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Taco — All your tasks. One screen.
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Hm. @troyd: Any suggestions if one of my todo lists already uses the new tab screen? :)
https://chrome.google.com/websto...
@staringispolite Good question. If you prefer a blank or different new tab page, Taco works very well as a:
* Bookmark. Add tacoapp.com to your bookmarks bar.
* Web app. Browse to tacoapp.com from your PC, phone, or tablet.
* Desktop app. Use Fluid or Prism (http://help.tacoapp.com/how-it-w...)
You may want to have Taco send you a daily punchlist email as well: https://tacoapp.com/connectors.
I think Taco's Chrome extension will get an optional button in Chrome's URL bar, so eventually you'll be able to choose which way(s) you prefer to use it. For now, a bookmark works pretty well.
I've definitely had this problem. Work tasks are in one system and personal in another. I usually end up putting all my tasks in one system (Omnifocus) and then putting dummy tasks in the work system so the team can track what I'm doing. It's not a great solution. Great to see you tackling it and a fantastic list of programs that you're integrating so far.
@eric3000 I've also seen folks (me included..) resort to creating artificial deadlines for tasks that don't have real deadlines. This works about as well as you'd guess, which is to say, it doesn't. When there's only one of you, it's productivity theater. The value is not in having 75 "prioritized" tasks, it's in choosing which of those truly deserves my attention right now.
With an across-the-board view that's quick to use, "prioritizing" is pretty simple: there's one of you, so choose what thing you're going to do now (OK, maybe there's 2 or 3). Do it for a while. Repeat.
Taco does its best to facilitate this and stay out of the way.
@AdrianGrant Because mobile Web apps are so flexible, we started there, and I think we'll be able to do everything with a mobile-optimized Web app. Hit tacoapp.com from your phone or tablet and it should just work, no app install needed.
A few parts of completing tasks still need TLC, but it works great for planning your morning from a cafe or, uh, bar stool. Here's a few slightly outdated screenshots: http://blog.tacoapp.com/post/823...
@muldster in a word, no :) Here's the longer version. There's 3 reasons why:
1. Taco would be the 2,500th general-purpose way to track tasks, and if no existing solution meets your needs, the odds are slim that our 2501st version is going to.
2. Really lightweight entry systems already exist, like Google Tasks, sending yourself and/or starring an email, TaskPaper, Todoist, and plain text files. The problem of very quickly entering a task can be solved without Taco. (Taco also has keyboard shortcuts to open a connected service in a new tab.)
3. The expanded scope would be distracting. We can make an awesome way to get more of your existing tasks done, but not if we also try to be a general-purpose task manager.
Hope this context helps.
@troyd — Thanks, I figured that was the rationale. Really just wanted to make sure I wasn't losing my mind :-)
The concept is strong, but I find the default themes really annoying. I see I can use a custom block colour - will go with that.
Interested to see how this develops though.
@jamesepember thanks for trying Taco, James, and for caring enough to help us improve. Back story on themes is that we added a set that we liked, then removed the worst half (based on living with them ourselves for weeks and which ones users preferred).
That doesn't mean they're perfect or set in stone, though, so if you see one that seems awkward, or have an idea, please send it my way.
@troyd So, my opinion is less is more, and would help drive focus towards completing task. Quite happy so far (just a few hours) - will come back with feedback after a few days.
@jamesepember I share that opinion. If you haven't tried it yet, hide the "For Later" sidebar (by clicking the show/hide bar at the left edge of the screen).
That's how I recommend most folks use Taco, how I do most of the time, and how the site tries to guide people towards (choose -> do -> repeat). Taco remembers that setting in the Chrome extension and on the site.
@mzuvella the neatest device I could think of was a taco foundry[1]: push a button, get a taco. It started life as Taco Foundry, so we started calling it Taco for short. Simpler and shorter wins, so it became Taco.
[1]: That's probably a "yes" to "Mexican food obsession?" :-) Bonus: there's a debit card in my wallet which says Taco Foundry.
@mzuvella Taco makes perfect sense as a name to me. You can throw almost anything inside a tortilla, roll it up, and call it a taco. That's a good analogy for getting a bunch of disparate networks and rolling them up into your "taco". Doesn't hurt that the name's short, easy to spell, and memorable.
@mzuvella Even better: I got to use it once to purchase memelitas in Oaxaca (on this trip: https://twitter.com/troyd/status...). They're an ordinary and necessary business expense.
Hunter
Dear @troyd :-))
Just a couple of questions/comments because I'm too brain dead to scour through the taco help files ...
1) When flagged emails come through should they go away if I unstar them and hit refresh inside taco? I ask because that doesn't seem to be happening and I have a gazillion tasks that I'm trying to put that list on a strict diet :-)
2) Is there a total that tells us how many we've got on there or is that a bad idea? it probably is .... counter-productive :-)
3) Re the theme I find the colour I've chosen to accommodate the white font hard on my eyes and the typeface is too tiny for me unless I zoom in on chrome.... then it's ok.
4) I think the fact that we can search across all our task apps for keywords is gobsmacking amazing.... I'm stunned at how many related tasks I have in different spots.
5)Can we please have a tiny favicon taco and the word taco in the new tab extension?
6) I sent a bug thing about the next up list coming at 5pm my time (I'm in Australia) so I'm sure you put it on one of your lists....
7) I'm trying to get my head around using ifttt for any of this but at the moment I'm happy just trying to get to ground zero with what we've got.
cheers, Helen
ps I shall go to sleep again dreaming of this app - thanks!!
@helencrozier These are wonderful comments, Helen. So that I don't make this forum thread very noisy while we discuss these, I'm going to email you privately with long thoughts. Please expect another email in the next 48 hours (and thanks!).
Hunter
Signed up this afternoon. All my starred google emails, evernotes with to do's, todoist tasks, trello cards miraculously appear on one screen. Chrome extension puts summary in new tab. Has loads of integrations. Looks useful!
Stumbled upon a problem: Couldn't integrate a single Github Repository, resulting in hundreds of Issues on my task screen. Having a filter for that would be extremely useful. Nonetheless great app :)
@felix_hau thanks for using Taco, Felix. Taco can do this. For GitHub, filters can use repo name, repo owner (an easy way to say "all work-related repos"), and issue labels.
These can also be mixed and matched, like to only retrieve your tasks with the "UI" label from your work repos, plus all of your tasks from your personal repos.
The filter-worthy attributes are specific to the connector, so Basecamp has project name and Zendesk has ticket status, among others.
If I can help craft a filter (or Taco doesn't find your ideal tasks for any reason), please email me at support@ or via the app.
@troyd are you looking for funding? what's the business potential for all the investors here?
@eriktorenberg We're not specifically looking for funding, but we are out to solve a big problem. We created Taco to help others who wear multiple hats stay "in the zone" all day. The zone – peaceful, productive, challenging, rewarding work – is actually called flow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flo...
We've all had days that feel basically effortless and it's an incredible feeling. Taco was productized because it did that for me personally and I saw the results and felt the change. My goal, and Taco's purpose, is to help flow become the norm, not the exception.
Delivering peaceful productivity to that many people isn't a simple undertaking, so if someone reading this feels the pain too, I'd enjoy chatting, whatever your interest.
(How is a much longer discussion. The gist: give me the visibility to confidently focus on one task; let me move from one specific task to another so I'm never generically "working"; help me break down or eliminate challenging tasks.)
started using this, fantastic chrome plugin! Also like how it pulls names of Github repos directly when giving examples of how to use filters. Very smart idea to make the UX feel more personalized.
@mrvladnov Thanks! We just added better Asana filters (like: today OR upcoming) and Sprintly filters (like: (in-progress OR accepted) "My Big Project").
The example filters now consistently use quotes, too. They only quoted the examples which required quotes, and I think that was more confusing than helpful.
Up next, mostly based on where folks ran into problems:
* Optional bigger fonts
* Smarter Trello support. In addition to Trello cards you're added to, Taco should be able to treat all cards in certain boards & lists to be your tasks (like for personal boards).
* Automatically retrieve changes more often. While Taco can't and doesn't need to be realtime, it can and should be current - like an hour or less while you're working. Right now, Taco updates daily, when you click "Sync," and when you have the site open for a while.
* ToodleDo and Freshdesk
Love the concept but ran into some bugs while adding some connectors. UserVoice for instance has a malformed URL which seems to be causing some problems. Going to try others to see if I run into similar issues, but otherwise really looking forward to using it!
@epicsaurus Thanks, Joe (and sorry for the problem!). We're fixing UserVoice now[1]. Please try again on Monday or Tuesday.
I'd personally appreciate any feedback or wishes about this or anything else. I reply personally to every email sent in the app or to support@.
[1]: The cause was a bug in how UserVoice generates OAuth URLs, which we'll be reporting to UserVoice.
@troyd you got it. I'll try again tomorrow. Awesome idea having it open on blank pages. It's impossible for me to forget about it!
@epicsaurus Resolved and verified as of a minute ago, Joe. https://twitter.com/tacoapp/stat... has a bit more.
Very interesting system. And of course our primary project management system isn't part of it (solve360). Might try and play with it anyway. But excellent idea since everyone is using many different systems for different needs and have to check them individually.
Props. Props. Props. I have a softspot for powering cross application search, prioritization and organization (see our work at Simplist www.producthunt.com/posts/simplist). LOVE the promise here. Just getting started but I hope AnyDo becomes another data source/connector. You may have just leveled up my productivity to scary levels and +1 to Helen's comment on realizing how much overlap there is in my notes/tasks.
@ronjdub Great timing. I just emailed AnyDo's CTO today to try to make this happen.
Cascadeur