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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

#71

Post by dmarble »

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?

Check out Legend (formerly moo.do): https://legendapp.com/

Found it several years ago and used it regularly for a while. It has a nice mixed model for blending calendar, email, lists, tasks. Lots of drag and drop capability, keyboard shortcuts. Loads fast. Mobile app. Customizable views you can quickly switch between, e.g. 3 column email on left, tasks in the middle, calendar on the right.

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

#75

Post by ziggus »

onion2k wrote: post #56
ziggus wrote: post #52

I've seen a lot of these kinds of tools come and go, and this one looks as good if not better than most of the others. However, they're all missing out on a huge market: people in delegate or what's normally known as "Executive Assistant" roles, who are managing someone else's calendar and need a way to control what calendar items, invitations, responses, etc. their executives are seeing. I have yet to see any tool t…

they're all missing out on a huge market That doesn't sound like a huge market. Very few people have an assistant these days. That sounds like a few tens of thousands of potential customers, although admittedly ones able to afford a high premium.

"Very few people have an assistant these days."

Uh, frankly, you don't know what you're talking about. Just because the people you work with don't, doesn't mean that your experience is universal.

Most execs or C-level employees are going to have at least one exec assistant, if not more.

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

#76

Post by ziggus »

mattcrail wrote: post #57
ziggus wrote: post #52

I've seen a lot of these kinds of tools come and go, and this one looks as good if not better than most of the others. However, they're all missing out on a huge market: people in delegate or what's normally known as "Executive Assistant" roles, who are managing someone else's calendar and need a way to control what calendar items, invitations, responses, etc. their executives are seeing. I have yet to see any tool t…

That's an interesting space. Our current users tend to be working at earlier stage startups so we don't hear a lot about EAs but certainly for enterprise clients I could see how this would be a killer feature.

It's a very common complaint amongst EAs; there's a LOT of time management tools, but they're all geared towards an individual managing their own time.

Imagine the work you have to do to manage a busy calendar, then multiply it by 10. Then add in responsibility for booking travel, managing events, managing multiple email accounts, etc. for a number of people, and you can start to imagine how amazing it would be to have better tools to do something like managing an exec's calendar.

I speak from (limited) experience: my wife is an EA and sometimes I show her tools like this and she always asks 'can it handle delegate roles?', and every time I have to concede that, no, they don't.

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

#77

Post by jbjbjbjb »

openknot wrote: post #67
jbjbjbjb wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by “works”? You could do it with pencil and a piece of paper.

A pen and paper is what I typically use, especially when stuck on a task. But to think about how to timeblock in a way that "works" (I interpret this means, "is effective at keeping one spent on worthwhile tasks), I think the behaviours matter more than the tool (paper/software/or otherwise). The biggest habits to make time blocking work I see would be: i) Checking the system (paper/software) regularly) ii) Capturing…

I see that in the GTD approach with the emphasis it has on the weekly review and trusting the inbox. But I don’t think there are any easy solutions for that, you just have to dedicate the time.

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

#78

Post by mattcrail »

gazelle21 wrote: post #32

This looks great and looking to move from sunsama due to pricing. I don't see an easy way to delete task? I imported a template as test but can't seem to delete task?

Hey - you can archive tasks using the bulk editing function https://www.loom.com/share/239fa635bbd045eb87343810bb155dfb

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

#79

Post by goplayoutside »

mattcrail wrote: post #30
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 y…

I don't see Fastmail on your roadmap. Do you intend to eventually support Fastmail?

As I'm sure you're aware, lots of us have migrated away from GMail.

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

#80

Post by SenHeng »

tgdnt wrote: post #69

There was an app called Timeful that got acquihired by Google who promptly shut it down. What that app did that was actually good was you could have a simple todo list and you could drag it to your calendar, just like your app. They went on and on about "AI" and how they were going to blow everyone's minds at Google, but all many of us wanted was just a good old drag and drop. Timeful was only on mobile, and had an e…

I sometimes think cloning popular services that have been acquired and shut down could be a viable business.
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