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Google Calendar - how to show only certain items

joegtd says:
I'm using the iCal feed into Google Calendar to have my tasks show up on my Android phone calendar (also have RTM for Android on the phone).

Rather than show all tasks that have a date associated with them (which would include many tasks that I can easily postpone), I'd like to show only those tasks that have a specific time associated with them (e.g., a task due at 11am), or tasks that have been tagged (e.g., 'cal' - a tag I'd use for items I want showing on my calendar).

That way when I need to make a new appointment, I can easily look at my phone calendar and see which days/times don't have hard-deadline tasks. Right now, if I look at my calendar, Today is filled with many soft-deadline tasks, which I'd rather not see in the calendar, since I can easily access these via RTM Android.

OK, so making a smartlist that picks up items tagged 'cal' is easy enough. But how to pick up items that have a due time, not just a due date?

Any other solutions people are using to limit which tasks show in their calendar?
Posted at 2:46pm on July 31, 2010
ranbarton Power Poster says:
I could have sworn this issue has arisen here before, but I do not see the thread.

I am unaware of any search that will pickup just tasks with a due time, or a search that will exclude tasks without due times. Thus I think you are compelled to extend your tag solution to the task times to generate the smartlist to create the feed you seek.

Maybe andrewski or rajjan has a better idea?
Posted 14 years ago
andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:
Unfortunately (unless I'm forgetting something), you're right, ranbarton.

You could create a Smart List that would only show timed tasks for a given day (e.g. dueAfter:"today 00:00" dueBefore:"today 23:59", where you could change today to a different day), but that would get unwieldy beyond a week (which may be enough for your planning).

Keep in mind that with such a Smart List, Google Calendar may not update quickly enough to be usable.

Hope this helps!
Posted 14 years ago
jvadakin says:
I'm having the same problem. I'm trying out RTM and trying to use it to implement GTD. One of the ideas in GTD is to use the calendar for only "hard deadline" (now or never) tasks and appointments.

From what adrewski wrote, it appears that Google Calendar is not a great option. I would really appreciate it if anyone has advice on how to implement the sort of calendar-RTM synch that I described. Maybe I have to just update the calendar manually?
Posted 14 years ago
jvadakin says:
Okay, I actually think I figured it out myself.

1) Create a tag and then a smart list called "deadline" for all tasks with a fixed date.
2) Then set the RTM calendar sidebar to only upload from that smart list.

Posted 14 years ago
wheretheskygrows says:
Maybe this is too simple of a solution - it works (so far) for me; but I import 2 iCal feeds - one that includes everything. And the other that is just a smartlist consisting of "cal" -tagged items. This way, I can see on my Google Calendar - by color - which tasks have due dates and which are everything else. If I want to just see my items that have actual times on them, I turn off the color that has everything else. Weird. And simple, but it works for me.
Posted 14 years ago
wheretheskygrows says:
Ah, I see you mean due "times" and not due dates. Interesting. I'd love to figure that out too!
Posted 14 years ago
joegtd says:
@wheretheskygrows
Yes, due times because I give due times to hard-deadline tasks, but only due dates to soft-deadline tasks.

@jvadakin
Yes, that's the partial solution I described in the first post in this thread. The downside is that you have to remember to tag all your hard-deadline tasks for them to show up in your calendar.
Posted 14 years ago
coda160 says:
I'm looking for similar functionality but I want just RTM tasks which have a time designated for them during the day to appear. In other words all day tasks are not listed but tasks with a set time are (.e.g 4pm). Is this possible? It would solve my issue.
Posted 14 years ago
This topic has now been closed automatically due to a lack of responses in the past 90 days.