Ever since Google nixed the Calendar reminders for Keep and Assistant, I’ve been a bit salty, but I’m quickly coming around to the idea of a combined task and reminder system with Google Tasks. Setting a deadline for a task is pretty much the same exact thing, after all. That being said, I’m still not entirely happy with how the service works, especially since I began seriously using Workspace as a journal. For example, you can’t set a geofenced location for each task, which would be extremely useful.
The ability to segment todo items out to separate lists is really useful directly in the Tasks app, but if I want that much organization…and I do, it would be nice to see all of my tasks for the day in one place. I feel like there should be a ‘Today’ view or perhaps a simple notification bell showing which tasks have fired off and when, regardless of which list they’re stuffed in.
Sure, it’s nice to be able to see all of my Tasks on Google Calendar, especially as any new and overdue ones appear at the top of the current day, and I could resort to starring any tasks across the Task app’s individual lists so they appear in the starred tab, but that’s a lot of manual work for something Google should have thought of itself.
You see, I’ve created a Google Chat Space for each of my goals in life, and within each of those, I have tasks. If they are assigned to myself and dated, they appear in my personal Google Tasks account or on the sidebar in Gmail where I can then place them in individual lists. Separating it all this way allows me greater planning and focus as opposed to just dumping it all in the default list in one big jumble.
Whether or not you agree with that much compartmentalization, it works wonders for me, and I’m sure I’m not alone. With that in mind, it just strikes me as odd that Google Tasks does not have a ‘Today’ view as previously mentioned since its competitors like Microsoft Todo and Todoist both do.
At one point I actually considered switching entirely away from Tasks to Microsoft’s solution simply because of the ‘Today’ page, but was quickly brought back to my senses when I realized I’d be in an entirely different ecosystem with no cross-compatibility with the other apps.
Anyway, this is just my micro rant about a seemingly insignificant, yet very important part of the user experience puzzle. As I think more about how I can use Google Workspace as a full system instead of each app as a one off in order to maximize my productivity, Google’s decision to omit certain things in light of what the rest of the industry is doing just annoys me once again. The service works great with the accompanying apps like Calendar, but shouldn’t it also be feature complete by itself?
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