Logic from the Left Coast

Hi

I've been having issues with what I term "soft tasks" that is no specific due date. In order to delay these tasks, and removbe them from my today list, I have been reassigning the start date eg to next week/tomorrow, while I work on more pressing tasks. The trouble with that is the "This will cause some existing tasks to pass their deadlines. Change those deadlines automatically?"

While I have keenly selected the YES button in the past I no longer do this. Unfortunately, I did miss a "hard" deadline!

I am puzzled why I am being asked to push other "hard tasks" with deadlines backwards when it is this "soft" / "no deadline" task that is being forced forwards. Your thoughts?

This is a very good point. I have also had issues with this. The ST logic definitely needs an update here.

Hi,
You are using ST exactly the way that I do!  We are aware of the logic issue and will work on that.
I also want to let you know that we are working on a separate List View that will allow you to have a 100% manually sorted list of tasks, but still see how  many you can complete today.  Yes, another unique feature.  This will be introduced initially as a $0.99 app called SmartList but it will be integrated into SmartTime shortly thereafter, replacing (or updating) the Focus view.

I had 2 "hard tasks" with a Friday deadline. This evening I had 4 tasks. My plans changed and I entered an event for most of the evening. One task was left for this evening, which is ok... however ST moved my Friday "hard tasks" to Saturday and added the "soft tasks" for Friday. Had I not been aware of the issue I would have paid a domain name to late and missed another important task. I'm trying to get around this by setting really important "hard tasks" as events, so that they don't get bumped. This sort of defies the idea of ST since I often would have time to fix the tasks earlier... but I can't risk having them float around so that I don't miss them.

That's the best solution, to use Events for hard deadlines.

I'm having the same problem running ST 4.0.2; presumably the bug hasn't been fixed yet?

Surely any new task that has no due date should never change the deadlines of other tasks as the new task could always be done after the deadlined tasks.

Hi 30Hour,
Thanks for your note. Could you give us an example or attach a few screen shots?  New tasks that do not have due dates should not affect the logic.
Thanks!

I will do, yes.  When it happens again.  Unfortunately I haven't figured out yet in what circumstances the problem happens so can't generate it at will.

I suspect the data might be corrupted in some way because it's also doing other odd things like:

- Giving me the 13th to 20th September as days off (no tasks scheduled!)
- Tasks set for 21st & 22nd September but then 23rd to 30th September is 'free' again)
- Tasks set for 1st October.

....and there are quite a lot of non-deadline-driven tasks which could have been placed in those gaps.

Is there any way to 'reset' the progam / data (i.e. as if all the date had all been deleted and re-entered) to see if that solves the problem?

You can sync your data to GCal, then delete your app, re-install it, then perform a one-way sync from GCal back to SmartTime to get your data back in.  Try that.

Here's the screen dumps as promised:

This was the job I tested (with no deadline):


..and this is what happened when I tried to save it.

It's happened again!

This is so frustrating; I'm having to note some tasks on bits of paper because ST won't allow me to record them!

Is there any way this can be fixed or a work-around found?

Hi 30,

This does sometimes happen - I can't really figure out when and where. The logic is written so that tasks without deadlines "flow" around those with deadlines.  Because we wrote the logic that way, we're having a hard time debugging where the issue occurs, especially when it is difficult to repeat.

SmartCal has a different logic: you have complete control over the sort-order of your task list. Once you determine the order, SmartCal drops your tasks - the ones that fit - into the current day only.  It also goes one step further by automatically splitting larger tasks into smaller time slots. You can also use the slider bar to change your working hours on the fly. This, of course, affects how many tasks fit into your day. It's very interactive.  Those features - (1) manual task ordering, (2) auto task splitting, and (3) the day slider - make SmartCal very different from SmartTime.  SmartCal also has repeating tasks (something that was easier for us to implement because of the different logic) and it syncs directly with the iPhone Calendar.

I don't mean to sound.. mean but.. Are you saying because you can't work out how to fix the bug, we should buy a new app? Seems you like making new apps more than fixing current apps... Hmmmf   

Hi 30,
We are working to solve that bug. It happens very rarely and is almost impossible to replicate in a test environment.  I personally use SmarTime every day and I rarely come across the issue. But I have come across it. SmartCal is a different application from SmartTime.  We developed it in direct response to our users requesting that we add a calendar component to SmarList. Because it also uses calendars, it might be an alternative for you.

I only just saw your answer to this! Thank you for spending the time to answer, sorry I haven't replied sooner.

With regard to the bug, it happens all the time to me, I can reproduce it very oftern... I don't see why you can't see this problem / simulate it...
and,.. many other errors happen: e.g. From SmartView--- create new task - type "test" then press save, defer Next week,.. open task set due date to "tomorrow" - "Your deadline will not fit. Too busy? Change deadline?...." but there isn't ANYTHING set in my calendar for tomorrow!!!

another scenario... From SmartView: Create new task.. I cant drag the task with my finger to any date in future (or past.. huh!?)

and...


I did try Smartcal (I am very happy I was able to do so for <$2.. thank you) - but I find that (as has been mentioned previously) there are crashes and no syncing of tasks  (or atleast it was the case when I tried it last)  -- for me to have a 'trusted' system, I can't afford to lose data as I have been finding with Smarttime or not be able to sync tasks reliably / at all (with SmartCal)

I absolutely *do* see how these apps could/will become my trusted system(s) when the bugs and features are straightened out, but right now your apps are being pushed to the sideline... with the speed of life how can I afford to trust my data to apps that continue to treat my information this way?

So, how can I help you to fix these bugs? I am happy to use test data with whatever scenarios are required.

Thanks again for your help and working to make these apps the best they can be.