The Holyish Trinity: Inbox, Keep, and Calendar
Over the years I’ve been searching for a task management app that would be just right. I keep finding flaws with everything I try, and no matter how hard I discipline myself into using something like Wunderlist or Todoist, the habit of using them only lasts a couple of weeks, at most. And every time I fall back on the “default” way of running things, with Google’s products.And lately I’ve stopped looking for an alternative and embraced the holy-ish trinity of Inbox, Keep, and Calendar. Here’s how I use each:Inbox
At a glance, Inbox is just another email client. Coming from a heavily tweaked Gmail account, I didn’t like it at first - it has no labels, no signature, and a couple of other things I was used to. But I tried using Inbox like it’s meant to be used, and it quickly grew on me.Keep
Before using Keep, my life was a mess of text files. I literally had dozens of Notepad files with pieces of information scattered between them. If I was in a hurry, I’d quickly save the file as “asdasdsfasd.txt” - then spend way too much time actually finding what I wanted.Google Keep takes all those snippets of information and tries to organize them. I treat it like Inbox, and only have the most relevant information “pinned” to the homescreen, while everything else is labeled and archived.This is where I keep every piece of information I’d want to find someday, like lists of books and movies, short to-do lists, shopping lists, links I want to check out later, and random thoughts I want to come back to later.Calendar
The last piece of the puzzle, and by far the least used. I mainly use Calendar to plan meetings and other fixed events, and I haven’t gotten the hang of adding every single activity on my schedule. After all, do you really need to block your calendar when going out for the evening on the town?But Calendar is still helpful due to its integration with the rest of the Google ecosystem. An added event will show up in Google Now on your phone and quietly remind you when to leave home to make it in time. If you’re planning a trip abroad (or even to another city) it’s even more helpful, as you get quick tips with tourist attractions, or weather reports for your destination.Reminders
You might’ve noticed how I left out Reminders when talking about the three big time management apps above. I did that because I feel reminders need a mention of their own, as they’re the most helpful feature Android (and Google in general) brought to the table in recent years.Reminders can be set for a certain time or a location, and they’ll be synced across the entire ecosystem. You can now set, view and edit reminders from:
- Inbox
- Keep
- Calendar
- Google (just type “Reminder” in the search bar)
- Google Now
- Android Wear watches
What doesn’t fit
Google Now
As I said above, Google Now has its moments when it’s incredibly useful. But most of the time, it just falls short and becomes easy to ignore.In a typical day, Google Now will show me where I parked, the weather outside, and about eight billion Stories to Read, including those from websites I’d blocked and on topics I’d blocked. Now remains a great unfinished idea, even years after its launch. At least, this is how it is for us outside of the U.S., where we don’t get access to every feature from the G-man.What’s still missing
ToDo reminders
I wish Reminders would steal some ideas from Google Tasks. They’re useful and all, but sometimes you don’t need a reminder for a specific date, you need an ongoing to-do list - and surprise, surprise, Tasks doesn’t sync across apps and devices. If not that, then at least individual reminders for items in Keep checklists would make it a lot easier to get a grip on a task.Cohesion
I think that Google is planning on upgrading all of these apps, but pays little attention to how they work together - and it’s a shame, because they’re close to being a near-perfect ecosystem with just a few tweaks here and there.But Google seems to lack cohesion and a unified purpose for these apps. Last week they launched Save to Google, and this week they launched Save to Keep and Save to Inbox - all of them saving links in a different place.My feeling is that Google is trying to appease everyone and give us a ton of options to use their ecosystem, tweaking it to our liking. But in doing that they lose focus on the big picture and Keep, Inbox, Google Now, Calendar, and so many other services don’t work together as one.Conclusion
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