Feature Request - A method of recording time increments on a task

[Steve Wynn]

I haven't worked this one out fully, but it would be useful if there was a way to record time increments against a task in some sort of graphical way.  This idea comes really from David Seah's website and his printable CEO forms.

 

Burst Method Rotation, as I like to call it. Is quite a popular technique of working.  Basically you rotate around your task list (or focus areas/projects) in increments of time. Say for example 15 minutes. So a task that takes an hour, you will hit four times. So the general idea isn't you complete something in one sitting.  Now a countdown timer is used for the time increments, I don't personally feel MLO needs one of these. There are plenty of these available for download, or at worse a very cheap kitchen timer can do the job.  But what would be useful is to log increments of time in some graphical way that is apparent within the ToDo list.

 

Say for example I had this task,

 

Batch Process Emails

 

This might take me longer than 15 minutes, depending on the volume. If I could somehow mark this task as having recorded 15 minutes already, say for example something like this

 

Batch Process Emails   

 

Then every subsequent block could represent a time value defined by me manually. So for example

 

Batch Process Emails     

 

15 minutes blocks would equal an hour to complete that particular task for example.

 

So really I am on about tagging the current task with something to represent a time chunk. That could really be anything, just some sort of visual representation that can be added multiple times until the task is complete.

 

Perhaps this could be achieved through AutoHotkey, I don't know. Keep appending a symbol of some sort to the task name. Ideally though it would be a separate field not associated with the task title, which is why I am raising it as a feature request.

 

All the best

 

Steve

 

[Juan Ignacio Gelos]

I second that, and I would add that a time tracking feature would be fantastic. We need to track time spent on some tasks in order to bill customers at the end of the month, and I think just adding a simple "Start/stop" dialog for some tasks would be simple and solve both problems at the same time.

This would eliminate our need for using a separate application for tracking time, and we would probably buy additional licenses for use in our support team.

Saluda atte.,
Juan Ignacio Gelos
Evolutio Software
ju...@evolutio.com.ar

[joshuawerling]

I would love to see something like this, too. I am fine with tracking
the time I spend in another application, but I would really like to
have to ability to monitor progress on any given task from within MLO.

On Jul 25, 5:05 pm, "Juan Ignacio Gelos" <juange...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I second that, and I would add that a time tracking feature would be
> fantastic. We need to track time spent on some tasks in order to bill
> customers at the end of the month, and I think just adding a simple
> "Start/stop" dialog for some tasks would be simple and solve both problems
> at the same time.
>
> This would eliminate our need for using a separate application for tracking
> time, and we would probably buy additional licenses for use in our support
> team.
>
> Saluda atte.,
> Juan Ignacio Gelos
> Evolutio Software
> ju...@evolutio.com.ar
>

> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 13:51, Steve Wynn <steve.w...@startupcomputer.com>

> wrote:
>
> >  I haven't worked this one out fully, but it would be useful if there was
> > a way to record time increments against a task in some sort of graphical
> > way.  This idea comes really from David Seah's website

> > <http://davidseah.com/>and his printable CEO forms.

>
> > Burst Method Rotation, as I like to call it. Is quite a popular technique
> > of working.  Basically you rotate around your task list (or focus
> > areas/projects) in increments of time. Say for example 15 minutes. So a task
> > that takes an hour, you will hit four times. So the general idea isn't you
> > complete something in one sitting.  Now a countdown timer is used for the
> > time increments, I don't personally feel MLO needs one of these. There are
> > plenty of these available for download, or at worse a very cheap kitchen
> > timer can do the job.  But what would be useful is to log increments of time
> > in some graphical way that is apparent within the ToDo list.
>
> > Say for example I had this task,
>
> > Batch Process Emails
>
> > This might take me longer than 15 minutes, depending on the volume. If I
> > could somehow mark this task as having recorded 15 minutes already, say for
> > example something like this
>
> > Batch Process Emails
>

> > Then every subsequent block could represent a time value defined by me
> > manually. So for example
>
> > Batch Process Emails
>

> > 15 minutes blocks would equal an hour to complete that particular task for
> > example.
>
> > So really I am on about tagging the current task with something to
> > represent a time chunk. That could really be anything, just some sort of
> > visual representation that can be added multiple times until the task is
> > complete.
>
> > Perhaps this could be achieved through AutoHotkey, I don't know. Keep
> > appending a symbol of some sort to the task name. Ideally though it would be
> > a separate field not associated with the task title, which is why I am
> > raising it as a feature request.
>
> > All the best
>
> > Steve
>
>
>

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[cal]

Great idea!

I'd definitely like to see something like this implemented

Cheers

On Jul 24, 5:51 pm, "Steve Wynn" <steve.w...@startupcomputer.com>
wrote:

> I haven't worked this one out fully, but it would be useful if there was a way to record time increments against a task in some sort of graphical way. This idea comes really from David Seah's website and his printable CEO forms.
>
> Burst Method Rotation, as I like to call it. Is quite a popular technique of working. Basically you rotate around your task list (or focus areas/projects) in increments of time. Say for example 15 minutes. So a task that takes an hour, you will hit four times. So the general idea isn't you complete something in one sitting. Now a countdown timer is used for the time increments, I don't personally feel MLO needs one of these. There are plenty of these available for download, or at worse a very cheap kitchen timer can do the job. But what would be useful is to log increments of time in some graphical way that is apparent within the ToDo list.
>
> Say for example I had this task,
>
> Batch Process Emails
>
> This might take me longer than 15 minutes, depending on the volume. If I could somehow mark this task as having recorded 15 minutes already, say for example something like this
>
> Batch Process Emails
>

> Then every subsequent block could represent a time value defined by me manually. So for example
>
> Batch Process Emails
>

> 15 minutes blocks would equal an hour to complete that particular task for example.
>
> So really I am on about tagging the current task with something to represent a time chunk. That could really be anything, just some sort of visual representation that can be added multiple times until the task is complete.
>
> Perhaps this could be achieved through AutoHotkey, I don't know. Keep appending a symbol of some sort to the task name. Ideally though it would be a separate field not associated with the task title, which is why I am raising it as a feature request.
>
> All the best
>
> Steve
>

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[Bocelot]

+1

--
-------
The Bocelot

PS: Remove "REMOVETHIZ" from my email address if you want to mail me !!!

[Andy Red]

+1

If this was done well I would find this one of the most compelling
reasons to use MLO. I currently use:

1. Standard Time: For recording time. This is an 'old school' database
app with an inflexible and clunky interface. It is rubbish for
controlling tasks - for instance projects have to be set up
separately, and then when you create a task you have to assign the
task to a project via a selection screen.. ggrrrr. There is no drag
and drop ordering capability. It does have good time tracking features
though and lets you track time against customers, projects, tasks etc.
And it exports to Quickbooks.

2. Quickbooks 2005: I keep Customer/Job list and do invoicing through
here. Can also import task time data from Standard Time, and create
time/billing reports or add time to invoices.

3. MLO - Controlling my task list, creating to-dos. This is the only
thing flexible enough to use properly for a planning tool. So this
tends to be where I have the most up to date project/task data, but it
has no way to record time spent against a task.

So if you added the best time recording features of Standard Time to
MLO (and possibly made export time data to Quickbooks) then it would
be worth doing from my perspective. Otherwise it's a bit of red
herring for me as it wouldn't be any good for professional time/
billing purposes.

If you are interested I could go into more detail about the plus
features of Standard Time.

Andrew

On Jul 25, 4:05 pm, "Juan Ignacio Gelos" <juange...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I second that, and I would add that a time tracking feature would be
> fantastic. We need to track time spent on some tasks in order to bill
> customers at the end of the month, and I think just adding a simple
> "Start/stop" dialog for some tasks would be simple and solve both problems
> at the same time.
>
> This would eliminate our need for using a separate application for tracking
> time, and we would probably buy additional licenses for use in our support
> team.
>
> Saluda atte.,
> Juan Ignacio Gelos
> Evolutio Software
> ju...@evolutio.com.ar
>

> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 13:51, Steve Wynn <steve.w...@startupcomputer.com>

> wrote:
>
> >  I haven't worked this one out fully, but it would be useful if there was
> > a way to record time increments against a task in some sort of graphical
> > way.  This idea comes really from David Seah's website

> > <http://davidseah.com/>and his printable CEO forms.

>
> > Burst Method Rotation, as I like to call it. Is quite a popular technique
> > of working.  Basically you rotate around your task list (or focus
> > areas/projects) in increments of time. Say for example 15 minutes. So a task
> > that takes an hour, you will hit four times. So the general idea isn't you
> > complete something in one sitting.  Now a countdown timer is used for the
> > time increments, I don't personally feel MLO needs one of these. There are
> > plenty of these available for download, or at worse a very cheap kitchen
> > timer can do the job.  But what would be useful is to log increments of time
> > in some graphical way that is apparent within the ToDo list.
>
> > Say for example I had this task,
>
> > Batch Process Emails
>
> > This might take me longer than 15 minutes, depending on the volume. If I
> > could somehow mark this task as having recorded 15 minutes already, say for
> > example something like this
>
> > Batch Process Emails
>

> > Then every subsequent block could represent a time value defined by me
> > manually. So for example
>
> > Batch Process Emails
>

> > 15 minutes blocks would equal an hour to complete that particular task for
> > example.
>
> > So really I am on about tagging the current task with something to
> > represent a time chunk. That could really be anything, just some sort of
> > visual representation that can be added multiple times until the task is
> > complete.
>
> > Perhaps this could be achieved through AutoHotkey, I don't know. Keep
> > appending a symbol of some sort to the task name. Ideally though it would be
> > a separate field not associated with the task title, which is why I am
> > raising it as a feature request.
>
> > All the best
>
> > Steve
>
>
>

>  block.gif
> 1KViewDownload