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Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

taskablehq.com

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Re: Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

#21

Post by mattcrail »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #16

Ignorant question - but I assume this is not something that those of us stuck in "Enterprise IT / Big Corpo" can easily benefit from? * I don't see Outlook/Exchange as part of Integrations (let alone more fun stuff like Lotus Notes etc :P) * I assume it'd be essentially impossible to open ports, gain permission, pass security task list, bribe system administrators and security control officers etc for individual to i…

Hey Nikola - we don't yet support Outlook but it's something we are planning to do in the next couple weeks.

Indeed you are right - we've generally steered away from enterprise users because of those reasons, and instead target startups/SMEs because generally the person using our product is also an admin.

However, we do want to target enterprises eventually so at some point we'll have to figure all that out.

Re: Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

#22

Post by sdoering »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #16

Ignorant question - but I assume this is not something that those of us stuck in "Enterprise IT / Big Corpo" can easily benefit from? * I don't see Outlook/Exchange as part of Integrations (let alone more fun stuff like Lotus Notes etc :P) * I assume it'd be essentially impossible to open ports, gain permission, pass security task list, bribe system administrators and security control officers etc for individual to i…

Sadly exactly my thought stuck in MSO 365 outlook for corporate life. And havi g multiple clients with different stakeholders and multiple projects per client is calendar hell in itself.

Re: Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

#23

Post by mattcrail »

egypturnash wrote: post #12
gandalfff wrote: post #6

I've been looking for a tool to reduce the friction of timeblocking. I find that my estimate for how long things take is often wildly incorrect. Does this tool address those scenarios? I will give Taskable a try this week. Congrats!

I've been timeblocking on paper for years with the Pomodoro method. One crucial part of that method that's easy to overlook is the part where you look back at your records when you finish a thing and see how long it took to actually make it, versus your initial estimates; doing this helps you develop a sense of how long this kind of task will actually take! One major leap in this for me has been developing a habit of…

Yeah - I find this super important too. I readjust my calendar entries based on actual time I spent on something so I can reflect on it later in the day.

As mentioned, we are going to add in insights/analytics for this reason

Re: Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

#24

Post by mawise »

I remember trying out Getting Things Done, really liking the idea, and then finding out I had only crappy ways to reference an email from my "todo list". Enough of my "work" is "respond to this email" that I've never been able to escape my inbox as one of my todo lists.

Any ideas on how to build task planning that lets me include link directly to an email?

Re: Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

#25

Post by mattcrail »

davidw wrote: post #20

I get anxious when I have some kind of ... time thing coming up. Meeting, have to go get a kid from school... it just sits there churning up cycles in my brain. It's the enemy of "flow".

It's definitely not for everyone. I actually get motivation from having the deadline coming up to buckle down and try to finish the thing I am doing in the time allotted. So for me it helps with flow, but I understand that isn't universal for.

Re: Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

#27

Post by mattcrail »

krono wrote: post #19

Time Blocking is a terrible name for the concept. Of the two ways you could interpret it, one makes you feel like Kronos the Lord of Time, and the other will make you hate your calendar/agenda and everything you put on there. What does not work: Blocking time. The world will not adapt to how you planned it last Sunday, and no amount of wanting, asking, or even demanding will make it so. Time is fluid, people are self…

I would have agreed with you a couple months ago, and we didn't ever plan to build this feature. But a lot of users requested it, and I started doing it myself, and it does actually work really well for me to timebox specific tasks rather than timeblock chunks of my day. I never followed the latter when I tried it, but when I have timeboxed specific tasks in my calendar it works for me and for a lot of our users as well.

Re: Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

#28

Post by mattcrail »

sdoering wrote: post #26

Cool solution. Sadly not for ne stuck in corporate firewalled MS Outlook. But I love to see when somebody builds stuff to solve a problem. And I believe that at least I can cheer them on and wish the best for them. Congrats.

Thanks! We are going to add Outlook soon but nothing we can do about the firewall for the time being

Re: Show HN: A better way to timeblock your day

#30

Post by mattcrail »

mawise wrote: post #24

I remember trying out Getting Things Done, really liking the idea, and then finding out I had only crappy ways to reference an email from my "todo list". Enough of my "work" is "respond to this email" that I've never been able to escape my inbox as one of my todo lists. Any ideas on how to build task planning that lets me include link directly to an email?

Yeah - I know that problem well.

We have a Gmail integration where you can star an email, and then it syncs to Taskable as a task (and links back to the original email). Once checked off, it also archives the gmail message.

That way you can star things that require follow up, and get to them later, and archive the rest.

We have a lot more to build on the email side of things - such as surfacing important emails for you, or even being able to respond quickly to emails right from Taskable so you go to your inbox less, where you can get sucked down rabbit holes very easily.

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