[danielovichdk]

Every time someone wants to sell me a calendar, another todo list or an optimizer for my time, I will try to tell them, that software is not going to help me.

Spending and planning your time is a mental proces that has very little to do with typing things into a calendar.

A calendar is a great tool for organizing your appointments and a reminder to go to a certain meeting.

But as soon as you try to couple it with being something else, you are not really trying ro solve the real challenge.

If you too much shit to do, a calendar wont fix that. If your meeting are fucked because people are badly prepared, a calendar wont fix that. If you have to many appointments with your parents in law, your calendar wont fix that.

A calendar is a tool that should be fixed. Don't start to fuck around making it something else.

I have seen people use their calendar as project tools for assignments. FFS - use a tool that is actually made for that.

And so on...

[dukeofdoom]

As a developer of a calendar app, that I never myself use...

A month is too long of a span. I think optimizing the next week, or next 3 days, is much more concrete and beneficial. Its long enough to shuffle things around, and short enough to make realistic goals and to do lists.

[Lightbody]

> Every time someone wants to sell me a calendar, another todo list or an optimizer for my time, I will try to tell them, that software is not going to help me.

No doubt about that :)

> Spending and planning your time is a mental proces that has very little to do with typing things into a calendar....

I disagree with this statement and all that follows. I'm of course, biased, as a founder of a calendar-related startup. I have no vision of trying to convince you otherwise

But for other folks reading this and nodding their head I'd ask them to consider what you're saying: "spending and planning your time is a mental process". Hmm... I suppose you're trying to point out that people have to choose how they spend their time, and you are totally correct. A tool can't automatically make you a better version of yourself.

But also ask yourself, without looking at your calendar, how many meetings are have you currently committed yourself to for the next three weeks, how many commitments to your family, and how much free time do you have leftover? Is that more or less than the commitments that you made to your colleagues (eg: write that strategy doc), to your family members (eg: build that shed), and to yourself (eg: exercise)?

The reality is very few people can do that without consulting their notes, calendars, email, todo lists, project management tools, etc. So it's reasonable that people might also want visual aids to figure out where their time is going and help them be more strategic with their time, pulling disparate sources together and presenting them alongside the place where things tend to me the most fixed: meetings.

Very few tools are for everyone, and calendar blocking clearly doesn't align with your mental model. But I think your tone and language is misplaced and doesn't empathize with the millions of people in the world who benefit from calendar-style time blocking aids.

I wish you all the luck finding a process that does work for you.

[rickpastoor]

I love what you're doing with reclaim!

[benkoller]

> If you too much shit to do, a calendar wont fix that. If your meeting are fucked because people are badly prepared, a calendar wont fix that. If you have to many appointments with your parents in law, your calendar wont fix that.

Couldn't agree more. People > Process, both ways around.

[tmpz22]

It's a lot like a new diet. Ya it might help a few people concretely but for the most part its going to be a lot of people posting about how this great new diet is going to change their life but its ultimately ineffective and used as a signaling tool briefly before becoming a scapegoat.

That said I think a lot of Google Calendar based tooling needs improvement so good on them for trying and I hope they move the meter in a positive direction.

[rickpastoor]

Thanks for sharing. For tons of people using your calendar to actually schedule work is a new concept (probably not for you and most people here). In my experience it can be very powerful to map out your work and see that you're fully booked and need to start making different decisions.

Looking forward to bring something delightful and with a fresh perspective to guide that process.

[arkitaip]

Be careful what you wish for; before you know it, someone is instead selling you an entire framework for work and that is infinitely worse than any single office productivity app.

[bramjetten]

To be fair, OP is an author of a best-selling book on this subject. I feel this new app is an extension of that like Things was based on GTD.