Forums / Ideas

Yes! The lack of a start date is one of the great deficiencies in almost every task management app I've ever used! Please add this!

It's especially nice for people doing GtD, because it acts as an automated "tickler file".

Posted at 3:54pm on January 7, 2007

I'd like to have the option of setting a start time for a task too. Just had a case in point. Need to phone somebody at X time. Yes I could add the time to the task heading, yet for every task?

Thanks

A

Posted at 10:08am on December 24, 2007

Same here. I would like to see this feature as well.

Posted at 2:03pm on December 24, 2007

Its something too simple ! A sample field in db to add...
Please, make it !

Posted at 5:13am on January 5, 2008

+1

Posted at 3:56am on April 8, 2008

nicoledbeer

me 2

Posted at 2:02pm on May 28, 2008

timmins

Sounds like a great idea.

Posted at 2:03pm on May 28, 2008

+100.

Instead of calling it "Start date": you could call it "Hide until".

Posted at 6:49am on May 29, 2008

This is the thing that has stopped me migrating away from Outlook in the past. Outlook doesn't automatically support this behaviour, but it's easy to write a little bit of VBScript to automatically hide tasks whose "Start date" has not yet been reached. When I saw how RTM seemed pretty good, I thought *surely* it will have task start dates and inter-task dependencies...

Posted at 6:52am on May 29, 2008

rajjan

You can tweak RTM in order for it to hide tasks until a preset number of days until it's due. In order for this to work, the task must have a due date.

Add a tag like zzz/z1d/z2d/z1w/z2w/z1m to your task and create a smart list ¤zzz with the following search criteria:

(tag:zzz AND dueAfter:now) OR (tag:z1d AND dueAfter:"1 day of now")OR (tag:z2d AND dueAfter:"2 days of now") OR (tag:z1w AND dueAfter:"1 week of now") OR (tag:z1m AND dueAfter:"1 month of now")

Finally you add AND NOT list:¤zzz to your normal smart lists. The task will not show until the preset number of days before it's due.

Posted at 7:40am on May 29, 2008

I'm very interested in this feature, but for seemingly the opposite reason as others... I DO want to see tasks that may be due way far in the future, but I should start working on today in order to get done on time.

Posted at 1:36pm on June 2, 2008

rajjan, Sorry, but i think u just did not get the point. the start feature is not the same as the way u told. we would like to see the Start time feature. thank u.

Posted at 3:05pm on June 3, 2008

ranbarton

I think Rajjan would be the first to admit his suggestion involves a lot of overhead and is a bit of a kludge - but, the point of suggestions like this is not to say the start feature request is useless. It's to show other users how to use RTM as it is right now in a way that will give them the functionality they seek. Of course those who desire a start date want something simpler than what Rajjan has proposed. In the meantime, this method will generate task lists that look the way you want them to, and that's a pretty good workaround while we wait for the day that a cow, a monkey, and three people start coding more feverishly.

Posted at 4:05pm on June 3, 2008

rajjan

Thank you ranbarton!

There are so many requests in the forums and to be honest, not so many new features appearing in RTM. If there is a way to accomplish the requested feature within the current set of features - why not try it?

Also, the tip exactly solves the first poster's problem, not to show tasks in the lists that have not yet reached their start date.

It may be a little complicated to set up, but once you have done that all it takes to use it is to add a due date and a tag (zzz/z1d/z2d/z1w/z2w/z1m) to the task and it'll work fine.

Posted at 9:13am on June 4, 2008

landon.springer

Let me ask this--if something has a definite start time and end time, wouldn't that make it more of an event than a task?

For instance, I've still found it valuable to keep my tasks separate from my events; I use 30boxes for event scheduling.

With most events, I know the start time, but maybe not the end time, while most tasks I know the end time, but not necessarily the start time.

Do you guys handle both tasks and events with RTM?

Posted at 7:39am on June 5, 2008

rajjan's tip works great for me. I actually like picking the due date and the visibility before the due date with z1w z1d z1m etc.

"hide until 1m before due" works great for me as I'm more interested in due dates then start dates.

Posted at 3:10pm on June 16, 2008

ah- just realized that mechanism breaks "auto tagging" on smart lists. e.g. adding to a smart list and picking up its tags. As this will double my list count, I may have to pass on it.

Posted at 4:25pm on June 16, 2008

bdeitric

Another vote here - but, adding a start date would affect the iGoogle gadget as well - currently it will only show tasks that are due within the next 7 days (or do not have a due date). here is my suggestion as to how to handle start dates within the iGoogle gadget:

- If a task has a due date, but no start date, functionality remains as is. If the task is due in the next 7 days, it simply shows up under the day it is due. If not, it does not show up.

- If a task has a due date and has a start date: When the start date is in the future, hide the task regardless of due date. When the start date is in the past, display the task in the appropriate group according to it's due date. If the due date is further out than 7 days, add another task group called "Future". The "Future" display group would be contain any tasks where the start date has past but the due date is further out than 7 days. You could show the due date on the left hand side in the same way that you do for overdue tasks.

- if a task has no due date, but has a start date: This is straight forward - if the gadget setting is to show tasks with no due date, then either show it or not based on whether the start date has passed.

- If the task has no due date and no start date, functionality remains as is. Either show it or not depending on the gadget setting that says whether or not to show tasks with no due date.

This would be a HUGE boost in being able to control which tasks are in front of you at any given point. Particularly for those who, like me, use the iGoogle interface to RTM almost exclusively.

Thanks for the great work on RTM and the iGoogle gadget! Though I know that you are a closed source app at this point, this mod would be of enough value to me to donate my time and implement it if your allowed me to. Email me if I could help.

Thanks,
Bryan

Posted at 7:22pm on June 16, 2008

Maybe I'm overlooking something, but I found this quite simple to solve: any task I don't want to see until a given time goes into my "Beeper" list. When I get the reminder I add a tag (or tags) to have it show up in the appropriate smart list.

Posted at 12:59pm on June 28, 2008