ForumsTips & TricksTasks vs Calender events
Tasks vs Calender events
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gn1sxn102 |
Hi,
I am interested to know how people use toodledo in combination with their calenders. In deciding whether something is a task or calender event, it seems the question is - does this have to happen on a particular date or can it be done anytime up to a particular date. So a doctors appointment is obviously a calender event. Having to finish an essay by a particular date would be a task although one might also create a separate calender event to remind oneself to hand in the essay. A calender therefor lends itself to seeing what one has to do on any particular day. So it seems obvious that we need to use both. However, I often find myself using toodledo for things which should be in my calender (e.g. pick up book tomorrow at 10am). This is mostly because I capture everything in toodledo. My calender seems somewhat redundant and Im beginning to wish I could use toodledo as my full time calender. It seems obvious that these two functions should be integrated. I wish I didnt have to consult both my calender and toodledo everyday. How do you operate? Do you have a workflow which determines what goes into your calender vs toodledo? Cheers! |
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sventhebrit |
Hi There,
I am new to Toodledo/GTD and I was struggling with the same scenario. Anything which is date & time specific goes into my calendar (Meetings, drop car of at garage for repair, etc). Things which are date specific at the moment appear in both toodledo and my calendar - I use the star feature in Toodledo to denote that it is listed in my calendar too as an indicator for myself - these items are listed in my calendar as all day events (ie. No specific time). This can be things which are due on a particular date or things which I have decided I will do on the date. In your specific example on the Essay, I would have the "hand in Essay" as a calendar event (no specific time) and it would also be in toodledo. In toodledo, the hand in essay would be a Subtask of the main event which is to "Prepare an essay on Topic A". ie. Main Event (or project) and then 3 subtasks Prepare an essay on Topic A Research Topic A Write the essay Hand in Essay (*) Just an idea .... Steve This message was edited Nov 06, 2008. |
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J-Mac |
For me, everything goes into Toodledo - it is my master tasklist. I spread the tasks out by Folders and Status. I only use Context if I need a third level of stratification.
A calendar is mainly for events which absolutely must take place at a given date and time - like doctor appointments, etc. If I miss them I will suffer some pain! (Like paying for a missed Dr. appt!). Whereas tasks are things I am planning to do, plain and simple. Sure, I assign due dates to some which are time sensitive, but usually I can postpone those if need be. Jim |
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jebanks |
I use both my task list and my calendar for events. Some go in both, some only go in one or the other.
If I need to be able to refer to something later as an archive of my activities and events, or if it needs to be scheduled around, I put it in iCal. If, in addition, it's upcoming and I want to make sure I don't forget about it or miss it, I will capture it as a due-dated task and put a reference to the calendar event in the task's note. If it's definitely a to-do that needs to stay top of mind, and I don't need to refer to it in the future necessarily or schedule around it, I capture it in my tasks only. In particular, certain events that I need to do every year or twice a year, like DST clocks or getting vehicle stickers, live only in my to-do list, and I manually change them to the next upcoming date after completion. I know I could set this up as repeating tasks, but I like to stay engaged by reviewing my list and doing things manually. Perhaps not the most efficient way to do things, but that's how I do it! I'd also like to mention that I really like having access to my to-dos through Toodledo.com when I am at my work computer at my day-job. My previous to-do tech was Mac Entourage/Palm Treo. Although I could manage tasks on the Treo when out and about, my desktop at home was my home base and where I preferred to do the heavy lifting. Now, with Toodledo.com, I can do all of that at work, too, and referencing/changing stuff on the iPhone when needed through Appigo Todo is far superior to the Treo's to-do app. (I also pay for the Pro version of Toodledo, to get the encryption and to give them some monetary love for their efforts.) This message was edited Nov 07, 2008. |
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Gummi |
As J-Mac points out, I have found that the calendar works best for me when it only holds the items that absolutely have to happen on the time appointed on the calendar.
That way, I know that what is on the calendar MUST be on the calendar. A meeting that I absolutely must attend, birthday party I have promised to show up for, a time I have promised to pick up my mother at the doctor's, etc. The effects are simple: If I don't do the things on the calendar, they simply will not happen. The consequences are most often obvious, and as J-Mac adds, painful. |
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rainerschnelle |
Tasks go on the Todo list and appointments with people are in the calendar. That works for me fine and I have never had to write things down twice.
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rosena |
Sometimes in outlook I create an "all day event" with a reminder that shows the day as "free" in addition to creating a task - that helps make sure that I see that something has to be done on, or by that day.
Sometimes, if I have a list of things I have to do today - I will just do the same thing and create an all day event and list those 3 or 4 must do things on that day. (This works as I have to look at my calendar multiple times per day and it saves having to enter everything into the task manager - when I know these will be completed today. |
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Canyon Russell |
I just found a great solution for this using Google calendar.
Rather than using the Google calendar Gadget I used the iCal subscription and now any items with a due date show up on my Google Calendar, and therefor on my G1. I use a different color than my regular calendar so I know where they came from. I also use the Due Date modifiers to control how they show up. If you just have a due date but no time it makes a regular appointment that lasts all day. But if you use the "=" date modifier you get an "all day" appointment that just sits up at the top of the calendar. This is my new favorite feature of Toodledo. Unfortunately Google calendar only refreshes the iCal every 24 hours so things you create today won't show up until tomorrow. I can only assume that iCal on the mac would do something similar for those using iPhones. |
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Fiera |
This was very helpful, as I was wondering how the calender part worked, I just started using toodledo a few days ago, and since I didn't have any time specific to-do's on my todo list i couldn't figure out the calander. Thank you for this insight.
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shun! |
calender = regularly scheduled events (work schedule, class schedule, car maintenance schedule, etc)
toodledo = tasks/to-do's Unfortunately, I've yet to get google to work with my toodledo ical feed, but at least the gadget thing works. edit: strangely enough, since i upgraded to pro about 15 minutes ago, the ical feature is at least showing up in gcal -and hopefully working as advertised. Guess I'll have to wait 24 hours or so to see if the tasks show up. This message was edited Jan 18, 2009. |
| smcharr | Post deleted |
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smcharr |
I bought a program called BusySync ($25 www.busymac.com)that lets me sync Google Calendar with iCal on my Mac immediately (no 24 hour waiting period). I then sync my iPod Touch with my Mac to get all of the entries onto the calendar on the Touch. That is an easy way to keep Toodledo entries on Google Calendar current on the Touch's calendar.
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Ben |
I use Toodledo with 30boxes.com, which also has the ability to have an iCal feed (like Google Calendar).
Its a great view of my tasks/events, and looks great in the iPhone. I don't have to look at my calendar very often, but when I do, 30boxes.com does the trick. |
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Sytone |
Just been playing with Outlook 2007 and the iCal feed, this is working well and will pick up tasks with just the date as a all day appointment and tasks with a due time it will slot into the calendar. then just turn overlay mode on and you have both calendars open.
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replytoken |
I hate to revive an old thread, but this topic seems quite timeless. To set my perspective in context, I am trying to migrate from a Palm-based device running DateBk to a web/iPod Touch (iPT) set-up for tasks and my personal calendar.
I believe that anybody's answer to this question greatly depends on the tools at hand. In DateBk, there were appointments and floating events (there were also to-do's but they did not tie into the calendar or alarm system so I will ignore them for the discussion). floating events were great for tasks because they could have an alarm, date and time, and if desired, recur, but they also carried forward on the calendar until resolved. This allows a seemless relationship between appointments and floating events with respect to alarms, notifications and displays. My current arrangement, which I am still testing before I migrate, involves Toodledo, Google Calendar and Mail, Nuevasync and the iPT native calendar. I have not yet upgraded to OS 3.0 from Apple, but this system should work just as well in either OS. For my new calendar arrangement, I am proposing that its items be populated by anything requiring a specific block of time to which I have made a commitment. Appointments, vacation, personal engagements, etc. The idea being that if I need to schedule an event on the calendar, I can see at a glance what time is or is not available for the potential commitment. This calendar would be available on the web at Google, and on my iPT on or off line. Tasks, dated or otherwise, will most likely live in Toodledo, although I am still having to adjust to the concept of having all of my birthdays and other dated anniversaries not on my calendar. I may put these on my calendar, but I will probably not decide until I can figure out which program is better at handling recurring events. Now, here is how I am proposing to link the two together. Toodledo and Gmail, will act as my visual reminder/notification system. My Pro account lets me send e-mail reminders, and Google's Calendar offers the same feature. So, for the time being, I have all of my reminder notifications sent to my Gmail account, and my Google Calendar reminders are also sent to Toodledo. Gmail will be the place to look if I just want to view my reminders. Toodledo will be the place to go if I need to get into the detail of my tasks, as it should be. And, my calendar will be reserved for when I need to find open time for appointments involving time commitments. It works reasonably well on the iPT or on a PC and it gives me a list of notifications that I can view at my leisure. I can still use Apple's calendar if I want an audible notification within two days of an event scheduled on a calenar, but I have found over the years that I mostly use the audible calendar as a travel alarm. I am usually tuned into the clock, and a list of reminders serves me better than an audible alarm. I would like to have everything in one place, but Google needs to get its act together with respect to iCal feeds and tasks. For me, this arrangement seems to take advantage of each program's strengths, and it avoids what I find to be weaknesses. Its a start, and it has taken me some time to cobble together, so I am sure it will change over time. In fact, it already did this morning when I added PingMe to the line up. I am evaluating it, but I like its simple free form system for "quick and dirty" notifications. And, it seems to tie in nicely with Google and Toodledo. --Ken P.S. I forgot to mention Pocket Informant (sorry Anders). Tehy are working on trying to tie everything together, but the current version is not there yet. It is probably the program to watch, and it may replace my proposed arrangement, but for now its not quite there. This message was edited Jul 06, 2009. |
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David Harper |
I try and put everything into Toodledo - however I'm considering changing this. I've been re-reading the GTD book and noticed that I'm now by default assigning due dates to just about any new task. I don't actually like this so was considering removing the date column from my view.
It would be really nice if there was an option like the add note part where you could open up all of the other hidden fields and edit them. Then by default I could just add tasks - but during a review I could see if any of them are time sensitive and then add a due date. |
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Vin Thomas |
I agree with David, due dates need to be only for tasks that really need due dates. I use priority and status to determine the order of my tasks. Due dates come in handy for me though sometimes. I like having them available.
I wish there were someway to remove due dates from my main view and add them in an "Advanced options" dialogue box (same goes with repeated tasks, reminders, etc). |
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Proximo |
I use due dates in Toodledo only for task that must be completed by that date. I set the reminders via. SMS so that I don't forget to get them done with enough time to meet the due date.
I use Google Calendar with SMS reminders for things that need to take place on that day, such as an appointment. Since Toodledo (For Task/Project) sends me reminders via. SMS and Google Calendar (For date specific events) sends me reminders via. SMS. I am always connected to my Task/Projects Reminders and my Calendar specific events. Simple is better for me. |
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jpdoconnell |
I use contexts to schedule when I'll do each task -- i.e., to create daily "to-do" lists. I've found this very helpful and want to share the idea, even though I'm sure lots of people have come up with it. (I searched the forums before posting this, but if this duplicates, I'm sorry.)
My problem was that TD provided no way to schedule when I would do a task, unless I used its start or due date as a proxy. So I was just making lists in hard copy for each day and ending up constantly copying unfinished tasks to the next day's list. So I set up a context for each day of the week, each starting with a number so they sort in the right order: "1 Monday," "2 Tuesday," "3 Wednesday," etc. For any task I think I'll do in the next week, I set its context according to the day I plan to do it. Other tasks have no context and I can periodically look at the "no context" list and see if anything's becoming urgent. (I may extend the system and add other when-to-do contexts, like "Sometime in next two weeks.") My first look at TD each day is as the list of tasks with the context for that day of the week -- e.g., today I pulled up the Context = "1 Monday" list. When I realize in a few hours that some things won't get done today, I'll change their contexts to "2 Tuesday" or (for most) "3 Thursday," since my Wednesdays are crazy. Some of my recurring tasks have a default context -- for example, I have something that's always due on Saturdays, but I try to do it Fridays, so default due date is Saturday but default context is "5 Friday." |
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Kelly Regan |
Pocket Informant will place small red dots with the number of due tasks in the calender.
While testing I could not get the todo task numbers to upload to Google calender but it does show up on the iphone. My main problem with PI, no support for sub tasks. That is in the next release as I understand it. |
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