Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Living abroad and phoning home
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
In our increasingly global world, communication can be tricky; when you consider timezones halfway around the world, it can be downright difficult just to find time to get in touch. This week's tip, shared by robyn.sukenik, discusses a few ideas about how to find the right window time to communicate — and how to make sure you don't miss it!
One of the harder things about living abroad is keeping in touch with all the friends and family back home that I really want to keep in touch with. While emails can be sent at any time, hearing voices from home over the phone is important when you're far away, and RTM helps make it happen.
Schedules are hectic enough when you're living in the same place. When you have to navigate multiple time zones and different days off, remembering to make the right calls at the right time for the friend in the other time zone takes a bit of extra planning and reminders.
That's where RTM comes in. I add a #USCall tag to my US phone call tasks. When I'm setting the task I use a time zone converter to double check that I'm setting myself up to call them at the right times and not the middle of the night (something has happened when I've done the math on the fly). Then I set a reminder for the beginning of the window of time that I know I can catch them while noting when that window ends in my task.
Call Bob — Happy Birthday (2 hour window) ^Sunday 10:00 pm #USCall
People I want to keep up with regularly I set on repeat. And this means I have a great record with things like birthdays.
Bob appreciates that you remember his birthday! :)
Thanks for sharing this tip, robyn.sukenik! You're our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum, add a new topic, and let us know how you use Remember The Milk. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
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Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Preparing for a garage sale
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
Holding a garage/yard sale can be a good way to sell things that you no longer want but that others may find useful; however, preparing for it can often be a big job. This week's tip, shared by debuck3, offers a way to help make the preparatory work a simpler process.
Once a year, I hold a Garage Sale to earn a little extra spending cash while clearing out my house of unneeded stuff. The problem: When the big day comes, I often forget things I wanted to grab up for the sale. Enter RTM!
I created a "Garage Sale" list. Throughout the year, I add an item to the list that I want to include in the sale. If I stash the item out of the way some place, I include where I stashed it in the notes. The day before the garage sale, I open the list and stage everything marking the item complete when I have it staged.
Thanks for sharing this tip, debuck3! You're our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum, add a new topic, and let us know how you use Remember The Milk. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Posted in: Tips & Tricks
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Cooling off before making big purchases
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
Many people set themselves their own rules for how and when to make big purchases, often including some time to decide on the purchase. In a different take on impulse shopping, this week's tip (shared by tomrush) incorporates an additional component of "cooling off" before deciding to make any purchase.
One of my specialities used to be impulse buying very expensive items and then find I never use them or never really needed them. A while back I read an article on Lifehacker that was around impulse purchases and how to reduce or stop them. One of the ideas was called the $100 rule.
Basically if you see a purchase you think you want you take the total cost of the item and divide it by $100, that gives you a cool off period in days (or in my case weeks). After the cool off period, you assess if you still want the purchase and if you can afford it. If the answer is yes to both the questions, you purchase it. If you want the purchase but can not afford it, you delay the purchase cool off period then reassess again. If you don't want the item, you have saved lots of money :)
In Remember The Milk I have created a list called "$100 Rule", whenever I see a item I really want I add it to the list and in due date add say "5 weeks" (for a $500 item). I tag it either canAfford or CanNotAfford and coolOff. Once the 5 weeks is up I capture the task in a generic due search and assess the purchase. If I can afford the item and still want it, it gets tagged with buy which gets added to my weekly shopping list. If I can not afford it I defer it for 5 weeks again. If I don’t want the item I delete it.
Thanks for sharing this tip, tomrush! You're our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum, add a new topic, and let us know how you use Remember The Milk. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
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Tips & Tricks Tuesday: #Chore for #Reward
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 by Andrew Conkling
If you find yourself hitting the postpone button too often on tasks you're avoiding, this week's tip from fabian.hemmert may be helpful: he describes how he rewards himself with more "fun" tasks only after completing some of his chores.
For me, there are two basic kinds of tasks: Those I do not like to do, and those I enjoy doing.
I recently found a simple way to trick myself into doing the former, with the help of RTM: I tag my enjoyable tasks as #reward, allowing myself to do them ONLY when I did one of the #chore tasks first.
Until now, it hasn't let me down, and I am surprisingly more productive. It also integrates well with my existing GTD structure, as a layer on top.
Thanks for sharing this tip, fabian.hemmert! You're our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum, add a new topic, and let us know how you use Remember The Milk. Each week we'll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Posted in: Tips & Tricks
