Organizer Gurus: Does this functionality exist yet? Where?

[davea0511]

I have a philosophy on Task lists. That is: You should have only 1 task list, and it should only have the stuff that you will do within the next 24 hours. There shouldn't be any "upcoming tasks" list , or "expired tasks" list, or "completed task" list. And definitely none of these other kinds of tasks should ever exist on your 24 hr task list (even in a different color, italicized or any other way).

That's just me. It's how I stay "on task".

The thing is... many tasks are recurring on a periodic basis, so you need a way to automatically create those tasks as needed. But when you've completed a recurring task you should be able to delete the task permanently with a simple swipe - not mark it "completed", or have it sit in the background until it comes up again. It's psychological: there is great motivation in making a task completely disappear forever (even though you know an identical one will pop up in another week), and it's symbolic and prepares my mind to focus only on the tasks remaining in my list.

The most obvious way to do this is with a recurring appointment that automatically creates a task everytime the appointment comes due. Then when you delete the task, the appointment still exists and recreates the task when it comes due again.

Do any of the existing organizer programs do that?

[jimski]

You can set any task to be recurring and it can be set to act in a number of different ways. For example, I have a task that comes up about every two weeks to remind me to do a full backup of my system (don't worry, I do incremental backups almost daily). If it comes up on the 10th for example, but I don't get to it until the 12th (which I guess would never happen in your world) the task goes away and comes back again on the 24th (14 days later). You can also set tasks to occur on specific days, like every Friday for example. The choice is yours. The important thing is after you check off a recurring task it will disapper and not reappear until it is due again. This type of environment can be setup using Pocket Breeze, Agenda Fusion, Pocket Informant or the desktop Outlook Home Screen, to name a few.

When you check off a task you can usually show it striked out as completed or make it disappear entirely. I don't know of any software that will let you swipe a task, but what is so hard about a teeny tap to make it go away.

Now on to your philosophy. I understand where you are coming from but it sounds to me like your "task list" has become your master. No matter what, I will complete the things on my list, even if I do some of them half heartedly. After spending many years dilligently following Franklin-Covey doctorine I have discovered that my task list is more like a guiding light, helping to keep me on course. If I don't finish everything on my list, there is a good chance the sun will still come up tomorrow.

Based on what you described, I wonder how you deal with things like a task you want to remind yourself to do next Tuesday, but don't want to add it to your list until Tuesday. How do you remember it? I load things into my task list when they come up, either in a phone conversation or from reading an email or as a follow-up. But I will usually set a due date for sometime in the future, either tomorrow or weeks or months later. The task does not show up on my filtered list until it becomes due, so I don't have to look at it until I need to. There are some tasks that don't get completed on the first try, like trying to reach someone on the phone. The tasks I give high importance have to get done that day, the tasks with low importance are more like FYI and the tasks in the middle I try to get done, but can go home at night (even if a few are still left standing) knowing I accomplished something today.

I get the sense that you have only worked with the Microsoft built-in Task List which in my opinion s#$@s. I become ill just looking. Don't know if I have ever seen anything else so ill conceived. Please do yourself a favor and download a trial version of Pocket Breeze, a today plug-in that filters tasks quite well or Agenda Fusion, a full blown PIM replacement that can sort/filter tasks expctly the way you want to see them.

Hope this helps and I also hope you did not have a task to find a Task Manager today, because on the US East Coast it is well after midnight.

[davea0511]

Thanks for your thorough reply. I wasn't aware that you could easily make the task disappear until it comes back up. I thought you could only mark it "completed". I guess I'll have to dig in and figure out how to do that. I though PI did it, but when I made it "disappear" I deleted it. Operator error, I'm sure.

It still make much more sense to me to have the calendar kick off recurring tasks instead of creating special "disappearing tasks". It's more intuitive for me, and I also just don't like the idea about a task that never goes away - but just disappears from time to time. I know my proposed method accomplishes the same thing - except that I get the satisfaction of deleting something when I'm done.

What can I say? I'm human... perception is everything. If I can click a button that says "delete todays recurring tasks" at the end of the day", reinforcing that tomorrow is a clean slate - it makes a difference, however small it might be.

I agree with why you say about Covey's methods - a compass is indeed better than a clock. I've been through the Covey seminars. Covey wants people to think about the whole picture and decide on a moment by moment basis what's best - rather than letting an inflexible calendar or clock blindly make those decisions despite circumstances that might suggest a different activity.

I couldn't agree with him more. However recurring tasks are a different animal than normal tasks. They behave more like appointments (IMHO). Unlike regular tasks, recurring tasks aren't important until they day they need to be done. Furthermore, just like an appointment becomes urgent the day that it's due, so do recurring tasks become urgent the day they're due, and they do take time out of that day to complete. Since they compete with other items on that day then it should be viewed and created on a calendar view. Should'nt it? That seems a more logical way to pick when the recurring task will recur.

You asked how I would anticipate tasks with my proposed method? I look at the calendar when planning my day, and if it shows my recurring tasks (they are, afterall, really appointments) then that just shortcuts the process. Just like you can set reminders for upcoming appointments, you could also do this for recurring tasks too. It just makes more sense to me.