Opportunity for GoodTask - Time Blocking

[1147lewis]

Hi all,

I’ve just stumbled across this post after recently requesting exactly the same feature here:

Feature request: calendar view

Yeah I had tried using List view for it as well, but there's something about having a proper calendar-style vertical timeline that is just so helpful in visualising where there are 'spaces' in the schedule. In List or Day view currently, you have to look through the times of all events and tasks to work out where there is a space. As a workaround I am currently using 'Duplicate as Event' for every scheduled task, so that they appear in the calendar app alongside events. But it's not perfect bec…

I had no idea this was called timeblocking or even that it existed outside of my mind, so thanks for this! I will definitely get onto those YouTube vids.

I’ve actually spent a bit of time writing an iOS shortcuts integration for this exact purpose over the last few days. It works pretty well but is very idiosyncratic and clunky so I won’t share it here, but thought you might be interested to see how it works.

Basically it connects GoodTask to the native iOS calendar app, allowing them to stay synced with each other and display GoodTask tasks together with regular events in the calendar.

I have a GoodTask list called “unscheduled” which is where I create tasks as they arise in my working day. When I have a moment, I then find a time in the week view of the calendars app that is free to schedule work on these tasks. It’s great to be able to see the whole week visually this way and see at a glance when is best to work on a task.

My favourite way is to drag and drop tasks from GoodTask onto a space in the Calendars week view. The iOS shortcut then updates the Start Time and Due Date of the task in GoodTask to reflect the start and end time in Calendar. I can also change the duration of the task in Calendar and it will update in GoodTask. Conversely if I later change these times in GoodTask, the changes will update in Calendar.

Finally, once a task has been dropped from my GoodTask ‘Unscheduled’ list into the Calendars app, it will automatically be removed from the ‘Unscheduled’ list and moved into my ‘Work Schedule’ list ready to be worked on when the day comes.

I’ll see if I can post a short video of how it works here. Obviously it’s a bit clearer on the iPads big screen but here it is on my iPhone, hope it’s clear enough!

iCloud Photos - Apple iCloud

I keep getting really drawn into projects like these and then later learning that neurodivergent people already have words for them. Really interesting so thanks again

Of course it would be wonderful if GoodTask had this functionality in the native app which is already so powerful in other ways, hopefully sometime soon!