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Use the due date and time estimate to determine duration in the iCalendar (Events) feed

johannes.johnsen says:
Hi:)

I use RTM and a stone age paper calendar. But I find it very useful to view my RTM tasks in iCal, for the calendar view, and also to view many lists at the same time (I have many!). But in iCal all RTM tasks show with a length of one hour. As Time Estimate is a function in RTM, why does not the tasks receive their proper length (given by the Time Estimate)? iCal is already a fantastic way for me to view my RTM tasks. If the tasks would show with the Time Estimate I give them, it would be amazing:)

johannes
Posted at 6:34pm on July 27, 2008
gkelman says:
Agreed! Please add this feature.
Posted 15 years ago
mystwillow says:
I'm sure this is more complicated than it sounds from the backend point of view, but this seems like a really intuitive feature from a user's perspective. Adding my vote for this.
Posted 15 years ago
haylo75 says:
I agree as well. I discovered the static one hour interval for all my events when importing them into iCal this evening.
Posted 15 years ago
(closed account) says:
I agree as well. It would be nice to see the real estimated time instead a constant hour in ical.
Posted 15 years ago
nordlys says:
Wonderful idea.
Posted 15 years ago
ranbarton Power Poster says:
Emily has spoken about ways in which this is problematic before:

https://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/help/1153/
https://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/help/2655/

And other places, those are just for starters.
Posted 15 years ago
simondedeney says:
Oh yes please - my joy (and inclination not to jump ship when my subscription expires) would be infinite (well, it would last exactly 15minutes in iCal)
Posted 14 years ago
roland.malaprade says:
I add my vote for this one! (I actually had suggested this recently, and user "ranbarton" pointed me to a whole lot of threads including this one)

One way to resolve the problems would be to make it optional for users that wish to use it. I see two settings:

- Use time estimate for iCal feed? : Yes/No
- Task with time estimate starts or ends at due date? : Starts/Ends
Posted 14 years ago
benmjt says:
I was coming here to post the exact same idea. It would really improve the connection to iCal, giving RTM much more power in illustrating and quantifying my daily schedule. Massive upvote from me.
Posted 12 years ago
pwdavenport says:
When I use gcal to view RTM icalendars, tasks assigned to times are not displayed. Tasks seem only to be displayed if assigned to a day but not to a time on that day. Is this the same or related to the subject of this threas? Is this a limitation of RTM's integration with gcal, or icalendar feeds in general?

Since this is my 1st post and since I'm pretty darn impressed with RTM after a few days testing: a big thank you to the developers!
Posted 12 years ago
just_dmitry says:
I also add my vote for this item.
I use iPad app to manage tasks, but also I import iCal feed into iPad calendar to "mix" my tasks with events from other sources - and current due dates behaviour is unacceptable.

At this moment due date implementation is...for appearances' sake. There is now actual reason to set *due* date (and time) as *start* time for the event. There is no actual reason to set default length to 1 hr (why not 10 min or 4 hrs?).

3 years ago Emily explained this issue ( https://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/help/3246/ ), but it's raised again and again - IMHO this shows that initial RTM Team guesses about user experience with due dates were wrong, and it's time to fix this small bug.
Yes, I think this issue should be considered as bug, not new feature.

There is no comments above with reasons against this issue, only many agree votes. Nobody will regret about 'current' behaviour. And it will take so little time to implement - just use actual estimate time if filled, and subtract instead on add. "1/2 hour, including tea break" as my programmes says :)

Pleeeeease :)
Posted 12 years ago
tkostus says:
+1
Posted 12 years ago
marco.bulgarini says:
...this is the one and only thing that's blocking me from getting the Pro version. I need to enter a task quickly on my Android phone and have it synced within minutes to my Gmail Calendar; having all the entries with the same 1-hour dull length just makes this whole amazing thing unusable :(
Posted 12 years ago
karoc says:
+1 yes, please, change this. As said in another post, it makes RTM amazingly unusable to have every event sheduled for 1 hour in iCal. Its unnecessary...
Posted 12 years ago
(closed account) says:
I understand Emily's logical concerns, but I also voted for this feature. I think that by default, a person would estimate the time it took to complete a task and schedule it to be completed by a certain time using the estimate feature to define when to start working the task in order to complete it on-time. (I do.)

Additionally, if you're scheduling a task that takes more than 4 hours, then you are either 1) a beast when it comes to getting things done because you never break for lunch or other interruptions; 2) enjoy ignoring organizational behavior research that shows that few people can focus on one task for more than a few hours; or 3) haven't accurately defined the task you are trying to do because it's probably more of a mini project composed of multiple tasks, rather than one big task.
Posted 12 years ago
kslays says:
I posted this as a separate idea, and the votes were transferred, but my comment was not. I still think this is a MAJOR problem, and I disagree with Emily's two posts (linked above by ranbarton) that it would not work well. The 1-hour decision is a shoddy quick fix. Many people would like to use RTM in this way, ie schedule when they would like to do tasks and how long they will take, then view them on a calendar. If this were fixed, I would renew my Pro contract. Ideally, I would be able to add tasks in gCal/iCal and have them sync to RTM.

Here is my original comment:

Fix "time estimate" concordance in Google Calendar

kslays says:
Currently the "time estimate" is correctly listed for RTM tasks in Google Calendar event descriptions, but the calendar incorrectly displays them all as 1 hour long (in day and week view), no matter the estimate listed.

It would be very helpful if the calendar would display the correct time, eg a 2 hour task due at 7:00 would display as 7:00-9:00 (and, if it's not too much work, perhaps a checkbox if the user wants a two-hour task due at 7 to display as 5:00-7:00). A 30 minute task due at 7:00 would display as 7:00-7:30.

Originally Posted at 1:49pm on May 23, 2011
Posted 11 years ago
rebknitz says:
Just added my vote (well, 2 votes) for this. I would love to be able to use my google calendar as ONLY a visual aid, and not have to add things directly to it :-)
Posted 11 years ago
max.rasboldgabbard says:
I realize that implementing this poses some challenges (e.g., whether time estimates are scheduled before or after the due time of a task), but the current arrangement could be improved considerably by shortening the duration in the calendar.

Hour-long blocks seem arbitrary and problematic when integrating a list with a calendar. Is there any way the duration could at least be shortened to 5 or 10 (or 0) minutes?
Posted 11 years ago
xxjohnboy says:
+1000. I need to make my ical public as I use it to let people know my availability for shows. Normally a i do a four show, but it only shows upas 1 hour. This means I cannot use rtm feed for pulic calendar and instead have to enter everything manually. ewww..
Posted 11 years ago
moo_u says:
Yes, I vote for this feature.
Posted 11 years ago
(closed account) says:
It would be a big step on the way to have a compete overview in iCal. It would give the meetings a greater And trouthfull place in my calender. That is it, what I connekt to RTM.
Posted 11 years ago
geoforest says:
Needless to say very useful idea. Please add this.
Posted 11 years ago
kseistrup says:
+1
Posted 11 years ago
kseistrup says:
+1
Posted 11 years ago
martin.delille says:
This would be a real integration that would make rtm a fully professional tool!
Posted 11 years ago
schicho says:
Yeah - please add that feature as soon as possible. If so RTM perfectly fits my Google Calendar :-)
Posted 11 years ago
toenex says:
Yes very keen to see this. The majority of my calendar entries would be better treated as timed todo items. Indeed if I could control the duration of the entry I would use RTM to manage the majority of my calendar.

My suggestion would be as follow. If the user enters a 'due date' they may then prefix a '+' or '-' to the 'time estimate'. This would use be used to indicate if the estimated time applies just before or just after the due date. For example if the due date for an item was tomorrow at 2pm and the time estimate was +30mins then the calendar entry would start at 2pm and end at 2.30pm. Similarly if the time estimate was -30mins then calendar entry would start at 1.30pm and end at 2pm. Finally if the time estimate was just 30min then the calendar entry would start at 2pm and end at 3pm as usual (as an aside it would be good to have a user defined setting for this duration). Note that this still leaves the 'time estimate' as a valid absolute quantity, but just allows a qualifier to describe how it relates to the due date.
Posted 11 years ago
sross86 says:
I really can't vote for this enough times. It would be so useful to have in terms of setting up "work blocks" on my schedule. Even shortening duration to 10 minutes each would be fine. As it is, with an hour, I just can't have hour long tasks cluttering my calendar
Posted 11 years ago
praetorius says:
Would love to see that done very soon!
Posted 10 years ago
bluelionet says:
This is exactly what I thought a calendar feed SHOULD HAVE already!!!
No duration info from a calendar feed is logically strange since what's important is no only about the start time of an event, but also the duration of an event.
Please make RTM calendar feed complete!
Posted 10 years ago
alfredo.dimaunahan says:
i'm looking forward to have this!
Posted 10 years ago
ravade says:
This one really closes the gap between task management and managing my schedule. This gap makes it happen that too many tasks are being scheduled on a day, reducing the added value of RTM.

For those who just love the feed as it is, it might be a solution to make it an option in the settings area: standard one hour duration or real duration.
Posted 10 years ago
osalarve says:
Please. Sometimes Calendar view shows more information in less time, which is very useful in GTD.
Posted 10 years ago
hamdanfiras says:
this is a must have feature. my events look really weird in that 1 hr hard coded value. this means i will have to enter my data twice just to fix my calendar view. not acceptable in 2013.
cheers
Posted 10 years ago
shahidc says:
Somewhat surprised to see that event duration is not supported in RTM.
Posted 10 years ago
alexey.pokotylo says:
I really need it, since RTM doesn't have their own calendar, and I have to use Google calendar instead to check the workload and collisions.

having all tasks 1 hour long is not ilustrative
Posted 9 years ago
shardvicens says:
I don't see the issues that were brought up against this.

If task has no exact time, it is an all day event, like it already is.
If task has no time estimate, make it an hour like it already is.
If task has a exact start time, and a time estimate, how does it not make sense to have a calendar event from the start time to end end time?

Maybe I am not understanding the concern, but I really don't see how a1 hour block is better than having a 6 hour block that doesn't accurately reflect that you wanted to work on it for 6 hours over the next few days...
Posted 9 years ago
shardvicens says:
I add my vote for this because my calendar looks ridiculous with 10 15-30 min tasks all taking up an hour each.
Posted 9 years ago
gstiebler says:
+1
Posted 8 years ago
eddie.villasenor says:
+1
Posted 8 years ago
jonramster says:
Agreed, this would help matters.
Posted 8 years ago
mgould says:
+1
Posted 8 years ago
shardvicens says:
Does anyone know if there is ANY calendar that works with RTM to show the appropriate length?
Posted 7 years ago
tt6 says:
Please, please :)
Posted 7 years ago
(closed account) says:
+1
Posted 6 years ago
(closed account) says:
I built a quick & dirty solution, if anyone is interested. Of course, a native implementation would be far more convenient.

https://gist.github.com/tkan/ea5c447530162b2a48c93515ac2eb5e7

Cheers
Posted 6 years ago
danielalbu says:
+1
Posted 6 years ago
umejam says:
+1
Posted 6 years ago
sarahgorter says:
+1
Posted 6 years ago
(closed account) says:
+1
Posted 5 years ago
just_dmitry says:
OMG, 10 years old feature request! Happy birthday Idea #5050!
Posted 5 years ago
scotiaking says:
Such a bummer that I can't leverage this functionality to block off important times in my calendar.

Tried the python script above but couldn't get it working.
Posted 5 years ago
(closed account) says:
In case someone is stumbling over the clunky Python script, here's a tiny web service making it a bit easier:

https://tka.eu.pythonanywhere.com/

Cheers & maybe Bob the monkey will feel encouraged to include it in the main app
Posted 5 years ago
danielcormier says:
Wow. It's really disappointing that this is such an old issue.
Posted 5 years ago
dembo says:
Agreed, this should work out of the box.
Posted 4 years ago
migloth says:
+1
Posted 4 years ago
shadowfoot says:
11 years and this hasn't been resolved. Filling in the duration has no value when seeing these on a calendar. A zero minute event would be preferable to a 1 hour event.
Posted 4 years ago
dk_in_c says:
Understanding there are issues / objections to using duration...

Why would start-time not work for this?

Start time - when the event is starting
Due time - when the event is ending
Posted 4 years ago
cvirus says:
+1 for start time + estimate.
Posted 3 years ago
emmetml says:
I have no clue why this isn't the way it should be yet. +1
Posted 2 years ago
shadowfoot says:
14 years. Please, if there is a time estimate and a start or due time, please set the duration to match the time estimate. It will make it easier to plan around it.
Posted 1 year ago
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