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Z Planner has a 20 to 30 minute learning curve. (MS project’s learning curve is 3-4 weeks). To get as many people past this learning curve as quickly as possible, I think the best solution is a quick online tutorial. This way I can respond to any questions (comments), and update it without having to publish the whole application again.

Take 20 min to learn how to use Z Planner and you will be planning ambitious projects, and getting them done!

The most important part: Why is Z Planner more effective than regular planning tools? The task breakdown feature is an excellent brainstorming tool, because you can write out the list of tasks without interruption.

- You can write all the subtasks on the fly. Each time you hit ENTER, you can write the next one straight away.
- If you decide you want to make a task a final task with notes and duration, simply hit TAB once and it focuses on the final task checkbox. Hit SPACE and TAB and you can enter notes. TAB, then number of hours. TAB again, then the number of minutes. Then TAB and ENTER to validate.
- No fiddling with the mouse. No loading time.
- Then you can reorder tasks, break some down further (those that weren’t final tasks), and you have a step by step project automatically fitted in the time frames you specified, viewable in your schedule.

Let’s start at the end:  If you need to uninstall Z Planner, make sure it isn’t running (it runs in the background by default so that reminders can pop up at the specified date/time).  All reported problems related to unistalling were due to the application running as the uninstall was executed.

To close the application: File >> Exit (or CTRL + E).
To prevent Auto Start (autostart only works on XP) simply uncheck enable autostart when the application launches (unchecked by default).

Note that enabling autostart is the most reliable choice. This way Z Planner is always running, which is necessary for pop-ups to appear when the time comes for a reminder. Unfortunately Vista security madness prevents autostart from working (it also hides popups in the background).

To uninstall once the application is closed, START >> PROGRAMS >> zPlanner >> Uninstall.

There have been several complaints from users about these two issues so I hope this takes care of everything.

The Core Functionality.

Z Planner’s core functionality is to turn an idea (short, medium or long term project) into a list of simple tasks and put them in your calendar. The above video is a quick walk-through:

1. Creating a user (there can be several).
2. Starting a project (name, start, end).
3. Editing project (double click on the name, apply changes to end date, name, click EDIT).
4. Project color (if it is left white is remains invisible).
5. FRAMES – Project time frames.
6. TASK – Task breakdown (from project name to a task tree.)
7. Schedule (output only) to see the final tasks scheduled in the time frames you selected for each project, taking duration into account. Listed with project color and notes.

Not in the video:

- Reminders : a reminder with notes. First select if it will be single, recur weekly, monthly or annually. For daily reminders, check each day of the week on weekly reminders (this allows easy planning of tasks that recur on weekdays).

Extra tip:

 
You can also use it to plan your “small things to do” by creating a small things to do project.

List each as final tasks that you can get done in a one hour time frame. Re-order the tasks by geographic location (things that are done on the computer, then house chores, then…). This follows David Allen’s context principle.

Those aren’t part of a project persay, but including them in a global “Things to do project” with a one hour time frame per day gets all the small stuff out of the way quickly.

Same process with more details:

Create a user: pretty self-explanatory, can be done for multiple users in a household / office that share a workstation.

Create the project:

Write a goal there, big or small (there can be as many as you like).

     – Select a start and end date.
     – ENTER or OK. The project appears in the project list.
     – Select it in the list and:
         – Affect a color code: it will be associated to this color in the schedule. This can be changed by repeating the operation and selecting a new color. Each project should have a distinct color code.

Select time frames:

FRAMES – This opens a form in which you can affect time frames to your project. These time frames are full hour blocks, but reminders (see below) can be used for minute precision. Time frames can occur once (single) or weekly until the project’s due date.

        - Select single or weekly.
        – Click on the block that corresponds to the day and time you want to start.
        – Hold down ALT key and select the block that corresponds to the time you wish to end.
         – Click on VALIDATE to confirm the opperation and dedicate those time slots to your project.
         – To delete a block, select one of the hour blocks and click DELETE next to VALIDATE.
         – Create as many time frames as needed until you have enough “time available” for project completion. You can come back later and add or delete time frames if they do not correspond with “Time needed”.

Move on to task breakdown: 

TASK – This form turns a project idea into a list of tasks.
       – Select the parent task on the left, they appear on the right. Enter the subtasks just below the parent task on the right.
       – They appear as a list (below right) that you can re-order by selecting and either entering an order value or moving them up or down using the up and down arrow buttons.
       – Subtasks also appear in the task tree to the left. There they can be selected and become parent tasks themselves and be broken down further. Simply repeat the process until all tasks are as simple as you would like them to be.
       – Final tasks: If a subtask is not to be broken down further, you “tell” this to the program by making it a final task. This allows you to add notes, duration in hours, duration in minutes before confirming (OK). Use TAB for quick and easy navigation.
      - Final tasks show in the schedule, within the time frames that were selected for the project.
      – The total of task durations corresponds to the “Time needed” for the project, which appears on both FRAMES and TASK forms. If Time needed exceeds Time available, you are prompted to either postpone the end date (which works if you have weekly time frames) or by adding single time frames. You can also review durations (make them quicker).

Reminders:

Pretty self explanatory, select between single, weekly (check days for daily), monthly and annual. Enter the reminder, add notes if needed, then enter the appropriate data (depending on recurrence selection, can be day of the week, day of the month, end date for daily recurrence…).

Note that when a Reminder appears on screen you may chose to have Z Planner “Remind you later“, in which case you select a new date/time for that same reminder.

Late tasks:

This is a very important feature!

The combination of time frames and final task durations determines what day and time a specific task will be scheduled. If the date is passed and that task hasn’t been ticked “done” in the schedule, it will appear in the LATE TASKS form. If there are several late tasks, they appear in the order they were meant to be done. The tasks’s duration is posted alongside each task.

When a late task is done, you can either tick it off as done there (by double-clicking on “no”) or in the day’s schedule.

Schedule:

Note that the schedule form outputs data from project FRAMES and TASKS. No data can be entered in that form.

Select the date (top left) that corresponds to the week you want shown (default day is current day so this step is usually unnecessary).

Click OK and the selected week is shown, with the color codes revealing scheduled project time frames accross the week.

Double-click on a particular day and the list of tasks appear, along with the color code for the project they correspond to and the time it has been scheduled.
      – the first task is scheduled at the befinning of the first frame. If the duration is 30 minutes, the second time is scheduled 30 minutes later, and so on.
       – A 30 min task can be “cut in two” if it is scheduled 10 minutes from the end of a time block. In this case it is scheduled at that time, and scheduled again at the beginning of the next block. The task that follows will be scheduled there 20 minutes later.
      – When a task is done, you can tick it off as done by double-clicking on “no”. It is replaced by a “YES”. This prevents tasks from appearing in “Late Tasks”.

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