OK, no one likes to admit when they are wrong. Knowing how difficult it is, I try to be aware of when I need to do it and just DO IT and move on.

So… ahem… with no further ado… I was wrong about Life Balance.

It seems to be working pretty darn well. I’ve even started using the balancing part of it. First, the things I was wrong about:

1. You can get almost get the calendar out of view - you have to just drag the task list wider and drag the task details longer. It works pretty well.
2. I realized two of things I had problems with weren’t problems; I was looking at it wrong
   • It doesn’t need named categories, per se. I created three top level tasks - personal, my "real job," and my freelance work.
   • The balancing works pretty well when you are only balancing a few categories of how you spend your time (my three top level tasks) and not trying to balance your "life goals."
3. Life Balance does have sophisticated recurrence rules. Recurrences aren’t scheduled with the option I was trying to use. You have to use the one called "by calendar" to get the recurrence options.
4. When you do use the "routinely" if you don’t want the first instance to show up as past due, you just mark that instance complete!

And the things I discovered that are kind of cool:

• The dependencies are smart - you can tell it if you want to do the sub-tasks of any particular task in order or not. Voila! Dependencies!
• The balancing is actually kind of nifty. From what I have observed, there are three components to each task that help it figure out what to tell you to focus on next and that it also uses to give you credit for once you do them.
  • Effort: You have to tell it how much work each task is going to be. I’ve found that if I don’t do this, it says my life is more out of balance than it really is because it gives me the same pat on the back for remembering to fill a prescription as it does for completing a client’s website (and those really are different really!).
  • Priority: You have to tell it how much each task matters in the overall scheme of things. This helps it move things up and down the current to do list. This makes sure you go to the pharmacy before you do the client site, but that you definitely finish the site before you go out for a drink.
  • Desired Balance: You have to let it now how much of your life you want to spend on each top level task.

Oops. I just realized… maybe I should add a fourth top level task called "SLEEP!!!". But then I’d see how out of balance I really am and I’m not sure I’m ready for that. More another time. Must be awake again in 6 1/2 hours. If I hurry, I can get a LOT more sleep tonight than I’ve had any of the past 4 nights!