Definition: A date range is the time-frame during which you hope to do a particular task (as opposed to duration). For example, “call Sam” may have a range of “this week” because I’d like to call sometime this week.

Hint: You can also select a custom range by highlighting a range in the Range Selector. Click the arrows to switch months:

2. Click on the text-field, enter a task name, and press ENTER or click .

3. A small window automatically pops-up. Select Hours and Minutes with your mouse or type the duration directly into the duration field. For a full day event, check Full –day event. Then click OK.

Definition: Duration is the actual time required to perform the task.

Scheduling Tasks and Appointments

Drag and Drop

To schedule a task which is already on your task list, use your mouse to drag the task over to the schedule.

Hint: The appropriate category time-block is outlined for convenience. For example, if you are dragging a task from the “study” category, then the “study” time-block will be outlined on your schedule. If you are dragging a task from the Summary tab, then the appropriate time-block will only appear outlined after you have selected a task to drag.

Hint: You can schedule overlapping tasks by dragging a task onto a previously scheduled task. The tasks will appear side-by-side.

Creating appointments on your calendar

To create an appointment directly on your calendar, click on the appropriate start-time on your calendar (in one or seven-day view), and drag down to increase duration (click and drag in one motion). Type the name of the appointment and press ENTER.

Hint: By default, appointments created directly on your calendar OR dragged onto your calendar from the task list are Fixed (see below).

Unscheduling

To unscheduled any task or appointment, right-click on the task (appearing on your schedule) and select Unschedule task. The task will appear on your task list its originally defined date range.

Hint: If the task had been created directly on the calendar (and so never had a defined range), then it will appear on your task list for the day that it had originally been scheduled. The category is then assumed to be the same as the time-block during which the task had been scheduled.

Fixed vs. Non-fixed

There are two types of scheduled items. Fixed appointments refer to engagements which must occur at a very specific time (doctor’s appointment, an exam…). “Non-fixed” refers to more tentatively scheduled tasks (History homework at 6pm).

How can I tell? Fixed tasks have a bold-yellow checkbox and a tiny thumb-tack on the Gantt chart. In this example, only the first two items are fixed:

What’s the difference. Fixed appointments will never be rescheduled automatically by Auto Plan. Non-fixed tasks CAN be reshuffled when you run the Auto Plan.

Default Setting. Any task created directly on the schedule OR dragged onto the schedule from your task list is fixed, by default. Any task scheduled by Auto Plan is non-fixed, by default.

Changing the setting. You can change from fixed to non-fixed (and back) by right-clicking on the task (on the calendar):

Auto Plan

What Does It Do?

Auto plan tries to schedule all tasks in their proper time-blocks and date ranges.

How Does It Work?

The Auto Plan first unschedules all non-fixed tasks. It then looks at the properties of each task (date range, duration, and time category) to determine the time-frame and relative (estimated) urgency of each task. As a task nears its deadline, its urgency rating increases daily. Skoach creates a prioritized list of your tasks for each category, for each day. Lastly, the Auto Plan uses these prioritized daily lists to schedule these tasks in their respective categories (in prioritized sequence).

Hint: You can adjust the gap between auto-scheduled tasks under preferences > general.

Hint: Tasks which are scheduled by Auto Plan are non-fixed, by default. If you want to keep such a task from being reshuffled later by Auto Plan, you may change it to Fixed (right-click on task > Make Fixed).

Hint: If you have too many tasks in a particular date-range (and not enough time in your time-blocks), then Auto plan will warn you that it cannot schedule some tasks. This usually means you have overbooked yourself! As you create tasks, keep an eye on the Commitment Bar to avoid over-committing.

Undo Auto Plan. Click on the Undo Auto Plan button. This will unschedule ALL non-fixed tasks. These tasks will continue to display in your task list under their previously-defined date ranges.

Warning: Other non-fixed tasks include appointments which you have manually reset to “Non-fixed”. These will also become unscheduled when “undo Auto Plan”.

Range Selector

The Range Selector can be used to select a more precise custom range. Highlight your desired date range in the Range Selector. The selected range immediately appears under a “custom” range tab. Use the range selector to view active tasks associated with a custom range or to quickly enter a task in a custom range.

Note: Custom tab will not appear until after you have selected a custom range.

Hint: Once a custom range has been defined, the custom tab retains the defined date range until you choose a use the Range Selector to define a different custom range.

Task View

“Tabs”

Your task list is always displayed within a category and within a date-range. Click on side and over-head tabs to shift category and/or date range.

“Due” and “Other Active Tasks”

Due refers to all tasks whose end-date date falls within the displayed date range. Other Active Tasks refers to those tasks whose date range begins within the displayed date range but ends later. In this example, the displayed range is This Week.

Hint: All displayed tasks are sorted by end-date.

Gantt Chart

The Gantt Chart (to the right of your task-list) represents each task’s date range as a green bar super-imposed over the days of the week. This tells you not only when a task can be done but also puts that task in the context of your other commitments.

Hint: Scheduled non-fixed tasks also have a black diamond to indicate the scheduled date and time. Fixed appointments have only a diamond with a small green thumb-tack (no “green bar”). Completed tasks show only a checkmark on the day on which they were checked “complete”. (See illustration, above.)

Category Tabs

These side-tabs are created and edited in your Weekly Template or through the Welcome Wizard. (See those explanations for more details.) There are, however, two special categories:

Summary Tab

This tab includes all categories. You can view or add tasks for all categories.

Uncategorized

This “category” displays ONLY in the Summary view; it does not have a separate tab. Tasks which do not have a category (for example, tasks sent by email) will show up in Uncategorized. You may also add an uncategorized task. Hint: Assign a category by dragging the uncategorized task into one of the other category lists.

Range Tabs

These over-head tabs allow you to quickly display tasks which are can (or should) be done in a given time-frame.

Overdue

All tasks which are past due AND incomplete will show up under the Overdue tab. There are several ways to reschedule overdue items:

1. Drag task onto another range-tab (Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week).

2. Click on the task to open task properties. Then click on the range to select a custom range from the pop-up calendar.

3. To schedule an exact time, you can drag the task directly onto your schedule. Alternatively, you can click on the task to open task properties. Then click on Specify Exact Date/ Time.

Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week

Use these tabs to quickly add new tasks or to view your task list. To set a more precise range, use the Range Selector.

Custom Tab

The Custom tab only displays after you have highlighted a custom range in the Range Selector. Once a custom range has been defined, the Custom tab remains visible until you log out of Skoach. Even if you switch between tabs, the Custom tab will continue to access the most recent custom range.

Hint: Using the Range Selector to add new tasks in this way adds more realistic precision to your task-planning. It’s super-quick, once you get the hang of it!

Repeating Tab

This tab collects all repeating tasks in one place. This is also a convenient place to create new repeating tasks. If you create a task under the repeating tab, Skoach will prompt you to define a recurrence schedule (daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly).

Hint: To check a repeating task “complete”, be sure to click on the instance of that recurrence appearing on your calendar. The recurring task which appears in your task list is ALWAYS the master task; changes to the master task (reminders, notes, schedule changes, etc…) are reflected in all instances of the recurring task.

Hint: You can spot a repeating task by looking for the repeating icon (revolving arrow):

Future Tab

This tab is reserved for tasks which will be done at some as-yet unspecified time in the future (longer-term goals, future projects, some-day tasks). To put a future task on your active task list, just drag the task onto one of the range tabs (This Week, Next Week…).

Calendar

The calendar is where your schedule lives.

Task Range – Calendar Sync

As you switch range-tabs (Today, This Week…) on the left side of your Home page, the calendar automatically shifts to display the corresponding calendar days. However, shifting your calendar to next month or next week will NOT affect the displayed task range.

Displayed Time Units

You may change the level of detail on your schedule by altering the displayed time unites (30, 15, or 10 minutes):

Print Schedule

Click on the Print icon (above the calendar) to print your schedule. Your schedule will display in a new window, from which you can customize the included information before printing.

a. Hint: Printed selection will include daily/ weekly schedule depending on the current daily/ weekly view.

Daily, Weekly, and Monthly views. Use icons above the calendar to change the view:

Commitment Bar

What Does It Do?

The Commitment Bar gauges your workload over a selected date-range. Before adding a task, it is helpful to glance at the bar to see how much more time you have available. In this example, I have 2 hours and 24 minutes of work-time available for additional tasks.

Hint: Completed tasks do not count toward your workload.

Hint: The Commitment bar is updated every sixty seconds. The available time only includes the actual time remaining in a particular time-block. For example, imagine I have a time-block, work (9am – 5pm). If by 12pm I have not checked “complete” any of my “work” tasks, then the bar will assume that I only have 5 remaining hours to do all my work tasks for that day. To get the most accurate reading from the Commitment bar, be sure to check-off completed tasks.

Hint: The Commitment bar ALWAYS adjusts to the displayed date range and category. If you are in the Summary view, then the Commitment Bar will reflect the total workload and total available time over ALL categories. Therefore, it is often most helpful to add new tasks under the particular category-tab (instead of Summary-tab). This will insure that the Commitment Bar is giving you an accurate category-specific reading.

How Does It Work?

The basic idea is pretty simple: If I have 5 hours worth of work-tasks on my Today list, and 8 hours allocated for work, then my Commitment Bar will appear about 60% full, and the gauge will say, “3 hrs available”. The algorithm is a quite a bit more sophisticated, but that’s basically what a user needs to understand in order to take advantage of this feature.

Warning. The following material may cause dizziness; do not operate heavy machinery while reading.

In fact, the challenge of gauging one’s work-load for any particular category over any given date range is not easy for people OR computers. If a task must be done on one particular day, then the calculation is pretty straight-forward, but many tasks in Skoach are set for a multi-day range (This Week, Next Week, or even a custom range like “Wed or Thurs”). In other words, I don’t know which day the task will actually be done, only that it will be done sometime during a given range of days. So if I have a 2 hour project that can be done Monday or Tuesday, which day should I subtract the time from?

Enter Quantum Mechanics. (Yes, you are still reading the Skoach Manual.) The theory of quantum mechanics is founded on the startling (but verified) idea that a particle can never be said to exist at a definite location in space. Rather, we can only calculate the probability of finding it (at a given time) at some precise location. The sum of the probabilities over all space is always one (it MUST exist somewhere).

We followed the same approach to deal with these “indeterminate” tasks. Without going into the exact mathematical detail, we basically assume that a task is more likely to be done as the due date grows closer. For each day, there is a defined probability that the particular task will be done on that day. So, if there is a 40% probability that some task will be done on Monday, and 60% that it will be done on Tuesday, we divide the duration of the task 40/60 between the two days. If on Tuesday, the same task is still marked incomplete, then the commitment bar recalculates, assigning 100% probability that the task will be done today, and deducting the full task-duration from the Commitment Bar. (The reader’s jaw is now hanging open somewhere between confusion and mild terror.)

This statistical approach does NOT work for a single task, but works beautifully on an ensemble of multiple tasks over multiple overlapping ranges of variable extent. It takes some brain-scratching, and maybe a stiff drink to wash down, but it should make sense. If not, have another drink.

Reminders

General Settings

Go to Preferences > Notifications to edit general settings.

Task-Specific Settings

If under preferences > notifications, you have chosen “notify about selected tasks only”, then the default setting for “Notify me” (for each task) is unchecked. You may check or uncheck “Notify me” for any individual task.

Warning. If under preferences > notifications, you chose “notify me about ALL tasks”, then you cannot unselect “Notify me” for any particular task.

Weekly Template

What Is It?

The Weekly Template is the basic structure of your week. Your week is divided into category time-blocks (Sleep, Exercise, Classes, Chores, Family Time…). This color-coded template is also super-imposed over your daily and weekly calendar views, giving you a broader context as you plan your day and schedule tasks and appointments. Your personal Template also guides the Auto Plan in creating a customized schedule.

Creating and Editing Categories.

Before building your Weekly Template, you must first create a set of time-categories which encompass the various tasks and “sacred times” (Sleep, Family Time…) that constitute your week. If you are new to Skoach and choosing categories for the first time, we suggest letting the Welcome Wizard guide you. This wizard will suggest categories based on your responsibilities (student, parent, employed…). Click on Wizards > Welcome Wizard. For more details, see the section on Welcome Wizard.

In general, if you are just adding/deleting a few categories or changing category-settings, you will do so from the Weekly Template tab.

Adjacent to your Template is a list of your Time Categories, from where you can add, delete, and edit.

Building & Editing Your Template

Drag categories onto your week to begin building your Template.

You can then drag and stretch these blocks to add more time or to spread across multiple days.

To delete a single time block or change its category, right-click on the block. ( For Mac: CTRL-click)

Task Details

Click on any task to view or edit task details:

· Completed

· Notes

· Checklist

· Task Name

· Date Range/ Scheduled Time

· Recurrence

· Duration

· Reminder

iCal

Skoach can export appointments to iCal-compatible applications, including Google Calendar and MS Outlook 2007. On your Skoach page, click on Plug-ins > iCal, and then copy your unique URL. You will need to paste this URL into the target application. Follow target application’s instructions on where to paste this URL and whether there are any other settings you need to customize. Note: iCal synchronization is one-way; Skoach will not import appointments from other applications.

Google Calendar

Here’s a quick step-by step guide to sync to Google Calendar:

In you Skoach application, go to Plug-ins > iCal.
Click on iCal and copy the URL address.
Go to Google Calendar.
Find the “add” link under the “other calendars” list (on the bottom left of the Google Calendar screen).
Click on “add”
Click on “Add by URL”
Paste the URL you had copied into the text field.
Click “Add” and you are done!

Welcome Wizard

What does it do?

The Welcome Wizard is the first one to greet you when you sign-on to Skoach for the first time. It helps to set you up with:

· Emailed task-reminders

· Scheduled Daily Planning session

· Time Categories

· Weekly Template

Walk through

1. Setup Reminders and schedule your daily planning session. The daily planning session is an important part of effective time-management. At your chosen time, the daily planning wizard will walk you through a quick review of overdue tasks and prompt you to think about preparations you may need to make for upcoming projects and events.

2. Select a role. Skoach will use this information to tailor a suggested list of appropriate time-categories. You can always go back and change your role; just choose the closest fit.

3. Skoach proposes a category-list. Check the ones you want. Unchecked categories will be discarded.

4. Customize category list and build your Weekly Template. (See Weekly Template for more details.)

Daily Planning

The daily planning wizard can be scheduled, rescheduled, or disabled on the first screen of the Welcome Wizard. If you have scheduled a daily planning session, Skoach will give you a friendly reminder at the appointed time.

My Account

From My Account (at the top of your Skoach page), you can:

· Change or cancel your subscription plan

· View your billing history

· Change your password

· Change your email address

More Help

Still have questions? Here are a few additional resources:

· Forum. See what other Skoach users are saying and post a comments or questions for the Skoach community. Skoach staff also participate, but we’re not the only experts!

· Skoach Learning Center. There are video and screenshot tutorials, FAQ’s, Life Management 101 (with Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D.), Skoach News, and more!

· Email. You can always email us at support@skoach.com

Time Management for the Overbooked and Overwhelmed

Future Tab

Creating and Editing Categories.

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