Need Ideas for the Planner

[Kelly Gabel]

Ok, so I'm brand new in the beta and I'm excited about the possibilities, but I'm struggling to find a use case for myself for the Planner.

I'd love to hear how some others are using it.

I also expected that my cards with dates on them would appear on the Planner (putting them in context with the rest of my life), but that doesn't seem to be the case, at least not by default.

Am I missing something?

[Alexandros Mathopoulos · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kelly Gabel ! Welcome to the beta!

Really good question. So when it comes to Planner and cards, we think of a date attached to a card as two different things. There is the Planner timeslot which is when you plan on working on a particular task (could be multiple times in a week, etc) and then due date which is when a card is due. 

Right now Planner only supports that latter .You can assign when you plan on working on a particular task by dragging that card into a particular time slot in Planner. Or you can click to create a general focus time first and then drag cards into it. 

In the future we are for sure exploring also representing cards with due dates automatically in Planner. We are thinking something like, if card is assigned to you and has a due date then show it as an all day event in your planner to indicate when it is due.

How does that resonate with you? Would love any ideas you have that would make this valuable in your workflow. 

[Kelly Gabel]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos  Ok, that makes sense. I think I was thrown by a few things.

1. that I couldn't drag cards to the Planner without syncing a calendar first

2. I currently have multiple calendars, Google for personal and Microsoft for my business appointments (I'm working to share my Microsoft calendar over to Google to help resolve that aspect)

3. That the cards didn't automatically appear, but I do understand what you are clarifying and I can see the logic in it.

I'm not sure I love the idea of something being added automatically as an all day event just because it's assigned to me and due that day. I feel like that might make the planner look really cluttered and lead to overwhelm.

Now that I'm getting a better understanding of the intended use case here, I think I like the current set up...with, perhaps, a button or check box that is added to cards (or maybe with in the due date reminder menu) that gives an option of sending it to the Planner?

[Kelly Gabel]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos  oo, one quick little UX/UI suggestion I have is the ability to adjust the size of the Planner. I don't necessarily need to see 3 whole days at a time and it would be great to click in the divide between the Planner and the Board and give the Board more real estate.

[Cordi Powell]

@Alexandros MathopoulosI love using the Planner! As part of my end-of-day routine, I schedule my Focus Time and add relevant cards to that time slot for the next business day.  This helps me with a new habit to overcome Parkinson's Law! 

I agree with @Kelly Gabel that automatically adding cards based on due would clutter the Planner.

[Kelly Gabel]

@Cordi Powell  Crazy that you mentioned Parkinson's Law!

I literally JUST released a podcast episode about it this week! 

[Cordi Powell]

@Kelly Gabel Great minds think alike!  Headed over to listen to your podcast!

[Kelly Gabel]

@Cordi Powell ❤️

For easy access: https://youtu.be/X_tPa1DhKkY

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

@Kelly Gabel @Cordi Powell awesome, really glad yall are enjoying Planner!

@Kelly Gabel really great feedback on the size of Planner. In the next few weeks we are going to be releasing the ability to adjust the width of all the panels (Inbox, Planner, & Board) and the ability to select the # of days shown in Planner. 

Follow up question for both of you - is there any cases where you would like to see cards with due dates in Planner to know when they are due (vs when they are being worked on)? If so - which cards with due dates would you want to appear in Planner? 

[Kelly Gabel]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos  That's awesome! I'm excited for the ability to adjust the size of all three panels!

Yes, I would love to be able to see cards in the Planner based on it's due date. Might also be cool to be able to see it based on Start Date as well, a bit of a gantt view. I could definitely see a use case where I wouldn't want that, though, so perhaps that would be a setting that could be disabled on a board by board basis (or even a card by card basis)?

[Kelly Gabel]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos  Another thought that I just had as I was planning my day is that I would LOVE to be able to pull a specific checklist item over into my Focus Time. Many of my cards represent multiple steps to my process and it would be great to be able to be more specific as far as what task I have planned in each Focus time.

[Cordi Powell]

@Alexandros Mathopoulos For clarification with seeing the cards in the planner based on when they are due vs when they are being worked on, would cards with due dates be automagically added to the planner if a due date is set on the card or would I select which cards to add to the planner?  That feature would prevent due dates from slipping through the cracks.  However, it could also clutter the planning space.  Maybe an alert with the number of upcoming due dates at the top based on a preselected number of days is an option to prevent Planner clutter.

 @Kelly Gabel I agree pulling in the checklist would be helpful to prevent having to reopen the original card.  Maybe have a dropdown selector for the checklist you want to include on the card in the planner.

[Kelly Gabel]

ooo @Cordi Powell I like the idea of the alert at the top of upcoming due dates! Would be great to have that and for it to be customizable based on when something is due, for example, only appear in the alert if due this week, etc.

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

Love the ideas, thank you!