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Future Plans
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Ummagumma |
Posted by creinhard:
Are most users using Toodledo on mobile or desktop platform? It's hard to tell from these posts ... I personally use desktop version 99%, with a rare android visit here and there. I can't imagine being as productive on smarphone or tablet as I am on desktop ... Chris Some of us travel a lot, also move around even when staying in our “home base”. Being tied to a desktop version would greatly limit my productivity. I use mobile devices (iPad and iPhone) for good 70% of my planning. Which is why I ended up abandoning Toodledo and moving over to 2Do. (I’d use them together but there’s no background sync). |
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SteveFamilyMan_2 |
#1 Welcome new owners. I'm worried, but welcome anyway. I wish you well.
#2 I have tried DOZENS of other popular task organization systems over the years and I have abandoned every one of them and stuck with ToodleDo for somewhere in the ballpark of 10 years now. #3 PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not make major changes...not soon, and not ever. If you want to take user feedback and "finesse" ToodleDo...address bugs, remove widespread problems, increase speed, etc. GREAT. But major changes of any kind? No. Not soon, and not ever. The reason ToodleDo has been the service I have come back to over and over and over for a decade is that it is the best already. The problem with sitting atop the peak of a mountain is that it's dang easy to fall off. Just focus on staying put firm on the peak of the mountain, not on ascending other mountains (or however you want to take this analogy). #4 Key Point: The desktop version must be VERY similar (virtually identical) in function and look to any and all mobile versions. ToodleDo has done this well in recent years with their Android app. Don't let that slip! #5 Key Point: What is so great about ToodleDo that you need to guard and preserve? Here's the bad part; I don't know. As I have used dozens of other applications--some failing to meet my needs on the desktop side, some on the mobile device side--I couldn't always put it into words to clearly describe what specifically made me abandon one or the other. It's weird...initially, looking at the list of features and options that each application had things nearly always sounded good. It wasn't that your competitors had bad ideas, and it's not necessarily that any particular ideas were implemented poorly (although sometimes that surely was the case). It's almost like the whole ecosystem had to click right...and that was really, really hard for most developers to get right. I think it's a subtle balance of simplicity with flexibility/options, and enough info displayed at one time without it being too much and without it being too busy, too distracting, convoluted, etc. It's really hard to say what specific things are great and why ToodleDo is the best. But I CAUTION YOU not to screw around with it. It would be really easy to say "oh, well we're only going to make "improvements" based on community feedback" and then jump into it feeling like the sky is the limit and you're going to make the best task management application even "bester". But for the same mysterious reason that dozens and dozens of other [presumably intelligent, observant, hard-working, creative, and clever] people have failed to displace ToodleDo as the best, you might just as easily apply your good intentions and find you upset the current "just right" synergistic blend of design features. PLEASE DON'T DO IT. I don't think it's as easy as you or others may think it is. For example, one user gave feedback in this thread saying he wanted more color in the UI. Sounds innocent enough. Who wouldn't want more color? Wouldn't more color just make it easier to sort and organize and keep track of different things on the screen?? Perhaps. Or, it's the relatively simple and nondescript color scheme that has contributed to it having that "just right" balance of design features. I have used applications that tried to use a lot of different colors for good and helpful intentions, but with the actual result looking like a bowl of jellybeans and being more distracting than helpful. That's just one example, but similar logic can be used with almost any design and function element you might consider adding or changing. Looks good up front, everyone agrees it can only help and not hurt, but in actuality it ends up screwing with the unique balance that ToodleDo has achieved and so few other applications have. So I'm trying to say that the things making ToodleDo great today are not necessarily very measurable or quantifiable, and you'd do well to take the humble approach of maintaining (with minor finesse and tune up) rather than the bold "we can do anything" approach that you're going to take the already-best solution and make it better. Truth is, I doubt it. #6 I'll mention one thing that could be improved... I currently have 2650 tasks in total. About half a year ago that number was around 3000 to 3100 tasks, and around that quantity your Android app began choking. I couldn't add an app, modify an existing app, delete an app, or do almost anything else on my [modern, up-to-date, and healthy] Android phone without significant delays at VIRTUALLY EVERY tap. It took me a while to figure it out...I uninstalled the app, totally updated everything I could think of in my phone, re-installed the app...no change. Tried everything, but the only thing that affected it was reducing the number of tasks. That was a pain, but on the desktop I did sift back through hundreds (even thousands) of tasks and tediously deleted as many older tasks as I could. The considerable laggyness in the Android app got less and less, and after a certain point the laggyness was gone. I didn't think 3000 tasks was all that many, but apparently it's too many for your current Android app. #7 I saw earlier a question about if most users are using ToodleDo on desktops or on mobile devices. Just thought I'd weigh in that for the last decade or so I have used ToodleDo MANY times per day on BOTH desktop AND mobile devices. ToodleDo is my hub. It's central to ALL of my planning at home, at church, at work, in my personal hobbies and interests, etc. When my wife asks me "so what do you have planned for today?" the first thing I do is consult my ToodleDo list(s), and THEN I answer her, and I'm managing those lists constantly on both my Android phone AND my Windows computers. FWIW. Thanks, and good luck! This message was edited Jul 14, 2018. |
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Purveyor |
The new owner is a company called Pink Java Media.
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morgan.gilhuly |
I am excited about the change in ownership. Nothing can stay the same in today's computer market. Stasis is death. So congratulations to the new team. I am glad it's a small company and not a behemoth that is planning a buy-and-kill operation.
I totally agree with the suggested enhancement below -- a quick and easy way to roll task due dates forward. I often bite off more than I can chew on a particular day, and would like those tasks to keep rolling forward until I complete them. Thanks. Morgan Posted by chowell: Hi,
I have used Toodledo for years and it's been extremely handy. I don't have a lot of sophisticated needs, so I'm not sure if other apps on the market would suit me as well. Two items: 1. Will you continue to offer the free version now available? I am a non-paying user (but have recommended it to many people over the years). 2. Suggested enhancement: A way to reassign all tasks not done today to tomorrow's date (or all overdue to "today") with 1-2 clicks. Thanks and good luck with your new venture! Carla |
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Ummagumma |
Posted by Purveyor:
The new owner is a company called Pink Java Media. Interesting. It's hard to see where a product like Toodledo would fit into their business... |
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Ummagumma |
So, what makes Toodledo unique among task managers ?
To me, it's Start time and Saved searches. The rest is icing on the proverbial cake. A good task manager will (a) make sure you start working on tasks early enough to have them completed before the deadline, and (b) that the tasks can be hidden out of sight until their start date comes. And provide a reasonably easy, low maintenance way to accomplish that. Seems simple, yet it's mind boggling how many popular task managers don't support a basic feature like start date. So far, out of all task systems I tried, Toodledo is - for me - a solid 2nd best. The 1st best is 2Do, because it was designed from scratch around date based filtering and Focus approach, while in Toodledo it's possible but requires some tweaking and doesn't work perfectly. But if you prefer to use desktop / web access, Toodledo is the best. (I really liked TickTick but am concerned with their security). So, whatever the new owners end up doing, let's hope they improve on the strengths of Toodledo, not remove features... This message was edited Jul 15, 2018. |
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Jim_Lewis |
I've read all sorts of time and task management books: Covey's 7 Habits, Allen's Getting Things Done, Linenburger's Managing Your Now, etc.
Of these, Linenberger's idea of controlling your time horizon, prioritizing your tasks, and not looking too far beyond tasks that are due today or tomorrow (except for strategic views) perhaps had the most influence. But with all these task management approaches, I felt I was spending too much time reviewing tasks, changing tasks folders, tags, or due dates/start dates and getting involved in too much busy work. So I still assign and change priorities as necessary to allow for changing priorities. I still use Start Dates to make tasks "disappear" into the unforeseen future when there is no need to be distracted by them. But in Toodledo and related third-party apps for Android and Windows 10, I've found the handiest quickest thing to focus my immediate attention is to misuse CONTEXT. Normally in Allen's view of the world, context is the environment in which you are best able to handle a task, @work, @home, @computer, @phone, etc. I ignore this environmental context completely. Instead, I've reinvented contexts like @IMMED (immediately), @Now (not immediately but real soon now), @Today (hopefully), and @Waiting for everything else that's real important but not likely to get done today. I want to use Tags to categorize more broadly and cross-reference items so Tags are not in the running for use in relative to-do timing (and Tags are not easily assignable and removable from a dropdown that you only want to contain a few possibilities). And things have Priorities but the Priorities given don't really reflect what time relative to Managing Your Now that you need to do them. Context works great, it's easy to change in ToodleDo and associated apps and for any context of IMMED, NOW, TODAY, or whatever, I can still see a relative priority within that relative NOW categorization of what I should pay attention, too. And something I find that I've let lag and I really should get done forthwith, I can "reschedule" not by messing around with any dates, folders, or priorities but just by given it my @IMMED context. Even if I don't do it today or tomorrow, it will still be in @IMMED, which is where I would look first to do anything that needs to be done. If I want to make it disappear into the future but still be a high priority item to attack, I will change the Start Date into the future but leave its given relative priority in terms of intrinsic importance and its given @IMMED time management categorization as something that needs to get done immediately when it crosses the event horizon again, etc. So my filter for @IMMED would be something like "Checked Off is NO AND Has context @IMMED AND (Has Start Date before Tomorrow or Start Date Doesn't Exist), etc., implemented as a named SAVED SEARCH. Same for the other context time-prioritization categories (contexts in my usage) except the other thing that defines @Waiting is just the @Waiting context assignment and Checked Off is NO. And I control relative sorting order of my Saved Searches by using prefixes to the name of the search as necessary to control sort order, e.g. @A_(name) vs. @AA_(name), etc. A final example of how this is handy is that "Comb the cat" is normally a low-priority daily recurring task. But if I've let it lag several days and the cat has already puked hairballs (and her lunch) a couple of times on the floor today, I can make this lowly task something deserving of my immediate attention to reduce future hair ingestion just by assigning it to the @IMMED context (misuse) without changing anything else about the task's normal priority (low) or its start/due date. And as soon as I feel the item has gotten the attention it deserves, changing the context to None (or deleting it in certain third-party apps) puts combing kitty right back in the low priority daily recurring setting it never really had to leave to get my attention by changing its "context." Those who swear by Allen and "real" context will call this heresy - BUT IT WORKS GREAT FOR ME! P.S. You also don't have to change any task's home folder location to bring it into your high-priority, should do immediately, do very soon today, or do sometime today views. You just change the context, nothing else. I think the inspiration of this approach was playing around with Microsoft's new To-Do app where there is a MY TODAY view and from any list folder within MS To-DO, you can leave an item there but make it appear in the MY TODAY view just by giving it a MY TODAY assignment. And when you remove it from MY TODAY, it's still sitting in its original folder. It can appear in MY TODAY whether it's a dated item or not. So misusing CONTEXT was my way of creating different relative NOW time priority MY TODAY views.....while leaving the overall real relative priority assignment in the universe of strategic tasks intact. This message was edited Jul 15, 2018. |
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dchapiro |
ENHANCEMENT REQUESTS:
I like Toodledo, I use it many times a day, and it is a critical tool for me (from research, to taxes, to maintenance, to investments, and many more). However, I do not use many features that I find flawed. Rather than pushing for what I like (but others might not), I would like to suggest a list of things that I believe would make Toodledo much more powerful, and are not too involved. Most importantly, they can be made fully backwards compatible, so no user would be forced to change anything unless they want to. So here’s my list: EASY (and my top priority) 1. Attach Links: The current behavior of “attach” copies the file. I would find attachments useful only if Toodledo loaded just a link to the local file in the user's computer. Upon clicking this link it should open the file with the default utility for the type of file (not in the browser!). This would be more general, more powerful, and any changes to files, whether opened from a Toodledo link, or via the file system, would work the same (no more duplicates, and no need to store them at Toodledo). To keep backwards compatibility, add a user option to choose this "link behavior". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WOULD BE NICE 2. Subtasks: 2.1 Visualization: Nested subtasks are followed by an extraneous blank line, which uses screen space. Pls add a setting so people can choose to not have that extra blank line (or get rid of it altogether, if like me, you see it as a bug) 2.1 Rank Propagation: If a subtask is hidden, even if it’s overdue and top priority, it is not displayed – if you don’t want to miss urgent things, the only workaround is to expand (inline or indented). So you can have a compact view, or see what’s urgent, but not both. I’d like to propose a simple solution: l’ll call the position of a task in the current view (based on hotlist, sorting, etc), its “rank”. Have an option in settings that would display each task with the highest of (a) its own rank and (b) that of all its subtasks. In this way one can run with the subtasks hidden, without fear of missing stuff. 3. Cursor in Task's Notes Section When one re-opens the text note of a task, the cursor is always at the beginning. Have it instead at the end (that is at the beginning of a new blank line, at the end of the note). Alternately, have a setting that allows the user to choose. 4. “Recently” Completed Add an option to let the user define what is recent, rather than the arbitrary 7 days. 5. Partial Backups Allow (a) backing up only the current view, (b) allow “add restore”, which instead of replacing the current tasks, would just add what’s on the file. 6. Task notes in Outline form: When one clicks the note icon of a task, it would open a plain text window (as it does now), but within it, one could (a) just type as usual, or (b) click on new buttons “Outline” or “Note”, in which case the task’s note would be a Toodledo Outline or Note, respectively, instead of plain text. 7. Icons for task vs subtask When one inlines subtasks, it would be much better to readily distinguish parent vs child subtasks, but the current icons are too similar. I'd have an option to choose a color for the parent icon, or rotate the subtask's icon upside down, whatever would make them very quickly recognizable. 8. ShowHide Although the eye icon is clever, and the open/shut eyes too, there is a sort of standard way to do that, which is a "View" menu, with options ticked on/off. It is so prevalent across GUIs, that any new user of Toodledo wastes a bit of time figuring out the "Toodledo way" and novel icon. Maybe this is trivial, but I'm for not re-inventing what works… 9. Settings By default, open the settings in a new tab. Also, bring the "gear icon" up one level, to the crumbs bar. 10. Automated Backups I invest a lot in my tasks, as many ideas and notes reside just there. The current backup relies on being disciplined and regularly doing it manually. I’ve seen requests to automate backups (in the forum), that go years back… I’d like a setting for “automatic backup” to my computer, to specify a folder, a time, and tick the days of the week when you want it to run. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- FUTURE 11. Desktop GUI: Have (keep) GUIs that are (somewhat) platform dependent: what is great for a cell phone, where space is at a premium, is bad in a 27” monitor – and vice versa. I use Toodledo exclusively on a desktop, and in part chose Toodledo because I can get at things with few clicks. Without going into every feature change, as things disappear from the main window or from toolbars (as in somme past changes), naturally one needs to click more times to get there. So-called “clean GUIs” are pretty and uncluttered, and a necessity for cell phones. However, sometimes are far from ideal on a desktop. I understand the need to support cell phones, but I’d rather that this happened through specialization of the GUIs, instead of everywhere. This message was edited Jul 15, 2018. |
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jimrobins |
I have been using ToodleDo as my to list for at least 10 years. My first entry is from March, 2003, but I may have copied that in from a spreadsheet when I first got ToodleDo. I have 422 tasks. Some are just for reference, such as the date and notes from the installation of the kitchen countertop. All of my results from medical are in there, i.e., doctor visits, dental and so on. All of my tasks related to maintaining our home go in there, and some remain as reference items. I use it almost daily, and it is the most used app I have along with calendar and news. I, like others, have tried other productivity apps and find them to be lacking compared to ToodleDo.
I will just repeat some of what has already been said. Please be careful about improvements. Allowing me to interact with lots of other apps is not a feature to me ! It is already fast, and for my use it is flawless. Jim |
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Anthony_Taylor |
if asking for suggestions;
proper windows notifications. The ones at the moment, are unreliable |
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8w7zh6902 |
No: I will not go to a Google forum. And it is not encouraging that the first contact from the new owners is a push in Google's direction.
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aleding |
Posted by Jim_Lewis:
...They feel that Windows 10 in its latest version is Microsoft's best OS, ever. And so do I. That's why they're called opinions...hence my constant use of "IMO". If there's one thing I've learned in my many years in tech, there is no universal "good" or "best"...and this is most true re: software as nicely illustrated with this thread... :=) |
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John |
Hi Guys
I have for many years thought a Kanban board type view would be great |
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mjStallinger |
Posted by 8w7zh6902:
No: I will not go to a Google forum. And it is not encouraging that the first contact from the new owners is a push in Google's direction. Google forum: graveyard of never finally answered questions and never realized requirements
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boydston01 |
Posted by Jim_Lewis:
I've read all sorts of time and task management books: Covey's 7 Habits, Allen's Getting Things Done, Linenburger's Managing Your Now, etc. Of these, Linenberger's idea of controlling your time horizon, prioritizing your tasks, and not looking too far beyond tasks that are due today or tomorrow (except for strategic views) perhaps had the most influence. But with all these task management approaches, I felt I was spending too much time reviewing tasks, changing tasks folders, tags, or due dates/start dates and getting involved in too much busy work. So I still assign and change priorities as necessary to allow for changing priorities. I still use Start Dates to make tasks "disappear" into the unforeseen future when there is no need to be distracted by them. But in Toodledo and related third-party apps for Android and Windows 10, I've found the handiest quickest thing to focus my immediate attention is to misuse CONTEXT. Normally in Allen's view of the world, context is the environment in which you are best able to handle a task, @work, @home, @computer, @phone, etc. I ignore this environmental context completely. Instead, I've reinvented contexts like @IMMED (immediately), @Now (not immediately but real soon now), @Today (hopefully), and @Waiting for everything else that's real important but not likely to get done today. I want to use Tags to categorize more broadly and cross-reference items so Tags are not in the running for use in relative to-do timing (and Tags are not easily assignable and removable from a dropdown that you only want to contain a few possibilities). And things have Priorities but the Priorities given don't really reflect what time relative to Managing Your Now that you need to do them. Context works great, it's easy to change in ToodleDo and associated apps and for any context of IMMED, NOW, TODAY, or whatever, I can still see a relative priority within that relative NOW categorization of what I should pay attention, too. And something I find that I've let lag and I really should get done forthwith, I can "reschedule" not by messing around with any dates, folders, or priorities but just by given it my @IMMED context. Even if I don't do it today or tomorrow, it will still be in @IMMED, which is where I would look first to do anything that needs to be done. If I want to make it disappear into the future but still be a high priority item to attack, I will change the Start Date into the future but leave its given relative priority in terms of intrinsic importance and its given @IMMED time management categorization as something that needs to get done immediately when it crosses the event horizon again, etc. So my filter for @IMMED would be something like "Checked Off is NO AND Has context @IMMED AND (Has Start Date before Tomorrow or Start Date Doesn't Exist), etc., implemented as a named SAVED SEARCH. Same for the other context time-prioritization categories (contexts in my usage) except the other thing that defines @Waiting is just the @Waiting context assignment and Checked Off is NO. And I control relative sorting order of my Saved Searches by using prefixes to the name of the search as necessary to control sort order, e.g. @A_(name) vs. @AA_(name), etc. A final example of how this is handy is that "Comb the cat" is normally a low-priority daily recurring task. But if I've let it lag several days and the cat has already puked hairballs (and her lunch) a couple of times on the floor today, I can make this lowly task something deserving of my immediate attention to reduce future hair ingestion just by assigning it to the @IMMED context (misuse) without changing anything else about the task's normal priority (low) or its start/due date. And as soon as I feel the item has gotten the attention it deserves, changing the context to None (or deleting it in certain third-party apps) puts combing kitty right back in the low priority daily recurring setting it never really had to leave to get my attention by changing its "context." Those who swear by Allen and "real" context will call this heresy - BUT IT WORKS GREAT FOR ME! P.S. You also don't have to change any task's home folder location to bring it into your high-priority, should do immediately, do very soon today, or do sometime today views. You just change the context, nothing else. I think the inspiration of this approach was playing around with Microsoft's new To-Do app where there is a MY TODAY view and from any list folder within MS To-DO, you can leave an item there but make it appear in the MY TODAY view just by giving it a MY TODAY assignment. And when you remove it from MY TODAY, it's still sitting in its original folder. It can appear in MY TODAY whether it's a dated item or not. So misusing CONTEXT was my way of creating different relative NOW time priority MY TODAY views.....while leaving the overall real relative priority assignment in the universe of strategic tasks intact. Perfect example of how Toodledo's strength is its ability to be customized into a user's own developed system. This also surfaces one very simple, concrete way to double down on Toodledo's customization: custom labels for fields. |
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Philip Espinosa |
Exciting news... I have been a Gold level subscriber since 2011, and a basic account user for many years before that. I like an earlier post that said "Toodledo is not broken" ... so true... however, upgrades and improvements in the user interface are needed. And, as an iOS user, the iOS app is in dire need of an overhaul. I know this is already known. I try to use TD on a daily basis, sometimes I get to it and sometimes not. But, for me, a quick, easy to access and easy to update solution is a must. The email to add feature is critical. Some basic thoughts, which are by no means all inclusive:
- update iOS app - don't lose email integration, please! - expand email integration to include update (not just adding records) - all editing of Status values (GTD is great but frequently needs to be customized, which is a key approach for TD) - allow for more saved settings or profiles (rather than resetting my sort criteria, allow this to be saved in an interface or workspace profile -- I know Searches can be used to some extent here but is not the same) - easier access to the fields in a record for updating (this is probably a challenge, but hey, challenges are good) - Reporting and exporting; really needs some attention; one real drawback for me is the ability to actually report; a Reports feature would be awesome! - integration between Tasks, Notes, Lists, Outline... this is really needed. This will make those newer features much more powerful. - email integration with Notes, Lists, etc... not just with Tasks. - improved 3rd party integration (for example, I also use Trello, and an integration -- other than IFTTT -- would be very powerful) I am sure there are more things I can add. This is just a short list of key things. All the best Philip |
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genezyc |
For those that want to see a new visual design, let me know what you think of this early prototype I've been working on:
https://userstyles.org/styles/162420/toodledo-clearskin I think this UI will make you more productive while being easier on the eyes (it has for me!) Thanks! Gene For best results: - Use Grid format (instead of Multi-line) - Make sure you've enabled the "New" Tasks UI |
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billbeck1 |
A lot of great ideas and feedback here. What are the chances of getting an email of a task to document completion? I don't need this for all tasks, but there have been occasions when it would have come in handy...or maybe that already exists and I just don't know how to do it?
Thanks, Bill |
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Purveyor |
Posted by ramonvanmeer:
Posted by wwmalone: Good to know ...
In what country do the owners reside? In what country are the computer files, data etc maintained? We all live in San Francisco area and everything in the backend will stay the same, Jake use Rackspace for his server and that stay exactly the same. |
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Wild Wonders |
I would like to be able to export a search to CSV. I would also like to have a field that specifically deals with numbers and some rudimentary calculations of those numbers at the bottom of the screen (sum, average, count). Also, a faster way to mark all items in a search complete. Most to do software has a check box at the header that you can check to mark all things on the screen complete.
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