Help me get paid to hold this guy's hand
August 12, 2010 9:33 AM

My boss has ADD filter: Is there a way to manage task-scheduling capabilities and see what's been scheduled for you that day? Project management help needed!

I just started a new job managing a small media company. My boss has the worst case of ADD I've ever seen, and I need to be able to assign tasks and sync them with iCal/Google calendar for mobile access. He uses Basecamp, which in itself I'm not overly fond of.

My ideal workflow: assign him a time-specific task related to a project/milestone, and have that dumped into an overall calendar. Have anyone be able to look at their daily to-dos at a glance, instead of having to look up each project. (37signals, are you listening? Seriously? It's been a few years.) Schedule conflicting meetings would preferably be impossible--one reason why it'd be so nice to not just have to use RTM/OmniFocus to rewrite and dump all of his meetings.

Rule.Fm looks promising when it syncs, but his calendar is a mess now. We are all on Macs, if that matters; because the "office" location changes constantly, good old-fashioned whiteboards won't help.

Any help appreciated!
posted by blazingunicorn to Work & Money (2 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
Are you looking to help your boss manage ADD with better software? Is this something your boss specifically asked you to do? I don't have software in mind but I think some clarity about your responsibilities, your boss's responsibilities and what your boss is asking you for would help you get better answers here.

I would like to assume your boss is a professional, is working with a doctor to manage ADD, and has specifically asked you for this advice. If anything else is the case, you might want to ask about that instead. Holding your boss's hand with regard to task scheduling sounds inappropriate unless you're an executive assistant.

(IANA doctor or person with ADD or especially organized person)
posted by sninctown at 12:12 PM on August 12, 2010


To clarify: my boss is 100% professional; the bit about ADD was just to say 'his schedule is disorganized; I'd like to centralize the tasks and projects.' I'm his assistant, but it's not currently full-time, and having sync-able software would help me manage his schedule using fewer of my hours.

E.g.: He just forwarded me an email about a meeting he has tomorrow at 1pm. I'd like to input that meeting in somewhere so that it can be linked in with Basecamp (linked to one of the projects), and then have it send him a reminder automatically: either with iCal sync, or sending him an email.

Are there any applications I can link with Basecamp that would have a decent calendar interface, or task management capabilities?
posted by blazingunicorn at 1:25 PM on August 12, 2010


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