Sign in
 
HomeOnline20132010Other VersionsLibraryForumsGallery
Note: Forums will be making significant UX changes to address key usability improvements surrounding search, discoverability and navigation. To learn more about these changes please visit the announcement which can be found HERE.
TechCenter >
> 
> 
Project 2010 Pro Hour by Hour to do list for personal schedule

Answered Project 2010 Pro Hour by Hour to do list for personal schedule

  • Friday, March 09, 2012 3:26 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    I want to use Microsoft Project Professional 2010 to plan everything I do. However, I cannot figure out how to print a daily to-do list that list each task needing to be completed with the hours listed as well. 

    I have planned both work (a novel) and leisure  into the software program. If anyone can help me to figure out how to use Microsoft Project to plan my life and organize me please let me know.

     

All Replies

  • Friday, March 09, 2012 3:38 PM
     
     Answered
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    alsohere,

    Project is a very powerful business planning and scheduling application designed for both small and large projects with multiple resources over a defined period of time. It is NOT well suited for daily life planning. I personally believe you will waste more time trying to organize your life using Project, than it is worth and you will soon become frustrated and feel overwhelmed. Personal life simply has too many unknown variables to "fit" into the rigorous rules of a scheduling application such as Project.

    Although I don't use one myself, I think a device with a personal planner app (e.g. Blackberry, iPad, etc.) would be much easier to use and much more effective.

    That's my humble two cents.

    John


     
  • Friday, March 09, 2012 3:42 PM
    Moderator
     
     Answered
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    Hi ,

    Welcome to this Microsoft Project forum:)

    Project is not designed as a personal management application, but a means of calculating a schedule to complete a project within a defined timescales.  You can see what Project is for in my free series for beginners on Microsoft Project in the TechTrax ezine, particularly #1 - Introduction, at this site: http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc  or this: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
    (Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site, :)  Thanks.)

    However, I guess that you have only yourself as a resource and thus the whole schedule is one task after another in a sort of waterfall. In that case, I think the best I can offer it to use the timeline facility and print that out.

    FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

    Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on :)

    Mike Glen
    MS Project MVP (97-11)

     

     
  • Friday, March 09, 2012 9:16 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    Alsohere:

    I whole-heartedly concur with John and Mike on the primary purpose of Microsoft Project and believe that John's suggestion of using another method would be less stressful for you.  However, being one who likes those who venture into relatively bold territory, I have shown others how to use project for similar reasons, e.g. a high school student of mine planned out there entire education through to a doctorate - A manufacturing client of mine uses Project to calculate and display weekly/monthly workloads.

    Project 2010 has reports and filtering that you can use to list activities within a certain time period.  Whatever you have planned will show up on the list.  You can get high level reports or "down in the weeds" reports depending on your level of planning.

    I stress again that using it to plan everyday life is possible - just not practical.  I recommend taking a class on the tool at a local college or through a commercial vendor.  If you are more of a self-taught person, there are several dozen books on the subject.

    Good Luck!

    Gregg D. Richie, PMP, MCTS; Author, Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Official Academic Course Series

     
  • Saturday, March 10, 2012 2:19 AM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    I appreciate the replies.

    The reason I want to use Microsoft Project 2010 in my daily life, is I am a novelist with a hectic writing schedule with lots of freelancing in between. I wanted to schedule all of these commitments into this powerful program to generate a to do list everyday, so that I would complete the projects on time. I understand that this is not the traditional method of usage for Microsoft Project; however, I know that in previous iterations of the software I was able to plan to the hour. 

    I guess I should use an earlier version of the software and not this particular one. I am not taking offense to the suggestions, except the number of projects I complete exceed that of a very small business, except my business is writing. 

    If anyone knows how to schedule the to do list by the hour, then please let me know. If it is no longer feasible to plan to this detail in time then I think that Microsoft Project has been downgraded, because previous versions have been used to schedule surgeries, which are planned to the minute. Note, the reality of personal lives being too hectic is not applicable to me. I have a set schedule that I follow, and I rarely interrupt that schedule for others. I am greedy with my time, and I hoped that this software would allow me to generate more of it --use it more efficiently. 

     
  • Saturday, March 10, 2012 9:35 AM
    Moderator
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    I've been experimenting with 2003 and 2010.  For the life of me I cannot detect any basic differences between the two versions with respect to the Resources reports.  Which report did you use before and how precisely did you set it up? And what can't you do in 2010?

    Mike Glen
    Project MVP (97-11)
    See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

     

     
  • Saturday, March 10, 2012 1:05 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    You are correct.

    I made an error in the manner in which I was utilizing the program. My problem is I want to input everything that I need to do and when they are to be completed and receive a daily to-list. I thought that project managed things like that. I thought that breaking my projects into numerous parts that needed to be completed ina specific order that project could help me delineate what needs completed when.

    I do not need a time management program, because those programs merely do what paper and pencil do. They tell me what I've scheduled. I wanted a machine to give me a list of chores, which would help be accountable. 

    I appreciate everyone's time in answering. I will go forth and figure out something. I have almost every Microsoft piece of software, but I haven't found one to solve my humble problem. If anyone has an idea about what may be the appropriate software please let me know. I have tried Outlook, but I was not successful in using it.

    Everyone have a nice day.

     
  • Saturday, March 10, 2012 3:35 PM
    Moderator
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    Hello alsohere,

    Just to back up a bit you've asked a couple of questions, all of which do have answers within Project.

    If anyone knows how to schedule the to do list by the hour, then please let me know

    Yes, Project can certainly schedule a to-do list by the hour.  Likely you need to make a change to how you are displaying the data.  In Project 2010 go to File > Options, General.  Select a Date format which shows time as well as date. 

    When you enter tasks, you may enter durations in hours by typing an "h" after the entered duration.  A two hour task would be entered as 2h.

    You can either enter your "leisure" time as tasks (for more visibility) or change the standard calendar and set working hours as less than the standard 08:00 - 17:00.

    If you change the date format to show time, the To-Do list report will print time as well.

    All that being said, Project does have a pretty steep learning curve -- however, using just you as a resource, setting up the tasks and linking where needed may be suitable for what you need.

    However, to set the appropriate expectation:

    I wanted a machine to give me a list of chores, which would help be accountable.

    You will still need to create the task list, set up the relationships -- just as you would with paper and pencil.

    I hope this helps.

    Julie

     
  • Monday, May 21, 2012 1:21 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    Hey

    Apologies for making a late post to a thread that's closed...

    anyway, came across your post because i was looking for a similar feature within Project Pro 2010.

    Check out the feature "Team Planner", and to a lesser extent "Timeline View" (you would obviously need to set yourself as the resource on all these tasks)

    good intro to Team Planner here.

    Team Planner allows you to see down to a granularity of each hour of the day - quite cool. you can rearrange tasks by drag&drop too.

    havent delved into it much myself as i'm just learning. hope this helps.


    • Edited by junglism Monday, May 21, 2012 1:21 PM
    •  
     
  • Wednesday, December 05, 2012 11:20 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    hi

    Ive been searching for similar solutions. Im trying to manage/schedule a team with multiple projects as well as one off tasks and recurring things like daily meetings. the main problem I am having is the one being repeated, I want it to be continuous with the discrete time jobs being added. Can anybody help with this or point me to software that can help?

    The "team planner" view looks promising. Is it possible to display estimated schedule vs actual like the gantt chart in the team planner?

    cheers