SmartCal 2.0 has been submitted to the App Store on December 17, 2010. We will advise you when it is available! In the meantime, you can read all about it. Here is the detailed Handy Guide.
Projects, Tasks, Calendars… Oh My!
Track the progress of your Projects. Watch your tasks flow effortlessly from your Projects to the active Tasks list and from there directly into today’s Calendar. SmartCal uses next-generation SmartTime™ logic to give you interactive control over your day and to organize your tasks right into the free time between your appointments. SmartCal synchronizes tasks with Toodledo, and events with the iPhone calendar. From there, you can share data with practically anyone – including SmartPad, the productivity powerhouse for iPad!
The “GTDo” System – Our solution to real life problems
In real life, projects are made up of tasks. And in real life, it can be difficult to prioritize your projects, not to mention the tasks within each. And in real life, you need to find time for those tasks, inside your busy schedule. SmartCal does all three, in one app.
Create your projects in the Projects view. Fill each project with tasks, structured or unstructured. GTDo automatically places the top-most task from each Project, into the active Task list. That way, you see only what you need to see. Move tasks up and down in the task list with your finger-tip, to prioritize naturally and visually. Then – again with your fingertips – interactively manage which of those tasks can fit into your current day.
No other organizer finds time for you to do your tasks. And no other organizer places those into your calendar. If a task does not fit into a free time slot, SmartCal even splits it for you. Now, we go a step further: you can use the principals of GTD simply and intuitively, without having to read a 500-page book or attend seminars in productivity. It’s all here, in one app.
Contents
What’s New in 2.0
The four views:
Calendar View
Tasks View
Projects View
History View
Settings
Synchronizing Events with iPhone Calendar
Synchronizing Tasks with Toodledo
What’s New in 2.0
SmartCal 2.0 is completely new. Here are the main features that we have added. You can see the detail in the Handy Guide, below.
Projects View (and Project Detail View)
The Check List has been replaced by a powerful and flexible Project view that allows you to manage multiple projects each with cascading tasks. Track your progress at a glance. Create new tasks for any project with just one tap. Select which tasks from any Project, show up in the Tasks view.
Tip: What happened to your old Check List? It became a Project called Check List!
Tasks View
The new Tasks View has simple one-tap tabs that allow you to view the list in different ways. “All” shows everything, “Star” shows only those tasks that you have marked with a Star (also one-tap), GTDo shows only the top-most task from each of your Projects, Due shows only those tasks that have a due date (and it sorts them as well), and Active shows only those tasks that have already started.
GTDo Feature
If you have a lot of projects, each with a lot of tasks, you only really want to see the one task that you need to get done now. GTDo does this for you by placing the top-most task from each Project, into the list in Tasks View.
Synchronize with Toodledo – and SmartPad on your iPad
Now you can sync your tasks to the free online task management app, Toodledo. That means, you can create tasks directly from the browser of your desktop or laptop. And because SmartPad for iPad also syncs with Toodledo, guess what? You can share data between SmartCal and SmartPad. Both use the same next-generation SmartTime™ logic. Now you can be really connected, no matter which device you are using. Read more about connecting SmartCal with SmartPad.
Event Synchronization setup
This has been extremely simplified, to be consistent with the setup for Toodledo sync. In fact, there’s no setup! But read the new Sync section to make sure you understand what’s expected.
Detailed Guide
Calendar View
Calendar Basics
SmartCal starts with a calendar. You can create new appointments and events right from the Calendar View. Just:
- Tap anywhere on the screen, on any time…
- Or Tap the “+” icon.
You can also populate your Calendar with Calendars from the iPhone Calendar. If you already use the iPhone Calendar, we suggest you synchronize before you do anything else. Go to Synchronization.
Event Types
You can create normal Events, Repeating Events, and All Day or Multi-Day Events such as birthdays and holidays.
Alerts
You can also create alerts to remind you about Events. Tasks also!
Navigation
- Tap on the date bar to jump to another date.
- Tap and hold anywhere on the time line to create a new Event.
- Swipe left or right with your finger to to go other days.
- Flip your iPhone or iPod sideways to see Week and Month views.
Tasks in the Calendar
SmartCal automatically inserts tasks from the Task view into the Calendar. You will only see the ones that can be fit into your schedule for today. This is a great organizational tool. For more, see Tasks.
If you would like to turn this feature off, just go to Settings -> Tasks -> Show in Calendar and flip the switch to Off.
Moving Items in the Calendar
- You can move Events up and down to change the times, just by dragging them with your finger.
- You can also move Tasks in today’s calendar to change their times. To allow this feature, be sure to switch “Move in Calendar” to “On” (see picture above). Note: moving a task automatically converts it into Event. Why? Because you are assigning a specific time to it. This is actually a very cool feature because it gives you full manual control over when you do what. And it’s easy to convert an Event (back) into a Task: Just double-tap to edit, and choose “Task” from the Task/Event toggle on top.
Week Calendar
The Week Calendar has several unique and helpful features. See illustrations below.
- You can see all of your “busy” time at a glance, by looking at the ‘busy bars’ for each day. The colors correspond to your different Calendars.
- You can tap on a day to expand it. It zooms out to show detail and the time line.
- When the day is expanded, you can tap on the time line just like in the Day Calendar, to create a new Event.
- Tap on the “Month” button to go to the Month Calendar
- From any selected day, if you flip your iPhone back to portrait view, you will see that day in the Day Calendar.
- Tap on the Date Bar to Jump to any other date, or to apply Filters
- Tap on the Month button to view the Month calendar.
Week View with All Day Events pane and calendar-colored busy bars
Week view with expanded Day calendar
Tap to quick-add a new Event in Week View
Month Calendar
The Month calendar also has several unique and helpful features.
Month view with fully editable Day detail
- The busier your day, the darker the shading. In this way, you can get a quick overview of your entire month.
- You can select any day in the calendar, and see a list summary of meetings in the Day Panel on the right side.
- If you tap on the Day Panel to expand it, you will see a time line. Tap anywhere on the time line to create a new Event.
- Likewise, select any day then flip your iPhone back to portrait and you will see that day in the Day Calendar. This is a useful navigational device.
Tasks View
Task View Basics
You can certainly use it as a basic Task list. But it does so, so much more…
- You can create new Tasks simply by entering them in the “Quick Add New Task” bar at the top of the view. You can add more detail to the task by tapping on the blue arrow-circle.
- Details that you may wish to add to a Task include: Duration, Start date, Due date, Repeating task feature, Calendar/Project color, Pop-up alerts, Notes, and Tags. Wow!
- You can prioritize by dragging tasks up and down the list with your fingertips.
- When you create a new Task, it is helpful to estimate roughly how long you think it will take. SmartCal provides you with three easy-tap buttons: 15 minutes, one hour, and three hours. The default is 30 minutes. Or you can specify other durations if you prefer. Just double-tap on a task to edit its detail.
Task Types
There are many different types of Tasks that you can create. It’s helpful to understand each one separately. One thing they all have in common is an estimated duration. If you do not estimate a duration when you create it, the default will be used.
Active Tasks
These have no specific Start or End; they can be done at any time. By default, the Start time of a Normal Task is the moment that you create it. That means, you can “start” doing it at any time.
Inactive Tasks
These are Tasks that have a Start date in the future. For example, if today is Monday and you want to mow the lawn at some point over the weekend, you do not really want to see that task in your list until Saturday. So you can assign it a Start of Saturday. Then, if you use the “Active Tasks” filter, you will not see that Task in your list until Saturday.
Tip: Tap on the “Active” filter to view only Active tasks. This will not show any of your inactive tasks.
Deadline Tasks
These are Tasks that must be completed by a certain date. When you assign a deadline to a Task, it does not change the priority but it does show a little badge with the number of days until the Task is due. You can also use filters to automatically view your tasks “by Due.” This will not only show just your Deadline Tasks, but it will sort them by due date. For more on this, see Filters.
Tip: As an organizational aid, Deadline tasks are always shown in Week and Month view on the date that they are due. In this example you can see “Mow the Lawn” – which is due on Sunday – in both week and month views.
Tip#2: Assign a pop-up Alert to a Deadline task, to remind you that you need to finish it! Alerts are based on number of days or hours before a Task is Due.
Repeating Tasks
This is a unique feature. You can have Tasks repeat. For example, you want to mow the lawn every weekend.
- You can assign your Task to repeat daily, or on specific days of the week, or monthly or yearly.
- You can assign it to repeat based on when it is due (for example, Mow the lawn by Sunday 5:00pm, every week)
- You can also assign it to repeat as soon as the previous one is completed.
GTDo Tasks
GTDo tasks don’t behave any differently than other tasks. They are simply tasks from your Projects list that SmartCal automatically places into the Task View. In each Project, the task at the top of the list is automatically placed into your list in Task View. This way, when you are looking at the list in Task View, you can focus on “What I have to do today.” For more on this, see the section on Project View . GTDo tasks have a cute little flag on the left side, like this:
Oops! I guess mowing the lawn is at the top of my “Personal” projects!
Tip: When you mark a GTDo task as “Done,” guess what happens? Right! The next highest task in that Project becomes the highest task. And so it becomes a GTDo task and automatically moves into the Task View. Shezzam! Now I get to “fix the photocopier.” Ugh.
The Day Manager
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The Day Manager is the slider bar at the top of the Task screen. At a glance, you can see your default working hours – it will display your start time and the normal end time.
You can change your work times by sliding either end of the slider to the left or right. This, in turn, shows you how many tasks you can complete today: The tasks that fit into the current working hours will be highlighted, whereas the ones that do not fit are faded.
Try sliding the Day Manger slider back and forth – you will see the highlighted and faded tasks change accordingly.
All tasks are highlighted:
Only the top two are highlighted:
The highlighted tasks also show up in the Calendar for the current day. This is the magic of SmartTime Calendar.
Completing a Task
When you mark a Task as “Done”, it will disappear from the Tasks View. However, you can find it in two places: In History View, and in Project View inside the Calendar/Project that it belongs to – where it will have a red line through it to show that it has been completed. You can mark a task “Undone” from either of these views, and it will pop back into your Task View. Now that is very cool.
Starring Tasks
Tap the star next to any task to illuminate it. By starring tasks you can select exactly which tasks you want to accomplish on any given day. This is a powerful tool. For example, at the end of your work day, you can “Star” the tasks that you want to focus on the next day. When the next day begins, tap on the “Star” filter to see only those tasks. Simple, quick, easy, efficient.
Filters
The one-tap filters are a great new feature. Its so easy, why do we even have it in this Guide? Task Filters work in concert with the Day Manager to make SmartCal the most flexible organizer on any platform because when you apply a filter, you see your tasks organized in a different way – not only in the Task view, but also in the Calendar for the current day. No other organizer does this.
- You can view tasks that you have Starred. This is the perfect organizational tool for those who want manual control.
- You can view only your GTDo tasks. This will show you, at a glance, the current active items at the top of each of your Project lists. Wow!
- You can view Tasks by Due. This not only shows all Deadline Tasks, but also automatically sorts them by due date.
- You can view Active Tasks. This shows you everything that is relevant, and nothing that you don’t need to see until later.
Now remind yourself, why did I even consider any other organizer?
Projects View
Project Basics
The Projects View is a place to store all of your Tasks under relevant headings. It’s just a top-level category to store everything. All Projects are the same but there are three ways you can use them. We suggest you pay special attention here because this illistrates just how flexible our Projects View is.
Structured Projects
You can build structures projects in which the underlying tasks follow a specific order. Just drag the tasks into the order that you wish them to be. Then keep them there. When you finish the top-most task, mark it done and move on to the next one.
Unstructured Projects
You can use Projects to simply house a list of Tasks that you need to do. For example, I have one Project called “Work” and another called “Personal.” I throw all my junk into either of these bins.
Recurring Lists
You can create shopping lists, packing lists, or any other kind of check-list. These are lists that you actually want to keep and use again and again. For this we have a handy feature that allows you to “Reset” all of the items that you mark “Done.”
- For example, you have a Project called “Grocery List.” It contains everything that you normally get when you go to the grocery store.
- While you are walking around the kitchen, if you notice that you’re about to run out of milk, go ahead and “Star” the item called “Milk.” Do the same for other items, as you do your kitchen stuff.
- Go to the store. Flip to your Grocery List. Filter it by Starred. Wow. There’s everything you need to buy. Done deal!
- As you pick up items and drop them into your basket, mark each one “Done.” It disappears from the list in Project View, and in Project Detail view it gets a line through it. Great. I like that.
- After you finish checking out, you want to reset the list back to the original. From Project Detail (see below), just tap on Settings then “Reset.” All the items jump back into view in Project View, and the crossed-out lines get removed from Project Detail.
- Don’t forget to select “UnStar All” as well, unless you think you’re going to run out of all of those before you go back to the store next time! 🙂
Recurring Lists: Reset, UnStar, done!
Projects = Calendars
Let’s keep things simple. A Project is the same as a Calendar. It’s just the top-level category for stuff. Calendars are generally for holding Events, and Projects are generally for holding Tasks (and lists). So each time you create a new Calendar under Settings -> Calendars -> New, you are creating a new Project as well. And each time you create a new Project in Project View, you are creating a new Calendar as well. This is handy because I can have both a Calendar and a Project called “Work”.
Tip: Once you create a new Project in Project View, you can go back and change the color and the name from Calendar View -> Settings -> Calendars. We like to keep that control in one place. Warning: If you delete a Project in Projects View, you will also delete the Calendar of the same name, and any Events that are associated with that Calendar. Don’t worry, we’ll give you a pop-up warning first time around. Another Warning: If you delete a Calendar from Settings -> Calendars, you will also delete the Project of the same name, and any Tasks that are associated with the Project. Are the connections beginning to make sense?All Tasks are in a Project
You can create new Tasks in two places: Tasks View, or in Project Detail View. Regardless of where you create a new Task, all Tasks are shown in the Project View. That’s because every Task belongs to a Project. If you don’t assign it to a Project, then it automatically get assigned to the default Project/Calendar, which is “Work.” You can change the default in Settings.
Not All Tasks are shown in Tasks View
This may seem confusing at first, but actually it’s the beauty of the GTDo System. Not all Tasks are shown in Task view, BECAUSE we realize that most of you don’t want to see everything in your Task view – unless you enjoy being inundated with information. So here is what Task ARE shown in Tasks View:
- All Tasks that you create in Tasks View.
- All GTDo Tasks from Projects View (remember, a GTDo task is the task that is at the top of each Project list. It has a cute little flag to remind you.)
- All Tasks created in Project Detail View that you MARK by tapping on the “Task View” icon (see next section).
Tip: You can “Hide” tasks from Tasks View at any time. In Tasks View, select the Edit button from the top, then select the Tasks that you wish to Edit, then choose “Hide” from the Edit Menu. Those tasks will then “disappear” from Tasks View but they will never, ever, disappear from your Projects View. Unless of course you Delete them. Or mark them as Done. Which you can Undo. From History View. But that’s review. You already know that.
Project Detail
Okay so here’s where you manage your Projects. You can create new Tasks from the Tasks View, which is basically stream of consciousness (“Yikes, I have to mow the lawn before it hides the house”) but from Project Detail view, you can focus in on creating and manipulating your Tasks specific to each Project.
- Quick Add in the top pane. Any new Task will automatically be associated with the current Project.
- Drag up and down to change the order.
- Tap the “Task View” icon on the left, to Show or Hide from Task View.
- Star/UnStar
- Double-tap any Task to view/edit its detail.
- Tap Edit to select multiple Tasks for editing: Mark Done, Delete, or Show (in Task View).
That’s it. Now you are organized.
History
Here you can view a history of completed Tasks, sorted by Date.
- Select any item to Delete it from History, or to mark it UnDone. The item will then re-appear in the appropriate Project.
Settings
This is where you change your default settings.
- Create special names and colors for your calendars and projects.
- Set the defaults for your Task durations, and default calendar name for new Tasks.
- Choose whether to show your Tasks in the Calendar. Some people may prefer to keep Tasks in the Task view only. Just switch it to “Off.”
- Choose whether to allow Tasks to be moved in your Calendar. This is a powerful tool because when it is set to “On” (the default), you can drag a Task to any specific time slot. For example, you are working on one task and you decide that you want to Mow the Lawn at exactly 4:00pm. You want to set aside time to Mow the Lawn at 4:00pm, and you do not want any other Tasks or Events to occur at that time. Simply drag the Task to the 4:00pm time slot on your calendar. Of course the effect of dragging a Task to a specific time slot is that it becomes an Event. And that’s fine. If you want to convert it back to a Task and do it some other time, just double-tap the Event to edit it, and switch it to “Task.” Easy!
- New! Choose where to place new Tasks – at the top of your list, or the bottom of your list.
- You can also control your Synchronization settings. See the next section.
Synchronizing Events with iPhone Calendar
Synchronization is extremely easy in SmartCal GTD. There is no need to go to the internet; you can sync your Calendars directly to the iPhone Calendar. This means that if you sync your iPhone Calendar to Exchange, or iCal, or Mobile Me, or Outlook, that information can be read immediately and seamlessly by SmartCal.
How it Works
Go to Settings -> Event Sync and flip the switch to “On.” Your’re done.
SmartCal automatically maps, and syncs, to all calendars in your iPhone Calendar that have exactly the same name as your calendars in SmartCal. That’s it. Just tap “Sync Events” from the Menu in your Calendar View.
Tips
- Before you start, either create calendars in your iPhone Calendar to match the names of the ones you have in SmartCal, or create calendars in SmartCal to match the names of the ones you have in your iPhone Calendar. Or both.
- Unfortunately, you cannot actually create new calendars directly in the iPhone calendar (at least as of the time of this writing). You have to do that with either iCal on your Mac, or Exchange. Here is a link to a blog that explains how to do it using Google Calendar and Exchange.
Synchronizing Tasks with Toodledo
Now with SmartCal GTD 2.0, you can synchronize your tasks with Toodledo, the free web-based task list. Because SmartPad also syncs tasks with Toodledo, you can use Toodledo as a conduit to share tasks between SmartCal on your iPhone, and SmartPad on your iPad. Read this article to see how.
How it Works
Two steps to set up.
- Go to Settings -> Toodledo Sync and flip the switch to “On.” You’re almost done.
- Tap the “>” button and key in your Toodledo Account information. Press the “Check validity” button to make sure you entered the information correctly.
Hint: If you don’t have an account with Toodledo yet, Just follow this link. Don’t worry, it’s free. http://www.toodledo.com/signup.php
SmartCal automatically maps, and syncs, to all Folders in Toodledo that have exactly the same name as your Projects in SmartCal. That’s it. Just tap “Sync Tasks” from the Menu in your Tasks View.
Tips
- Before you start, either create Folders in Toodledo to match the names of the Projects in SmartCal that you wish to sync to, or create Projects in SmartCal to match the names of the Folders you already have Toodledo. Or both.
- Remember, Projects and Calendars are the same in SmartCal. So it helps to have the same names for (a) your iPhone Calendars, (b) your SmartCal Calendars/Projects, and (c) your Toodledo Projects – at least, the ones that you want to sync to.
Troubleshooting
If one of your Projects does not sync to a Folder in Toodledo, check the spelling of the names. Then try changing the name of both the Project and the Folder. Sync again. That should do it. You can then change the names back to the original names.
