Review by Aram Chavdarian

My Life Organized - Casual User Review

Autor: Aram Chavdarian
Application: MyLifeOrganized
Platforms: Windows & PocketPC
Website: www.mylifeorganized.net

Initially, I had a difficult time reviewing this software, because the kind of work I do and the lifestyle that I live isn't so complicated that it requires a complex organizational structure. So, at first, I felt like I had to force myself to make this software be useful for me. Fortunately, the evaluation time for the software is a generous 45 days, which allowed adapting the nuances of the program to my needs.

After a few days of using the software, I decided that I would write this review from the perspective of a casual user rather than a poweruser. The reason for this is that I just couldn't justify using all of the features of this program for my relatively simple schedule. So, here is a review from the viewpoint of a person who needs some organization of his schedule, but maybe not as extreme as some of the users who this program is designed for.

First of all, let me talk about the "feel" of this program. It is very lightweight, which I love, because most scheduling and task managing software tend to be very bulky and slow (I like to use the term "viscous"). This program starts up fast and moving around in the program (i.e., clicking on buttons and options and going through menus) is very fast. The design is minimalist, efficient, and very functional...just the way I like it. I hate it when programs are all bubbly, with huge buttons, and have useless things taking up a lot of screen space. That is against everything I stand for as a poweruser. MLO is definitely not of that camp. The only minor complaint I had about the user interface is that on the left side of the screen, where all the options are for the current task, the scroll bar for the window doesn't scroll dynamically. What I mean is that when you click the scroll bar to scroll down, the actual screen doesn't physically slide as you pull the scroll bar down, you have to wait until you release the mouse to see the new position of the screen. I know I said i was a minimalist, but I didn't like it going that far.

As far as setting up a to-do list and schedule, it is very simple, and it can be as complex as you probably want it to be, but I kept it extremely simple. For each task, you have the option of selecting the location where the task occurs, several different ways of prioritizing the task and assigning a level of importance to it, the duration of the task, the milestone dates of the task, and some random notes for the task. I want to particularly comment on the variety of ways you can prioritize your tasks, which seems to be the strength of this program. Tasks can be categorized in as many subcategories as you want, and obviously, a higher category will not be detected as complete until all of it's subcategories are complete. But beyond this, there is a slider for "importance", start and ending due dates, and another slider for "task effort". What's nice about these features is that you don't have to worry about the big picture all the time, you can think of your projects in bits and pieces, and once you set the various options, MLO will be able to automatically prioritize your workflow based on your settings. This helps when you have projects that require a few simultaneous tasks as well as specific due dates, and it also helps when you are working on more than one project. Sometimes, it is difficult to really know what is more important for you to do at a given time, and MLO can help you sort these things out as long as you can properly break down large, complex projects.

That is MLO's greatest feature, it makes a to-do list for you based on your randomly input tasks. It was a great relief once I trusted the program to make my schedule. Once you have entered your tasks in, there is another tab in the right navigation pane which says "To-do" and this is the "live" to-do list that MLO automatically generates. What I mean by live is that as you complete tasks and indicate it on the checkbox, MLO will update the list automatically to show what the next priority is. This can mean a lot of things. If the task was a standalone task, then once it is checked off, that item would disappear from the list and you are left with a shorter to-do list. However, if the task was a part of a larger project, once that task was checked off, the list would now add the next thing to do in that project (so the list would not necessarily get shorter, unless, for example, the next task couldn't be started that day).

Before I finish this review, I want to mention the printing feature of MLO. It's simply great. It can print out your schedule or project outline quite nicely, and it impresses people. It looks like someone spent a lot of time making a schedule for himself, when it's really done with a click of a button. A few weeks ago, while I was trying out the program, my supervisor came up to me and asked me what I do to keep track of the several projects I was working on. So, I proudly showed him MLO and described how I used it, and he kind of couldn't say anything. He was planning on giving me advice on how to properly manage several projects so forth, but he wasn't expecting me to have such a proactive handle already on it. So, MLO has really been good to me so far.

I know, it is a good practice to not only mention the good things about the program but to also mention some of the bad qualities in a constructive way, but I am having a really hard time with MLO. Part of it is because I am not using the program to it's full functionality, so I am not encountering issues that other powerusers may run into. However, I went to their google groups forum, and it seems like the makers of MLO are very active in addressing issues anyway, so I found it difficult to come up with something that hasn't been already addressed and fixed. And the issues that haven't been fixed are so particular to certain users, that I just couldn't even relate to it since my schedule is much more simple than most of those who are in that forum. What can I say it's a good program all around.

Aram Chavdarian, 21-Dec 2005