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Scheduling, planning and follow-through. Some questions
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Posted by MadaboutDana
May 24, 2014 at 07:56 PM
Hm. Following our interesting conversations about outliners vs. task managers vs. calendars vs. project managers, I’ve stumbled across a rather nice little Mac app called DayMap which combines, yes, a task manager with a calendar (tasks on top, calendar on bottom). Unusually, however, it allows you to run multiple task lists side by side (something I’m increasingly keen on) and - this will excite some of you! - to run them as outlines (i.e. with tasks and folding subtasks). Any task that’s given a due date will appear in the calendar view below.
It’s an unusually elegant little solution - I’ve seen other attempts to do this, but nothing anywhere near as neat.
Fans of Trello (especially those of you who like Trello’s calendar view) will love it. And it only costs £7 (ca. $11).
There’s an iPhone app as well, and apparently they’re working on an iPad version. Sadly, it’s not available for Windows.
Posted by Hugh
May 25, 2014 at 05:43 PM
Interesting! Several Mac task managers seem to be going or have recently gone in the direction of graphically representing on a calendar when you’re planning to carry out your tasks, including the Granddaddy, Omnifocus. Not exactly GTD as I remember it originally recommended by David Allen, but still a useful development.
Posted by Ken
May 26, 2014 at 04:09 AM
MadaboutDana wrote:
Hm. Following our interesting conversations about outliners vs. task
>managers vs. calendars vs. project managers, I’ve stumbled across a
>rather nice little Mac app called DayMap which combines, yes, a task
>manager with a calendar (tasks on top, calendar on bottom). Unusually,
>however, it allows you to run multiple task lists side by side
>(something I’m increasingly keen on) and - this will excite some of you!
>- to run them as outlines (i.e. with tasks and folding subtasks). Any
>task that’s given a due date will appear in the calendar view below.
>
>It’s an unusually elegant little solution - I’ve seen other attempts to
>do this, but nothing anywhere near as neat.
Thanks for the reference, Bill. This looks like a great beginning, but like many of the apps, it seems to be shy of a few things that might prove useful to many. I think that adding just tags alone would take this to another level, although I am starting to grow fond of apps that can send and receive email. I have been mulling a MBA, but as it is not a necessity, it is still sitting on my wish list. But, if I do eventually take the plunge, I would give this some consideration.
Thanks,
—Ken
>
>Fans of Trello (especially those of you who like Trello’s calendar view)
>will love it. And it only costs £7 (ca. $11).
>
>There’s an iPhone app as well, and apparently they’re working on an iPad
>version. Sadly, it’s not available for Windows.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
May 26, 2014 at 06:22 AM
Hugh wrote:
>Interesting! Several Mac task managers seem to be going or have recently
>gone in the direction of graphically representing on a calendar when
>you’re planning to carry out your tasks, including the Granddaddy,
>Omnifocus. Not exactly GTD as I remember it originally recommended by
>David Allen, but still a useful development.
Others interested in this kind of feature may want to take a look at Pagico (mentioned here years ago I believe): http://www.pagico.com/
Planning beforehand _when_ non time-determined tasks are to be implemented is indeed not classic GTD and possibly reduces flexibility. On the other hand, I find that scheduling blocks of hours to work on major tasks requiring concecutively focused work—i.e. tasks that cannot be meaningfully advanced within 1-2 pomodoros—is critical for such undertakings. When I did my MBA concurrently with my job, the weekly regularity of work was conducive to my blocking half days for my assignments. I don’t think I’ve ever worked in such a structured way for such a long time before—or since.
It has been mentioned before that the GTD methodology is fine for people required to do many minor tasks during their workday. It is far from ideal for, say, writers, who need to ‘get into the flow’ and whose work cannot be broken into small independently implemented tasks.
BTW, I have found this topic extremely interesting and appreciate the valuable personal contributions and insights beyond software and tools. I hope to add more of my own—when I find the time.
Posted by Hugh
May 26, 2014 at 08:51 AM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
Hugh wrote:
>>Interesting! Several Mac task managers seem to be going or have
>recently
>>gone in the direction of graphically representing on a calendar when
>>you’re planning to carry out your tasks, including the Granddaddy,
>>Omnifocus. Not exactly GTD as I remember it originally recommended by
>>David Allen, but still a useful development.
>
>Others interested in this kind of feature may want to take a look at
>Pagico (mentioned here years ago I believe): http://www.pagico.com/
Precisely yes, Pagico was one of the applications I had in mind when I wrote the paragraph above.
>Planning beforehand _when_ non time-determined tasks are to be
>implemented is indeed not classic GTD and possibly reduces flexibility.
>On the other hand, I find that scheduling blocks of hours to work on
>major tasks requiring concecutively focused work—i.e. tasks that
>cannot be meaningfully advanced within 1-2 pomodoros—is critical for
>such undertakings.
My thinking too.
>It has been mentioned before that the GTD methodology is fine for people
>required to do many minor tasks during their workday. It is far from
>ideal for, say, writers, who need to ‘get into the flow’ and whose work
>cannot be broken into small independently implemented tasks.
I’m beginning to think that I need two separate ways of managing my tasks - one like Pagico a halfway-house between a task manager and a full-blown project manager, for longer-term projects that demand that you ‘get into the flow’, and one like, say, Omnifocus for everything else. (Incidentally, Pagico seems to have improved its act since this forum considered it a couple of years ago. It’s still quirky, but appears more reliable in use and slightly less obscure in its UI, and it also now has an iOS application. The Omni Group has just released Omnifocus 2, with numerous improvements; for me its new UI lacks contrast and therefore, to a certain extent, impact, but as a GTD application, close to the David Allen vision but not obsessively so, unlike some others, I expect it will remain the market leader on the Mac.)
>BTW, I have found this topic extremely interesting and appreciate the
>valuable personal contributions and insights beyond software and tools.
>I hope to add more of my own—when I find the time.