Is anyone using Google calendar sync for Timeblocking?

[Damo Skees]

Hi,

I've been an enthusiastic MLO user for a long time. I've been pulled a couple of different ways due to other requirements - work uses Asana - but still use it as my main ToDo.

One technique I'm experimenting with is autoscheduling and timeblocking (ironically I'm writing this while I'm supposed to be doing something else!). I'm using SkedPal with Asana to automatically analyse due dates, and my preference of when I want to aim to do a task, and let it schedule it into my calendar for me. I then can focus on the immediate tasks in my calendar knowing that if there are any deadlines, everything should fit in, and I should meet them.

I was just wondering whether anyone has tried using the new MLO GCal feature for timeblocking, and if so, how it's working for you?

Thanks!

Damo

[r...@rcollings.co.uk]

Oooh - SkedPal looks really interesting. I do timeblockng manually as
a) I am still on MLO 4; and b) I am waiting for MLO to integrate with
Office365 (which SkedPal does).

Thanks for the link. I have suggested multiple times that MLO needed
a timeblocking tool. The Google Calendar integration looks like a
useful step in the right direction but SkedPal goes a lot further.

It will be interesting to see what happens with SkedPal

Regards

Richard

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[Jan Thomä]

SkedPal sure looks nice, but like so many Todo-Apps/Organizers it has no clue about dependencies between tasks (e.g. you need to do A before B). This is the main reason why I use MLO, I never want to see a task that I cannot do right now. I would agree though that some time-blocking feature would be nice. What would be even nicer actually is some API that could interface with MLO or even better the MLO cloud, so that MLO could be integrated with other systems. That way features that not everyone needs could be provided by third parties and it would make it so much easier to integrate MLO with automation (e.g. when I press this button on my smart phone create a task, etc.).

[Damo Skees]

I’ve been using SchedPal for a few weeks now - or trying to.

DIslikes: maybe it’s not my app choice, maybe it’s just me - I still find myself overshooting the time slot deadlines and rescheduling tasks on a regular basis.

LIkes: It does a really good job of quantifying and giving a reality check of what you can do in a day. You have all your work tasks, you press the “schedule” button, and then you see that not everything fits within the time available, deadlines and due dates that you have. So you prioritise, or set expectations. That takes a lot of cognitive load off me.

However - due to my human nature of pushing stuff back and pressing the ‘reschedule’ button, I was pondering on the difference between this, and the manual scheduling nature of MLO with Gcal. I think I still like the SkedPal approach because it does do the organising for me - and time spent in the tool doing task organisation is a major issue (or lack of time, which then means the tool becomes disorganised and you then lose trust in it).

It means I can trust the system - press the button, hit reschedule, if it flags up anything that doesn’t fit, then I can drag stuff into my evening , push back some due dates - and not worry about going through everything again to check that it still all makes sense.

On the downside, as you say, it doesn’t prioritise dependencies before the dependant task, and it also shows both tasks and sub tasks. So in a large volume of tasks, that’s going to be a major stumbling book.

OTOH, I do keep coming back to GTD and next task in context in MLO. It is so quick to use. It’s great on ‘next task’ action, it’s just frustratin that it offers no ability to check everything fits in he schedule.
Fd

[Huw Evans]

This looks interesting. I was playing with an app called Sorted, which also does this - but is missing the ability of sub-tasks. I live by my calendar, and slotting in time to work on tasks in-between appointments. I wish MLO had a more simple "duration" setting for tasks, eg. 5 min, 15 min, 30 mins or 1 hour. Anything more than this should be broken down into an action that is up to an hour.

Right now I use contexts for this (I have them set up with a + in front, eg. +15m) and I use my ipad with split screen between MLO and Calendar, and create the appointments I need to work on critical tasks early in the week. It's not ideal, but best I've found so far.

Used to use toodledo, and that had a really nice feature where it totalled the estimated duration on all tasks in a list, so if I'm looking at my "today" list and I can see it totals 20 hrs of work, I know I have to be more realistic and off load some.

[Jan Thomä]

MLO actually has this feature:  

If you enter time there, it will also show you the combined time of all currently filtered tasks at the bottom of the window.

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[Huw Evans]

Yes, but I have two issues with how this is currently implemented in MLO (might just be my way of thinking). 1. It's cumbersome to add this level of detail to a task. It would be much easier to have a simple picker for a few time periods, i.e. 5min, 15min, 30min 1hr. If you let me define these, like contexts, that would be great. 2. I don't see the point of having to put in two values, min & Max. If I'm estimating effort of a task I make one estimate and track against that.

This is just for my use, however, there could be people who love this functionality and utilise it all the time (I just haven't found anyone yet - have asked on the Facebook page but no responses).