Capture and Display created date and last modified date for tasks | Help Center

Capture and Display created date and last modified date for tasks

PRO

sudipta_shaw 04/22/2014 11:10

Platform:All

This is very useful for the below scenarios:

1. I want to filter by tasks that I had added today
2. I would like to know how long it is taking for me (or by the person to whom the task is assigned) to complete a task
3. I want to sort by tasks which has been recently updated to understand which tasks are progressing

Thanks,
Sudipta.

Folke post on 04/22/2014 12:24#1

PRO

+ 1

For me the main use of this feature (a "since date" - date moved to this GTD category Next, Waiting, Someday) is to see how long (since when) the task has been sitting there without getting done. This is a useful decision parameter when deciding whether anything special needs to be done with the task (e.g. a follow-up with someone or a change of priority etc.)

I think the screen position of the scheduled date would be excellent for this purpose. All tasks that do not have a scheduled date could have this "since" date instead, perhaps in a different color.
wendy_only post on 04/23/2014 10:24#2

PRO

@Folke @sudipta_shaw
Hi,

I do not agree that you need to pay attention to how long (since when) the task has been sitting there without getting done. Sometime it can not help you,but will make you anxious.

Some tasks are planed to be done in future. Some tasks are added when they come out in your mind but it does not mean that you need to complete them ASAP. For example, Lily will teach my Child swimming. But she does not get ready to have a child yet.

If a task you plan to complete before a certain time,you can add deadline to the task and to see how much time left.
Folke post on 04/23/2014 12:54#3

PRO

@wendy_only

I comes as no surprise that you disagree, but I respect your opinion. Maybe some people would indeed get anxious by seeing how long the task has been sitting there. You could well be totally right about that.

But for others it would be a very useful and very objective tool for being able to determine if something needs to be done, if something is beginning to get late, or is perhaps already too late. Deadlines and scheduled dates cannot be used in the same way, because those dates have no memory. If I meet somebody today, and promise to "send something soon", then if I put a future date for it (an artificial deadline), and then change that repeatedly every time that I see the task but do not have the time to do it, I will eventually lose track completely of how late I actually am.

Actually, there is a simple solution for this - but only if you change the function of the star (and make it a pure "attention star" - today is not a box - as we have discussed so many times before). If you would allow users to remove the star (or set it) without moving or changing anything at all about the tasks except their visibility on the starred list, we could "schedule" tasks for today, and just "unstar" them with the original "scheduled date" intact. This "past scheduled date" would the "be" the "since date".
wendy_only post on 04/24/2014 09:21#4

PRO

@Folke
Hi,

Thank you for your feedback. We will consider your suggestion seriously,but there are really a lot of things we need to do if we add this feature. So it may not be done in near future.
Folke post on 04/24/2014 10:30#5

PRO

@wendy_only

I understand, and I do understand all the hard work you are already doing - with so many platforms and so many different kinds of features for different kinds of user mentality etc. I am glad that you do not give up :-)

My current workaround for the "since" date is to simply try to remember to always manually write the date within parentheses on the task line itself when I create or move a task, e.g. "Send suggestion outline to ABC Corp (Apr 24)". That works well, too, except I sometimes forget to write it, and it takes a few keystrokes extra. It would be nice to have it done automatically, but I totally agree that there are other feature changes that are more important.