K
Krista
I'm having a difficult time getting my head around when and why journaling
is useful and would appreciate feedback from people that are actually
finding that it makes them more productive:
QUESTION #1:
The blurbs that I've read on journaling (both online and in various Outlook
books) indicate that journaling is great for tracking interaction with
clients. These texts many times mention that it's great for billing purposes
or simply determining where your time is spent.
However, the only thing you seem to be able to track is email*, meeting
requests, responses, cancellations and task requests and responses. That's
fine for people that within my company - and for whom I assign tasks and
meet with through Outlook - but how does it help me for actual "clients". In
other words, I don't send Outlook requests for meetings with clients nor do
I assign them tasks. I do create tasks (my work) in association with a
client, but the creation of a task is not associated with a contact, it's
associated with a category.
* When you turn on journaling, Outlook states that if you're doing it for
email, you're better off using the Activities tab of the Contact.
Journaling seems like a decent way to track work with co-workers, but how is
it that I can journal my work with a specific clients?
QUESTION #2:
I can journal my Office document activity, but it's not associated with a
client or category. Is the only way to do this via manually setting the
category inside the Journal view? This would seem decidedly un-productive as
it means me having to manually set this value each time I work with a
document - when the entire point of journaling is that it's automatic.
Hopefully, I'm missing something here that makes journaling more appealing
in terms of a productivy-enhancer, but it definitely looks like it's nothing
more than a means of tracking inner-office meetings and tasks.
is useful and would appreciate feedback from people that are actually
finding that it makes them more productive:
QUESTION #1:
The blurbs that I've read on journaling (both online and in various Outlook
books) indicate that journaling is great for tracking interaction with
clients. These texts many times mention that it's great for billing purposes
or simply determining where your time is spent.
However, the only thing you seem to be able to track is email*, meeting
requests, responses, cancellations and task requests and responses. That's
fine for people that within my company - and for whom I assign tasks and
meet with through Outlook - but how does it help me for actual "clients". In
other words, I don't send Outlook requests for meetings with clients nor do
I assign them tasks. I do create tasks (my work) in association with a
client, but the creation of a task is not associated with a contact, it's
associated with a category.
* When you turn on journaling, Outlook states that if you're doing it for
email, you're better off using the Activities tab of the Contact.
Journaling seems like a decent way to track work with co-workers, but how is
it that I can journal my work with a specific clients?
QUESTION #2:
I can journal my Office document activity, but it's not associated with a
client or category. Is the only way to do this via manually setting the
category inside the Journal view? This would seem decidedly un-productive as
it means me having to manually set this value each time I work with a
document - when the entire point of journaling is that it's automatic.
Hopefully, I'm missing something here that makes journaling more appealing
in terms of a productivy-enhancer, but it definitely looks like it's nothing
more than a means of tracking inner-office meetings and tasks.