RTM for status report generation
nmj3e says:
Every Friday, I am required to send an email to my boss detailing my work for the past week. I have found RTM to be invaluable for creation of these weekly status reports. I have a Smart List called "Status Report" defined to search 'completedWithin:"one week of today" and location:Work'. This not only lets me see all of the things I have accomplished in the past week, but it also gives me an incentive to make sure all the things I am doing are tracked in RTM so that they get reflected in the status report.
aforementionedthoughts says:
That's a great idea!
jose.rojas says:
Great!
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi nmj3e,
Thanks for sharing this tip!
Just wanted to let you know that your tip is this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner.
We've upgraded your RTM account to have a free year of Pro. :)
Thanks for sharing this tip!
Just wanted to let you know that your tip is this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner.
We've upgraded your RTM account to have a free year of Pro. :)
(closed account) says:
I have created the smart list called "Status Reports" that shows the following" completedWithin:”1 week of today” but I get nothing in the list. Any ideas as to why this is?
leah.shalom 
says:
says:nmj3e,
Do you share the list with your boss or do you print it? Do you use any special printing format?
Thanks for the great idea.
Leah
Do you share the list with your boss or do you print it? Do you use any special printing format?
Thanks for the great idea.
Leah
felixc says:
That is a phenomenal idea!
danwtmoon says:
My list is empty too :(
(and no that's not cos I haven't done anything :p)
(and no that's not cos I haven't done anything :p)
russwinkler says:
Thanks. As I work in the Federal Gov't and at home a few times a week, I have to submit a report at the end of the week detailing my work. What you described sounds just what I need!
danny.broers says:
no luck here. The resulting list is empty.
benb says:
Great idea. I have a 6 monthly review, and this is going to be so much easier to see what I've been doing at work for the last 6 months.
Obviously you have to remember to put everything in, but you should be doing that anyway, right? :-)
Obviously you have to remember to put everything in, but you should be doing that anyway, right? :-)
synchromesh says:
If your search says completedWithin:"one week of saturday", then you can check the list mid-week without last week's tasks being included.
Similarly, completedWithin:"one month of end of month" will get all the tasks done this calendar month (give or take a day, perhaps - I can't test it because I haven't been using RTM for longer than a month!).
As a programmer, I'd vote for an additional, more complex query language with more functions and operators to allow more spreadsheet-like expressions for dates, ranges etc. But the current balance between complexity and power seems pretty nice to me, for what it does.
Similarly, completedWithin:"one month of end of month" will get all the tasks done this calendar month (give or take a day, perhaps - I can't test it because I haven't been using RTM for longer than a month!).
As a programmer, I'd vote for an additional, more complex query language with more functions and operators to allow more spreadsheet-like expressions for dates, ranges etc. But the current balance between complexity and power seems pretty nice to me, for what it does.
shahsumit says:
Great idea. Thanks.
This is awesome and now I can send out my weekly reports lot faster and be more productive.
It would be great if I can publish smart lists. In other words send a link to my boss and he can see what I completed in the last week, meaning no work for me ;)
RTM, Is this possible?
This is awesome and now I can send out my weekly reports lot faster and be more productive.
It would be great if I can publish smart lists. In other words send a link to my boss and he can see what I completed in the last week, meaning no work for me ;)
RTM, Is this possible?
mikehayman says:
This is a great idea! Works perfect for me in regards to completed tasks.
Which brings me to my next idea/suggestion -- As a status report, I must also include a list of tasks that I've worked on that might not necessarily be complete -- say, for example, a task that may have multiple parts that might not get completed in the same week.
Is there any way to do that currently? Either by including tasks in the search that have notes updated within the last week, or by linking tasks together by dependency? (For the latter suggestion, i am talking about a main task<-subtask relationship).
The former would actually work better for my purposes -- the latter would have me creating (for example) up to 10 separate tasks for some things I do, when all I really need is a single task with notes under it. And that would kill RTM's usefulness for me. :(
Forgive me if I'm asking rudimentary questions -- I just found RTM a couple of days ago. (and, as you can tell by the little 'pro' icon, i already love it.)
Which brings me to my next idea/suggestion -- As a status report, I must also include a list of tasks that I've worked on that might not necessarily be complete -- say, for example, a task that may have multiple parts that might not get completed in the same week.
Is there any way to do that currently? Either by including tasks in the search that have notes updated within the last week, or by linking tasks together by dependency? (For the latter suggestion, i am talking about a main task<-subtask relationship).
The former would actually work better for my purposes -- the latter would have me creating (for example) up to 10 separate tasks for some things I do, when all I really need is a single task with notes under it. And that would kill RTM's usefulness for me. :(
Forgive me if I'm asking rudimentary questions -- I just found RTM a couple of days ago. (and, as you can tell by the little 'pro' icon, i already love it.)
andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:
Mike,
There's currently no way to search/display the modified date for tasks, but you can search/display the completed date for tasks, so if you were to add the separate tasks you'd have a status report at your disposal (with exactly the method nmj3e describes).
That is more or less derived from the idea (mentioned in GTD, among other methodologies) that you separate tasks into their individual components, so that a "project" is effectively a group of tasks. If you go that route, you could then collect a project's tasks via a smart list (that searches based on a tag, part of the tasks' names, etc.)
Hopefully it wouldn't kill the usefulness for you, but rather trade off the convenience of the number of tasks for the convenience of effortless status reports? :)
Hope this helps!
There's currently no way to search/display the modified date for tasks, but you can search/display the completed date for tasks, so if you were to add the separate tasks you'd have a status report at your disposal (with exactly the method nmj3e describes).
That is more or less derived from the idea (mentioned in GTD, among other methodologies) that you separate tasks into their individual components, so that a "project" is effectively a group of tasks. If you go that route, you could then collect a project's tasks via a smart list (that searches based on a tag, part of the tasks' names, etc.)
Hopefully it wouldn't kill the usefulness for you, but rather trade off the convenience of the number of tasks for the convenience of effortless status reports? :)
Hope this helps!
maciej.egermeier says:
The idea is good but what about tasks duration? The point is to sum up all task based on for example tag. This could be great tool to get know how much time project took.
Any solution?
Any solution?
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