Posted by David Tattersall, Associate Product Manager
A few months ago, we asked for your help to make Tasks better by voting on your top feature requests. We were blown away by the number of responses we received, with over 17,000 people participating and an overwhelming 185,000 votes.
Now, we’re preparing to tackle some of your top requests. In no specific order, here are the top five feature requests that emerged from the Tasks product ideas page:
Ability to create repeating tasks
Reminders and notifications
Sharable task lists
Tasks API and synchronization
Visual distinction for overdue tasks
So thanks for all the feedback and stay tuned for changes to Tasks throughout the year. In the meantime, we wish you a productive (and Tasks-filled) 2011!
Posted by David Tattersall, Associate Product Manager
If you’re using Tasks, you’ve probably thought about something you’d like us to improve or an additional feature you wish you had. Well, we want to hear your ideas — whether they’re for Tasks in Gmail, in Google Calendar, or on your phone.
For the next few weeks, we’re running a poll for Tasks feature requests. We really appreciate the feedback we’ve already received about syncing, sharing, Calendar integration and more, and we’re looking forward to hearing more details within these topics as well as any new requests you have. The poll will remain open until November 19th, at which point we’ll take a careful look at all of the feedback and prioritize your requests. So if you have a few minutes between now and then, please take a look and vote to help us improve Tasks functionality. Thanks!
We launched Gmail Labs as a forum for delivering useful (and maybe not so useful) features that might not be quite ready for prime time. The idea was always that the most popular and viable Labs features would graduate and be made more readily available to all users...and that some of the less used, less viable ones would disappear forever.
I'm proud to announce that Tasks is in that first bucket — it's been one of the most popular experimental Gmail features and it's now the first graduate from Labs.
To access Tasks, starting today you can just click "Tasks" under the "Contacts" link above your chat list (no need to turn it on from the Labs tab anymore).
Rest assured there's more on the way for Tasks— just because we're graduating from Labs today doesn't mean we're done.
We've received a lot of positive feedback about Gmail Labs, and we've found that testing something in Labs can be a good way to help decide whether it should become a regular part of Gmail. So we decided to extend the same model to Google Calendar. Beginning today, you can add Labs features to your calendar too, such as Free or Busy, which lets you see which of your friends or coworkers are currently in meetings or World Clock, which helps you keep track of different timezones when you schedule meetings. Take a look at the Google Apps blog for more info.
Ever since we launched Google Calendar, people in our forum have been pretty vocal about a missing piece -- an integrated task list. "To-do would be tooo-rific," "I really, really, really need to use a to-do list," and my favorite: "I'll join your team to help you get it done!" The rumble turned into a roar a few months ago when we launched Tasks in Gmail Labs. Now we've integrated Tasks into Google Calendar as well.
To get started, open Calendar and click on the "Tasks" link on the left hand side. You'll see the familiar task list you're used to using in Gmail, with some Calendar-specific additions:
Tasks that have due dates will automatically appear on your calendar. To create a task with a due date in Calendar, click on an empty space in month view or the all-day section of week view, and be sure select the "Task" option.
To attach a due date to an existing task, click the right-arrow from within the task list, and then click on the calendar icon.
You can modify a task's due date by dragging it to a different date, just as you would with a regular calendar event.
To mark a task completed from within Calendar, just click on the task's checkbox. (Isn't that satisfying, overachievers?)
To keep track of due dates before they arrive, there's a nifty new "Sort by due date" feature available in the Actions menu at the bottom of your task list. While sorting by due date, you can reschedule a task by clicking on it in your list, then pressing control and the up or down arrow key.
While working to help bring this feature to you, I used it to keep track of my own tasks. Now I can finally check off the last one in that list: "write blog post." Phew.
Sometimes, in a frenzy of productivity, I'll create a bunch of tasks on my main list. Later on, when it's time to start prioritizing, I'll realize that some of those tasks make more sense on another list (GTDers, take note!). But until now I wasn't able to move all of those tasks without tediously re-entering them.
Now you can easily move a task (and all of its sub-tasks) to another list. To do this, simply click on the arrow (or use Shift-Enter) to the right of the task. At the bottom of this screen is a drop-down with all of your task lists. Simply select another list, and leave the screen by clicking "Back to list."
Poof! Your task will magically migrate to the other list. To convince yourself it's still there, visit the other list in the list switch pop-up.
Another new feature should help with those times when you write what's really two tasks as a single task. Or maybe you hit Enter a little too quickly and continued typing something in a new task that was meant for the previous one.
Now, you can split a single task into two tasks or merge two existing tasks. If you've ever used a word processor, you already know how to do this. Simply use Enter and Backspace as you would normally.
If you're not already using Tasks, turn it on from the Labs tab under your Gmail Settings. Once you do, you'll see the "Tasks" link right near your Contacts. Just click it to get started. We're working on a number of small tweaks like this to make Tasks more useful, so let us know what else you'd like to see.
Among the world's leading productivity tools is an advanced technology known as paper. Many of the world's top corporations and most active internet users have adopted paper as a method of organizing their daily lives. When they think of something they need to do, they write it down on a piece of paper and keep that piece of paper with them.
Though some advances have been made in paper's effectiveness -- such as the addition of a sticky section that allows you to attach a piece of paper to your monitor, your desktop, or even another piece of paper -- it turns out that paper is pretty hard to improve on, and reigns as a leading task management technology.
When we set out to build Tasks (now in Gmail Labs), one of our goals was to improve upon paper. With the version of Tasks in Gmail, we focused on making editing very fast and simple -- as close to paper as we could. But despite dual-core CPUs, 30" monitors, and high speed internet connections, many Googlers still found themselves using paper to track their tasks.
We did some competitive analysis and here is what we found.
Paper has a number of popular features:
Easy editing. Cross out with pen and write something new.
Works offline. You can read paper even when your PC is not connected to the internet.
Mobile. Fold paper and stick in pocket.
Instant boot up. Just pull paper out of pocket -- don't have to wait for it to load.
However, paper does have some limitations:
Limited availability. You don't always have a pad of paper with you to write new things.
Not ubiquitous. If you leave a piece of paper in one pair of jeans, you can't access it from the other jeans you're currently wearing.
Difficult to organize. Eventually turns into a giant mess on your desk.
We set out to fix this by making Tasks available from your phone with a version optimized for the small screen. And starting today, you can manage your task list from your iPhone or Android device, and access it from any xhtml enabled phone. (Mine's always with me, in whichever jeans I'm wearing.) Just go to gmail.com/tasks from your phone's browser and log in. If you already use the version of Tasks in Gmail Labs, you'll see the same task list that's always in sync. We focused on making it super easy and fast to update your Gmail task list -- you can add new tasks and check off completed ones, no matter where you are (like in a meeting or at the grocery store) even when you're in the bathroom.
A number of Googlers have told us that with this new mobile UI they've finally scrapped the paper task management that they never really liked but couldn't ever beat. We're interested to hear what you think, and how this compares to paper, so try it out and let us know.
P.S. There's a new gadget version of Tasks too -- so if you want to add your same task list to iGoogle, now you can.
Posted by Jonathan Terleski, Michael Lancaster, and Brett Lider, Tasks team
People use Gmail to get stuff done, so we've added a lightweight way to keep track of what you need to do, right from within Gmail.
Take entering a new task: just click in an empty part of your list and start typing. No buttons to click and it's saved automatically. Hit Return and you've got a new task right there.
You can also easily convert emails into tasks: select one or more messages and go to More Actions > Add to Tasks. (Or turn on keyboard shortcuts and use <shift> + t.)
We put your tasks in the same kind of window as chats, so they're visible while you're scanning your inbox, reading mail, or searching (and in Settings, too!). Just pop your list out into a new window to use Tasks outside of Gmail.
To enable Tasks, go to Settings, click the Labs tab (or just click here if you're signed in). Select "Enable" next to "Tasks" and then click "Save Changes" at the bottom. Then, after Gmail refreshes, on the left under the "Contacts" link, you'll see a "Tasks" link. Just click it to get started.
We have a list of things we'd like to do to make Tasks more useful, and we want to hear your ideas, too — drop us a line.
