Some of my tasks should be done at a certain time (events / meetings)

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Anonymous
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If you could drag and drop tasks into some sort of calendar view (i.e. go from a daily "to do" list to a daily schedule on an hour by hour basis) this website would be truly awesome! Steven Covey in 7 Habits goes from roles to goals to schedule. So for example if I wanted to do mission statement writing for an hour on monday I could drag it into a calendar and put in whatever else I'm doing that day.
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Aymeric Founder
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You can now use this syntax:


19:30: Meeting with John

7pm: Meeting with John

meet: John


Week plan looks for any ": " after less than 6 characters and converts it into a more visible "tag".


Try it!


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Aymeric Founder
Quote from Grace Daigler

@Aymeric,
I still think that having a calendar view such as proposed by Steven Covey would be very useful for me. It could be a view that you could snap on or off according to preference if some people think it is too constraining. I like seeing how much time I have left in the day for other things and how much time meetings, etc will take up. I am a very visual person, and I am not liable to put on mandatory blocked in events to a "to-do list" but I would put them on a calendar view.

Hi Grace,


Yes someone asked me to add some kind of timeline in the Day view, which is similar to what you are asking. I will think about it more to find an elegant solution.

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Grace Daigler

@Aymeric,
I still think that having a calendar view such as proposed by Steven Covey would be very useful for me. It could be a view that you could snap on or off according to preference if some people think it is too constraining. I like seeing how much time I have left in the day for other things and how much time meetings, etc will take up. I am a very visual person, and I am not liable to put on mandatory blocked in events to a "to-do list" but I would put them on a calendar view.

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Aymeric Founder
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  • Completed

You can now use this syntax:


19:30: Meeting with John

7pm: Meeting with John

meet: John


Week plan looks for any ": " after less than 6 characters and converts it into a more visible "tag".


Try it!


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Aymeric Founder
Quote from Richard Walker
This is a very interesting article indeed.

I agree that to do lists do not work but I also agree with Aymeric that a detailed calendar do not work either and would add complexity to WP.


IMO, WeekPlan is a great answer to todos' problems .


Let me comment each point separately:


Heterogeneous complexity

A better way than scheduling would be to assign complexity points to each task (it is a concept that works well in SCRUM methodology). A simple way to specify the "size" of a task.


Heterogeneous priority

The quadrant system of WP (could be developed more though) is a good answer to this problem because it drives you to progressively switch your focus to "important but not urgent" stuff (typically the "car maintenance" mentioned as example in the article)


Lack of context

WP is brilliant because you have a vision, roles and big rocks in mind, what better context for your tasks?


Lack of commitment devices

With WP, you set objectives for each week.

They are no real commitments for sure but the solutions proposed in the article are bad, it is about discipline and policy, cutting internet connection do not work (motivation does work).

I think life provides you with enough commitments. 


The paradox of choice

Here we are :)

Too many choices is not good for sure. But not at all is not good either.

Hourly schedules remove you from having to choose what to do but kills your sense of freedom.

WP is a great trade-off because it provides a weekly schedule with room for improvisation :)



Great tagline: WP provides a weekly schedule with room for improvisation... a sort of fluid weekly schedule. This is why it works well with software developer, they usually have very few tasks they have to do at a specific time, so a fluid schedule makes sense.
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Richard Walker
Quote from Anonymous
yes please this would be great, pleas also consider this article on HBR:
This is a very interesting article indeed.

I agree that to do lists do not work but I also agree with Aymeric that a detailed calendar do not work either and would add complexity to WP.


IMO, WeekPlan is a great answer to todos' problems .


Let me comment each point separately:


Heterogeneous complexity

A better way than scheduling would be to assign complexity points to each task (it is a concept that works well in SCRUM methodology). A simple way to specify the "size" of a task.


Heterogeneous priority

The quadrant system of WP (could be developed more though) is a good answer to this problem because it drives you to progressively switch your focus to "important but not urgent" stuff (typically the "car maintenance" mentioned as example in the article)


Lack of context

WP is brilliant because you have a vision, roles and big rocks in mind, what better context for your tasks?


Lack of commitment devices

With WP, you set objectives for each week.

They are no real commitments for sure but the solutions proposed in the article are bad, it is about discipline and policy, cutting internet connection do not work (motivation does work).

I think life provides you with enough commitments. 


The paradox of choice

Here we are :)

Too many choices is not good for sure. But not at all is not good either.

Hourly schedules remove you from having to choose what to do but kills your sense of freedom.

WP is a great trade-off because it provides a weekly schedule with room for improvisation :)



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Anonymous
Yes I understand your point of view. The timers is a good idea.
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Aymeric Founder
Quote from Anonymous
To be very specific:
Divide the days in hours, just like a calendar on gmail or outlook. actually it should be just like plan plus from covey. look at the right window of this img:

That way you are forced to divide your todo's in a time line, and you need to think about the length in time of you todo. (just as the HBR article says).
Now I understand why people are asking me for calendar view or the ability to associate time with a task. Timeboxing is a good time management principle. Thank you for the explanation!

To be honest I don't know if I will implement this feature because it would complexify WeekPlan. 

There is value in having a fluid schedule instead of having everything set in stone.

Some users asked me for timers on tasks, which is related to the timeboxing concept you mentioned and I am considering adding this becauseI can add it without adding any friction to the ability to add a task quickly.

Hope you understand.
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Anonymous
To be very specific:
Divide the days in hours, just like a calendar on gmail or outlook. actually it should be just like plan plus from covey. look at the right window of this img:

That way you are forced to divide your todo's in a time line, and you need to think about the length in time of you todo. (just as the HBR article says).
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Aymeric Founder
Quote from Anonymous
yes please this would be great, pleas also consider this article on HBR:
I don't understand this. Could you explain what you would like?
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Anonymous
yes please this would be great, pleas also consider this article on HBR:

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