good planner

[Ninjakreborn]

I use
www.activecollab.com to do all my project management.  They are even going to add time tracking, plugin support and a lot of other stuff.  I installed it on my server.  The thing I wanted now, was to install something else on my server, and just link it to my active collab, when I am logged in, and formulate an instant login, that wouldn't be to hard.
This is what I need
1. A time management system, sort of liek what's built into hotmail, to keep track of hourly, daily, and weekly, monthly scheduling.  So for work I can say from 8-10 I work on this dude's stuff from 10-12 I do some personal calls, some personal time getting important stuff done, then from 12-4 I have a quick meeting with a client, and knock out some of there project then from 4-7 I get finished with this other project, and plan for tomorrow
That sort of thing
2. Something I can install on my server
3. Something that is done in php/mysql
4. Something that might be fairly easy for me to mod, or they update regularly
5. Something open source (of course)
6. Something that has the time capabilities as above, but timing like that for every day of the month.  Say if I find out I have an appointment to meet someone next friday, I want to be able to go to that date, and record in that time period, what I am wanting to do.  Like at 8:00=10:00 on friday, of that 15th of december hmm, I have some free time open, so let me schedule it here, type of thing, and move this back up to tomorrow


Hopefully you get the idea of what I want, any advice?

[ober]

Sorry... I don't micromanage like that.  All that planning is a bunch of BS and a waste of valuable time IMHO.

[Ninjakreborn]

Yes butw hen I don't I never get anything done.
For instance project management, I compared 2 weeks with it, and 1 week without it, there was a difference.  Do you know of any good ones?

[redbullmarky]

i tend to prefer paper based here. i tried trac but i actually use an installation of mediawiki on my server to keep my stuff/notes/thoughts/ideas together as a kind of scratchpad, but as for managing my time, there's nothing like a good ol' real paper diary or a notepad.

i'm semi in agreement with ober, here. too much planning takes bloody ages, and time that is valuable to earning £££. on the other hand, NO planning can be almost as bad.

but the day my schedule becomes that routine is the day i'll be bored shitless going through the same old same old every day. nah.

[Ninjakreborn]

How should I do this then.
For active collab, I just take care of project information, putting down tasks, and compeleting them, also away to update clients without lots of emails.
The other thing, is it helps me keep track of hourly amount of work on each project (when they add in time tracking, how helpful would tracking what I spend what amount of hours working on be.
I know a lot of people plan like that, I find myself not having time to do everything because I don't manage my time well enough.

[redbullmarky]

unfortunately, planning is not really something people can advise much on, as it's directly linked to your personality, etc, just like the traits talked about here: http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php/topic,115416.0.html

so only you really can plan your own day and work the best. here's a thought though - nearly two hours have passed since you've started this thread. that's two hours of planning to plan. two hours is a long time to either learn or get your head down with your projects...

[Ninjakreborn]

That is true good point.  I am working on a project while looking for a planner, but I understand what you are saying, the time spent planning (which is supose to be time saved by planning)< ends up evening it out in the end anyway.  I was told one time, about proejcts, to always super-plan projects, or you get screwed in the middle of them, is there a difference in these 2 situations, or 2 types of planning.

[jcombs_31]

microsoft project?

[Ninjakreborn]

That looked alright, thanksf or the suggestion, looking for something I can install on my server.
I thought about what red and ober said, and I think I will go ahead and take that part slowly now. I have something for project management www.activecollab.com that actually does help alot, but maybe a time manager would slow me down, and make me end up spending too much time planning, and less time doing.  So I am going to wait until activcolla open up there extension system, then when someoen builds something like that, I can have something small scale in active collab.