@darekkay
Hi,

Q: I'm using GCal sync. If I set up a task with a schedule date (date1) and a deadline a few days/weeks later (date2), then the task appears on each day between date1 and date2.
A: It is designed by GCal. If you add a event on GCal with a schedule date (date1) and a deadline a few days/weeks later (date2),the event will appear on each day between date1 and date2. Have a try. Not because the task is from Doit.im, it is due to GCal. You'd better feedback to GCal.

Shall you need any help or have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me back.

Thank you for your support!

Best regards,
Doit.im Team
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@wendy_only

What you are saying is perfectly true :-)
But it is only half the truth :-)

GCal is a calendar, designed primarily for booking up time slots in advance. For example, you will attend a three-day conference or have a two-week vacation or have a one-hour meeting. If you the enter such an event, with a start date and an end date, it is only natural and correct that this shows up the way it does. GCal is handling it correctly. And so is Doit - if in fact the start date and the deadline really represent the start and end of such a "calendar action" (as it is called in GTD).

But not every date represents the start or beginning of a calendar action.

A deadline in itself is not a "booked" date. It is just a "last possible date". For example you have bill to pay by Jan 31. You do not need to pay it ON that day. You can pay it today, tomorrow, any day up until the "last possible day". Deadlines is something that you do not necessarily want to see on your calendar (I don't), because they give the wrong impression that you are fully booked on that day, which is not true. (But I know that some people want to see them on the calendar.)

Similarly, a "start date" is not necessarily the start of an action. It can be a "first possible date" (almost like the direct opposite of a deadline). This is what the GTD Tickler is all about. These ticklers you may not want to see on the calendar either (I don't).

So, if an action has both a tickler date (for renewed processing; a "first possible date") and a deadline ("last possible date", it would be natural to show either nothing at all on the calendar (my personal preference) or to show the tickler date and the deadline date as two separate events, but not to show the whole stretch of dates as one single long event.

This brings me back to the old suggestion that when we "schedule" a task in Doit, there ought to be an checkbox etc for Calendar (default would be Tickler). If it is a calendar action it should definitely show on the calendar, and if the task is not completed on time it should be marked red etc., just as today.

If, on the other hand, the scheduled date is a tickler date, the tasks should not be shown on the same calendar (or on any calendar at all), and it should be delivered to the inbox (or as starred next), and it should never be marked red etc if it is not completed on the tickler date, because it is not late at all - it is just a new item on the Next list (or Waiting for list).

@Folke
Hi,

Your suggestion about the Tickler will be considered seriously. They should have different UI from the scheduled.

@wendy_only

One little thing you might want to consider:

When people create a true "booked" Calendar action, maybe they should have the option to select a "true" GCal calendar for it (not the Doit.im calendar)?

This would introduce a very clear distinction between the Doit.im calendar and the other calendars. The Doit.im calendar on GCal could then be reserved for non-booked dates such as "last possible date" (deadline) and "first possible date" (tickler date), in other words things that people may want to toggle on or off (or always leave off), whereas truly booked meetings etc. would appear on a regular calendar that people would typically leave on all the time.

Just an idea.