Feature Request: Task size(height) should represent Time needed (e.g. proportional to Min or MaxTime)

[mlg]

Andrey and all,
Today if I look at my MLO To-Do list for different days, I get an idea
of the NUMBER of tasks I have each day, but not really a good idea
(visually) of HOW MUCH WORK I have planned for each day, since some
tasks require 3-4hrs, while others require 10mins...
I think the visual intuitiveness and "visual value" of MLO would be
greatly increased if you add an option to make the height (vertical
thickness) of tasks proportional to the Time needed to do the task.
Similar to how in Outlook calendar you can instantly identify big
tasks vs small tasks.
Then with a quick glance at MLO I would be able to see where my "big"
tasks are, how many "small" tasks I have in the different days, how
much aprox TOTAL TIME do I have on any given day or project, etc.
I really think this could make a mayor contribution to MLO's visual
cues.

Note: a potential challenge for few people might be if you have to
deal with both tiny (5mins) and huge (e.g. 20hrs) tasks, since then
making MLO tasks "linearly proportional" in height would make the
20hrs task higher than the entire screen... But then it would be
possible to have an option to use some sort of "logaritmic scale"...
or to allow the user to set a maximum displayed height?? Andrey is a
smart guy, I'm sure he can figure it out. I believe the TimeTo
sowftware and some others are already displaying tasks like that...

Note2: there could be a botton to toggle between "equal height" items
(tasks or projects) display and "time-proportional height" display.

Note3: this would become an amazing feature if projects would
automatically add the Time required for each task in the project
(whether Min, Max or average Time) so when looking at Projects
themselves (filtering out tasks) we could instantly+visually get an
idea of how much time we have planned in each project.

I hope this is interesting to all (pls reply if so) and really look
forward to seeing this feature soon!

Thx Andrey and team for the great work on MLO!

Mario

[danliebke]

+1

I wouldn't want this as the default setting, but I can see how it
might be a useful option.

[Preacherman808]

I agree with the concept but not with how to accomplish it. My
suggestion was to have a daily pop-up "hot list" where you could
select your available work time for that day and then select tasks for
the day based upon the time you have available. There is a program
called Achieve Planner that has a similar feature but it's so complex
to set up and use and it's very slooooow.

[Damian Skeeles]

When I first got MLO, I actually expected it to automatically plan my
day for me. As I learned how to use it, I realised how complex that
would be in practice.

Anyway, the idea was that you set the duration of each task. You also
set the place/context, and which hours of which days you're in those
places.

You then hit "plan", and MLO starts taking your top priority tasks,
and dropping them into your calendar according to duration. For each
next task, it checks which context you'll be in, and drops the next
high priority task for the same context into the calendar.

If it finds tasks with due dates/times, it tries to fit those in
before the due date. And suddenly you have, very probably, your next
few months planned hour-by-hour.

If anything, it would show you how long it would be before you
actually get to a particular task - which can act as an incentive to
start working on getting things done!

Whether this would be useful in practice, I'm not sure. I have
sticking to gtd with my tasks for today, let alone 6 months in the
future.

--
Damian Skeeles
+44 7917 443073
Sent from my Mobile Device - please excuse typos and brevity

[Timothee]

+0 Original posters idea would be cool -but not a necessity to me.
This is because 1) I have so many tasks, the most important to me is
to just be working on something, 2) it takes too much time to
accurately estimate and enter task duration -if estimated quickly it's
often incorrect- ( so i'd rather do that estimation when I see the
task on my list, simply ask myself "do I have time to start this? to
finish it?") and 3) To maintain balance in my life, I have a separate
schedule which lays out blocks of time where I focus on a particular
type of task. (zones of focus if you will) I switch views in MLO to
see all those tasks of that particular type. It matters not how the
tasks fit my 2-hour block of time -I just need to work on them for 2
hours solid.

Regards,
-Tim

[Timothee]

PS: I was surprised when I googled TimeTo. It appears to be the exact
same software as Above & Beyond: http://www.1soft.com/aandb.html
(!)
Too bad they haven't modernized and polished the user interface.
That's the worst thing about that software.