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Time Visualization and Calendar Preference Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
One missing element to kGTD is a time visualization. When I move a due date I don't have a view of other things this action may impact. I would love a view of what I have in OmniFocus by time (requires estimating time of tasks) and priority/importance with time visualization. I often have little idea of the amount of stuff I have stacking up against a deadline. I need to know when to delegate or more a task or project out a week or month.

Some of the time visualization in OmniPlan could be helpful, or a link to OmniPlan possibly (OmniPlan has different emotional meaning as it is more formal than possibly is needed). A calendar view of meeting and call actions (or whatever a user prefers).

A built-in calendar view in OmniFocus would be helpful, which could sync or publish to iCal. This view could be more flexible than standard time blocks and with some work could be used to input and flow around interruptions. I really would like a stack of time estimated tasks with their priority/importance and allow me to understand I don't have 26 hours that day to actually get all of the tasks done on that day.
 
Just want to throw in my vote for this.
 
I agree - it would be great to be able to see some sort of calendar view of a project, but I would keep it really simple and link to Plan if more of that kind of power is needed. I'd like to think of Plan as the full project managment solution, and Focus as the task/personal solution.

My caution comes from having looked at many project management apps - hoping to use them for my GTD system. There is usually way too much overhead to use them fluidly. Gantt charts, work time estimates, resource scheduling - those are all the kinds of things that a big project needs, but not the 95% of projects (especially if "project" is defined as ">1 task") that I work on.

Though having said that - it would be very nice to have a couple simple fields to estimate time. I too would like to be able to plan my day by easily seeing the amount of time I imagine my tasks will take. It would also be great to be able to compare my estimates to how much time I actually took. I'm always underestimating time - and that might help me fine tune.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoff
Though having said that - it would be very nice to have a couple simple fields to estimate time. I too would like to be able to plan my day by easily seeing the amount of time I imagine my tasks will take. It would also be great to be able to compare my estimates to how much time I actually took. I'm always underestimating time - and that might help me fine tune.
I would be happy with a single time estimate field. It could be optional. To further simplify, it could be “bucketized” — instead of allowing any time (in minutes) to be entered, it could be a (user-definable) drop-down of durations. Something like “Quick (minutes)”, “Medium (ten of minutes)”, and “Long (hours)” would be sufficient for me. Then you don’t have to worry as much about accuracy and recording actuals.

Thoughts?

— Tim
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tacartwright
... Something like “Quick (minutes)”, “Medium (ten of minutes)”, and “Long (hours)” would be sufficient for me. ...— Tim
Me too.
-Paul
 
Me too! And before someone rains on this parade, no! iCal integration is not what we are referring to!
 
It would be terrific if, at some point, OmniFocus could (or could interface easily with a program that could) offer planning along the lines of David Seah's Emergent Task Planners.

It would be an entirely new additional interface, so I imagine this is seen as beyond the scope of what OmniFocus is for. But since the time estimates and starred/flagged tasks are already being built in, perhaps it's not so farfetched an idea to have a space for dragging and dropping tasks into a daily or weekly planner.
 
To add on to this thread:

I love how in itunes you can check on the length of a playlist or your library. A playlist could be 45 minutes and the entire music library could be 9.5 days.

I would be fantastic if you focus on a project and see that you had 1.5 hours left or look at all of your tasks within a particular range and see that you are estimated 50.5 hours of NA's.

For me and my geekiness, this would be a cool way to motivate myself to crank through a project. It could also be helpful when a boss wants to add on a new project to have the ability to say, "I currently estimate that I have a nine day back up before I start that new project. However, I could put the Smith project on hold in which case I would have a four day back-up."

It would also be fantastic to see this in terms of contexts. You could look at your email context and see that you have 20 minutes of emails to crank out. It would be fun to see the time get reduced every time you checked off another task.
 
I haven't re-read GTD in a while, but wasn't DE-emphasizing calendars part of the point?

;)

-bbb
 
Me too. Calendar view in OF on an approriate (adjustable) 24h scale.
Be.
 
 


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