Why GQueues may not work for me

[Aaron Boydston]

Let me clear: GQueues is great! I like so much about it, not the least of which is 2-way syncing with Google Calendar. I rated it 5 stars and I think it deserves it. This post is not knocking GQueues. Rather it is highlighting the ways in which GQueues is not working well for MY OWN task management methodology. The purpose is to give some insight to Cameron in case he is ever able to evolve GQueues to encompass users that work more like how I work.

For the most part, I only work in smart queues (in fact, mostly just one smart queue). The foremost reason is that I prefer to work off of a single list in which tasks scheduled in the future just appear on my “working” list on the day that they were scheduled for. So if I need to “start drafting kids program” on Oct 1, I set the task, and on Oct 1 it pops up on my task list. I keep long lists of todos which are essentially someday/maybes. When a task really needs to get done, it is dated and appears on my working list.

The big problem for me is that the experience of adding new tasks from a smart queue is always stressful because I am never certain the task got added correctly—and it is a little slow. Contributing factors:

-After quick add, the task does not show up in the smart queue. You must hit refresh.

-If I made a mistake entering the task, it is difficult to find after the fact.

-After refresh, the task appears “somewhere” in the list. I have to visually find it to confirm it’s there and correct.

-Waiting on quick add, and then waiting on refresh is a high-stress 1-2 seconds with being anxious to know if the task was added correctly.

-The queue counts stop updating after a while which exacerbates everything. Then there is zero confirmation that a task was added. Refresh does not even update the queue counts. Reloading the whole page (at the browser level) reactivates the queue counters but by then I have had any number of tasks changes so the new task counts are not helpful.

All in all, this adds a little too much stress.

I should point out that the experience of adding a task in regular queue is fantastic. If that could be replicated in smart queues, it would be phenomenal. Sometimes, just to avoid the stress, I navigate to the inbox just to add a new task in a regular queue!

Again, let me emphasize that I am not faulting GQueues here. Yes, to me these are cons, but GQueues is a great solution. however, it is built with a strong leaning towards a different task management methodology. I completely understand if Cameron is not able to accommodate these changes because it is not how GQueues is supposed to work! And it leads to other changes like more robust filter/sorting of smart queues…

I hope this is helpful!

[Stefan Buchberger]

Hi,

I'd like to second Aaron's concerns. I really like using GQueues with the one exception he's pointing out. I'm happy I've found GQueues years ago, though it's not perfect for my workflow, that seems to be similar to Aaron's. For me the experience isn't bad enough to leave GQueues, at least not anytime soon, but of course I'd love to see a solution for our little "problem".  

Best regards

Stefan

[Cameron (GQueues Team)]

Thanks for the feedback, Aaron.  This is super valuable as we consider which areas to focus on for improvement.  -Cameron

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Cameron Henneke

Founder, GQueues

"The leading Google-integrated task management service for people and teams."