It is possible that today you have found new items on your calendar that you did not have before 1. We have published an update on the process of integrating the FacileThings calendar with Google Calendar that, as a novelty, allows you to keep the recurring Google events in sync.
Until now, recurring events of Google Calendar were not synchronized because, although they are displayed in the calendar based on the repetition patterns defined in the first event, they do not exist as such. This made it difficult to transform events into actionable items, which is what you need to manage in your GTD system.
We have designed an integration model that allows you to work with these recurring events in an effective way from the point of view of the GTD methodology.
Every time a recurring event is created in Google, the occurrences of the next three months are synchronized with FacileThings, turning the first one into an actionable item. That way you can work with the next action a la GTD, while having a complete view of your schedule in the coming months (the non-active occurrences can be seen in the special calendar views).
Only the first occurrence of a recurring event is a live action in FacileThings, the rest cannot be edited. If you need to modify an occurrence of the list other than the next one, you must do it in Google Calendar. The update will be synced to FacileThings.
As with the FacileThings own Routines, when you set that first occurrence as Done (or trash it), the next occurrence in the list will automatically become actionable. The Google occurrence list will also be synced again so you always have a real three-month planning window.
If you assign a Goal and/or Area of Focus to the active item in the sequence, subsequent items will be generated with the same Goal and Area of Focus.
Summarizing:
- When you create, update, or delete a sequence of recurring events in Google, it is synchronized with FacileThings so that you always have the same schedule in your GTD calendar (within three months).
- In FacileThings you only work with the first item of the sequence, as you would work with any other action in your GTD system, and any update will be synchronized with Google in the same way as any other event.
Let us know what you think! We are going to be a couple of weeks in a kind of beta phase, while simultaneously we will try to implement the same system with the recurring events of Outlook.
1 It is possible that due to the previous lack of synchronization of recurring events, you have defined your own routines to compensate for it and now have duplicated tasks on your calendar that need to be cleaned up. If you have any questions about how to do it or need us to help you, open a support ticket and we will try to give you the best solution.
6 comments
Yes! Nice work! Much appreciated!
Yes! Nice work! Much appreciated!
This was THE missing feature in FacileThings! Thank you so much for finally implementing it <3 I actually got very excited when the first recurring event appeared in my calendar today during the night after the maintenance window and my hopes that it was finally implemented became true! This is really a game changer for me!
This was THE missing feature in FacileThings! Thank you so much for finally implementing it <3 I actually got very excited when the first recurring event appeared in my calendar today during the night after the maintenance window and my hopes that it was finally implemented became true! This is really a game changer for me!
Hi there Francisco!
I am not sure if this is working for me? I have some daily routines in my facile things, but they aren't showing in my google calendar for 3 months? I only see the very next one in my calendar. Am I understanding this correctly? Many thanks!
Hi there Francisco!
I am not sure if this is working for me? I have some daily routines in my facile things, but they aren't showing in my google calendar for 3 months? I only see the very next one in my calendar. Am I understanding this correctly? Many thanks!
Hi Kenneth, Lukas: Thanks for the cheer up!
Ziyad, what we've fixed is Google Calendar recurring events showing up in your FacileThings Calendar. The FacileThings Routines only generates the very next action, as always (we'll work on that soon). But now, if you want those daily routines in both Google and FT, you can do it by creating them in Google as recurring events -- provided that these routines don't require extra information like notes, files, checklists, etc., since Google Calendar doesn't allow you to have that information associated with each event.
Hi Kenneth, Lukas: Thanks for the cheer up!
Ziyad, what we've fixed is Google Calendar recurring events showing up in your FacileThings Calendar. The FacileThings Routines only generates the very next action, as always (we'll work on that soon). But now, if you want those daily routines in both Google and FT, you can do it by creating them in Google as recurring events -- provided that these routines don't require extra information like notes, files, checklists, etc., since Google Calendar doesn't allow you to have that information associated with each event.
Hi!
It´s already working for me!
Great job!
Thanks a lot!
Hi!
It´s already working for me!
Great job!
Thanks a lot!
Thanks, Nilton!
Thanks, Nilton!