Using Anytype as Your Task Tracker &/or Project Management Tool 📊

[raph]

I’ve been using Anytype for both PKM and personal task management for 2-3 months now. At this point, that’s where I do most of my note-taking and task-tracking!

Interestingly, because it’s the first time that I use the same tool for PKM and task management (up until then I always used separate tools), I found that by far far far, the most missed feature for me is Automatic Bi-directional linking + Rollups / Transclusion.

I never thought of it as a critical feature for PKM or task management until now, but it turns out I find myself missing it several times a day. That’s because for the first time, I’m able to create complex relationships between objects that I could never do before (between Humans and Organization, Humans and Cities, Organizations and Meetings, etc) but that without being able to display those relationships on both sides, links/relations lose a huge amount of power.

The other features I truly miss and that have required me to find uncomfortable workarounds are:

• Views consistency across devices for inline sets
• native subtask management

[qualquertipo]

@lph

Backlinks view. I don’t understand why this doesn’t come up more often here in the forum. But the form to see links are still very rudimentary.

I think the reason this (and other PKMS standard features, such as transclusion) aren’t discussed much here is because Anytype doesn’t really feel like a PKMs. Now and again someone raises these (I’ve done so sometimes), but I think the overall feeling is that Anytype is too inflexible for that, so there’s no point insisting.

I’m sure Anytype as it is now is the perfect app for several people, but definitely not for the hardcore PKMs crowd…

[Jed]

At the moment Anytype is not even close to been a proper PKM app

[Filip]

The most important thing for me has been to make everything as simple as possible since there are so many small things that can easily brake your workflow.

One infamous example is the way in which sort works with empty values; they show up at the top. That behavior is especially bad with dates since objects with no dates will pile up on top, and this is even more of a problem since there is no calendar view yet.

I can’t wait for calendar + notifications so that I can replace my calendar app with Anytype as well.

[Filip]

@prawn

reminders (also mentioned here), either to be able to put them anywhere (with a @remind special action) or perhaps to have reminder implemented into the Task object, so that we could create a /task anywhere and set a reminder for it.

This is already a feature with dates so I’m guessing that time will be implemented as well later on. You can type @now, @today, @tomorrow or @ + exact date to link to a specific date.

@lph

• Backlinks view. I don’t understand why this doesn’t come up more often here in the forum. But the form to see links are still very rudimentary.
  Having a visual graph is cool and nice. And the flow is a very great view. But it is too cumbersome to get there and see those information. A way to see links and relations more easily is probably the feature I miss the most. Especially because neither Graph nor Flow are available in the mobile iOS app and there is no option to see these links and navigating is much more difficult.

Better backlinks are on the roadmap now at least.

[lph]

@qualquertipo

I’m sure Anytype as it is now is the perfect app for several people, but definitely not for the hardcore PKMs crowd…

I don’t consider myself a “hardcore PKM user”, but I’m coming from Obsidian/Logseq. I’ve had my issues with those as well, but they have very powerful linking functionality, so thats just something you get very used to.
For me personally, Anytype seems like it could be just the sweet spot of all note taking apps I’ve tried in the past. And I think it definitely can be used as a PKM. But it could also be better and there is work to be done.
But I also have to say contrary to what you write, I don’t find it sluggish, bloated or inflexible. On the contrary, the simplicity and smooth way to get started in Anytype was what got me hooked in the first place.
As you also mentioned your block based properties feature request… Did you already give Logseq a shot?

@Filip

Better backlinks are on the roadmap now at least.

Damn, that’s good news! Thanks for sharing.

As you mentioned the @ date links (which sadly again are not available on mobile at all):

When using these date links, they can open up a page to se all date backlinks. The filter this “set” is using is a “outgoing links” filter which obviously filters for all objects “mentioning” the currently opened date object.
Having this “outgoing links” filter option in other sets as well would already be very useful to create some kind of “backlinks” view yourself. Why isn’t this just made available for other sets as well? Or is it and I’m missing something?

[Filip]

@lph

When using these date links, they can open up a page to se all date backlinks. The filter this “set” is using is a “outgoing links” filter which obviously filters for all objects “mentioning” the currently opened date object.

This actually seems to have been added very very recently (probably ion the last release since I haven’t even noticed it until now) so this is probably still in early development. Dates didn’t have this automatic set previously (they had a blank canvas).

What you are suggesting is actually what is planned to be implemented trough the issue I linked on GitHub.

[qualquertipo]

@lph

But I also have to say contrary to what you write, I don’t find it sluggish, bloated or inflexible. On the contrary, the simplicity and smooth way to get started in Anytype was what got me hooked in the first place.
As you also mentioned your block based properties feature request… Did you already give Logseq a shot?

Maybe it’s because I’m comparing it with an outliner, where it’s super quick to write, edit, move things around, collapse and expand, zoom in/out of specific sub-trees… That’s essential for me…

Yes I tried Logseq. It would be a strong contender except for lack of wysiwyg. Especially when you have a block link…As soon as you click to edit, the whole text just expands to show those huge random id numbers. I might come back to it eventually. I keep reviewing these top apps (including Anytype) now and again.

[Hoador]

I am currently trying to transfer my project/task management system from Obsidian to Anytype. In Obsidian, I used links, similar to the structure in Anytype. I had a page template for customers and projects, with logs from diary entries using the Dataview plugin. Tasks were managed using the Tasks plugin. All of this was wrapped up in a “Dailies-First” approach within a diary entry, allowing me to jump to the relevant sections at any time.

Customers ⟶ {Link} ⟶ Projects ⟶ {Tasks} + {Dataview} ⟶ Tasks and Logs
Diary Entry ⟶ {Link} ⟶ Customers, Projects, Tasks

Tasks and logs were recorded through interstitial journaling with timestamps in the diary entries. However, in Anytype, I skip this step and log directly within the task, project, or customer.

Since my planning needs to be highly flexible, I don’t plan in time blocks or on the calendar but rather in time segments:
Today – Week – Month – Quarter – Year – Future
For this, a Kanban approach seems suitable for management.

Relationships for projects include:
Uplink to Customer
Status (Active, Invoice, Waiting, Archive) ⟶ Kanban
Planned (Today, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, Future) ⟶ Kanban
Start (Creation date)
Due (Date)
End (Date)

Relationships for tasks include:
Uplink to Project
Duration
Planned (Today, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, Future) ⟶ Kanban
Start (Creation date)
Due (Date)

[rypeld]

Wow that’s a lot of posts - sorry, I’m not gonna read them, just quickly reacting to the prompt.

I’m not using Anytype as a Project Management Tool and I’ve never really tried probably because:

1. I want (a little bit more sophisticated) databases like Notion has so that I can divide tasks by projects etc. I’ve never tried replicating this in Anytype, but it doesn’t feel as flexible. I don’t want anything too complex but I want a little bit of freedom to do things my way.

2. Adding anything from a phone to Anytype is a little bit too cumbersome (which is true for Notion too btw) - I want to add tasks as effortlessly as possible so that I don’t procrastinate it.

3. I want a Google or Outlook calendar integration for things that have deadlines because I don’t trust myself.

4. I don’t mind Anytype not being an app for everything. I use it as my knowledge manager (I’m a researcher) and I am perfectly happy to keep using it just for that. Honestly (but with all due respect), I would actually be grateful if you let the task of designing project management tools to other teams that are ahead of the game and focus on what you do.

5. I increasingly avoid adding anything that isn’t related to my research projects because it clutters the graph view, tags etc. (so I’m planning to delete even my recipe database). If I add tasks, it’ll be absolute madness. Let’s talk about filters or separate workspaces first.

6. Gantt charts would be nice too.

[ignatovv]

We going to introduce multiple private spaces this year for your recipes to live in the separate context. Let them live

[lph]

I don’t think anyone wants to stop the Anytype Team from enhancing the project management functionalities.
Of course it’s great if the everything app can do that. At least if it does a good job on the PKM part as well. And one thing to keep things clear is not to mix up these terms so it’s easier for users to understand where you are heading.

Maybe this should have been two different threads - on asking for pkm related suggestions the other for project management.
This way it’s just a bit to general question. Basically "what can be enhanced? (In general)“.

[dzlg]

Wow! It’s really amazing to see how many response this post has gotten from the community which means Anytype is growing! Yay!

I agree with a lot responses from the anytypers and I’m going to share mine too.

1. Calendar view and timeline view are the two main missing features in my task management system.

2. Also, Sometimes I have tasks within tasks and it doesn’t justifies to create more objects for every little thing. So having the ability of synced blocks which is missing currently would go a long way of having every item synced across my day view. For example, I can quickly see my tasks/projects/goals/actions for the day with inline sets but sometimes each of these objects have items as checkboxes inside them. Having the ability to copy link to a block and embed them elsewhere or in other words, having the feature of synced blocking would solve this problem.

3. One other thing is recurring objects. For instance, I keep a daily entry for each day and be able to have an object with a specific template created every day would streamline things massively.

4. One other thing which I believe would greatly elevate the whole tasks/project manamgement aspect of Anytype is the implementation of “buttons” similar to what Notion does. This way, we can assign different actions with a particular button which saves time massively.

5. The last thing I wanted to mention in formulas or derived relations and also roll ups in sets. Having them would take things to whole new level because now you can do so much more with your projects, their properties/relations and so on. You would also be able to connect different relations of object in their respective sets to each other.

[Jeroen]

I would like to reply to a couple of comments here that say backlinks is not being talked much on this forum? They have been discussed many times (14th most requested feature currently: Display backlinks / linked references directly within the page) and are on the roadmap for Q4 this year.

Also, taking a look at the most requested features we see:

1. Calendar view & Timeline view
2. Derived Relations ( Formulas )
3. Option to apply template to an existing object
4. Web Clipper
5. Automatic Bi-directional linking + Rollups / Transclusion
6. Make “toggle” a feature of every block instead of/in addition to a block type
7. Add Tabs to show multiple pages
8. Create Recurring Objects / Reminders
9. Inline LaTeX Addition
10. Link blocks from other pages (transclusion included)

As you can see, many of what is suggested in this topic is also very high on the feature request list. Seems we, the community, are pretty consistent what we want haha.

[Jason_22]

Guys, every post here took the words right out of my brain! Great Stuff!

[Filip]

@dzlg

Calendar view and task view are the two main missing features in my task management system.

What exactly do you mean by task view?

@dzlg

Also, Sometimes I have tasks within tasks and it doesn’t justifies to create more objects for every little thing.

Yeah, this is a big problem. Some way to nest objects would be great so that we can mimic subtasks.

[Toto]

Reminders are crucial to me, as well as being able to open up a task creation panel anywhere on your computer like todoist does, and make a possible integration with things like ifttt, so we could even use vocal assistants to set up tasks. I think my problem with tasks right now except theses needed feature, is adding the needed relations to a new task is far too long. as said in another post, you can’t do everything on keyboard, and there is no automatic relation fielding via text like todoist kinda does (if you write today in your task, the task will be set for today)

[PavloUA]

Thank you for wanting to hear from users around the world about the future development of your product. Keep it up!

@Angelo

How did you crack the code of using Anytype effectively for managing tasks and projects?

I’m just starting to transition to project and task management in AnyType, and there’s a lot I’m missing to switch from TickTick.

@Angelo

How can we make it even better?

Calendar (timeline) view (also agree with @kerbless)
The ability to customize a calendar or timeline based on the relationship of objects would allow for better visualization of tasks and goals (projects). Notion and TickTick can do this, but AnyType does not yet.

Graph
Yes, it’s important to me. I want to be able to clearly understand how tasks will work in the graph view: will complete tasks be displayed? Will it be possible to hide them? But at the same time, for example, goals can be left even if they are completed? Will there be no possibility to customize tasks in the graph so flexibly?

I’ll say right away that as a user, I’m not quite sure which way to display tasks, goals, and projects would be better in AnyType.

Notifications
This is something AnyType can’t do at all. And the MVP is to send notifications to the device at a certain time with a title and description of the task, and when you click on it, immediately open the required object.

But to this should be added the ability to send notifications on a certain day (usually a deadline), as well as notifications N days/hours/minutes/weeks before, repeat the notification every day until the task is completed, and so on. I think TickTick has implemented this very well.

Quick add
The ability to tap the AnyType icon on mobile devices and select “Add Task” and fill in a title and short description would be a great innovation.

Time trecker (not MVP)
The ability to build in functionality for tracking the time spent on a task and then displaying it in a calendar or time line helps to visualize the efforts expended.

But this does not apply to a minimally viable product.

Widgets outside of AnyType
It would be nice if the user could “take out” a set of tasks or a set for a specific project (goal) outside the application. And already on the desktop, perform minimal actions with these tasks: view (only the names), mark completion (the widget should be interactive), and when you click on a task, go to the desired object.

Default object type for a view
Collections are a great way to automate object linking. But there is no way to set what type of object will be created.

For example, in a course page, I would like to place a list of tasks that I need to complete. I would create a collection (not a set!), customize it, and start creating a list of tasks. But to do this, I need to change the type of object.

It would be great if I could define that in view A of collection A, objects of type A and template A will be automatically created, and in view B of collection A, objects of type B and template B. I hope I haven’t confused you

Why not a set? Because when you create objects in a set, they won’t be automatically linked to it, as is the case with collections.

Also agree with @dzlg, our cool Nightly AnyTyper

Maybe I missed something else. So if I remember, I’ll update this answer or add another one in this thread.

[Shampra]

@PavloUA

Quick add
The ability to tap the AnyType icon on mobile devices and select “Add Task” and fill in a title and short description would be a great innovation.

Have you seen this tip, thanks to @sambouwer ?

How to take quick notes on Android

I just found out by accident how to add a shortcut to quickly create an Object on Android! Add Anytype to your home screen Tap and hold the icon Tap and hold the “Create a new Note” item [Screenshot_20230722-084115~2] Drag it onto the home screen If you tap the new icon, Anytype will open and create a new Object immediately, allowing you to type away, right away!

[dzlg]

@Filip

What exactly do you mean by task view?

My bad. I meant “timeline view”. I corrected it