Connect Your SmartApps

With the launch of SmartPlans earlier this week, now three of our top productivity apps can sync their Projects and Tasks together via Toodledo, the free online task list. What does this mean? It means now you are connected wherever you go, from your computer to your iPhone to your iPad. It also means you are connected between different apps such as your Project Planner (SmartPlans) and your daily organizer (SmartPad for iPad and SmartCal for iPhone). How does this work? Read on.

 

SmartPad (iPad) ↔ SmartCal (iPhone)

Both SmartPad and SmartCal share the same task “types” and use the same logic for placing tasks into the day’s calendar.  So all you need to do is sync your tasks from SmartPad or SmartCal to Toodledo, then sync the other.

• Note: you can create tasks for Toodledo directly from your browser, even if you don’t have Toodledo running.  Just download the Toodledo plug-in for Mozilla.
• Note: Projects in SmartPad and SmartCal automatically map to Folders in Toodledo.
• Note: Tasks that have “Stars” in SmartPad and SmartCal also have “Stars” in Toodledo. This is useful for tagging, picking, or otherwise marking tasks for special usage.  In SmartPad and SmartCal, you can filter your task list to view only “Starred” items. This is a great way to organize your day by picking tasks from the list.  I do this at the end of each day, to plan for the next day. It’s just one tap to “Star” a task.

Example:

1. Create a new Task in your “Work” Project in SmartPad, and name it “Fix photocopier.”
2. Select “Sync Tasks” from the action menu (this assumes you have already set up your Toodledo account for syncing).
3. Check on your Toodledo account online, to see that the new task called “Fix photocopier” is now in  your “Work folder.
4. Pick up your iPhone, open SmartCal, and in the Tasks View, select “Sync Tasks” from the action menu.  You’ll see a new task called “Fix photocopier” appear in your “Work” project.

Limitations:

Because Toodledo does not have sort logic, the order of your task lists between will not be translated. That means that your sort order may be different between SmartPad, Toodledo, and SmartCal. In other words, the sort order is local to your device.

SmartPlans ↔ SmartCal / SmartPad

SmartPlans also has Projects and Tasks, like SmartPad and SmartCal. But because it is a Project manager, it handles them differently. Both Projects and Tasks contain a lot more information in them that Toodledo cannot hold.  For example:

SmartPlans Tasks contain:

• Durations that can be  greater than 8 hours (Toodledo allows this, but SmartPad and SmartCal do not)
• A history of started date and time, pause status, completed date and time
• Nested tasks (tasks within tasks).  Toodledo free version, and SmartPad and SmartCal, do not support nested tasks. Toodledo paid version does support nested tasks.

SmartPlans Projects contain:

• Summary history of all tasks including their started date and time, pause status, and completed date and time
• Estimated hours for the completion of the entire Project
• Work balance: number of hours each week that you plan to spend on the Project
• Deadline, if any, for completing the Project

Information that is not compatible with another device or application, will not be syncronized. However, that information will not be lost either.  So the detailed Project or Task information in SmartPlans will not be lost when you sync to and from Toodledo.

Limitations:

The detailed Task and Project information contained in SmartPlans on your iPad, cannot be synchronized with the detailed Task and Project information in SmartPlans on your iPhone, because it is synchronized via Toodledo.  However, there is a work-around:

Work-Around:

Back-up your data from SmartPlans on one device (for example, your iPhone) then Restore it to SmartPlans on the other device (say, your iPad). This will copy all of the data, including Tasks and Project detailed information, to the other device. Note that ALL existing data on the other device will be deleted when you perform a Restore.

Workflow Case Study

You can use SmartPlans on its own to manage Plans, Projects, and Tasks.  But with SmartCal and SmartPad, you can integrate Tasks into your work day by using SmartTime logic to find time for your tasks in-between your scheduled events. Here is one example of how you can combine SmartPlans with SmartPad/SmartCal, to let you see both the forest and the trees:

1. Create a set of Project Plans on SmartPlans.
2. Be sure to give these Projects unique names that are NOT the same as your Projects on SmartCal or SmartPad. For example, name your Work project as “Work Plan”
3. Populate each Project in SmartPlans with the Tasks that you need to do, to complete those Projects.
4. Synchronize SmartPlans to Toodledo.
5. Synchronize SmartCal and/or SmartPad to Toodledo.

Now, all of those Projects and their Plans are contained in SmartCal and/or SmartPad. From there, use the many features of SmartCal and SmartPad to help you get those tasks done:

• View and manage your SmartPlans projects and tasks in context with every thing else you have going on in your life – your appointments and events, as well as your daily and personal to-do’s.
• Use the Projects view to track the progress of those Projects.
• Use the GTDo feature to focus only on the next item in each Project.
• Use the “Star” picker to select sets of tasks that you want to do, on each day.
• Use the Day Manager slider bar to help determine how many of the tasks you can accomplish, each day.
• Assign a specific date and time to any Task, by dragging it in the Calendar view or by changing it from a Task to an Event in the task detail view.
• Because your SmartPad projects have unique names, you can integrate the tasks from those Project Plans, with your other “unplanned” projects in SmartCal or SmartPad, such as your “Family” project/calendar or your “Personal” project/calendar.

Submit Your Own Case Studies

This is just one example of how you can combine the best features of Project Planning (Smart Plans) and organization & scheduling (SmartPad and SmartCal). There are many other ways you can combine these apps.  We’d love to hear your own Case Studies!