Calendar, Agenda, Dates... Something please ! :)

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    WorkFlowy Support

    We implemented a first version of this that allows you to add and search for dates in Workflowy. There is still a lot to do to make this better, and we need to do it. But at least we've done something.

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    nomain

    I second the in-app calendar and dates, but please keep WorkFlowy separate from Google or FB or any of the other usual suspects. The fact that WorkFlowy is a stand-alone system is one of its many advantages.

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    Marc Cools

    Adding dates is on the short list if I remember correctly.

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    Gerald Browne

    Agree with keeping WF separate from Google, FB, etc.  Probably the solution for this use case is to enable integration with services like IFTTT.

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    Chris

    Yes please to a native date feature.

     

    People have done wonderful things with both list-based and tag-based dates, but both of those systems require typing out an entire year's worth of lists or tags -- and it's still not as easy as a date chooser.

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    Talovsky

    I'd argue against dates and calendar integrations. Workflowy is great as a general writing-thinking-outlining tool, and I think these should be developed before. I don't want to say that these features should never be implemented, but I think things like tag list, better navigation should come first.

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    Marc Cools

    Don't forget strong date selection filters like :

    'date:-7d' = last week

    'date:+friday' = from now until Friday = this week

    'date:-7d&+1d' = tomorrow, today and last week

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    Chris

    I tagged on to this feature request but I want to be clear about what I'm advocating, because I'm not generally in favor of integrations (or anything complicated).

     

    I think it would be great to have the option to choose a date for a node.  With the press of a hotkey or the click of a tiny icon, a simple date chooser would pop up.  No start date, due date, or reminders -- just let us decide what we want the date to mean, with  searchable single dates and ranges.

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    elea bardouxlfr

    For someone who has many projects on the line that need to be shared with different people and stay on task on a schedule, calendar and reminders integration of SOME sort is the one thing keeping me from utilizing Workflowy as my ultimate task life/work organizer.

    I know people have this fear of google having their information (ha ha ha- google doesn't care about you or your grocery list) So perhaps making plug-in options that work with google calendar and reminders as well as some casual in app general calendar to link nodes to, some kind of TaskFlowy additional but non-invasive option, if you will.

    It really would be so amazing. I find all those other apps to be confusing, overbearing, and no matter how 'user friendly' they are, nothing is as intuitive as the nesting list-ability that workflowy has.

     

    You folks with your dates+friday to the whathaveyou of next month, I see that works for you, but my brain doesn't work in numbers. I can't see a list of numbers and translate them into three weeks from now very easily. I need to see it, and honestly having this smart technology give me updates is just really a beautiful integration for busy people doing things everywhere.

     

    Thank you for your time!

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    Jason Lopez

    A native date/calendar system would be ideal. But I think this needs to accompanied with a robust API. Would love to see it work by itself and have notifications in the mobile app. On the flip side, I would like to see integration with an API for this. So those that want to can have IFTTT and Google calendar integration, but not be the core function of a date/calendar system.

    My current work around on iPhone is to have WorkFlowy in safari saved as a bookmark on the home screen. That way I just open it, go to the task and have Siri make a reminder for me on a specific date and time.

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    Damoon

    Any news about this feature ?

    I really can not live without Calendar & reminders.

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    John B. Kendrick

    I am a new Workflowy user and have been using the tool for about a month.  I have used virtually every other major task manager available on Windows, Mac and Web.  Generally, I have stuck with a tool for a year or two and then moved on to the next best thing.  While I initially thought I really needed reminders or due dates, I've found that for those tasks that really have a hard deadline I just tag with @due, followed by the hard due date.

    Every day, before moving to @today, I search for @due and glance through the list.  If the list becomes too long, I can always add the date to the search, e.g. @due 5/18/18 and only those things due today appear.

    This seems easier than the convoluted workarounds that I see in use by others.  I'm trying to keep workflowy as simple as possible as I've been there on the very complex setups I've used in OmniFocus and other applications, and I'm just ready for simple right now.  J

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    Chris

    Good idea, John.

    Allow me to add one step of complication :)

    If you search by @due 5/18/18, you're actually searching on two different terms, so any instances of "5/18/18" that are not tagged with @due will come up as well.

     

    For me, dates are more than when things are due, so I use the term 'date.'  I can create a tag like this:

    '#date' and that will bring up all instances of use.  I can then get granular by adding this:

    #date2018-5-18

    The hyphens won't break the tag (slashes or periods do). The benefit of this is now I can filter by everything this year by searching: #date2018, or everything this month by searching: #date2018-5

    Now to add just one more step of complication:

    I can use two different text expander shortcuts.  One that will always write the tag for today's date, and one that will start the tag but not finish it: '#date2018-' so that I can use it as a future date picker without having to type out the same string of characters every time.

    Thanks for helping me to find a (mostly) uncomplicated solution!

     

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    John B. Kendrick

    Thanks, Christopher. I too have items that use the date alone as I start most of my list items with the creation date, i.e. 5/11/18:  However, I haven't seen an occasion when a search for @due 5/11/18 brings up anything but those items that have the tag followed by the date specified.  I have many other list items with 5/11/18 without @due and they are not displayed.

    If I just search for the date, I will receive those items with the date alone and those with @due, but that doesn't interfere in my workflow.  Now I'm puzzled as to why this works for me.  J

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    Aaron

    I mainly want mobile notifications for these datetime reminders - with how large my document is currently it'd make it so much more useful if I could set various items to have weekly/quarterly/N-days reminders so I can regularly review various parts of my goals and habits.

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    Jan

    WorkFlowy would be perfect if I could easily choose a date and time to assign to a task and if I could assign a task to repeat N days.

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    Adam Pearson

    I'm using desktop WF and moving between it and Omnifocus. There is a minimum feature set which would persuade me to migrate my OF data to WF, including

    • dates
    • reminders
    • flat search display
    • recurring tasks

    there are numerous features in OmniFocus which are very handy, but there is a tradeoff in not being able to use WorkFlowy for both content and action items, and workarounds in WorkFlowy would then become more attractive.

    I realise the browser version of WF offers much more functionality (thanks Frank D), but I use WF offline also.

    So.... yes please, more explicit todo organiser features please!

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    Philip W Tribe

    Any update on when dates might be coming to Workflowy? I'd love to add a date to a line just like I can "#" or "@". Getting an optional reminder email/notificaiton would be deluxe.

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    Sarah L Duncan

    +1 for dates that are searchable, but somehow simple to do.

    I'm also trying to come up with a good way to handle recurring tasks, haven't figured one out yet. 

    I *love* the simplicity of workflowy.  I've been wanting a to-do list where I can indent to as many levels as I want, expand and collapse, not a lot of graphics around it so that many things on my list can be viewed at once.  Workflowy is exactly what I've been looking for, and it is so streamlined and clever.  Hoping dates and recurring tasks can be implemented in the same simple and clever way.

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    Kevin H Cork

    I dont see this as a big issue. I use the general tag system of yearmonthweek so... @1810wk1 @1810wk2 etc. then flag 4-5 things each Monday as #priority. I also don't then need to type out a year in advance, just as I go.

    But I use Outlook for email and find that (or Google etc)  is a much better place for day specific, recurring tasks and then simply link to the WF Note. Those already have a rich set of features, reminders etc built in. Adding that level of complexity into Workflowy begins to degrade the core appeal which is the Simplicity.

    I can appreciate having a single place to organize your tasks and activities but I suspect working with email is ALREADY something we all do several times a day anyway so...

     

     

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    Tim Converse

    That's great if it works for you. What I'd like is support of something like #todo2018-11-25 (regardless of what the syntax is) with the result that I can get an email on 2018-11-25 of everything tagged that way.  

    I don't need tight integration with a different mail or calendar program, but I also don't want to have to go out to a program like that and link back to workflowy for the content.

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    Michael Metzler

    Ideal for m is simply being able to add a date to a line and have that added to my calendar (Mac) as an even/todo. 

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    Miloš Kobliha

    For me the essential of date implementation is that I can write it on Android keyboard (using US gboard). "^" character is not common to have and looking for it in special symbols is significant productivity killer. I have abandoned checkvist for this.

    ! % are examples what would work for me.

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    Lon F. Binder

    Dates and Reminders are a "we just need to do it" in the 2018 roadmap. When is this actually going to happen?

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    Chris

    I'm starting to fear that the answer is never.

    Workflowy got where it is because of a group of passionate folks, and I think what made those folks passionate is the utter simplicity of the product.

    I think the developers are walking a super difficult line between trying to appeal to larger, feature-wanting audience without alienating the folks that got them here.

    I can't help wonder if it's like Blackberry in the late 2000s:  the vocal minority who truly loved the product hated the thought of ditching the keyboard, so the company held onto it way too long.  They kept their loving fans but failed to make something that appealed to the mass market.

    I think unless and until Workflowy becomes willing to alienate their biggest fans in the pursuit of growing the company, feature releases will be few and far between.

    I'm not in a position to criticize them. It's their product. 

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    William Mayner

    Respectfully, I disagree—I think the analogy with Blackberry's keyboard is misplaced.

    A physical keyboard is either there or not there, and all users have to experience one or the other. By contrast, dates in Workflowy would be optional; those who prefer the existing simplicity could simply not use that feature, while those who would love to be able to attach a date to an item and sort by date, or at least just see an item's timestamp, could do so.

    So I think it's more of a question of priorities. For me, it would be extremely useful to have a rich semantics for dates and times that's integrated with the rest of Workflowy's features, and perhaps integrated with external services like Google calendar, etc.

    For the time being, I'm just prepending items with the date (e.g., “2019-01-25 Do this thing”). The tag system can also be used as a workaround (“#2019-01-25 Now it's clickable”). But sorting by date is still missing.

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    Peeter P. Mõtsküla

    I also use #datetags as in #yyyy-mm-dd.

    Also, automagical color-coded highlighting of #datetags would be cool (e.g. past: red, today: yellow, this week: green, next week: cyan, this/next month: blue)

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    Andriy Drozdyuk

    I think you should use Todoist for that. Keep workflowy clear.

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    Mr Alan Edward Barnes

    Please no!

    This is not what Workflowy is about.  

    Sure use some tag syntax for dates - and when API is available use that to get tags/ item and put it in some other Calendar/Reminder app 

    Why on earth would you want to try and replicate all the features of a Calendar/Reminder/Date picker in workflowy? You’d be out of your mind.  Insane.

    Stick to lists manipulation features.  Keep it as simple as possible. It works great!

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    PRONOJIT SAHA

    A swipe feature to set reminders (similar to completing tasks) surely help without breaking away the simplicity of workflowy. Any update on this feature?

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