Now You Can Access Google Tasks In Mail, Calendar and Mobile Applications

Finally, Tasks are part of the Google calendaring application. The Task feature has been available for a while now, but it wasn’t available as part of the calendaring system, where I believe most people want and need to use a task management system.

As is typical with Google, it’s not a flashy part of the calendaring system. Looking at the image below, you can almost miss it if you weren’t paying attention.



Just like adding a calendar event, when you click on a time line or day box, a bubble window pops up, giving you the ability to add an event or a task. Once you have entered the text for your tasks, you will immediately see the task show up on the day you want the task due. You will also see in the Task pane on the right of the calendar, you can see it in a pane on the right of GMail, and as you can see from my iPhone I was able to see the task immediately.







So as it stands today, Google has basically made tasks available across all the application you would expect to see it, GCal, GMail and in mobile applications.

One feature I hope they implement soon are multiple task buckets. You can create tasks on the iPhone in a sort of bucket, but all calendar and mail task entries end up in the default task list. That isn’t a big deal, but I have tasks separated into groups (like things I do every Monday as an example).

There are several actions available when you have the task list pane open. You can edit, indent, sort, and several more. You will find the actions at the bottom of the task list.

This is a great step for this feature. I use tasks all the time, now I can see them across all my Google apps.

[Update: 05/14/09]I wanted to make a small change to this post. It appears that you can move a task to another list once you have created it. There is a small drop down at the bottom of the bubble form when you are editing a task that lets you move it to a new list. Didn't see that before. That drop down list should also be on the new entry form. Hello Google?

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Google Finally Puts Tasks On The iPhone

I noticed you can now get your Google Tasks on the iPhone with a very pleasing user interface. Even though its web based, it has pretty much everything you could possibly want from a simple and easy to use task management system.

The simplicity of this product is amazing. You can create and manage separate tasks lists, and create or remove tasks from the iPhone.

Couple of drawback I can see right off the bat:

• Can't move a task from one list to another


• Can't set a default list to show


• Tasks aren't ranked


• Can't see a list of all active tasks, if you have more than one list

But for basic task management, this is a good first stab. I know Google will release more features as it carefully tracks usage.

Here are a few screen shot from my iPhone

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Gmail Adds Tasks But Still Has A Ways To Go

Google Labs introduced Tasks as an add-on to their Gmail product yesterday. I've spent the past week looking for a good task manager, specifically one that works on the iPhone, and on the Web. So it was a timely surprise to see they added this feature.

The official Gmail blog gives some instruction on how to turn tasks on, and where you can find the task list. I'm not sure I like the list opening up in the same location as the Chat. That's part of the reason I don't use the Gmail web based chat tool. It's clunky.

However, the coolest part of tasks is I can select one or more email, and under the More Actions drop down, choose to create a task. Even Outlook doesn't support this nativley.

Here are a couple of other features of note:

• You can pop out the task window and move it around on your desktop. This should eliminate neededing to keep the Gmail screen focused in your browser.


• You can create different lists. A tasks list wouldn'e be complete without the ability to group items.


• Creating sub tasks is easy with an indent feature.


• The ability to add a due date and add notes. This is very cool. If you want to keep a running tab of things as you progress towards completion, the notes section is just the place.

I think I'll spend some to create a simple Getting Things Done (GTD) workflow using Gmail Tasks. Shouldn't be too difficult with the ability to create seperate task lists.

The biggest draw back, and maybe the deal killer for a lot of people, is that tasks are not support on the mobile platform yet. That is a real disappointment for me. Remember The Milk and many others have web/mobile combinations, and you would think Google would have made that combination a priority.

I suspect a mobile version will quickly follow once the features catches on. Makes no sense to use tasks if you spend most of your time on a mobile device.

One more feature I would like to see added are notification of uncompleted tasks sent with the daily events list.

[update]

Thanks to a great question from @utahcon, he brought up the fact it was difficult at first to find the Tasks link. So here is a picture of where you can find the link. Also, don't forget, use the keyboard short cut Shift-T when you have items selected to create a new task.

[image title="Taks Link In Gmail" size="medium" id="991" align="none" linkto="full" ]

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