Delphi Project." I then touch the "Link to" icon and link it to the right hand page database entry. On the day when I have scheduled the Delphi Project task, I click on the small linking icon that appears next to it in the "Day" view and it takes me to my original entry in the right hand page database. There I can review all the details regarding the project in my notes from the original conversation. Franklin users will recognize that this fills the requirement for the "parentheses" cross referencing that is so useful in the paper-based system. Colored Tabs The Franklin Planner has six colored tabs: The Address and Phone Directory, the Productivity Pyramid, Finances, Key Information, Ready References, and the Planning Calendar. The Productivity Pyramid has its own section in this tome; the Planning Calendar is absorbed in the Zaurus's appointment capabilities, and we'll wait for the spreadhseet application to handle our Personal Finances. So let's look at the other three. Address and Phone Directory This one's easy. The Zaurus's pre-defined contacts database does everything you would want t do in a Franklin address and phone book. Since you can set up three contact files, I have divided mine into business, personal, and service. Key Information and Ready References These are easy, too. I have just set up a tab in my filer for each of these headings. In fact, I have merged them into one. This is where I keep stuff like passwords, frequent flyer numbers, and login instructions. Red Tabs I have saved the best for almost last. Franklin Planners come with six "Red Tabs." These are basically user-definable indexes to collect information under topical headings. Back in my paper-based days, I had one for the Scout Troop, one for Key Clients, one for a job I had at Church, one for a special project, and one for favorite quotes. (I can't remember what the other one was.) It was a useful method to collect and group and refer to information under key headings. This is where the Zaurus really shines. My filer has become my "Red Tab" section, and I have taken full advantage of the Zaurus's cross-referencing capabilities to make this a planning powerhouse. The Zaurus's filer allows you to log and cross reference data from any of the other Zaurus applications. You can define up to 23 topics. So if I have a client named "ACME," I would set up an "ACME" tab. I can collect my key ACME contacts from the Address and Phone book, notes from ACME related discussions and meetings from my right hand page database or the notes application, appointments with ACME from the appointments application, tasks related to ACME from the to-do application, and even documents related to ACME from the word-processor (document) application. The beauty of it is the Zaurus doesn't use precious memory to store a copy of this data in the filer. it just stores a cross reference. So when I click on the ACME tab in the filer application, up pops a list of all my tasks, appointments, contacts, and notes related to ACME. Productivity Pyramid No discussion of the Franklin Methodology is complete without looking at the productivity pyramid. This model is at the core of the Franklin System. On the surface, it looks like a methodology for goal setting; it is actually much more than that, but we don't have time to go into it in this article. Forgive me for simplifying it by saying that there are four main components: Values, Long Range Goals, Intermediate Goals, and Daily Tasks. A Value is at the base of the pyramid; it is a bedrock principle that doesn;t change much. A long range goal, in this context, starts to visualize how you will act on that value in your life. Intermediate goals are a more detailed breakdown of long range goals, and Daily Tasks are those little items on your PDTL. The idea here is that the Productivity Pyramid encourages and empowers you to turn your values into daily actions; it helps you turn those "Someday when I have the time" things into realities. I have devoted my third database to the productivity pyramid. It has four fields: "Number"; Category"; "Title", and "Text." In the number field, I have assigned a Work-Breakdown Structure-style numbering system to each element of my pyramid. Values are at the single digit level (1); Long Range goals are at the next level (1.1, 1.2); and Intermediate Goals at the next level (1.1.1, 1.1.2). In the Category Field, I type what it is: A value, a long range goal, or an intermediate goal. This is useful so you can filter and display all your values or all your long range goals or intermeidate goals. The "title" field is just a short heading describing the value or goal. The "Text" field contains the actual substance. I have used the "Link to" feature to tie all these together. In other words, I have linked each value to all its subordinate long range goals, and each long range goal to all its subordinate intermediate goals, and each intermediate goals to its subordinate daily tasks in the "to-do" application. That way, when I look at a value (with the Show Linked Entries turned on), I can also see and quickly access its related long range goals. To put this into context, one of my values (#3) is "I am physically fit." One long range goal is to run the mile in under 5 minutes by my next birthday. An intermediate goal is to lose 15 pounds by the end of the summer, and the related daily tasks deal with my training regimen. Each of those is linked together through my productivity pyramid database. Conclusion Obviously, it becomes really important to get a cable and some software and back everything up when you are using your Zaurus as a planner. The good news is, it doesn't take a lot of memory. I am a devoted planner user, have over two months worth of entries, and am not using 20% of my Zaurus's memory. (I did download a Franklin logo from AOL and use it as my startup screen.) I think this will work. When I was searching for the right PDA, one of the things it had to do was serve as my Franklin Planner. As a certified Ben-Head, I can truthfully say that the Zaurus PDA meets all the requirements.