Has anyone tested the TimeTo PIM? It features dynamic scheduling and looks interesting on first blush. I found it on http://www.davidberman.com/software/timeto.php

JG wrote:

Has anyone tested the TimeTo PIM?

I did, and use it occasionally. It's parent/sibling is Above&Beyond from 1soft.com.
It's not a full featured PIM, most of it's functionality is around calendar/scheduling.
Great concept.

Yes, I did, a while ago.

It may be useful to you if you buy into its philosophy.

Which means:
- allowing the software to timetable the "soft-landscaped" parts of your working day i.e. those that don't involve diary appointments
- having a schedule mostly composed of brief or medium-sized tasks, up to 90 minutes say, rather than day, week or month-long commitments (such as writing a book)

If you accept this way of working, I imagine it would provide and interesting alternative to other prioritising systems, such as GTD.

Beyond this: pluses: useful alarm systems, a record of what you've done and what it's cost, a comprehensive formwork for recording the attributes of each task, a forecast of workloads in days ahead. Minuses: rudimentary project outlining, an old-fashioned and occasionally confusing user interface, perhaps an obsessively fussy approach?

I have found that TimeTo is another of those programs which hides its power well and requires some work to winkle it out.

Many task managers pile up lists of tasks, even if each would only take 5 minutes to complete, so that one is faced with a worryingly long list at the start of each day. TimeTo shows (relatively graphically) the relative amount of time a task will take and also the amount of free time between tasks (provided one doesn't have a preponderance of long, non-dated tasks, as Hugh says), giving a much better picture of one's day and providing a more realistic picture of workload. They also seem to have good support (i.e. they respond to users!), and when they iron out the Outlook synchronisation issues I could imagine myself using it.

The interface, though, can hardly be described as slick, which is surprising as its developer is a graphic artist.

Graham

The interface is most probably due to it being an old old old software. I remember I have probably tested Above&Beyond first time with Windows 3.1. Looooooong time ago.

It's still the same GUI and code, new code was being added all the time, but little interface changes.

TimeTo developers certainly tried to fix a thing or two, but they are most probably limited by the old code of Above & Beyond (on which TimeTo is based), so most changes were in terms of new icons, and the GUI controls are still the same.

I tried it faithfully for about a month. It never scheduled things the way I wanted it to, and the lack of workable Outlook integration made me do double entry of to-do's. But if you don't use Outlook and like the results of the TimeTo scheduler, then I think it has a ton of potential.

I recommend Taskline for dynamic scheduling within Outlook. http://www.taskline.com

dan7000 wrote:

I tried it faithfully for about a month. It never scheduled things the way I wanted it
to, and the lack of workable Outlook integration made me do double entry of to-do's.
But if you don't use Outlook and like the results of the TimeTo scheduler, then I think
it has a ton of potential.

I recommend Taskline for dynamic scheduling within
Outlook. http://www.taskline.com

Strangely enough, my reasons for uninstalling Taskline were similar to yours for uninstalling TimeTo. I don't like (or need) software that controls me - I need to control the software. I find Taskline just too dictatorial. Being contrary, I am keeping TimeTo during my testing under a tight rein so that, basically, I do my own scheduling. That works for me.

Finding a good task manager has been a real problem for me. Software I've tried has either been unsupported and/or unstable, or just not up to the job. I have been using the Zoot32 beta as a task manager, but up to beta 26 (I note that beta 27 has just arrived) it has had some really stubborn bugs which have caused problems. Also, Zoot, like other programs, just piles up tasks, so a glance doesn't tell you whether the tasks will take 1 hour or 10 to complete. And Zoot has no arithmetic abilities to overcome this.

What I like about TimeTo is that it shows the amount of time a task is planned to take, and also integrates this with calendar appointments. Its Outlook 2007 integration is, however, as buggy as a termite mound, and it doesn't allow automatic re-creation of tasks upon completion (as would be expected in software that regards its strong point as scheduling, though it does allow manual re-creation of tasks), being a bit of a nuisance with recurring tasks with notes. I think I may have to withdraw back to Zoot until something better comes along ... :-(

Unless anybody has any better ideas?

Graham

Graham Rhind wrote:

Unless anybody has any better ideas?

Have you looked @ SQLnotes? I believe it has math capabilities & reminders, etc. Still in early beta but looks promising IMO

Jan Rifkinson wrote:

Have you looked @
SQLnotes? I believe it has math capabilities & reminders, etc. Still in early beta but
looks promising IMO

I have it installed, but I'm waiting for Pierre to produce a proper help file. I don't really want to spend time at the moment trying to fathom how it works - it's doesn't seem to me very intuitive.

For the record, I've found a way of doing some of what I want in Outlook 2007 without using plug-ins. Outlook haters look away now. :-)

I wanted to give my tasks a time dimension without cluttering up my calendar (and thus also the calendar on my PDA). I.e., I wanted to make a clear differentiation between appointments - things that have to be done at a certain time - and tasks, which I define myself and do not necessarily have to be done at a certain time and which can be shifted around to suit my workload, whims and muse.

My solution:
Open Outlook and open the calendar.
Choose File->New->Calendar and give this calendar a name, such as Tasks
In the navigation bar pane, check to view both your default calendar and the new tasks calendar.
You can now add tasks to the new tasks calendar and give them a time dimension, thus giving an idea of how your temporal workload is during a given period.
If you see the two calendars next to each other, right click outside the date area but inside the calendar pane and choose "View in overlay mode".
This enables me to view my appointments, with my tasks semi-transparently superimposed, enabling me to alter my tasks to suit my day. Also, only my main calendar is synced to my PDA, so that doesn't get cluttered with tasks.

Graham

Being now a bum, I have no need for task software, but if you want something simple, you might want to look at myTasks at http://www.kingstairs.com/mytasks/ .

-c

Cassius wrote:

Being now a bum, I have no need for task software, but if you want something simple, you
might want to look at myTasks at http://www.kingstairs.com/mytasks/ .

Thanks Cassius. However, myTasks doesn't support recurring tasks.