Hi All,
I want what seems to me a very simple feature:
- Make OF Actions that have due dates appear as iCal events.
I have spent several hours reading forum posts.
I have seen the religious arguments complete with GTD bible citations.
I have downloaded and installed the latest 1.8 sneaky peak.
I've played with numerous permutations of iPhone OF / Mac OF / OF iCal Sync / "Publish Due Reminders as a calendar" / OF MobileMe Sync / iSync iCal Sync / iPhone push sync / Mac CalDAV sync / iPhone CalDAV sync etc etc....
I am not confused about the difference between tasks and and events like meetings. I am not expecting to schedule meetings in OF and have them show up in iCal. I put meetings into iCal separately anyway.
However I do need to see all of my task due dates overlaid on a calendar.
The best outcome I can get so far is:
- OF Actions that are due in the next 2 weeks appear as iCal events.
- 2 copies of each iCal event show up on the iPhone.
(One subscribed directly by the iPhone, and one synced from Mac iCal via MobileMe push, ...which doesn't update properly)
I assume that the duplicate events is something that will be fixed before 1.8 goes public. I'm reasonably happy to work around that for now.
But why the arbitrary restriction to only export OF Actions due in the next 2 weeks to iCal?
I would very much like to be able to see _All_ future OF Action due dates in iCal.
There are two use cases for this:
Use case 1: Due date sanity checking...
I have a bunch of tasks with due dates, some are self imposed, some are "the date the client needs the proposal". When I overlay the due dates with my calendar I can see things like: "I've got a bunch of stuff all due in the same week that my wife's friend will be staying in out spare room / home office" -- not going to get much done that week... or "This thing is due the day after I come back from a trip" -- I need to get that done before I leave.
or "There is nothing in the calendar for this two week block" -- good opportunity to schedule due date for some catch-up reading tasks.
Use case 2: Scheduling things around tasks...
I have a client on the phone saying "I'll be in town on these days, can we meet up to discuss a new project". I can look in iCal to pick a time when no other meetings are scheduled, However unless my task due dates are in iCal I can't see that "I have a quarterly report due later that week, so I'll be too busy".
My wife looks in iCal to find a good time to book a week at the family beach house. She can see a week with no meetings, but she needs to be able to see tasks due as well to get an idea of my workload. There is no point going to the beach and spending the whole time writing code for a demo that is due to be mailed to the customer the following monday.
It seems so close.
1.8 has "Publish Due Reminders as a calendar".
I would be happy if there was a checkbox for "Publish all future due dates as a calendar". I would be even happier to have another one called "Publish all future start dates as a calendar".
Looking at "Due Soon" on my iPhone is a great way to get things done over then next few days without getting stressed out. What's missing is a way to see "what will be Due Soon in the week before Christmas" so I can avoid committing to too many tasks and plan to keep the stress down on an ongoing basis.
Sam