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Task managers - what should they be able to do?
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Posted by Graham Rhind
Mar 30, 2008 at 06:55 PM
With the release of another personal task manager (a term I personally prefer over “to-do list” or otherwise), I thought it might be useful to take a look at what these task managers should be able to do. The number of programs I’ve looked at for task management must be approaching three figures, and I still haven’t found one I would happily use. Many task managers start off with great plans but a good many never reach maturity (and I could name names), so I think we need to look at what the software currently does rather than the plans the developer has for it.
I don’t think my needs are particularly individual to me - I’m an empiricist and try to let the nature of tasks themselves define what the software should be able to do. Many claim to support Getting Things Done principles though, having ploughed through that book, I can contest that many don’t. Many aim for usability but confuse it with lack of sophistication - a program can be powerful and also simple to use. Also, for me, the software can be embedded in PIM software or be standalone - as long as it fulfils basic requirements.
To my mind personal task management should fulfil these criteria:
Critical:
- Full support for recurrence (which universe do developers live in where tasks don’t recur?); automatic recreation of a recurring task upon completion/deletion
- Date and time due
- Alarms and snoozing
- (Definable) priority indications
- (Definable) categorisation/tagging
- (Definable) status indication (waiting, complete, pending etc.)
- Full featured notes editor (RTF/HTML, tables and graphics enabled)
Important:
- Unlimited sub-tasking (i.e. a tree-like structure)
- (Definable) colour coding (font and background)
- Import/Export/Synchronisation (with Outlook, Palm etc.)
- User-defined views by any aspect (dates, tags, categories, text etc.)
- Undo
- Easy entry of tasks into the program using drag and drop and/or key combination
Nice to have
- (Definable) icons per task
- Date started/date ended
- Time planned for task/time actually taken
- Reporting
I did find one personal task manager that did almost all of this but had a problem with database corruption. I am therefore currently having to use a blend of Outlook, Zoot and Sciral Consistency.
What does everybody think? Will the grail be obtained? Is there a program out there I’ve missed? What other features have I forgotten?
Graham
Posted by Susanne
Mar 30, 2008 at 07:22 PM
A great list Graham,
May I agree with all points made and add one of my own:
I seldom have a task that does not involve other people, either I need something from them, or they are waiting for me to deliver.
Therefore I would add assigning tasks to other people (if possible a contact from outlook or so) and also a (user defined) assignment type (waiting for, deliver to, contact, etc.).
Susanne
Posted by Chris Thompson
Mar 30, 2008 at 10:01 PM
As far as I can tell, Ecco does all of the things on your list except “definable icons per task”... I suppose even that one could be done with a customized bullet column.
Ecco will probably never be bettered as a total package of good user interface + functionality for task management. (I think of it as an operating system for projects, really, it’s so customizable and poewrful.) SQL Notes looks like it’s coming along and betters it in several ways functionality-wise, but the UI leaves a lot to be desired. On the Mac, OmniFocus is similar in some ways but is too GTD-inspired. Good if you really want to get into that methodology, but what makes Ecco genius is its freeform nature.
I honestly think “GTD” is a liability, and software developers are in some sense chasing a false grail by trying to jump on that bandwagon. For instance, David’s notion that every task should have exactly one context is poorly thought out. For instance, what about an item I can buy either at the grocery store or at a drugstore? What context do I use for that. OmniFocus tries to stay within the GTD mindset by keeping the single context restriction but introducing hierarchical contexts, but that only partially solves the problem. Also, contexts are in some sense inherently counterproductive… a big part of the GTD approach is the idea that you should be able to dump items into your inbox as quickly as possible. Yet as soon as you introduce contexts into a program, you not only have to hit some hotkey, enter your task, then you have to tab to another field, decide what context this task should be in (is it “business” or “phone”?), type some more stuff, then hit OK. Too much work for no payoff.
Some of Allen’s ideas, like delegation, periodic reviews, etc. are useful though. But I’m skeptical of systems that aim too much to the GTD paradigm. The better systems are freeform like Ecco or Things.
—Chris
Graham Rhind wrote:
>I did find one personal task manager that did
>almost all of this but had a problem with database corruption. I am therefore
>currently having to use a blend of Outlook, Zoot and Sciral Consistency.
Posted by Manfred
Mar 31, 2008 at 12:21 AM
You probably looked at Agenda at Once. See http://www.agendaatonce.com/features.html
As far as I can tell, it does most of what you want except import/export of Palm and Outlook and different icons for tasks. I think they are working Outlook and PDA synchronization, don’t know about different icons.
Since it’s Shareware, you can try before you buy.
Manfred
Posted by Jack Crawford
Mar 31, 2008 at 01:44 AM
An interesting new arrival in the Outlook GTD market is Foresight (at http://www.enhanceyouroutlook.com).
They seem to have ambitious business plans driven by a subscription user model - although the amount is fixed at least in the short term. It would appear to be a direct competitor to My Life Organized.
As you need administrator rights to install it, it’s only of academic interest to me at my workplace.
Jack