Is there a chance that roles will be broken out at the bottom again?
Or do we have to just accept the change / move on?
App:
Replies 74
Aymeric Founder
This sounds sweet. May I suggest having the feature where the schedule tasks are expanded, like how it looks like in "Schedule", instead of how it looks like in "Boards"?
I am considering showing the additional tasks under the timeline like this to keep things compact (potentially show them as wide as their duration.)
What if we introduce a way to see all your backlog grouped by role, a bit like a user suggested, you would have three links: "Schedule Boards Roles"
Like the Boards view, you would be able to see your Schedule on the same page as the Roles board.
We would however keep the Plan of the Week as it is.
Would that solve the contention?
This sounds sweet. May I suggest having the feature where the schedule tasks are expanded, like how it looks like in "Schedule", instead of how it looks like in "Boards"?
Aymeric Founder
What if we introduce a way to see all your backlog grouped by role, a bit like a user suggested, you would have three links: "Schedule Boards Roles"
Like the Boards view, you would be able to see your Schedule on the same page as the Roles board.
We would however keep the Plan of the Week as it is.
Would that solve the contention?
Aymeric Founder
I agree. It is both the fact that HITS are unstructured and the space is not used to its maximum potential. By the end of the week, there are only a few narrow lanes with items of interest since the rest of the days have passed and should only hold completed tasks.
The tasks by role at the bottom allowed me to update the week plan on the fly (drag things out and pull others in depending on developments - as a previous comment mentioned, many tasks are can be delayed because of external factors). It is also nice to have all the roles next to each other and in parallel to the week plan because I can see if I am balancing properly across all roles. Your role functionality was great and the previous view made it so easy to see what areas I was neglecting.
On a side note, this is a great thread - thank you for all the feedback. I have been trying to adopt the new format but it is not going very well. Can you leave the HIT to the left, have the week days collapse as they pass (or have a rolling 7-day view as another user suggested) and add the role board under the week plan?
So, you are talking about splitting the Plan of the Week and the "Role board". The role board would essentially be a special board where the lists are the roles? And they wouldn't hold the HITs, just tasks?
It's both of those things...
Also, like you said, lack of education... it's confusing and not clear how boards play into this... but it's especially frustrating to have to create your own board with the roles...
I agree. It is both the fact that HITS are unstructured and the space is not used to its maximum potential. By the end of the week, there are only a few narrow lanes with items of interest since the rest of the days have passed and should only hold completed tasks.
The tasks by role at the bottom allowed me to update the week plan on the fly (drag things out and pull others in depending on developments - as a previous comment mentioned, many tasks are can be delayed because of external factors). It is also nice to have all the roles next to each other and in parallel to the week plan because I can see if I am balancing properly across all roles. Your role functionality was great and the previous view made it so easy to see what areas I was neglecting.
On a side note, this is a great thread - thank you for all the feedback. I have been trying to adopt the new format but it is not going very well. Can you leave the HIT to the left, have the week days collapse as they pass (or have a rolling 7-day view as another user suggested) and add the role board under the week plan?
Aymeric Founder
I definitely also think it's not much use without the high impact tasks grouped per role. It's now impossible to tell whether you're making progress across your roles, and hard to sit down to plan for the week and go "what do I want to achieve in this role this week?" etc.
Some people may use the HITs as a backlog, and I don't think that's a problem, even if it's not how it's intended. People with busy schedules may have long lists in each day, but I think it would be preferable to still see the HITs grouped by role at the bottom of the screen, and if necessary scroll in each day to see the rest of the tasks. Most calendar apps require you to scroll at least a little to view all of the hours in a day.
Even better, put HITs grouped by role back at the bottom of the screen in a collapsible panel so you can minimise them if you want your full day view. Even even better, give people settings options for side or bottom (or even top!) HITs menu, and grouped or ungrouped.
I think many users are finding this a negative change because the 7 habits stuff focuses so directly on planning based on your roles and high impact tasks for each of them, but the new layout is contrary to that.
- having a board with a list per role would resolve the scenario where people use roles as a backlog.
- I believe this new Plan of the Week is more loyal to the 7 habits philosophy because it constrains you to use it as a weekly list rather than a backlog.
You can fix it manually by removing the task from the HIT list by clicking on an icon on the top right of the right sidebar
Where do you click?
I definitely also think it's not much use without the high impact tasks grouped per role. It's now impossible to tell whether you're making progress across your roles, and hard to sit down to plan for the week and go "what do I want to achieve in this role this week?" etc.
Some people may use the HITs as a backlog, and I don't think that's a problem, even if it's not how it's intended. People with busy schedules may have long lists in each day, but I think it would be preferable to still see the HITs grouped by role at the bottom of the screen, and if necessary scroll in each day to see the rest of the tasks. Most calendar apps require you to scroll at least a little to view all of the hours in a day.
Even better, put HITs grouped by role back at the bottom of the screen in a collapsible panel so you can minimise them if you want your full day view. Even even better, give people settings options for side or bottom (or even top!) HITs menu, and grouped or ungrouped.
I think many users are finding this a negative change because the 7 habits stuff focuses so directly on planning based on your roles and high impact tasks for each of them, but the new layout is contrary to that.
+1 for the topic as well.
I loved the old view because I didn't have more than 3-5 tasks per day. In any case, I understand what you are trying to achieve Aymeric, but honestly I felt like the previous board look was so much better and you could scroll the day if you happen to have more than 5-7 per day.
This new view frees up a bunch of space for the week and day tasks, but it makes it way more challenging to organize the tasks since they are all bunched up and squeezed under a single columm.
In my opinion, if you have several users requesting this - you should give us the option rather than make the decision yourself. Have an option to toggle between both modes, full screen task view and like it was previously. That way when we want to have a more general view of our tasks when we are planning them we can.
If this fails to happen, I will also cancel my ultimate account with much pain on having to look for another task manager that suits me.
Best
I just ended my Ultimate account since it doesn't feel like you will get the roles back in a view where i can easily overview and organize my tasks. I also confused since the iphone app looks exactly the way i like in the "plan the Week" tab . I have used week plan since i started to practices 7 habits methodology three years ago. And last week i just read GTD and was in the mood of improving my practice of these methods. Since Week Plan was the best tool i found on the market i will try to monitor the development, but i am out for now.
What if we introduce a way to see all your backlog grouped by role, a bit like a user suggested, you would have three links: "Schedule Boards Roles"
Like the Boards view, you would be able to see your Schedule on the same page as the Roles board.
We would however keep the Plan of the Week as it is.
Would that solve the contention?