If I could wish for one web application, it would be a complete online agenda app. There are very specific things that I want to be able to do without having to keep track of paper and without necessitating a gazillion different web apps to achieve the same goal. Why do I want this? In a nutshell, I want to be all organized in one location, available everywhere, all the time. So, let’s get started with functions.

Detailed To-Do Lists

I want hierarchal to-do lists, which would allow me to look at tasks on multiple levels:

1. Categories: The Big Picture
   Categories like School, Work, Personal, etc. allow me to see what’s going on in different areas of my life right now. It also allows me to see, at a glance, how balanced I am and if more or less attention needs to be paid to a given area.
2. Topics: A subset of the big picture
   Topics such as individual classes, or other items that are likely to possess multiple projects (for example, in my case, photography, web design and writing under the category “freelance”) allow me to narrow down on a category and get the “big picture” for that particular area of my life.
3. Projects: A subset of tasks
   For multi-step tasks (ie, a paper, a redesign, or a client), a project is the most narrow of the list levels.

As a side note, you should be able to prioritize your categories, your topics and your projects.

But that just covers the structure I want my work items in. When it comes down to the actual tasks, I want lots of functionality available to me. I want to (in order):

1. Have a place where I can dump all to-do items.
2. Sort items into categories, topics and projects from the dumping location.
3. Mark items as actionable, dependent, or future. If an item is dependent, I want to be able to link it directly to what it is dependent on. Once the actionable task is complete, I want all the dependent tasks marked as actionable.
4. Set a due date.
5. Estimate the amount of time needed.
6. Optionally set as recurrent.
7. Prioritize.
8. Have tags, notes, location tags, etc. available to me.
9. Be able to mark tasks as complete.
10. Once marked as complete, note how much time the task actually took.

Additionally, I want to be able to archive and retain all tasks (completed tasks should auto archive), projects, topics and categories. I want statistics on how many tasks there are per project, per topic, and per category. I want to know how often I complete tasks on time, all those things. I want to see where I can improve in getting things done and where I’m doing well. Tracks implements statistics pretty well. (As well as the idea of hierarchal lists, although it lacks topics.)

If a task is overdue, I want it to jump to a priority higher than one you can set manually. I don’t want it to just disappear to an overdue tasks list like Remember The Milk does.

Integrated Calendar Functionality

This is where it gets super useful for me. I want this web application to be able to schedule my time based on my tasks’ due dates, estimated time and priority information. StudyRails already does something similar to this, though only in the context of school. You add your classes and it fills in time spent in class. You can add other events as well. You fill in assignments and then, when you select a block of time, it fills in segments of what assignments you should be working on in order to get things done. I want to be able to select “productivity time” and either have it output what I need to be working on based on all my priorities, or narrow it by category, topic or project.

I also want there to be an option where the app fills in my calendar automatically in a way that gets everything done around other time commitments I have.

I would want this to be my primary calendar, so being able to schedule events and other things that are not necessarily “task-based” is vital. You should be able, however, to categorize events and perhaps even mark them as pertaining to a specific topic and maybe even project.

The calendar should be hierarchal in the same way as the tasks list.
The calendar should first and foremost make use of colored blocks to categorize time according to the categories you have set for tasks. The block of time should be titled the same as the task or event, and you should be able to tell what topic and project the task belongs to. If you select a category specific view, however, tasks should be colored by topic. If a topic specific view, tasks should be colored by project. All of these visual clues help you to see exactly what you have going on.

A final agenda

I want to be emailed daily, weekly and even monthly agendas, laying out where I need to be and what I need to do. I want to be texted reminders when I need to get working on something and when I need to get going somewhere. I want to be able to text the web app to-do items to get put in my dumping ground for later sorting.

Other Goodies

• Generate status reports (again by category, topic and project) - option to have them emailed to interested parties. Select level of detail on task items. (Either just that it was completed, or how much time was spent.)
• Fully searchable.
• Be able to find the average amount of time for a specific task. For example, if I tag a task as “code html” and look at that tag, I want to see a list of all current and completed tasks tagged as such, and the average completion time for this task.
  • And on that note, perhaps there’s a “task classification” bit where you can define tasks that you often repeat across categories, topics and/or projects.
• Block websites and software that are distracting. (See StudyRails.)
• See a time line view of a project, topic or category.

Conclusion

Were there a web application like this that worked well, looked organized and cohesive (nothing puts me off organizing like an unorganized and messy environment), I would probably pay a fair subscription fee for it. This is a tool I have been needing and wanting for a long time. And I don’t think it’s outside the realm of immediate possibility, either. The pieces, it would seem, are all there across various applications, both desktop and cloud. It’s just combining them into one super app that seems to be the trick. Oh yeah, and I want to be able to self-host it.

That said, if this application already exists and I’m missing out, please let me know!!