It’s always about distractions. At home you might have a good idea about the goods to take from the grocery but as soon as you step into the store without a list – you’re lost. At least for me managing to remember even five items while looking around in a store is close to impossible.

Working with a computer is like working in a candy store. It’s easy to get lost as soon as you forget your current task. To overcome my memory and attention failure I tweaked my task management app TimeGT – now it shows my in progress task as a small always-on-top notification window. It annoys with smaller screens just a bit but at least I remember that I should be working on X and NOT check my e-mail or twitter or read that wicked new CSS button generator source. Keep your current task clearly written somewhere visible, it has helped me way more than I thought.

It is suggested that when procrastination kicks in then it’s better to do anything a bit important, even if it’s not urgent. It sounds like a good short-term solution but I try to avoid it as much as possible. If there is an important AND urgent task waiting then doing unurgent is not the best thing to do. I better stay calm, go out and take a walk — clears my mind and helps to reevaluate priorities and motivation. Maybe the urgent task is unimportant and then it should be never done. At least according to the Eisenhower matrix.

Many thanks to Jevgeni for the blog post that sparked the need to write down my own thoughts on this.

You can now track time for the tasks you work on. Start task by hitting the “play” at task and stop when finished. All time is summed up and you can see it from the task info area. To sum up the time spent for multiple tasks just select them and again check the task info area.

Always on top notification for tasks in progress:

Changes since last blog post

#1.5.7
 * Added back multitab timing selection (Someday, Next Action etc) when CTRL key is pressed.
   When multiple tabs are selected then it's ordered by Eisenhower priority.
 * Fixed bugs with the new task notification: it's stopped when task gets completed or TimeGT is
   started with an In Progress task.
 * Fixed autostart bug where for some cases Preferences autostart checbox was disabled but autostart
   was actually enabled in the registry.
 * Fixed bug where project was not always properly revealed with the search function
 * New feature: Time is now tracked and stored whenever in progress task notification is in progress.
   If there has been any time spent it is shown at the task info area.
   Multiselect sums it up. Time spent info is also synced between the devices.
   To avoid surprises in behavior: always stop in progress task when you finish working or
   before exiting TimeGT!
 * New feature: In progress task notification supports now multiple tasks at the same time.
   Please be aware that the time spent is added to each of the tasks (working for 3 tasks for
   2 minutes logs 2 minutes for each task, 6 minutes total).    
#1.5.6
 * Task in progress is now also at the bottom right of the screen and shows minutes spent to stay
   focused. Time spent is not stored anywhere! Supports one task at a time.
 * Complete column at task table is now wider to avoid accidental clicks
#1.5.5
 * Task info panel now shows created and and completed dates

If you already have TimeGT installed then updates are pushed automatically after you click the upgrade button (Check Help menu “Check for Updates” if not automatically notified).

If you don’t have TimeGT then please grab it for free from http://timegt.com/download

Cheers!

Ahti

Since last post from April 30 new releases went out almost weekly and we have lots to be proud of.

Special thanks to user Fabio for the great feedback! To some extent most of it got incorporated into the latest version.

About new task ordering algorithms

Rest assured, Next Actions timing still has the wonderful magic ordering that takes Eisenhower matrix into account and tries to do the best to provide the source for starting your next task!

The change is for Inbox and Completed. Inbox is now ordered by the task creation date. Completion is ordered by completion date. You know what? Now you can also SEE the completion date. We were recording it all the time but just didn’t had a good place to show it. Now we have! Inbox list shows task creation date, Completed list shows completion!

Changes between 1.5.1 and 1.5.4

#1.5.4
 * Now you can change start and due dates for tasks at once with multiselect
   (use Ctrl key to select multiple tasks)
 * Shows task selection count if multiple tasks are selected
 * New task entry moved to the top of task table to make room for hint area
 * Completed tasks show completed date, ordered by it and not strikethrough anymore
 * Inbox tasks show creation date, are ordered by creation date
 * Timings (Inbox, Next action etc tabs) can now be selected only one at a time,
   previous Ctrl+click for multiselect is removed to support timing-specific features
   such as sorting and custom rendering.
 * Cleaned up and polished Task Info panel, increased fonts for readability
#1.5.3
 * Added back project name decorators to task list
 * Systray tooltip and window title now includes logged in username
 * Improved Search input box user experience, better behavior for enter key and now
   first showing projects
#1.5.2
 * Improvements to the task list rendering and timing tabs. Removed sort orders. More visual space
   by moving date editing to task info area and reworking list columns.
 * Moved References timing next to Next Action and Someday/Maybe next to Inbox for more
   logical grouping
 * Renamed main menu TimeGT to File for better consistency
 * Next actions tab is open by default when starting TimeGT
 * Got rid of quickadd to improve systray behavior
 * Fixed timezone bug related to daylightsaving time

If you already have TimeGT installed then updates are pushed automatically after you click the upgrade button (Check Help menu “Check for Updates” if not automatically notified).

If you don’t have TimeGT then please grab it for free from http://timegt.com/download

Cheers!

Ahti

TimeGT Windows installer now requires NO administrator privileges. This is superb and long-waited change for some of the users in more corporate environments. The installer is rewritten to work similar to Chrome and other modern standalone apps for Windows. Application will be installed under special user directory, not Program Files. This means that for each user needs a separate installation.

If you were previously using TimeGT installed version then uninstall TimeGT and reinstall a new version by downloading it from TimeGT Download. No worries about your tasks, they are still safe and uninstall is NOT deleting these.