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Calendar view of Tasks: how will you use it?


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There have been a huge number of requests for a calendar view of tasks and/or an integration that allows tasks to be seen on a 3rd party calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, etc.).

We're starting to think through how we will build this feature.

What are your use cases for for a calendar view of tasks? What are the must-solve problems this feature needs to address for you?

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Yeesh. Not sure I'm ecstatic to see more bells and whistles pasted onto an already s-l-o-w app. 

The first thing a calendar add-in would need is speed - if I'm allocating priorities and tasks I don't want to have to wait for any length of time to be able to allocate or change a time slot,  or move on to the next entry.  And my Evernote entries either need to be as flexible as the connected calendar will be in terms of time / duration / repeatability*,  or the Evernote record needs to use the Calendar entry as a trigger for reminders.

The two entries should be synced,  so changes to either one will change the other;  and print options should include calendar views so I can have a hard copy of my day / week / month commitments to carry around.

My use case is that tasks are either personal or delegated to others,  and involve an open-ended operation to achieve a specific objective within a reasonable time scale,  or will include deadlines for meetings / stages / completion.  Either way blocks of time need to be allocated for various activities,  with alerts available for some or all of them.

My current calendar of choice is Google which pretty much covers all of the date-related parts of that and more.  Ideally I would be able to drive Google entries without ever needing to open the calendar view at all...

* daily/weekly/monthly/ every x days / months / years etc

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My two cents for tasks ,  based on my needs :

  • rather than including tasks in the calendar view ( unless you can add Outlook 365  link....) ,  I'd prefer to see iOs/ iPados badge notification of not completed tasks for Today .At least for me,  a visual reminder helps 
  • the other feature for tasks ,  but not related to calendar view;  to implement the GTD sort of tasks (  today we only have By due date / by note / assigned and starred ) . If we could organize tasks ( especially the not dated )  into Follow up  /  Next /  On hold / etc ( action catergorie) ,  it could turn the EN into a task manager ( without  flexible views and badge reminders it's still not a task management )

Claudio 

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@Jack Lynch I would use a link to create calendar events from within a note.  A typical process might be to be working on a  note and deciding to create a calendar event arising from it. At the moment I use Chronofy to create a  calendar entry but it isn't linked to the note except that the note exists and can be searched for and added to. An Evernote linked calendar entry would allow me to look at the calendar and go strainght to the note that was previously created.

I would also welcome some control over which calendar events triggered a note taking reminder.

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As long as there is no iCal integration, it is useless for me. If there were an iCal integration, uses cases may be:

Assign a task to an event, like a meeting or a phone call already scheduled

Make a task create a calendar event, like a reminder or an action item

Link a note holding tasks to a calendar event, to get at them by opening the note from the calendar

Currently I use Things 3 as my task manager - they have a nice iCal integration, showing the calendar in Things. It does not work the other way however, showing Things tasks with a planned date in iCal.

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Thank you @gazumped @Claudiofpiga @agsteele @PinkElephant. Lots for us to chew on here.

I'm curious what you all think of @gazumped's suggestion of a printable view that can be carried around.

I've been thinking a lot about this use case (I sure would use it personally🙂), but I've heard some feedback that "people don't really use printers that much any more because they're a pain to connect to, troubleshoot, etc." If that's true, it would make this feature a lower priority on our roadmap.

How much do others value the printable view feature?

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23 minutes ago, Jack Lynch said:

How much do others value the printable view feature?

I'm not sure that I would print a paper version but I might well print to a PDF which would be available to me as needed.  However, if this relies on the current Evernote print fundtion then I'm not sure that I would rely too much. Printing in Evernote 10 is quite dysfunctional ( well documented in many forum threads).

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Personnally,  I don't use paper anymore . 

I don't see the value of a printable version  for me,  neither a pdf (  that will not be dynamic and interactive) ,  but it's a personal opinion  (I rarely print any) note 

for me the best would be an extensive filter & tag system instead of printable version .

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First:
For me tasks in Evernote really works. Beceause it suits my way of thinking.
I have a subject (Note), where different tasks are forming.
By setting due dates i get a task list for each day, and i never forget an important task.

Problem:
At the moment i use the tasks list by due date to monitor upcoming tasks.
It only has the devisions: Overdue, Today, next 7 days.
=> I cant have a look at the tasks for tomorow or the taks of sunday.

Possible solution:
Tasks are synced with google agenda or outlook calendar.
=> I could have an easy view on the upcoming tasks of a certain day.

Bonus points:
-Possibility to place the task to another date in google calendar and evernote automaticly changes the due date in Evernote.
-If a task gets deleted in google calendar, the task gets deleted in Evernote.
-By clicking a link in the task of google calendar, the Evernote app opens the specific note
-Possibility to chose to sync to google calendar or Outlook for each specific task
-If a task isnt deleted or checked done, it gets transfered to the next day. (due date is changed)

 

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Hi, I think it is great you are working on this. For me, a calendar view is not essential, even though, it could be useful to apply a "blocking  time" approach to task and time management. What is really important for me is a more agile way to see the tasks of the current scope (note, folder, stack). I'd like to have another panel, on the right-hand side of the screen (on the Desktop) that shows the tasks of the current note, folder or stack (there would be a switch to select the scope). This way I would always have the list of tasks of the current project. Now I have to navigate to Tasks and apply a filter, which takes time.

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Another thing about tasks, is that they have reminders, and deadlines. What would the calendar show? Both? Now I can't search or sort notes by reminder, which is a pity, as it makes task reminders quite useless to me. I would like reminders to be a sort of "scheduled time" to do the task (the day I have to start working on it, and the deadline, the day I should finish it. But I would need a way to see and sort the tasks by reminder.

 

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On 11/24/2021 at 1:49 PM, Jack Lynch said:

What are your use cases for for a calendar view of tasks? What are the must-solve problems this feature needs to address for you?

The calendar feature would not solve any must-solve problems for me if the tasks were brought over as appointments/events to google calendar. The only thing it would really do for me is provide me a single location to see ALL tasks as I still have to use iOS Reminders for some features. Though I could see having a task with a due time that is set as an appointment at whatever time driving me nuts as tasks and calendar events are two very different things. 

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@Pere This point makes a ton of sense to me:

I'd like to have another panel, on the right-hand side of the screen (on the Desktop) that shows the tasks of the current note, folder or stack (there would be a switch to select the scope). This way I would always have the list of tasks of the current project.

An idea for a solution to that problem that isn't quite what you are describing but would be much simpler to implement:

Right now the Tasks view (some people call it the Tasks drawer) closes if your cursor is focused anywhere outside it. We could give you the option to "pin" it open, so you can see it alongside the note you are working in.

Any reactions to that idea?

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5 hours ago, Jack Lynch said:

@Pere This point makes a ton of sense to me:

I'd like to have another panel, on the right-hand side of the screen (on the Desktop) that shows the tasks of the current note, folder or stack (there would be a switch to select the scope). This way I would always have the list of tasks of the current project.

An idea for a solution to that problem that isn't quite what you are describing but would be much simpler to implement:

Right now the Tasks view (some people call it the Tasks drawer) closes if your cursor is focused anywhere outside it. We could give you the option to "pin" it open, so you can see it alongside the note you are working in.

Any reactions to that idea?

It makes sense. It would be even better if it would automatically change the task filter to the current folder when on navigates to another folder. 

Now, it takes a lot of work to switch contexts: find new folder, change to it, check notes, the open the task drawer, open the filter, find the folder again, ...

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I'll agree with @TheKnighWhoSaysNI in his Bonus Points section about the the date auto forwarding if it's not completed.

Otherwise, I'm not sure I really care for task integration with a third party calendar.  If you were to implement, I'd suggest some kind of bare-bones link that lives in the calendar but links back to the actual task in EN.  Then, I could see (in my calendar) that I do have tasks, and how they lay out temporally with my calendar appts.  Getting too many items in with my calendar appointments would be crowded and I'd lose sight of appointments.

But, redirecting me back to EN via a tiny url or similar would keep my workflow in EN.  +1 for @dbvirago

I would like to see a calendar view of my tasks within EN though, or perhaps a gantt style calendar view.  Doesn't need to be fancy.

If the goal is to make tasks more effective, I'd vote for a little more info within each task.  Maybe an option to link to an outside URL, or the abilty to tag tasks (especially if they're created without an associated note.  The ability to add a few lines of text in the body of the task to provide context so I don't have to try to do that in the note title...

thanks for asking.

 

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The current Task feature has been good for helping me keep organized.   I do find my self moving tasks from 1 note to another so that I have them in a "common area" to review and prioritize.  I don't find the Tasks slide out window very useful because I categorize my tasks beyond just due date.   I'm a bit constraint in this because I use an Eisenhower Matrix to review and prioritize tasks on a weekly / daily basis.  I cannot easily do this today because tasks cannot be created in a table, but I understand that feature is on the roadmap....🤞 it will be soon.  

@Jack LynchHaving a synchronization allowing me to display tasks in a calendar as an "event" that I could assign a block of time to is ideal.  I imagine I could use the calendar to do that, but at least being able to link between Evernote and a Calendar would be helpful.  I would not use a print feature.  With my workplace moving to remote, I find that I print very little these days and have not missed a beat.  

 

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21 hours ago, lost_gweedo said:

I'll agree with @TheKnighWhoSaysNI in his Bonus Points section about the the date auto forwarding if it's not completed.

Otherwise, I'm not sure I really care for task integration with a third party calendar.  If you were to implement, I'd suggest some kind of bare-bones link that lives in the calendar but links back to the actual task in EN.  Then, I could see (in my calendar) that I do have tasks, and how they lay out temporally with my calendar appts.  Getting too many items in with my calendar appointments would be crowded and I'd lose sight of appointments.

But, redirecting me back to EN via a tiny url or similar would keep my workflow in EN.  +1 for @dbvirago

I would like to see a calendar view of my tasks within EN though, or perhaps a gantt style calendar view.  Doesn't need to be fancy.

If the goal is to make tasks more effective, I'd vote for a little more info within each task.  Maybe an option to link to an outside URL, or the abilty to tag tasks (especially if they're created without an associated note.  The ability to add a few lines of text in the body of the task to provide context so I don't have to try to do that in the note title...

thanks for asking.

 

@lost_gweedo Thanks for sharing these detailed ideas. You said you wanted to be able to put more info within each task. We are definitely working on some things aimed at addressing that need. But just making sure you know: on the latest versions, you can put clickable URLs and up to 1,000 characters in the task title. (Internal note links don't work yet, but we'll be fixing that in the next couple of releases.)

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11 minutes ago, Jack Lynch said:

@lost_gweedo Thanks for sharing these detailed ideas. You said you wanted to be able to put more info within each task. We are definitely working on some things aimed at addressing that need. But just making sure you know: on the latest versions, you can put clickable URLs and up to 1,000 characters in the task title. (Internal note links don't work yet, but we'll be fixing that in the next couple of releases.)

Thank you for the reply and the reminder about links in task titles.  I'm happy that EN is asking for throughts and actually reading it--kudos.  It may just be me....I like short note and task titles to keep my initial views concise, but I'll keep using your advice for now.  thanks!

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3 hours ago, Jack Lynch said:

@lost_gweedo Thanks for sharing these detailed ideas. You said you wanted to be able to put more info within each task. We are definitely working on some things aimed at addressing that need. But just making sure you know: on the latest versions, you can put clickable URLs and up to 1,000 characters in the task title. (Internal note links don't work yet, but we'll be fixing that in the next couple of releases.)

Jack : with the new option of up to 1,000 characters per task ,  if we use GTD triggers in the task , what about a feature to sort ( and save the as filters) the task as per these titles (  Follow  up  /  on hold /  etc,etc ) .? 

it will avoid EN's work to add tags( that could be much much better ) and alow us to implement GTD with the current tasks

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Looks like I'm late to this conversation, but I personally wouldn't use it. My current workflow is Reminders is my go to for high level tasks and if I have something that has to be broken  down more then those go in EN using the task feature there and I stick a link to the note with included tasks in Reminders. Honestly the integration of iCal like Google Calendar is more important to me than anything else right now. I'm having to use a workaround to see my calendar and it's a PITA.

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On 11/24/2021 at 1:49 PM, Jack Lynch said:

There have been a huge number of requests for a calendar view of tasks and/or an integration that allows tasks to be seen on a 3rd party calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, etc.).

We're starting to think through how we will build this feature.

What are your use cases for for a calendar view of tasks? What are the must-solve problems this feature needs to address for you?

I want a calendar view for planning purposes. If Tuesday has a long list of tasks, but Wednesday is empty, I can move half of my Tuesday tasks to Wednesday for a more balanced workload.

Pinning the task sidebar would be great, as would be the ability to assign tags to tasks for searching/sorting/filtering.

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On 11/24/2021 at 11:49 AM, Jack Lynch said:

There have been a huge number of requests for a calendar view of tasks and/or an integration that allows tasks to be seen on a 3rd party calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, etc.). ....What are your use cases for for a calendar view of tasks? What are the must-solve problems this feature needs to address for you?

My 3rd party calendars are busy enough with event stuff   1264421974_ScreenShot2021-12-24at20_45_54.png.51dbfa06dba348ba0c9f5121f09ad673.png
I wish to see my tasks in a Gantt Chart view    
I've been able to emulate this by exporting the task list to a spreadsheet

My  use case is to
- identify tasks due today and the immediate future
- evaluate work load, and adjust if necessary

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在 2021/12/8 在 AM2点23分, Jack Lynch说:

@Pere This point makes a ton of sense to me:

I'd like to have another panel, on the right-hand side of the screen (on the Desktop) that shows the tasks of the current note, folder or stack (there would be a switch to select the scope). This way I would always have the list of tasks of the current project.

An idea for a solution to that problem that isn't quite what you are describing but would be much simpler to implement:

Right now the Tasks view (some people call it the Tasks drawer) closes if your cursor is focused anywhere outside it. We could give you the option to "pin" it open, so you can see it alongside the note you are working in.

Any reactions to that idea?

Is it possible to pin the Task View as a standalone window? I think this would be great as we can resize and place the Taks View window anywhere on our desktop.

Besides, we should be able to open the note as a window directly by clicking the note link from the task.

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2 minutes ago, VincentChen123 said:

Is it possible to pin the Task View as a standalone window? I think this would be great as we can resize and place the Taks View window anywhere on our desktop.

I don't believe it is an option at present but you can suggest via feedback in the apps

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Some of us work in contexts where we have to open some tools and wrap our minds around what we're doing in each context before working on a task or group of tasks. So, being able to see tasks organized by context would be important. Similarly, seeing sub-tasks organized into a project would keep a group of tasks in their context. Only after that would linking to a third-party calendar make life easier. A lot of non-iOS people use Google calendar, so a link to that should be a priority.  If EN can't get an API set up, then please show us a workaround like the tiny URL idea mentioned above.

Please also let us see all tasks organized by projects and contexts or by day/week/month in a single window with a few columns so we're not getting lost in a long single column. Let users be able to decide how the columns are organized - by context, by date, by project, by context & project, etc. - and allow a column with a short group of tasks to start a second group after an inch of blank space so the value of columns isn't harmed by some having much less content. 

 

Notice that some people posting above are more calendar-focused. Sub-tasks would need to have their own date & reminder capability that users could by default link to the whole project/group of tasks and decide which to give separate due dates and reminders. Users would benefit by being able to see tasks by date-view and then by project-view.

All of the good ideas mentioned in people's posts in this discussion work within a system. Are there simple tutorials showing how to use EN tasks within a modified GTD system (where tasks have contexts) connected to a Google Calendar on Android and Windows?   And similar tutorials for iOS users?

 

P.S. Thanks to all the contributors making this a constructive discussion.

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I have tried EN tasks and do like the look and feel, and certainly can see its potential. However, its current limited integration with other apps means I have stepped away for now for my day to day tasks. Please see below for my thoughts on what would make EN tasks more useful.

1. EN Task requires two-way synchronisation to external Calendar App (iCal and Google):

  • if a Due Date and Time is allocated in the EN Task, then in the calendar app it should be created as as a "calendar event" reflecting the Due Date and Time (with a default time of perhaps 30mins, but this should be configurable in EN)
  • if a Due Date and no time is allocated in the EN Task, then in the calendar app it should be created as a "reminder/task" for the Due Date
  • if there are multiple "reminder times" allocated in the EN Task, then these should be carried through the synchronisation
  • once synced into the calendar app, if the reminder/task needs to become an "Event", then the reminder/task (in the calendar app) should be able to be dragged into the calendar to create a "Calendar event" with synchronisation/update back to EN to reflect the change - ie two way synchronisation 
  • similarly, any changes in EN or Calendar App should be appropriately reflected in both apps (EN and Calendar app) - that is, create, delete, update, modify text, embedded links, etc

2. There needs to be the ability to embed an email link into EN Task - I use this a lot to either remind me to respond to an email or set aside time to work on the email subject. This can currently be done in an EN Note so I am surprised it is not available in EN Tasks.

3. It would be very helpful to be able create a recurring task / event in EN Tasks - as per above, this should be able to synced to a Calendar App, with a two way synchronisation capability to create, delete, modify, etc in either EN or the Calendar App.

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On 1/3/2022 at 12:49 PM, Frank Verver said:
I have tried EN tasks and do like the look and feel, and certainly can see its potential. However, its current limited integration with other apps means I have stepped away for now for my day to day tasks. Please see below for my thoughts on what would make EN tasks more useful.

1. EN Task requires two-way synchronisation to external Calendar App (iCal and Google):

  • if a Due Date and Time is allocated in the EN Task, then in the calendar app it should be created as as a "calendar event" reflecting the Due Date and Time (with a default time of perhaps 30mins, but this should be configurable in EN)
  • if a Due Date and no time is allocated in the EN Task, then in the calendar app it should be created as a "reminder/task" for the Due Date
  • if there are multiple "reminder times" allocated in the EN Task, then these should be carried through the synchronisation
  • once synced into the calendar app, if the reminder/task needs to become an "Event", then the reminder/task (in the calendar app) should be able to be dragged into the calendar to create a "Calendar event" with synchronisation/update back to EN to reflect the change - ie two way synchronisation 
  • similarly, any changes in EN or Calendar App should be appropriately reflected in both apps (EN and Calendar app) - that is, create, delete, update, modify text, embedded links, etc

2. There needs to be the ability to embed an email link into EN Task - I use this a lot to either remind me to respond to an email or set aside time to work on the email subject. This can currently be done in an EN Note so I am surprised it is not available in EN Tasks.

3. It would be very helpful to be able create a recurring task / event in EN Tasks - as per above, this should be able to synced to a Calendar App, with a two way synchronisation capability to create, delete, modify, etc in either EN or the Calendar App.

@Frank Ververthanks for this detailed and thoughtful list! For #2, you should be able to put any kind of link into a task. Is that not working for you?

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On 12/29/2021 at 11:47 AM, JJJ-CCC said:

Some of us work in contexts where we have to open some tools and wrap our minds around what we're doing in each context before working on a task or group of tasks. So, being able to see tasks organized by context would be important. Similarly, seeing sub-tasks organized into a project would keep a group of tasks in their context. Only after that would linking to a third-party calendar make life easier. A lot of non-iOS people use Google calendar, so a link to that should be a priority.  If EN can't get an API set up, then please show us a workaround like the tiny URL idea mentioned above.

Please also let us see all tasks organized by projects and contexts or by day/week/month in a single window with a few columns so we're not getting lost in a long single column. Let users be able to decide how the columns are organized - by context, by date, by project, by context & project, etc. - and allow a column with a short group of tasks to start a second group after an inch of blank space so the value of columns isn't harmed by some having much less content. 

 

Notice that some people posting above are more calendar-focused. Sub-tasks would need to have their own date & reminder capability that users could by default link to the whole project/group of tasks and decide which to give separate due dates and reminders. Users would benefit by being able to see tasks by date-view and then by project-view.

All of the good ideas mentioned in people's posts in this discussion work within a system. Are there simple tutorials showing how to use EN tasks within a modified GTD system (where tasks have contexts) connected to a Google Calendar on Android and Windows?   And similar tutorials for iOS users?

 

P.S. Thanks to all the contributors making this a constructive discussion.

Great post @JJJ-CCC. Lots of great suggestions in here. Thank you.

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10 hours ago, Jack Lynch said:

@Frank Ververthanks for this detailed and thoughtful list! For #2, you should be able to put any kind of link into a task. Is that not working for you?

Hi @Jack Lynch. Embedding a link in the task works, and is a good workaround.  While tasks are a great addition to EN and I'm interested to see where the development goes, the task title is already cramped in space.  Without other areas in the task to place the context that @JJJ-CCC discusses above, everything needs to be crammed in the title.  The task box (when open) cannot be resized, so the user is left to scroll through the task title to read.  Perhaps part of the future development could be separate text boxes for links, or something similar to give ability to flesh out our tasks a little more.  

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On 12/29/2021 at 11:47 AM, JJJ-CCC said:

Some of us work in contexts where we have to open some tools and wrap our minds around what we're doing in each context before working on a task or group of tasks. So, being able to see tasks organized by context would be important. Similarly, seeing sub-tasks organized into a project would keep a group of tasks in their context. Only after that would linking to a third-party calendar make life easier. A lot of non-iOS people use Google calendar, so a link to that should be a priority.  If EN can't get an API set up, then please show us a workaround like the tiny URL idea mentioned above.

Please also let us see all tasks organized by projects and contexts or by day/week/month in a single window with a few columns so we're not getting lost in a long single column. Let users be able to decide how the columns are organized - by context, by date, by project, by context & project, etc. - and allow a column with a short group of tasks to start a second group after an inch of blank space so the value of columns isn't harmed by some having much less content. 

 

Notice that some people posting above are more calendar-focused. Sub-tasks would need to have their own date & reminder capability that users could by default link to the whole project/group of tasks and decide which to give separate due dates and reminders. Users would benefit by being able to see tasks by date-view and then by project-view.

All of the good ideas mentioned in people's posts in this discussion work within a system. Are there simple tutorials showing how to use EN tasks within a modified GTD system (where tasks have contexts) connected to a Google Calendar on Android and Windows?   And similar tutorials for iOS users?

 

P.S. Thanks to all the contributors making this a constructive discussion.

In response to your question about a modified GTD....I am just now starting down that rabbit hole with EN.  Maybe you can call it a new years thing, but I'm tired of having too many things floating in my head and GTD seems to be the way to help my productivity.  I'll probably start a post in the general discussion with my experience so far, and asking for others to give advice.  If I do, I'll flag you.

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29 minutes ago, lost_gweedo said:

In response to your question about a modified GTD....I am just now starting down that rabbit hole with EN.  Maybe you can call it a new years thing, but I'm tired of having too many things floating in my head and GTD seems to be the way to help my productivity.  I'll probably start a post in the general discussion with my experience so far, and asking for others to give advice.  If I do, I'll flag you.

. With pleasure, if you want I can share quickly some basic tips to easily implement GTD

The "marriage" between EN and GTD helps a lot to increase productivity

 

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1 hour ago, lost_gweedo said:

Thanks.  feel free to share your tips.  I started a new topic in general discussion and tagged you, so we can keep this thread relatively on topic.  :)

 

GTD is a global methodology intended to boost productivity and takes time for implementation

A great beginning is a web site you can find, The Secret weapon. - and of course, GTD's book

In the meantime, an easy first step is to tag notes - in the future, tasks, if Evernote agrees- as per: next action/ follow up/ on hold/ waiting/ someday., and a combination with dates

Other action verbs are ideal; in homepage , use of filtered notes using these tags will facilitate , great for the new thread 

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The GTD organization is selling a brochure (online) as well that explains how to implement GTD using EN for Windows. It is (was) created for the legacy client, but it is still perfectly usable to implement a personal GTD setup based on v10.

However they did a similar guide for GTD with Things 3, and this is where my journey (for now) has ended.

Maybe if one day I decide to switch from Things to EN Tasks, I will move my GTD over as well.

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On 1/13/2022 at 6:26 PM, Jack Lynch said:

@Frank Ververthanks for this detailed and thoughtful list! For #2, you should be able to put any kind of link into a task. Is that not working for you?

Thx for your response @Jack Lynch . Embedding an email link into Task is not working for me. I can successfully drag the email from the MAC Mail App as a hyperlink into a Evernote Note, however when I do the same into a Task it converts the email into text - as can be seen in the screen shot attached.  In addition, I can successfully drag a webpage URL into a Tasks - also included in screen shot below. 

Is there a different approach to embedding the MAC Mail App email as a link into a Task other than dragging it from the MAC Mail App?

image.png.1b2324ee5128baa02484da882d629756.png

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13 hours ago, Frank Verver said:

Thx for your response @Jack Lynch . Embedding an email link into Task is not working for me. I can successfully drag the email from the MAC Mail App as a hyperlink into a Evernote Note, however when I do the same into a Task it converts the email into text - as can be seen in the screen shot attached.  In addition, I can successfully drag a webpage URL into a Tasks - also included in screen shot below. 

Is there a different approach to embedding the MAC Mail App email as a link into a Task other than dragging it from the MAC Mail App?

image.png.1b2324ee5128baa02484da882d629756.png

Hi @Frank Verver, we don't yet have support for a link editor in tasks, meaning: you can't highlight some text and have it become a link the way you can in regular note text. I definitely see the need. This is on our list.

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On 11/24/2021 at 2:49 PM, Jack Lynch said:

There have been a huge number of requests for a calendar view of tasks and/or an integration that allows tasks to be seen on a 3rd party calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, etc.).

We're starting to think through how we will build this feature.

What are your use cases for for a calendar view of tasks? What are the must-solve problems this feature needs to address for you?

@Jack Lynch,  at the time the calendar widget in Home was launched,  I remembered there was a "coming soon" feature in settings  to have the dated tasks displayed there .Now ,  it dissapeared .

Is it still in the bucket list ,  the same as an integration of the tasks in the Google Calendar outside EN?

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17 minutes ago, Claudiofpiga said:

@Jack Lynch,  at the time the calendar widget in Home was launched,  I remembered there was a "coming soon" feature in settings  to have the dated tasks displayed there .Now ,  it dissapeared .

Is it still in the bucket list ,  the same as an integration of the tasks in the Google Calendar outside EN?

Hi @Claudiofpiga, yes it is. I can't give you a timeline yet though.

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In the past i already suggested it would be super useful if tasks would be showed in google Calendar (or outlook).
At this moment i have some tasks or appointments in Evernote and Google Calendar. => I need to check both.


Finetuning this: to avoid overcrowding of the Calendar:
-This could be added as a subcalendar in Google calendar. (just like you can import a holiday-calendar)
     -Possibility to not show it if you don't wish it
     -Possibility to give the subcalendar another colour (Evernote Green :) )
-Add a checkmark in Evernote so you can chose to add the task to Google Calendar or not (for each task) (Or a default override)

Evernote shouldn't try to be a calendar. It should be the preferred capture method, including the context.

Praying for these futures ;)

 

 

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Not sure I understand why we would have a reminder in tasks that we wouldn't want to be reminded of in our calendar. To me if I need to be reminded, it needs to be on my calendar. If I don't need to be reminded, I don't click reminder. Please tell me what I'm missing. 

 

A reminder on tasks should be the same as a reminder on notes. I don't want to only be reminded for some things and not others when I'm scheduling for things to get done.. 

 

I'm sure Evernote wants everything to be done within Evernote but the Evernote calendar is not up to par yet. I love using Evernote and look forward to a day when everything inside Evernote will be functional for my needs, and I'm sure it's functional for some people but my schedule is unique and very much reliant on my calendar. Evernote saves me in many different ways but without functionality and complete communication with my calendar, it's not complete.

 

I've hung in this long because I have faith in the Evernote team. Let's keep moving forward.

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I use cronify to link Evernote to my Google calendar account. When I set a reminder in Evernote it creates an event in my calendar. It is two-way, meaning I can adjust or delete in the  calendar or Evernote note.. 

 

Ideally, tasks should be able to do the same.. in fact, one could say that tasks has more of a use for reminders than notes...

 

Thanks for your response. Much appreciated.

 

And by the way, I've been doing this successfully for a couple of years. Very confident with this approach. Works beautifully.

See link:

https://evernote.cronofy.com/

 

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@James000, I've been using Cronofy for a few years also, and it does generally work brilliantly. Once in awhile Cronofy's servers seem to slow down and it can take awhile for Evernote reminders and Google Calendar events to sync (either direction). And recently I've had some older notes in Evernote seemingly become unable to access Cronofy at all. Very strange; I have to copy their content into a new note, set a reminder, and then it's fine.

But I emphasize that these are rare events, and on the whole it just works. For the curious, the Google Calendar event that is created will have a comment field containing a link of the form http://in.cronofy.com/Aa0bB2c, which when clicked redirects to your Evernote note. The events will be your default length and color, and there's no way to customize that yet. It's highly functional, but I do hope that eventually Evernote (notes and tasks both) will be able to create Google Calendar events directly.

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Just tried Cronofy and looks very impressive!  Took about 60 seconds to set up and implement.  One minute later it was already working.  My only question is that the link that is generated in Google Calendar does not seem to link back to Evernote.  It simply says "bad gateway" every time I've tried it.  Also, from what I can tell if you put a calendar event into Google Calendar it does not seem to show up in Evernote.  It would be nice if it showed up as a note with a relevant reminder.

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On 12/24/2021 at 9:19 PM, DTLow said:

My 3rd party calendars are busy enough with event stuff   1264421974_ScreenShot2021-12-24at20_45_54.png.51dbfa06dba348ba0c9f5121f09ad673.png
I wish to see my tasks in a Gantt Chart view    
I've been able to emulate this by exporting the task list to a spreadsheet

My  use case is to
- identify tasks due today and the immediate future
- evaluate work load, and adjust if necessary

I would love to see a Kanban board as well.

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On 9/13/2022 at 5:11 PM, idoc said:

Just tried Cronofy and looks very impressive!  Took about 60 seconds to set up and implement.  One minute later it was already working.  My only question is that the link that is generated in Google Calendar does not seem to link back to Evernote.  It simply says "bad gateway" every time I've tried it.  Also, from what I can tell if you put a calendar event into Google Calendar it does not seem to show up in Evernote.  It would be nice if it showed up as a note with a relevant reminder.

Not sure about bad gateway...

Cronify is not programmed to create a note from a Google calendar event. Cronify is programmed to create a calendar event when a note Reminder is created. Once populated in your calendar, adjusting notes becomes a two-way function. Basically, you're adjusting your note from within the calendar. If you untick the reminder in your Note, the calendar event disappears.

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On 9/12/2022 at 11:18 AM, Dave-in-Decatur said:

@James000, I've been using Cronofy for a few years also, and it does generally work brilliantly. Once in awhile Cronofy's servers seem to slow down and it can take awhile for Evernote reminders and Google Calendar events to sync (either direction). And recently I've had some older notes in Evernote seemingly become unable to access Cronofy at all. Very strange; I have to copy their content into a new note, set a reminder, and then it's fine.

But I emphasize that these are rare events, and on the whole it just works. For the curious, the Google Calendar event that is created will have a comment field containing a link of the form http://in.cronofy.com/Aa0bB2c, which when clicked redirects to your Evernote note. The events will be your default length and color, and there's no way to customize that yet. It's highly functional, but I do hope that eventually Evernote (notes and tasks both) will be able to create Google Calendar events directly.

Hmmm. I haven't noticed any cases of old notes losing functionally with cronify, but good to know. I can remember some sporadic times of lag, very rare, but wouldn't know how to identify the source as Evernote or Cronify, since there is occasional lag in general, in Evernote, since everything went online. But overall, everything seems workable, and I'm pretty particular when it comes to relying on programs that effect workflow...

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Once the Evernote API is updated to allow interaction with tasks and calendars then it will be possible for Cronofy and other third party organisations to automate things.

@Sayre Ambrosio I think it will be possible to create Kanban style workflow once it is possible to have tasks inside a table, drag& drop tasks between notes and possibly add tags to a task. Meanwhile I use the third party Kanbanote reasonably successfully.

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On 9/13/2022 at 5:11 PM, idoc said:

Just tried Cronofy and looks very impressive!  Took about 60 seconds to set up and implement.  One minute later it was already working.  My only question is that the link that is generated in Google Calendar does not seem to link back to Evernote.  It simply says "bad gateway" every time I've tried it.  Also, from what I can tell if you put a calendar event into Google Calendar it does not seem to show up in Evernote.  It would be nice if it showed up as a note with a relevant reminder.

Ok. So, on the subject of bad gateway, do you have a firewall or a router that handles any type of filtering? It may recognize Cronify as a threat. I just noticed it on my home router that I have locked down pretty tight.

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I use a printable july 2023 calendar to track all of my tasks, and I have separate notebooks for scheduled and unscheduled ones. My calendars are Google calendars that are synchronized with my phone. I use three calendars. 1 for daily activities like breakfast, lunch, the gym, etc. A second for my planned tasks and a third for optional social possibilities. I periodically look through all the meetups, concerts, and other events in my neighborhood and add them to the third. I use three calendars because I can hide them to draw attention to a certain one.

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Sorry James.  Just saw your question now.  I do not have these things.  I notice that the bad gateway occurs both at the home and work computers that I am using (they are both win 7 pro).  Perhaps it's an isolated issue to that operating system.  So far I am not seeing it as a major problem in my workflow.

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3 hours ago, idoc said:

Sorry James.  Just saw your question now.  I do not have these things.  I notice that the bad gateway occurs both at the home and work computers that I am using (they are both win 7 pro).  Perhaps it's an isolated issue to that operating system.  So far I am not seeing it as a major problem in my workflow.

I've used Evernote + Cronofy on a Win7 machine for a long time, and have never run into this. Might be worth contacting Cronofy tech support--I've found them responsive even though they don't make a dime off of me.

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4 hours ago, lost_gweedo said:

(me, standing in the corner waiting for outlook calendar integration.....)😔

I have sync with my Outlook Calendar using a small Sync2 programme which keeps my Outlook and Google Calandars in Sync.

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@bmcl26Thanks for the suggestion.  I did try to find the correct sync settings within google and outlook to sync both ways for free and gave up spending time on it...our office financial controller already gives me the sideways look on my software purchases. For now, going to be patient and hope that the outlook user base is big enough for Evernote to integrate with.

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10 hours ago, lost_gweedo said:

For now, going to be patient and hope that the outlook user base is big enough for Evernote to integrate with.

And it definitely is. We've had conversations in the Evernote Experts community and the Outlook sync is making progress but I understand it's having to take second place to some other demanded features.

Patience is, sadly, a virtue in this case.

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This is all going to be a significant way off. Outlook calendars will be supported relatively soon I think but two-way sync including tasks is something that friends can discuss at my funeral service. It isn't happening anytime soon.

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I've no idea whether it hard or easy. It's easy to describe but I've no idea what coding would be needed and what the knock-on effects on other parts of the code would be.

I'm as certain as I possibly can be that none of these ideas are anywhere on the horizon other than the addition of the Outlook calendar one-way sync similar to the existing Google calendar sync.

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I would love to see Evernote Tasks have something like the Todoist calendar sync. It is bidirectional for Google, and iCal URL served for others. https://todoist.com/help/articles/use-todoist-with-your-calendar

My use case is that I spend a lot of time in Gmail with the calendar pane open on the right. I can see Todoist tasks due today above my events for the day. It's a super helpful productivity reminder of what all I have on my plate today. 

I would like to use Evernote Tasks more, but it really needs a calendar feed to be more useful. That and a daily digest email of tasks due today and in the next few days. 🙏

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I would like ...

a) a full .ics integration for Tasks to show in a Google Calendar, based on completion dates or start dates

b) I would include a START date and an END date to each task and possibly a something looking like a Gatt Chart view

c) a full view of Tasks in a new window, like in Todoist, where I could filter by date, note title, task title, in a calendar view, with 2 or 3 levels of priority, color coding, etc. (not like the current Tasks bar), interactive Gantt Chart (will could move and update automatically based on START+END dates)

The current little Tasks bar showing tasks is too small, limited in sorting variables, and not very appealing. I'm sure you guys could come up with something more functional, adaptative and visually pleasing. 

If you had all that, you'd be a serious contender (vs. Todoist, Monday, Wrike, Asana, etc.).

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I'm having trouble with the Tasks tab in my Mac OS desktop EN not loading. It just spins and spins. Loads fine on my iPhone, but the app on my MacBook Pro isn't loading. Anyone have this issue? Any ideas on how to get it to work again?

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22 hours ago, yogabug said:

I'm having trouble with the Tasks tab in my Mac OS desktop EN not loading. It just spins and spins. Loads fine on my iPhone, but the app on my MacBook Pro isn't loading. Anyone have this issue? Any ideas on how to get it to work again?

That's not a Tasks issue,  it's a not loading issue:  please start a new thread.  It will help if you also specify the OS and Evernote versions and what steps you've taken already - restarting the device? Signing out and back in?  Reinstalling?

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On 11/24/2021 at 11:49 AM, Jack Lynch said:

There have been a huge number of requests for a calendar view of tasks and/or an integration that allows tasks to be seen on a 3rd party calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, etc.).

We're starting to think through how we will build this feature.

What are your use cases for for a calendar view of tasks? What are the must-solve problems this feature needs to address for you?

Add me to the request list.

Ical is my preferred calendar app. It would be great if task integration included the ability to specify a new "calendar" so that views could be restricted to timed tasks. I don't want to have to maintain a second calendar in the GoogleVerse. The ability to view Evernote tasks only in Ical would solve the issue of a task view.

My Evernote use cases typically fall into the "remind me about this later next month" OR "I'll pick a date later" OR "These reminders need to occur on the day of/before/after another calendar event". I do not mind having to switch to the calendar to verify the event date. I'll typically use the calendar app itself to schedule an event (vs. a reminder). I don't mind doing that, since I need to see the event in context with my other commitments. Don't require that capability in EverNote.

The feature must address the problem of linkage. It would be GREAT if the Ical reminder contained a URL that led back to the related Evernote entry.

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On 11/24/2021 at 8:49 PM, Jack Lynch said:

There have been a huge number of requests for a calendar view of tasks and/or an integration that allows tasks to be seen on a 3rd party calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, etc.).

We're starting to think through how we will build this feature.

What are your use cases for for a calendar view of tasks? What are the must-solve problems this feature needs to address for you?

We would absolutely love if Evernote Tasks would be automatically added to the Calendar! We are currently running the trial version for Evernote Teams and being able to see Tasks in the Calendar is a must for our team. It would be great if Evernote had ITS OWN INTERNAL Calendar, and we would not have to use a 3rd party cal. We are using Google Calendar at the moment, purely because from what I understand, Evernote does not link to iCal, unless some other plugin or app is in between. 

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1 hour ago, Shopgirl said:

It would be great if Evernote had ITS OWN INTERNAL Calendar, and we would not have to use a 3rd party cal.

The plan would be to bring your tasks into the Calendar widget in Home. This would be independent of whether you have connected an external calendar. 

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22 minutes ago, Scott T. said:

The plan would be to bring your tasks into the Calendar widget in Home. This would be independent of whether you have connected an external calendar. 

Well, that would be a big help as well, since the Tasks do not currently show up in the Calendar widget! The Calendar widget is still painfully minimal as it shows only a daily view and a tiny monthly calendar which does not demonstrate whether there are any entries in individual days. The little blue dot, indicating the current day is one thing, but couldn't days (with calendar entries) also show some kind of a marker, red dot, green dot, something, anything? So that we don't have to click through individual days to see the schedule? It's like pulling teeth, sorry, couldn't it be more like bending spoons? 🙏😉

Also, the vertical timeline view is not awesome at all - could you please make it horizontal? We already have a vertical list view. All this scrolling and clicking around...

Otherwise, it's all about using a 3rd party calendar and that should not need to be the case. Thank you, Scott!

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On 12/2/2021 at 11:20 AM, Jack Lynch said:

Thank you @gazumped @Claudiofpiga @agsteele @PinkElephant. Lots for us to chew on here.

I'm curious what you all think of @gazumped's suggestion of a printable view that can be carried around.

I've been thinking a lot about this use case (I sure would use it personally🙂), but I've heard some feedback that "people don't really use printers that much any more because they're a pain to connect to, troubleshoot, etc." If that's true, it would make this feature a lower priority on our roadmap.

How much do others value the printable view feature?

I'd definitely use it.

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  • 3 months later...
On 11/25/2021 at 6:49 AM, Jack Lynch said:

There have been a huge number of requests for a calendar view of tasks and/or an integration that allows tasks to be seen on a 3rd party calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, etc.).

We're starting to think through how we will build this feature.

What are your use cases for for a calendar view of tasks? What are the must-solve problems this feature needs to address for you?

Please get this happening! Doesn't need to be complicated. Can just show a task on google calendar with a note attatched or even a link to open up evernote from there. Also incorporate ability to mark a task as completed from inside the google calendar interface.

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4 hours ago, Vas02 said:

Please get this happening!

Hi.  You're quoting a 2-year old thread here.  Evernote have introduced a one-way link between Google and the internal calendar which seems to be working fairly well.  They also introduced tasks as a separate feature.  Connecting the two together and making this editable both ways is a bit more complicated than dashing off a quick Forum post,  but I'm sure they will expand the usability of the features as time goes on.  It won't happen this year though,  so you might have to look at other forms of automation.

Automations are all the rage these days from ActionDesk to Zapier - and don't forget to check out Cronofy who specialise in Google Calendar integrations.

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On 5/19/2023 at 10:26 PM, gazumped said:

Hi.  You're quoting a 2-year old thread here.  Evernote have introduced a one-way link between Google and the internal calendar which seems to be working fairly well.  They also introduced tasks as a separate feature.  Connecting the two together and making this editable both ways is a bit more complicated than dashing off a quick Forum post,  but I'm sure they will expand the usability of the features as time goes on.  It won't happen this year though,  so you might have to look at other forms of automation.

Automations are all the rage these days from ActionDesk to Zapier - and don't forget to check out Cronofy who specialise in Google Calendar integrations.

If its complicated I would vouch for a smaller essential part first: Tasks show up in the internal calendar. as already indicated to be in team's mind, by @Scott T.

besides if this small part is already in progress, I would wait a little bit more and avoid one more party (Automation) watching my data,

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It may have been considered but I don't think we have any evidence that it will arrive at any time in the near future. The calendar sync for Outlook remains stubbornly absent and that has been in beta for awhile.

Two way sync with the calendar(s) won't happen anytime soon - IMO. Sorry.

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