An API would be fantastic! I have lots of other use cases, like syncing tasks with my Gitlab instance, importing from caldav, sending email reminders, creating tasks from scripts, etc. An API would solve basically all of my interoperability needs. So the REST server could run on any machine on which Everdo was installed, and use a token or something to authenticate? Then I could proxy behind nginx (for SSL) if I wanted to access the API from the internet? Or a headless Everdo instance?
And yes, an Android client would solve eliminate any desire to do incoming sync from caldav.
Lacking full calendar integration right now, I’d like time to be a part of a scheduled item, with start and stop dates. That would make it easier to organize days with meetings. Pushing to Google or some other calendar service could follow.
From a purely GTD perspective I believe an integration with 3rd party calendar is not optimal. I say this because google calendar for example does a very bad job at presenting tasks to you if they are not set for a specific time. They are just put on the top as an all day event. Additionally, you cannot interact with the task from google calendar.
I realize that creating an in-app calendar feature might be a lot of work, but it would be much better than an integration. Maybe even less frustration in the long run because you have to keep up with eventual 3rd party changes. I am no expert tho. As a user, I would prefer an in-app solution over integration. Events can stay in the various calendars and task should remain in Everdo!
The above example with chaos control is a good one.
I often end up creating google calendar events based on my focus list in the morning.
I think it would be nice if they could at least get created automatically once the new day begins. This way I would just need to drag/rearrange the events and be done with this.
I think this highlights a difference between GTD and the Things 3 workflow.
From the pictures you’ve provided it seems like Things encourages you to schedule actions for a particular day.
In Everdo (and GTD) you are encouraged to work with the Next list, where you see what you can work on now. There is also “Scheduled” list which shows a breakdown of upcoming items and their due dates, which is similar to what you are looking for.
In other words, the way I see it:
Today in Things roughly equals Next in Everdo
Upcoming in Things roughly equals Scheduled in Everdo
Things 3 workflow is based on "timeline’ perspective.
Today is Focus(Priorities) list. It lists following tasks - priority tasks, tasks scheduled for today, due today and calendar events.
Upcoming lists scheduled tasks, tasks assigned future due date and calendar events
Anytime lists tasks having no date assigned (no start date and no due date)
So if we compare everdo & Things 3 workflows,
Today = Focus (+Calendar events)
Upcoming = Scheduled tasks + tasks with future due date (+Calendar events)
Anytime = Next - (tasks with due date)
Please refer to attachments.
What I am trying to convey is that if we can see tasks due for the day & events scheduled for the day in one list, it will be very useful for daily review. Another good example is Microsoft outlook.
Apologies if this is the wrong location or if it has been mentioned before, but something I’d really use is a quick add feature with a default reminder time. 2Do has this mechanism and it’s great for quickly getting something ‘remembered’ without it going into the ever deepening abyss of todos.
The experience: Me, walking to car: 'ooh I must remember to book a dentist appointment tomorrow. (I tell myself this each evening after the dentist has closed, but get busy the next day and forget again). Me: grab phone, tap Everdo widget, quickly type (or ooh gasp!: dictate) ‘call dentist’. As I’ve already configured the widget to add a Scheduled item that will remind me at 10am the following business day to do this, the next day I get a reminder and actually do it. Thanks Everdo!
I do appreciate that this would likely have to be post calendar integration.
In the desktop app it could be context aware and likely only add the reminder date and time when the Scheduled action is selected, on mobile it could be done via widget configuration: add widget, in widget settings choose default action, if action is ‘Scheduled’ show default reminder time. Added bonus: multiple widgets for multiple quick adds. Double bonus for voice add.
Thanks for the wonderful app.
It seems to me like in this case just using Inbox would work. Whenever you come up with stuff, you just add it to Inbox. There are no required field in Everdo, so you just type “call dentist”, save and forget about it. At some point when you have time, you’ll review your Inbox and do something about everything contained in there. Wouldn’t that work?
Hi Andrei, for me at least, the big selling point is that the item ‘comes to me’ as it is, rather than me needing to go looking for it. Being able to set a time (say 9:30am) is not so much about the event needing to be done at that particular time, but rather me being in a situation where that item is actionable, as in, the dental business has opened, and I’m able to call them. Unfortunately, if one gets busy with other tasks, ‘save and forget about it’ as you aptly put it, is exactly what happens :).
I’d like my relationship with Everdo to be a two way street, rather than me needing to go to it all the time. I was surprised by how useful this functionality is in 2Do, and how often I reached for it. Thanks for listening.
In my opinion, an agenda app and a todo app are different tools created for handling different items.
Before starting with integrations, I think that the best would be to focus first on improving Everdo
and making it really become the best GTD app by itself.
Just my personal note, which I think is related. I have a context/tag called @dull_things and it contains actions I don’t really want to do, but which need to be done and don’t require much planning. Like scheduling a dentist appointment. I have a time slot in my calendar when I review this context and complete these actions.
I guess this is how GTD should work in general - you identify the context when the action is relevant and the action will show up once you are in the right context.
I would agree that sending tasks to a calendar is sub-optimal, as you state.
That said, I believe the intent is to acknowledge that every task that is ever completed is done in time, thus in reality happens somewhere on the calendar. I think this last step of placing a task on the calendar, with an approximate duration, is the ultimate and final forcing function to make us acknowledge the ultimate truth of GTD, and that is that you can accomplish anything you want, just not everything you want.
Any news? I’ll be glad to have just implemented calendar even without Google calendar of Microsoft calendar sync (this feature can wait really). Also I wanna have discrete Today tab or as part of Calendar view. Seems it’s not quite hard to implement it too. Focus tab is good, but not complete for time- and actions (things) management. Because calendar/Today brings clear look to my plans and 2do-items, extended with GTD way.
We don’t need calendar integration. We need timed reminders to be built into the tasks and to get notifications from the app.
The only reason you have to spend time setting up your focus list into your calendar app is because Everdo doesn’t have timed reminders and notifications.
Timed reminders in Todoist allowed me to see what I needed to do at the exact time I needed to do it.
If I have to schedule all my focused tasks into a calendar then Everdo becomes useless to even open it.
I can just open my calendar . Why take the extra step?
I use my calendar for blocking routines.
Look. You are competing with features that other services are offering.
If you get calendar integration working in such a way that provides timed reminders and notifications that can be managed DIRECTLY WITHIN Everdo,
Good on you.
How would that even work though?
If that is the solution then, I guess it’s a good one.
I’d rather have that then what we’ve got now with zero notifications or due times.
