Add ideal slots for focus time and auto assign work
Ricardo Clerigo
Some users have requested the ability to add ideal slots for focus time and have calendar auto assign work to those slots
- eg I want to say "ideally, I would do 9-12 on this topic, 12-3 on this topic, 3-6 on this topic," etc, then be able to schedule items inside that overlay (but not be locked in to it if I don't want)
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Guy Mannerings
This would be an
extremely
useful feature.BENEFIT
Dedicating particular time slots/a set amount of time for a TOPIC of Tasks (which you will then drop actual tasks in to) means you know you are dedicating time to an area of work, or means you are dedicating an appropriate amount of time to an area of work compared to other areas. This means you can appropriately prioritise certain areas/topics you want to work on.
Also helps for "deep work" on a particular topic, which is much more productive than jumping between topics.
As opposed to dropping in Tasks from any particular area of work at any random time (unfocused, can be imbalanced, easy to not prioritise areas, and scientifically shown to be less productive than staying on one area of work for a chunk of time).
BACKGROUND
Think of this as a basic timetable or topic-based timing for a calendar.
How I see it is I would like to be able to create an ideal timetable of times I do certain work under certain categories.
These slots could be goal-focused/area of work focused/type of work focused/location focused, etc. It would depend on each person.
E.g.,:-
MONDAY
9-12 - Topic 1
12-1 - Topic 2
1-3 - Topic 3
etc
TUESDAY
9-10 - Topic 2
10-4 - Topic A
4-7 - Topic 1
Etc
These topics could relate to various ways you have set up ClickUp: it might be a List, a Space, a Folder, a Task, a Custom Field.
You would then have Tasks and Subtasks related to these topics that you then schedule on to the calendar to fit in these ideal time slots.
WHY
Timetables gives consistency. They are really useful for people who want to make sure they are covering certian topics/areas of management, and also applying the balance of time needed between those areas of management.
They also help with the problem that is "multi-tasking" - the problem of jumping from thing to thing. This topic-based timetable allows for deep work on certain TOPICS, which Tasks are then added to.
They also help people with things like ADHD, as they can help you focus a lot more easily.
Simply dropping tasks from any area to any part of a calendar at any time is not as focused as dropping them in a topic-based times.
Continued....
Guy Mannerings
Continued....
HOW IT MIGHT WORK
Ideally, you would go in to the Calendar, and be able to see this "ideal timetable", which you could then manually drop related Tasks in to, or use the Auto-Scheduling feature, and it knows which tasks are related to those areas to then drop them in.
For both, you would need to be able to override the ideal timetable to set it as you please.
The "topics" could be fully manual, or perhaps they could be Custom Fields/Lists/Folders/Spaces that are scheduled. (This would also help with AI scheduling, as it would know easier that a Task is related.)
Or, it could be a simple toggle overlay that you can see. Perhaps a calendar view from another area of ClickUp, or a Google Calendar (not ideal, as what if they break it in the future?), which you toggle visibility on and off of.
EXAMPLE
> You have a Custom Field dropdown for "Goal", and have 3 goals as options you set to Tasks across any and all Locations in ClickUp.
> You also want to make sure you do Client Reach Out every day, and your clients are across multiple Lists, but they are all Task Type "client".
> You also want to make sure you work on Marketing for a product that is a particular Folder.
> You know you want to dedicate time to a particular Project A, and this is a Space, but you don't know what tasks yet.
> You set your ideal timetable to be 9-12 is Goal 1, 12-1 is Client Reach out, 1-2 is Marketing, 2-4 is Goal 2, 4-5 is Project A, 5-7 is Goal 3.
> You go in to your calendar, see your ideal timetable, then manually and/or automatically drop related tasks in to those ideal slots.
> Benefit - You pre-scheduled time for the topics, now you scheduled time for the actual tasks related to those topics.
See image example.
SUMMARY
Think of it kind of like a school timetable - You have the same base schedule each week for different classes. But in those classes, you have different tasks to do.