Someday, maybe: A very, very simple Apple Watch app?

[uh Clem]

Given the incredible amount of useful products that Andrey already somehow manages to turn out, I hesitate to even say it, but I think a very, very, very simple Apple Watch app would be a terrific, forward-looking addition to My Life Organized.

The danger, of course, is that it would be extraordinarily tempting to create something with a lot of functionality: Checking your list, getting reminders, etc. etc.) And it if were possible, that *might* be great, Things and several other products have already announced their Watch apps, even thought the watches aren't even out there yet.

But given the resources required, that's probably not a great idea...even if the resources were available.

What might be doable..and valuable, though, could be a suitable MVP (minimum viable product), and here's what I think it would be:

    An MLO app that with two taps (one to open the app, one to send it) would let you dictate a task and send it to your MLO inbox on the phone in your pocket.

The Watch is all about convenience, and not having to reach for your phone. I think that's really the best use case: You think of something you need to add to your list, and you do it in a few seconds at the moment you think of it. No taking out your phone. No reaching for a pen. Lift your wrist, tap, say it, and tap again. It's off your mind. Mind like water, as David Allen would say.

Personally, I'd pay $25 dollars for it, because it would be my favorite Watch app.

Just a thought,

Steve Krug (very long-time GTD and MLO fan)

[Nick S]

Hi. I too would be very interested to learn if an iWatch app was in the making. Fingers crossed!

[uh Clem]

Nick:

Now that I finally have my watch (ordered it the second day; finally arrived last week), I'm even more desperately craving a great, effortless way to add tasks.

I'd be *mostly* ok with adding the via email, but unfortunately the Watch doesn't support sending email. (Apple assumes that dictating an email via Siri is too tedious or error prone. They allows it for text messages, but not email.) I say *mostly* ok only because of the variable amount of time it seems to take for tasks sent via email to be sync'd.

What I'm doing right now as a workaround is this:

1. Add a reminder via Siri

   - Rotate wrist to wake up watch

   - Say "Hey, Siri" to start Siri

   - Say "Remind me to ask Bob for name of his mechanic"

   - Tap OK to send reminder

2. Copy the reminder to MLO

   - On my PC, I keep an Outlook Tasks window open

   - Reminders appear in the task list

   - When I think of it, I highlight whichever ones are there and copy them (Ctrl-C)

   - I open the Rapid Task Entry dialog (Ctrl-Shift-M)

   - I paste the reminders (Ctrl-V)

   - I click "Add Tasks"

Not exactly seamless, but it's the cleanest method I've found so far after experimenting with various apps like Braintoss that create email (badly) from the watch.

The important thing is that the first part is quick and painless, so I do it whenever I think of something. Feels great. 

The problem is the only things you can dictate and send from the Watch (without opening an pp, which is always slow) are Reminders and Messages. If only I could send a *text message* to synch with MLO instead of an email....

I know I could set it up to auto-synch Outlook Tasks with MLO, but a) it's always ended up seeming complicated, and b) I use manual sorting, and I'm afraid it would mess that up.

Sigh. One of these days.

If anyone has any bright ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[Nick S]

Thanks for your detailed thoughts - very interesting. My iWatch is on order (expected end of the month!). The use of Reminders is something I'd considered but, as you say, it's somewhat cumbersome. Hopefully the brains at MLO will be able to come up with some basic functionality in short order. I see Omnifocus and Toodledo (both of which I've used in the past) have released iWatch apps already.

Cheers

[uh Clem]

Have fun with your Watch. I liked mine the day I got it, and like it more every day.

[Alexis]

I also use my Apple Watch heavily. So does anybody know if there a plans for realising a watch extension? Any feedback from MLO so far? MLO don´t communicate a lot with their users, do they?

Thank you

[uh Clem]

I just came across a suggestion by Majorbillion in another thread, which is an even more elegant version of my request:

> But as for as development on features themselves, my list is short:

> 1) Make the iOS versions pull in reminders spoke in through Siri

That would be perfect, and would work fine on the Watch, too.

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

Steve, Nick, All

The good news is that I got my Apple Watch recently :)

So let's see what we can do. The answer - yes we have plans and already performed some experiments to connect it to MLO.

Andrey.

[uh Clem]

Outstanding, Andrey! You've made my day.

I can't tell you how many times a day I find myself wishing I could dictate a task into my Watch.

And thanks again for MLO, which has been an important part of my life for many, many years now.

If there's anything I can do (beta testing, etc.) please let me know.

Steve

[Nick S]

Hi Andrey, that's excellent news. I've had my iWatch for a few weeks now and am loving it. I can email tasks into MLO but that's a bit cumbersome. iOS alerts show up too.

Take a look at what Omnifocus have done with their iWatch app - elegant and useful.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Best Nick

[uh Clem]

One final plea, Andrey:

Keep it simple, keep it incremental, so you can do it sooner rather than later. A very-full-featured-app like what Omnifocus did takes a long time, requires a lot of coding and debugging, and still won't satisfy everyone. You have so many things on your plate that I can only guess it would be six months before we saw something that did a lot.

Instead, I'd suggest starting with something "simple" (I know nothing is simple) that will produce a lot of value for MLO+Watch users: simply adding a task with a minimum of effort. Nothing fancy: no parsing, no options, just drop this reminder into my Inbox for sorting later.

That way Watch owners can start getting value out of it right away, while you figure out what the fuller version should include. (But, of course, please keep that simple, too. Resist the temptation to try to do everything in the Watch UI.)

And now I'll be quiet, so you can get back to work.

Thanks!

[Nick S]

Good points. Well made. I'd second that

[Nick S]

Hi Andrey

Any update on potential MLO iWatch app? Meanwhile, I hope you are enjoying your iWatch. I wouldn't be without mine now.

[uh Clem]

I was thrilled to hear that the next version of the iOS app will include Watch support!

I'd love to be a beta tester, if you need one more.

Thanks

[Nick S]

Just received the newsletter. It is full of great news and there is to be an Apple Watch app! Great work Andrey. Happy to be a beta tester too. Looking forward to the new desktop as well.

[Lisa Stroyan]

This may be the first time I I can remember been wistful about iOS/apple etc, unless you count when the people I was babysitting for in high school got the first version of the Mac with it's pretty GUI and I was stuck with a word-processor or writing Basic programs on a text-only green-and-black something or other possibly with "64" in it's name. Unfortunately I didn't make googly eyes at the baby enough, with that shiny computer available while she slept, so they stopped calling me, and my destiny began to become clear...

But the watch would be too big for me anyway, I suppose. I want a flip-up screen option to double the space. (Though until now I could say, at least it doesn't run MLO). LOL.

On Sun, Dec 6, 2015 at 1:16 AM, Nick S <n4si...@gmail.com> wrote:

Just received the newsletter. It is full of great news and there is to be an Apple Watch app! Great work Andrey. Happy to be a beta tester too.  Looking forward to the new desktop as well.

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