Add External Calendar Events As Tasks
in progress
J
Joel
Being able to add Gcal events as tasks so the time etc can be tracked, the can be rearranged in the kanban view etc. All syncing to Gcal
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Chris
Hey everyone, just wanted to provide another update on this one.
Restarting work on this (for the maybe 4th time)
A big reason this is so challenging is because there are so many use cases to consider (some people want changes to be synced, some people don't want changes to be synced, some people want rollover/some don't/etc...)
After weighing everything, here is what I'm rolling with in terms of settings/how it works
- There is a button that will appear when you click on each calendar event that says "Add as task"
- When you click it, it will add a new task and link the calendar event to it
But there will be a few settings to customize the behavior of the syncing behavior
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This setting will apply to all calendars (maybe in the future I will allow a per-calendar customization of this)
How should we handle syncing changes between the task and calendar events?
- Do not sync any task changes back to the calendar event
- Sync only time changes back to the calendar event
- Sync all changes (title, description and time) to the calendar event
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In terms of rollover here is the behavior I'm thinking
- Tasks that are rolled over will maintain their original time.
- Deleting a task will not delete the calendar event, it will just unlink the two (could change this in the future)
Let me know if anyone has any thoughts on this! What seemed like a simple feature is actually a pretty massive undertaking 😮💨 but thank you all for your patience here!
G
Gabriel Klingman
Was about to request this. I spend 15+ hours weekly on calls, so without this functionality those hours dissapear from my reports
R
Rudo
"Please implement the same button for Outlook (Microsoft Calendar) integration as well. Sunsama has implemented it in the same way (a button on the event), and it works perfectly.
N
No name
Hello! Just wondering if there was any update on this feature at this time. Thank you very much!
F
FGC
I would NOT want something that originated from my calendar to be rolled over. My goal would be to have the gcal entries on my task list with automated time. I'd even be fine with it auto-completing at the end of the slotted time. This would help me from oversubscribing my day
C
Caleb
Emailed enquiring about this featuring this morning. Awesome to see that it's in the pipeline! When using the Kanban View like a to-do list it's extremely helpful to see calendar events scheduled for that day at a glance. Being able to tick these events off as tasks or reschedule right from the Kanban view by dragging them into another day column.
Chris
in progress
Hello hello, thank you to everyone who upvoted this 👋
I was working on this over the weekend but ran into a bit of a UX issue and wanted some feedback
For people with the Google cal integration enabled
Would you want tasks created through this method to be linked to the Google event (just as if it was timeboxed directly on Ellie)?I actually built it that way but then I realized that it could have unintended side effects in certain cases
For example, with task rollover:
When a task rolls over it is automatically removed from the timebox and has to be timeboxed again.
So lets say you have a meeting with someone and you add that task to Ellie. Now the task is linked to the event and any changes made to the task reflect on that calendar event. If the task rolls over, the calendar event is deleted.
The same thing happens when a task is moved to another day on the Kanban (it is removed from the timebox).
One solution is for these specific tasks is to modify the rollover/kanban functionality and just don't allow tasks to be removed from the timebox. Only downside is possible confusion from users when they see that these tasks rollover but they are still timeboxed on the previous day.
Any suggestions on what to do here? Or am I overthinking this? 😅
S
Sueli
Chris: I think having both integration will be very useful! Create tasks from event, and creating events from tasks on the calendar. I use GCal to timeblock my non-work related routine, and time-block my work-related tasks on Ellie. If these tasks can be reflected on GCal as events, it'll be helpful to trace back and review how the time was planned for the week, which I think is lacking at this point?
As for rollover tasks, I don't see an issue with the calendar event linked to that task to be deleted, as the task is intentionally moved to another day anyway. I hope this helps and thank you for the work that you do! :)
Chris
Sueli: Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts :)
On the first part about Ellie tasks reflecting on GCal as events, is this different from the current Google cal integration we have now (2-way sync)?
S
Sueli
Chris: Oh yes it's the same, thank you! I didn't know this feature was available!
K
Katie
Chris:
Personally, I would actually prefer it incomplete tasks would roll over to the next day's kanban list, without being removed from the previous day's timebox (as you suggested in your possible solution). My rolled-over tasks are often those that I did not allocate enough time for in my previous timebox, and this would allow me to reference the time I had previously allocated for the task until I've rescheduled it (and then timebox/calendar can re-sync). Better yet, the task could occupy both/multiple timeboxes (but I know there's a whole different thread on this...)
If confusion/preference varies here, perhaps it could be a conditional/user-specific option??
E.g.
[Y/N] Sync timeboxed tasks to GCal (i.e. Kanban Task --> GCal Event)
[Y/N] Enable "Create task from event" button (i.e. GCal Event --> Kanban Task)
[Y/N] Rollover incomplete tasks in Kanban
[Y/N] Clear timebox settings for rolled-over tasks (N is required if GCal --> Kanban is enabled)
C
Caleb
Chris: I have never personally found a lot of use for event task rollover. Usually if its a scheduled calendar event; it's a meeting or appointment with a fixed date and time - thus roll over is pointless. Perhaps a distinction might be that 'all day' events that aren't time boxed are more likely to be in someones calendar as a reminder/recurring habit. Certainly, either way 'event-task roll over' could be a worth while settings toggle.
Perhaps consider something like...
Event-Task hasn't been checked off at end of day, Event-Task Roll Over Setting disabled: Leave the GCal event in place, and roll over the Event-Task just as an Ellie Task, ready for time boxing (should the user wish).
Event-Task hasn't been checked off at end of day, Event-Task Roll Over Setting enabled: Event-Task is rolled over to rolling day, and the GCal event is moved with it, changing its time to 'all day' until re-time boxed by the user (if they so wish). Again, the logic being if it's time critical, it wouldn't have been feasible to roll over anyways.
Just an idea!
Chris
under review
Great idea.
Will probably keep things simple and when clicking a Gcal event in the calendar there will be a button that says "Create task from event" that auto adds it to the Kanban
N
No name
Chris Hi Chris, is this still happening? Brand new user here and so far finding it inconvenient that the task from event can't be created. I like all my personal calendar slots to be duplicated in the Tasks, so i can check them off once I have completed those.
Chris
No name Ran into so many blockers with this so had to pause a few times!
Re-started work this week though now that notifications have shipped, hoping to get something out this week :)
N
No name
Chris I would also really enjoy this feature if you can somehow figure it out! I'm using this to track class assignments that get carried over as events from Canvas to Google Cal which then get carried over to Ellie but it would be really helpful to check them off as I complete them. :)
Also, I am a new user but I am really enjoying this so far! It has already helped a lot with issues related to my ADHD lol and I've tried EVERYTHING.
Thank you for making this!!