I think I see time as in how much time it would take to read your long post
!!! Please don't take offense, I am often told that I can analyze the hell
out of anything but I think I've met a kindred spirit.
_____
From: eccopro-***@public.gmane.org [mailto:eccopro-***@public.gmane.org] On Behalf Of
TenacularDogs-***@public.gmane.org
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 5:29 PM
To: eccopro-***@public.gmane.org
Subject: [SPAM] Re: [eccopro] Why so few PIMs support hierarchized to-do's?
Great question, Fred! My guess is that it has little or nothing to do with
techno-appliances or software. I think your question hit the answer nail on
the head -- it's PEOPLE!
A friend I've made through this group just queried out loud on the phone to
me a couple of days ago about why people like me hate 'standard,' widely
used programs like Microsoft and love ECCO. At the time, he was helping me
-- via long distance -- use my Retrospect software in conjunction with an
external harddrive. We both were frustrated by some of the software's
assumptions. He opined that basic users wouldn't have as much trouble as we
were having. I agreed.
I think that some us think 'too much' or in 'too much' structure. I know
that my brain works according to a structure that's quite similar in nature
to ECCO. I thank God for ECCO frequently, limitations and all. The ability
to store my thoughts in a computer and print them out is very important to
me. Having a program like ECCO enables me to do so in a way that doesn't
twist my brain into a pretzel. I really appreciate that!
I literally can picture my brain dictating a 3D software image in its very
own unique structure -- in the future. Until that future day arrives, I'm
probably "stick" with ECCO.
And, how's this for a segway?
I'd really appreciate it if you folks would share how you 'see' (picture in
your heads) time. This is a topic I find fascinating. Apparently, I don't
'see' time like most people. And, most people I ask (non-ECCO type people,
for sure) claim they don't even 'see' time. If I didn't see it, I frankly
don't know how I could get through it! Which means, I'd be at a complete
stand-still in my life. In analogous terms, if I couldn't envision where my
route to destination is taking me, via ground or air transportation, I
wouldn't go, would you? I see the map in my head.
With regard to time, I likewise need to see where I'm going. And, I need to
see where I've been to know where I am. Time -- Future and Past -- has a
particular picture for me. Ironically (compared to 'normal' people), I have
great difficulty picturing the Present. To me, it essentially doesn't exist,
because it's in between Past and Future. It doesn't exist for me except in
that context. As the ultimate In Between, it's really a Naught.
I hope that future software calendar developers find a way to create a more
3D version of time. All my systems of prioritization get bogged down, even
in ECCO, because I can't 'see' how to get things done in two-dimensions.
This is because I see the primary limitation to prioritizing as Time. Money
and other resources certainly come into play, but the primary delimiter is
Time.
When I reformat an hour, a day, a week or a month from what I've entered
(usually laboriously and meticulously) in ECCO into my 3D version of it, I
can 'see' where to fit in what I need or want to get done. If I don't do
this, I'm quite literally stuck. I think this is why I tend to keep going
back to the drawing board, literally, and write/draw out my priorities when
it gets down to crunch time. They're still in 2D, but they more approximate
something I can envision than ECCO facilitates. I get rather aggravated that
I'm duplicating effort going back and forth between trying to reconfigure my
data in ECCO, reconfiguring what I have on paper, and then reconciling the
two. This seems like a waste of time; however, if I don't do it, and I'm
looking at my life objectively, I can see that it tends to slow down, or get
bogged down. I tend to slip off into too many directions and lose sight of
my goals. And, yes, I do 'see' my goals. I also 'see' the roads I need to
take to reach them, bumps and all. I just see this like a movie in my head,
not in a 2D format on my computer. The bumps tend to be literal gray areas
until I reach them. Often times, I find that defining the bump leads
directly to a decision as to how to get past it -- and, I tend to envision
this in terms like blasting it apart, going around it, over it or through
it, getting someone else to move it out of my way, etc.
Back to how I 'see' time -- I see weeks much more clearly than days or
months, months more clearly than days. An hour, sadly, is quite a nebulous
concept for me. Instead of fighting myself (more than I already do), I try
to structure my priorities into what I think I can get done in a week. I can
describe for you, fairly literally, how I 'see' a week, because I see them
so much more clearly than other blocks of time. They start on Sunday, are
elliptical, ending on Saturday, and each Saturday connects with the Sunday
that follows it. The ellipses spiral upward beginning on the next Sunday.
The ellipses, therefore, aren't flat. They're not like the typical monthly
calendar which shows weeks stacked on top of each other. My geometry
terminology is somewhat lacking here, but the spirals are further apart in
the near future, and they get tighter as time progresses. I think this is
because I can 'see' getting more done in the near future than in the distant
future. Of course, I often try to stuff a superhuman amount of stuff to get
done into the next week or two that I see in my head.
I have a much more linear 'view' of a day, and I think that's part of why I
can't get as much done within the scope of a week if I plan it day-by-day as
opposed to as a whole week.
When I do picture my time -- my appointments and tasks -- in a daily, weekly
or monthly view, either in my head, on the computer or on a printout, I find
that adding color to various categories (blue for business, green for fun,
pink for doctor's appts, purple for my son's activities, orange for standing
appts, red for anything highlighted, etc. -- it's too bad I've had to tweak
my system to conform to ECCO's colors) makes it more functional for me. My
ECCO friend was the first to make me aware that color is a dimension, much
as an x or y or z axis. Now, it makes much more sense to me why I feel
compelled to add color to my calendars, no matter where they are or their
format.
I suppose the 'new' virtual reality tools, holograms and such would enable
the kind of calendaring, tasking and prioritizing software I'd find most
useful. Since the bulk of you folks seem a lot more techie than I am, I
question why we seem to be struggling as a group to find an alternative to
ECCO that will 'fit' our particular needs. Already, we've been waiting for
many years for an improved version/alternative, and the general consensus
seems to be there isn't one. If we wait just a few more, I 'foresee' a
software program that truly will meet our needs. How does that famous phrase
from "Field of Dreams" go? "If you build it, they will come?" Well, I
predict, "If you see it -- Time, a block of Time, a Task, an Appointment, a
Priority -- you'll be able to replicate it in some form of system that will
allow you to log it, manipulate it, recall it or 'virtually' even change
it."
Joule
In a message dated 11/26/2006 9:19:53 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
frdtheman-/***@public.gmane.org writes:
Why are we the only people who find this stupid and stick to Ecco?
