Jack Lynch

Any day now.

@LeeBeeLAthis feature is now available on Evernote Desktop 10.52 and Evernote Mobile 10.47.

How would you all feel about the Tasks View behaving the same way the note list behaves today? Meaning: it stays open next to the note you are viewing and you can resize it accordingly. As opposed to closing as soon as you click outside it the way it works right now.

That would take considerably less time to implement.

@RobertJLee thanks for the feedback! Please help me understand what functionality you would specifically want from Evernote task reminders.

Thanks as always for the feedback!

We haven't lost sight of this feature. You will eventually have it. There are lots of other good things in the works with Tasks, and this is one of them. I can't give you a timeline except to say (unfortunately) that it will months, not weeks, for sub-tasks.
 

Hi @Andy McMillan@Jacquie Karr-Zlotnicki, here's a relevant thread you might want to check out: 

@Neil Maxfieldand others, I looked into this and it is actually a big lift technically, so it would slow down our ability to work on other high-demand features. Just pointing out: the links are clickable while you are editing the task in the note. Hopefully that's a decent workaround.

@Neil MaxfieldThanks. We're on it.

@Sean WongThanks for getting a thread started on this. First off: what type of device and version of Evernote are you using?

I definitely encourage others to post here if you are experiencing similar problems.

🤔We added this a while back. Is it not working for you? If not, could you provide more detail?

Don't worry. We won't.👍

On this one, the wait is going to be a bit longer I'm afraid - quarters, not months. We certainly recognize the need for this feature, and it is on the roadmap, but it is not as simple to implement as it might seem on the surface.

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.

That's right @ChristianJB. In that post, we wanted to share a list of the most common requests to make sure we were right about the feedback we were hearing.

But thanks for pointing that out (or I guess you could say "flagging" it 🙂).

@markehwould different color flags help you with the need to prioritize? (assuming we can display them for you in a user-friendly, effective way)

Broadly speaking: soon. I can't give specific dates, but I think it's safe to say first half of 2022.

@Andy McMillanwe'd love to have you help us test it. Sign up for our early access program here: https://evernote.com/earlyaccess/.

@Bakertamwe have looked into it, and an integration with Google Tasks is not on our roadmap because their API is missing some pretty basic stuff.

An integration between Evernote Tasks and Google Calendar is much more likely to end up on our roadmap.

Thanks for reporting this @ConsultNg. We're aware of this one and should have it fixed soon.

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?

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.

16 hours ago, buckethead said:

@Jack LynchI’m confused on the “Project-note” limitation of no rich content. Are you saying you would not be able to add pictures or other content to this new note type? Would it just have the ability to add tasks to the note? So the note would be a list of “sub-tasks”? Or are you thinking that all of the rich content in the note would be related to the sub tasks created and not the main task? 

I think starting with the easiest to implement “project-note” is a good first step to sub tasks - I would think that there are quite a few users who do it like this already. Being able to have multiple tasks with sub tasks within the same note eventually would be great. I can see where managing multiple notes full so subtasks could become a pain vs. having all tasks in the same note.

it sounds like you have a good plan if getting subtasks working within tasks. Looking forward to the implementation. Hopefully after reoccurring tasks 😉

Thanks for raising this question, @buckethead. Looks like I may not have been clear enough in my post, so I added the following sentence to it (see above):

"But to reiterate: you still have all the existing note functionality with these notes; the project aspect is additional functionality."

In other words, all we would be doing would be taking the existing notes and adding the ability to mark them complete and put a due date on them (analogous to how you can already put a reminder on a note.) So they still have the full functionality of an Evernote note.

We are keenly aware of the limitation @lost_gweedorefers to, and we are actively working on this problem.

We'd like your thoughts on something.

One of the big advantages of the fact that tasks are embedded in notes is that you have context for them. You can take advantage of all the power of the Evernote note editor to surround your tasks with information that will help you get them done. Here are two videos we've created that give specific examples of this and why we think it's powerful:

• First video
• Second video

Let's call that capability "rich context for tasks."

Now start thinking about how you would want sub-tasks (incredibly highly requested feature by our users) to work.

How important is it for you to have rich context for both the parent tasks and the sub-tasks that are associated with them? Could you live with having rich context only for the sub-tasks?

We're asking because it is probably way faster for us to give you the ability to turn the note itself into a "task-note" or "project-note". You could do this for some of your note, all of your notes, or none of your notes. If you turn it into a "project-note", it means it's just like a regular Evernote note except you can also mark it complete and put a due date on it. You can manage it in the Tasks view just like you manage all your existing tasks today. This would effectively turn the in-note tasks (currently the only type of tasks) into sub-tasks. But it means that these "project-notes" would not be surrounded by relevant rich context the way the current in-note tasks are. They would live as independent entities within a notebook just like regular notes do. But to reiterate: you still have all the existing note functionality with these notes; the project aspect is additional functionality.

Alternative approach: build the two types of tasks into the note so the parent tasks have rich context just like the sub-tasks do. Obviously having rich context for both parent tasks and sub-tasks is a good thing, but it will probably take much longer to build, so you would be waiting longer for sub-tasks functionality.

To summarize the difference:

• "Project-note" approach: Notebook > "Project-Note" (has due dates, reminders, but no rich context) > In-Note Task (has due dates, reminders, and rich context)
• Alternative approach: Notebook > Regular Note > In-Note Parent Task (has due dates, reminders, and rich context) > In-Note Sub-Task (has due dates, reminders, and rich context)

Alternative approach means longer wait for sub-tasks but you would have rich context at both levels of the hierarchy.

So how important is it for you to have rich context for both parent tasks and sub-tasks?

PS - the "project-note" approach gives you task tags for free.

PPS - we could eventually have both of these approaches together, but that will take a while

@lost_gweedo writes:

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. 

Lots for us to think about here @Bill Riski.

Not quite what you are looking for but could still be helpful: on the due date tab in the Tasks view, you should be able to see any tasks coming due in the next week, grouped in the following sub-buckets: today, tomorrow, and next 7 days. If you focus on those sections, it approximates the Weekly Note you are describing. Not perfect, but hopefully helpful.

 

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.

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?