Sandglaz

Sandglaz Infinity Grids: Your Task List Meets A Calendar

2013-06-14T13:45:30-04:00

We launched Sandglaz Infinity Grids in Nov 2011 as a way to combine task lists and calendars.

Infinity Grids are great for busy professionals and teams that plan their work in daily or weekly chunks of time.

Tasks that you planned on completing today but didn't get a chance to finish will automatically roll over to tomorrow's task list.

We've come a long way since since the first public release of Sandglaz Infinity.
And there's a lot more improvements and new features coming soon.

But for now, we want to breakdown Infinity Grids in detail and show you how you can combine your task list with a calendar.

Time Based Milestones

The most important part of an Infinity Grid are the time-based milestone for each column.

Each column represents a basic unit of time for the project you're working on.

For a personal daily task management list, set your milestone to be 1-day long.
For team based projects, you might be better off using the 1-week default length.

Each milestone holds the tasks you plan on working on during that period of time.

Once you've set your milestone length, start plugging in your tasks you plan on working on in this milestone.

Flexibility in Milestones Dates

Eventhough the default milestone length is 1-week, Sandglaz is very flexible by allowing you to shorten or extend milestones.

This is useful when you've got projects that 'slow down' and aren't as demanding (extend the milestone).
Or if you're working on a tight deadline, you might shorten your milestones all the way down to 'daily' so you can plan all the tasks leading up to a big launch, release, or delivery.

Uncompleted Tasks Move Into The Next Milestone

What makes Infinity Grids different than a calendar is that if a task is uncompleted by the end of a milestone, the uncompleted task automatically rolls over to the next milestone.

You'll never have to move an uncompleted task forward.

The rolling over of tasks is what makes Infinity Grids different (and better) than Calendars for task management.

Completed Tasks Stay Behind

Once a task is checked off as 'completed', it stays in the milestone it was completed in.

So you're able to scroll back and look at previously completed tasks and see when they were completed.
All of this is automatic - you don't ever have to keep a log of what you've done.

If you need to review tasks and accomplishments with your team, they're all in there inside your Infinity Grid.

The Later Column

The far right column shows you all your tasks in future milestones and tasks.

Borrowing from the GTD world of 'someday/maybe', think of your 'Later' column as your backlog of tasks that aren't urgent.
Remember, if a task is urgent then put it in the appropriate milestone.

When you decide to work on a task from your 'Later' column, just drag it over into the current milestone.

Don't be surprised if a Later column has a lot more tasks than your current milestone.
It just means that you'll be busy with that project over the next few milestones.

Moving Tasks to Different Milestones

There are a couple of ways to move a task into any milestone:

Drag a task into any future milestone.
Set the task detail's move-to date.

A task's move-to date is different than the due date.

The move-to is like a start date for the task.
It's the date you plan on starting work on it and the milestone where you want it to show up in.

If you need to start working on next year's budget in October, then you can set a task with a 'move to' date for Oct 1.
Once the Oct 1 milestone date comes around, the task will move to your current milestone.

Putting It All Together

Create a grid for each project you're working on.
Set the appropriate milestone (weekly, daily, 10 days, etc)
Start adding tasks to your grid and put them in the appropriate milestone

We'd love to get your feedback on Infinity Grids. How are you using them?

Converting All Sandglaz Standard Grids to Infinity Grids on June 26

2013-06-07T15:02:07-04:00

We will be disabling and removing functionality for Standard Grids soon in Sandglaz to provide a better experience for all users.

On Jun 26th, we will be making the following changes:

All existing Standard Grids in Sandglaz will be converted to Infinity Grids.
Functionality to switch back to Standard grids will be removed.

Your tasks in Standard Grids are safe during the migration.

We're making this change is to simplify Sandglaz and deliver better functionality to you in terms of enhancements and improvements over the next few months.

Between now and June 26th, we recommend that you convert all Standard Grids into Infinity Grids.

What's The Difference Between Infinity Grids and Standard Grids?

Sandglaz Infinity Grids are more powerful versions of Standard Grids because they allow you to plan your work in time-based milestones.

The default milestone range is 1 week.
For each weekly milestone, any incomplete task automatically moves over to the next milestone for you.

With Infinity Grids, you also have the ability to move tasks into future milestones so you don't have to see them until the future milestone comes around.

This is especially useful when you know you want to work on a task, but not until next week, next month, or 6 months from now.

All of Sandglaz' tagging functionality works great in Infinity Grids.

How To Convert Standard Grids to Infinity Grids

For each Standard Grid you're using, click on the grid settings then hit the 'convert to infinity' button.

This will convert your grid to an Infinity Grid and add a weekly milestone time dimension to it.

Recap Of Changes

Between now and June 26th, convert any Standard Grids into Infinity Grids.
On June 26th, we're going to convert all remaining Standard Grids to Infinity Grids.

Your tasks are safe during the migration.

If you've got any questions or feedback about the changes, please let us know by emailing support@sandglaz.com or leaving a comment here.

Sandglaz Updates: New Task Detail View & Task Agenda Email

2013-06-03T16:29:06-04:00

Today we launched a couple of improvements to Sandglaz that we're excited to share with you.

New Task Detail View

Now when you maximize any task, you'll see a large, centered task detail screen.

This gives you more room to edit your task details and shows you the different parts of your task.

Here is a walkthrough of what you will see when you 'maximize' any task into the task detail view.

Task Notes: Use the notes area to add additional information, links, or details to your tasks.
The notes area now expands automatically for you (no more scrolling!).
Due On: You can set the task due date automatically from here using an the date and time picker.
Repeat: You can control how often the task will be repeated.
Move To: When you set this field, you will move a task into future milestones in your infinity grid. Moving tasks to future dates takes them out of the current milestone.

This is especially useful when you're planning your work and realize that you're just not going to get some tasks this week. Use 'Move To' to put them in a future milestone.

Task Agenda Email

Many of us have a habit of checking email the very first thing in the morning when we get up or get started with our workday.

The Sandglaz Task Agenda Email is a snapshot of your important and overdue tasks for the week:

Overdue Tasks - These tasks haven't been checked off yet and are now overdue.
Upcoming Private Tasks - These are incomplete private grids tasks that you've created.
Upcoming Tasks Shared With You - These are incomplete shared grid tasks that you've been tagged on.

Clicking any of the tasks in your email takes you right to that task's detail view.
This is handy when you realize you need to make an edit to the task, assign it to someone else, or move it to a later milestone.

While the default frequency for the task agenda email for all users is weekly, you can choose different frequencies in your account settings.

Daily (Every day)
Weekday (M-F)
Weekly (Mondays)
Monthly (First day of the month)

Try different frequencies to see what works for your working style.

Let us know what you think of the new task detail view and task agenda emails. How are they impacting your workflow?

Inbox Zero: Why Staying at Zero Emails is Hard

2013-05-31T14:35:41-04:00

For busy professionals, Inbox Zero (in a literal sense -- 0 emails in your inbox) is the Everest of productivity achievements.

For a few fleeting moments, the zen state of 0 emails exists along with the satisfaction of knowing you've dealt with, filed away, and captured everything that needs your attention.

But the start of the next workday starts the flow of email again.

No matter how aggressively you handle all incoming mail, it just doesn't seem to stick.
'Inbox Zero' is more realistically 'Inbox 50' for busy professionals.

A small number of floating messages stay parked in your email inbox as a reminders of tasks to do, replies to tap out, or things to think about.

These are some common types of emails that pile up in your inbox even if you're trying to stick with Inbox Zero.

Emails That Need Action, But Not Until Later

A majority of emails that stay sitting in your inbox as tasks are probably in this category.
You know what you need to do with the message, but it's not urgent enough to work on it right now.

These important (but not urgent) messages can't disappear from your view.
Because, after all, they're important.

So you keep them around and they sit silently in a sea of your other unread messages.

You spend psychic ram each time you skip them over in your inbox and a think to yourself, "Oh yeah, I'm going to start on this next week."

Multiple, Related Email Threads On One Project

A lot of times, multiple email threads come in over the course of a week on a single project.

And because you kept the first email thread of the project in your inbox (because you planned on doing something later about it), the additional threads also get parked there because they've got more context and the latest detail on the work.

Work-In-Progress Attachment Emails

If part of your work is spent handling, editing, updating, and delivering attachments (spreadsheets, presentations, proposals), then you're probably parking versions of attachments in your inbox.

This gets compounded when you're working with other coworkers on the same document:
"Who's got the latest version of the presentation?"

"Oh I do - I'm just adding to it and I'll email it to you when I'm done."

Sound familiar?

Attachments spend a lot of time floating around in your inbox as they turn from work-in-progress to final.

Emails That Need More Thinking

Finding time to think in busy, fast paced workplaces can be challenging.

So when you get an email and freeze up about what you should do about it, chances are that it needs more thinking time.

Much of what gets parked in your inbox task manager requires more thinking, planning, and a decision on what to do about it.

The lack of an outcome on the email keeps it in your inbox until you're able to find time to decide what you want to do with the message.

These are different ways a well intentioned Inbox Zero approach at the start of a workweek can turns into Inbox 50 by the end of it.

What's your experience with Inbox Zero? Have you been able to stick to a full week with an empty inbox?

Using The Email Inbox As A Task Manager, And Why It's A Bad Idea

2013-05-30T08:52:24-04:00

We've been talking to users and learning how they're using their email inbox as a task manager.

And these are most common ways a Gmail inbox is hacked into a task manager:

Unread messages: After reading each message, if the message needs to be a task, mark the message as unread.
Stars: Star-ing emails that need attention or require follow up.
Keep unfinished tasks in the inbox, archive everything else: The only messages in the inbox are ones that require action. As tasks from emails are completed, the message is archived away.

Each of these methods tries to turns email from a communication channel into a productivity suite.

But there are 3 major problems with this setup:

There's No Place For Tasks You Create For Yourself

Your email inbox is where others park their tasks that they need you to do.
But you can't add any tasks that you create for yourself.

So productive users who want to keep track of the tasks and projects they create for themselves end up using a separate task manager to capture their own tasks.

Keeping two task managers (an email inbox and a task manager like Sandglaz) results in time wasted switching between the two tools.

And it also introduces a sync problem.

The Task Manager And Inbox Are Never In Sync

The sync problem happens when users add tasks from their email into their task manager.

But since emails get updated with replies (example: an updated attachment with the latest numbers, or an email from a colleague with new information), the email inbox usually trumps your task manager when it comes to detail and context.

When things go out of sync like this, you might spend a lot of time switching back and forth to hunt for more information from your inbox, dig up the most recent version of an attachment, or see what the latest update is to a task.

No Start Dates or Deadlines On Emails

Treating an email inbox as a list of tasks doesn't allow you to set a start date in the future or give a deadline for tasks.

Not every email requires immediate action. And not every email can even be started right now.

So setting start dates or deadline on tasks usually means turning to a task manager or calendar for time based planning.

We'll be exploring the intersection of the email inbox and task management more in upcoming blog posts.

So, do you use a task manager but also rely on your email inbox to manage tasks?