SmartPlans is five apps in one. You can use them individually or together as the most versatile, powerful productivity tool available. Let’s look at the features individually to see how they work together.
It’s a Task List
It’s this simple: Create a list of tasks inside any Plan. Create a new plan (you can call it a topic, or a project, or a category, your choice). Then load your tasks into it. Structured or freestyle.
This picture shows a structured list of Tasks. All you do is create new tasks by tapping on the “+” button on the top right.
Prioritize with your finger-tips
You can re-order and prioritize just by moving then up and down with your finger.
Group Tasks
You can quickly and easily group tasks together by dragging one task on top of another. This automatically creates a ‘task drawer.’ Close the drawer to keep things neat. Open the drawer and rummage around to see what’s inside. Add more tasks to the drawer just by opening it. Kind of like your chest of drawers.
Time Tasks
When you create a Task, you estimate how long you think it will take. No need to be A.R., a rough guess is fine. Then, when you start working on a Task, just tap on the Timer button. These two functions – estimating time and recording actual time – allow the Projects Planner (see below) to track and monitor your progress. Gee that was easy! You’ve just created a plan and are now working on it!
It’s a Project Planner
So you created a list of tasks. Lo and behold, you’ve got a Plan. Using the Project Planner, you can track your projects and plan them.
Creating the Plan
From the main view, just tap on the “+” icon to create a new Plan. A Plan has a start date, an estimated length of time, and a finish date. You can estimate all this at the beginning. For example, “I want to write the Great American Novel and I think it’s going to take me 60 days.” You’ll then want to fill it with tasks such as “do preliminary research” and “write synopsis.”
The TBD Task
We recognize that you have no idea how long the Project or Plan is really going to take. So we have created the TBD Task. When you create a new Plan, we give you a “TBD Task” consists of the entire time of your Plan. Then as you add Tasks to the Plan, the duration of the TBD Task is reduced accordingly. You can delete it at any point in time.
Defining your Work Balance
Here’s a nifty feature. When you create a new Plan, and you guess how long it’s going to take, you might also have an idea how much time you’d like to spend each week on that Plan. Because you have other Plans to do, and you also have your life to live. Let’s say 20 hours a week for the Great American Novel. Just put that in when you create a new Plan. The Work Balance feature is one of the key components of SmartPlans and you will see how it helps you in the next section.
It’s a Plans Manager
Okay here’s where things get really fun. So you created several Plans, each of them made up of lists and groups of Tasks. Some of these may be work projects, some maybe hobbies, some may be home stuff. SmartPlans is the first and only project manager that is designed specifically to allow you to manage multiple plans – from one screen. And this is it:
It’s all on the tip of your finger
If you already have SmartTime, you know that we love to design apps that are managed intuitively with your fingertips or by flipping the iPhone sideways. From the main view, flip SmartPlans sideways and you’ll see your Plans in an easy to read, interactive Gantt chart. That’s right. Interactive. Move Plans back and forth to change their start and end dates. Observe the Work Balance chart in the background – the colored stacks show how much time you are spending each Plan both individually and as a whole. The red dotted line indicates your preferred work load per week. Got too much going on? Drag a Plan to make it longer. That will change its completion date, so it may take a little longer – but your Work Balance will be back in sync!
It’s a Time Logger
This little device is so cool, you can use it on its own. In fact, you can use the Timer to track multiple tasks, phone calls, client meetings, workout schedules – anything and everything. It’s simplicity is astounding. Oh and if you turn off your iPhone or are interrupted for any reason, don’t worry – Timer will prompt you to re-start or continue.
Time Anything
You’re sitting at your desk. The phone rings. You don’t know who it is. Might be an expensive client. Just tap on the timer from any view, and start timing. It automatically creates a Task and a new Plan. You can change the names later. Take care of that call first.
Time a Task
You want to start work on a specific Task that you already have in your Plan. Just tap on the Task to highlight it, then tap on the Timer. It’s started. That was easy!
Time a Plan
You want to do some work on a Plan, but you haven’t yet articulated what the actual task is. Who cares? Tap on the Plan to highlight it, then tap on the Timer. It starts timing a new Task inside that Plan. You can give it a name later. Or now. Or any time.
Pause a Task
You get interrupted while Timing. Just tap the Timer, press pause. The Task stays visible in the Timer, and is moved down to the “Paused” drawer. Resume it any time. Pause and resume 10 times, we don’t care. But when you finally complete the Task, you have a detailed record of each time that you spent on that Task – as well as a top-line summary of the Start and End dates. For each Task!
It’s a Contacts Manager
SmartPlans can also manage your contacts with clients, customers, friends, family – even time you spend on personal activities. All you do is create a new Plan and select “Freestyle.” There a many uses for this. Here are a few examples.
Client Manager
Create a different Freestyle Plan for each client in your portfolio. Each time you have a meeting, or a phone call, or do work on their behalf, just tap the Timer. You keep a detailed log of all time spent on that client.
Workout Log
Create a Freestyle Plan for your Workout. Create individual tasks for each type of workout – cardio, aerobic, yoga/stretch. Tap the Timer each time you do one of these. Guess what? You keep a detailed log of all the time spent on Workouts.
More Coming
This is just the beginning. We have more features under development. They include synchronization with Google Calendar, generation of time audit reports, export of reports to standardized formats, and sharing data with our other SmartApps including SmartTime and SmartNotes.
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