Integrating SmartPlans with SmartPad (iPad) and SmartCal (iPhone)

Many people have tried to integrate project planning with integrated organizers – that is, combining the “forest”‘ with the “trees.”  We’ve achieved it with SmartPlans 3.0.  Here’s how you can integrate the Multi-Planning capabilities of SmartPlans with the “Smart” calendars of SmartPad (iPad) and SmartCal (iPhone).

Note: If you don’t have either of these all-in-one organizers, you should check them out. SmartPad (for iPad) and SmartCal (for iPhone) automatically schedule time for your tasks into the open spaces between your appointments in your calendar. The logic is “persistant”, meaning if you don’t mark a task as “done”, it will continue to show up in your calendar until you do it!

SmartPlans 3.0 can export all of your Project detail to your iPhone or iPad calendar.  Because both SmartPad and SmartCal automatically sync with their respective device Calendars, you can view your SmartPlans Projects, Milestones and Tasks right inside SmartPad and SmartCal.

What does this mean?

Because SmartPad and SmartCal automatically look at the free time in your calendar to schedule in your tasks, and because SmartPlans converts tasks into calendar appointments, SmartPad and SmartCal are “aware” of your SmartPlans tasks and will schedule tasks from your task lists AROUND them.

What’s the difference between SmartPlans and SmartPad/SmartCal?

When SmartPlans exports to your device Calendar, it schedules your tasks onto specific days based upon the long-term requirements of each of your Projects.  SmartPad and SmartCal schedule your tasks into the free time based upon the priority order and filters that you determine from your task lists.

Now, for the first time ever in any app, you can see all three types of schedule items integrated into one app:  Calendar Appointments, Project Milestones & Tasks (which must be done on specific days) and Tasks from your List (which can be done any time, based upon the priorities that you assign.)

Best Practices

SmartPlans can sync its tasks with Toodledo, and with your device Calendar. To avoid duplication, we suggest you only sync with one.  Here is the difference between the two:

Sync SmartPlans tasks with Toodledo

If you sync SmartPlans tasks to Toodledo, those tasks can then be sync’d into SmartPad and Smart Cal as general tasks.  SmartPad and SmartCal will then use their logic to schedule time for these SmartPad tasks, together with all other tasks in SmartPad/SmartCal, based upon the overall priority order and filters that you apply in SmartPad/SmartCal.

Tradeoff: you will no longer be aware when your SmartPad tasks are due, and they may not be scheduled into the specific days that they need to be done – because they are integrated with all of your other tasks.

Export SmartPlans tasks with your device Calendar

As we mentioned above, exporting SmartPlans tasks to your device calendar places them into specific days based upon the start and end dates of your Project plans.

Tradeoff: SmartPlans tasks are automatically placed into your iOS calendar on specific days and at the default times that you specify for each Project.  These times may or may not conflict with other appointments that you create in your device calendars. 

An alternative

You may want to consider syncing SmartPlans tasks with Toodledo, but syncing the Milestones with the All Day Events pane of your iOS calendar. That way, you can stil ‘be aware’ of the larger picture while giving the underlying tasks more flexibility.

For more information on synchronizing, see the detailed SmartPad User Guide with Video, here.