I can welcome this for time specific task ie. like you mention that call after lunch, that’s the hard landscape speaking in pure GTD terms so if Everdo pushes a tasks to a specific calendar (in my Mac you can have a bunch of calendars at once, I assume Windows does that the same but I’m sure other folks can chime in) Then that task will sound via the mobile phone, Apple Watch, or Mac.
But I would not want it AUTOMATICALLY, perhaps a checkbox would be great to push it out but I don’t think its need it for every single scheduled item.
I think this is quite a positive feature and hope it comes in the near future.
Then you have to manage the task in two different apps. Not only that but a calendar needs start time and end time, which is completely different from a task which is only an at point.
You realize there are free apps that already let you set reminders and times on your tasks, right?
I love when I’m riding my bike home from work with my earpiece my phone gives me a reminder, “sorry, this is your task. Buy eggs on your way home.”
On my way to work , before I even get there it says," today you need to meet with Sam."
When I open my next actions list I can see tasks for the day in order of due time. Easy to know what I need to do first, immediately.
It is the only feature that was needed. Lacking both, notifications and the ability to sort tasks by due time just cripples the usefulness and makes more work for the end user.
The only reason that time was not factored into David Allen’s book, is that the book was written before the age of smartphones in their current state and written for using a pad of paper.
Like I said ages ago, if you don’t have timed reminders and sorting and filtering by due time then just use a pad of paper.
I agree with @joshuarobison and @manu about task due time option or reminder for a task. Everybody who want to stick with “classic” GTD method could not use this function, I can’t see any problem here.
I moved to Linux recently and I’m looking for Todoist replacement due to “electron” desktop client and subscription-based model. I got used to use Todoist as my only app and it worked flawlessly for me for a couple of years. In addition to task reminders and location-based reminders (you can set it to trigger notification for a specific task when you, let’s say, moving out from work or coming home) natural language when adding tasks on mobile works great too (something like: "Alex check-in in 3 days at 5pm p1 #checkin). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling that Everdo should be Todoist, but borrow couple of really useful features which anybody could OPTIONALLY use sounds great. I really like the interface of Everdo, how well it’s laid out, the ability to store my data locally and so on. But I also think the ability to add due time to a task will greatly improve workflow for some people.
I tried to use calendar for time-based events several times and every time it failed. I’m an AirBnb host and I’m tracking a lot of check-in’s, check-out’s and other related things in my to-do manager. Very often I need to shift/snooze the task for couple hours after due to late plane or other circumstances and doing this in the calendar is very slow and a bit of pain to be honest. Constant switching between two apps to not to miss some important task is also don’t help for the fluid workflow. I’m fully understand that a lot of people prefer to not be notified and review their “Next” folder manually, but I can’t get why we can’t see time-based option for those who really need it (you can also add the checkbox in the Settings to enable it to not bother those people who are not using this function).
Take a look at the development roadmap . Time-based notifications made it to the List A feature requests. So the commitment to implement this feature already was made.
Time based reminders are not anti-classic GTD. Time reminders did not exist at the time the GTD book was written. phones and tablets were not in the book either. The book does not specify to use a pen or pencil either. All of these things are "aids’’ to assist in classic GTD. timed reminders assist classic GTD just as much as a pencil and eraserdo…
I think this is fake history!
The book was released 2001, the first blackberry phone was released in 1999, the first palm pilot was released in 1996, Nokia Communicator even earlier. All of them could be synced to software like outlook… and don’t forget paper based calenders…
First published in 2001 which means it was written even before 2001. You are just proving my point. PDAs & phones were not in general use or seen as a means of notification/alarm/reminder. That possibility was not in the mind of the author. If you’ve actually read his book you will notice that all of his solutions are analog / tangible (a physical filing system , a physical pad of paper, a physical calendar) but these are not GTD, these are tools to help in his philosophy. Any tool can be implemented if it benefits and follows the guidelines of Allen’s GTD.
Physically attempting to remember when you have entered into one of your @ contexts at the specific time of entering the context VS setting up a notification to automatically bring up that context list HAS nothing to do with being GTD or not.
So, which one is better?
The answer is obvious, setting up a reminder.
Especially for people like me who get distracted. Even a reminder to look at the app will not work because I will think something like “This reminder is telling me I need to look at the app now but … I don’t recall needing to do anything in this context at the moment” and I will trust my bad memory and miss something.
This is only about making GTD more efficient and has nothing to do with whether it is orthodox GTD or not.
I use GTD and Everdo in an office setting. Some days things are managable and I can refer to my lists and go through the process like I normally would. Other times it’s chaos and requires rapid refocussing. I’m booking appointments, making and taking phone calls, dealing with customers walking through the door in the space of 10 minutes. Sometimes I need a little jog to remember things.
For example, if I’m due to go out on an outside appointment and the boss asks “can you ask them xyz?” - there might be distractions on the way to the appointment, or discussion may go a certain way at the appointment and I’ll totally forget to ask them. Having reminders in Everdo, I would put that in as a task and set it to remind me 10 mins into the appointment - then I’d get a ‘ping’ glance at my phone and see the task. Job done!
Everdo is fantastic as it is, but reminders would take it to the next level.
I’m with you in your argumentation. Do you mind describing your workflow/telling where you settled then? (I wanted to write a PM, but could find a way to do so. )
The notifications feature is now in internal testing, which means that soon it will be available in the Early Access User Group
The current design of the feature allows to assing a notification time (called a Reminder) to any active or scheduled item. This reminder will trigger a native offline Android/iOS notification at the specified time.
A reminder assigned to an active item will continue to repeat every day until the item is completed or deleted.
A reminder assigned to a repeating item will trigger on the day of repeating. A clone of the repeating item will inherit the reminder as well and will trigger the notification every day until it’s completed.
A reminder assigned to a scheduled (start date) item will trigger on the start date and repeat until the item is completed.
The current design has the notifications scheduled locally, as opposed to push-notifications. This means that the app must be kept synced and must be opened at least every couple of days in order to maintain a correct schedule of notifications.
Sounds good to me.
It’s a non-privacy invasive way to achieve reminders.
Two questions/points to understand it better:
If I would like a reminder on a certain task for a specific time I would need to set an start date to that date and than the reminder to the specific time on that date, right?
Would such an approach also allow for Desktop apps to use reminders via desktop notifications as well (even though not now)? Or asked otherwise: Would this implementation allow reminders to be synchronized across devices? (E.g. also two mobile devices like phone and tablet)
If the task must start in the future, then you are correct.
If the task is already active, then just set a reminder. If the reminder time is greater then the current time, then it will trigger a notification today, otherwise it will be tomorrow.
At this iteration only the mobile apps will have the UI and OS integration to create notifications. But adding the desktop app support is relatively easy in the future.
Reminder times are synced between all devices, including the desktop app. In fact, a desktop app upgrade to 1.4.3 will be required for correct operation of the feature.
So if you set a reminder on an item, the reminder gets synced to ESS (as part of the item’s changes). Then when you open another mobile device, it will receive the reminder and schedule a notification locally.
The Notifications feature is now in Early Access. If you would like to join, please follow the instructions. If you want to test on an Android device, please also PM your Google Play email to @Andrei.
That is inaccurate. GTD is filled with analog buzz and beep. David Allen made a whole reminder system including his calendar box where he would drop materials into slots for specific months, weeks and dates. He even has a weekly system where the day off the week reminds you of something.
The book was simply written before the age of smartphones. The basic idea of setting up reminders for your future self is the epitome of what GTD is about.
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