📲↔️🗓 Two-way synchronization of calendars#68

Now you can import the calendar, but not export tasks to the calendar, hopefully we can synchronize the calendar in both directions

Hi Phanl,
Thanks so much for your comment. Sadly we looked at this when we designed the feature and we made the decision then that this feature would only be a one way import. There are several key reasons which I hope to outline here. First of all, we are a personal planning app as opposed to a calendar app, and as a visual schedule and timer, Tiimo helps you focus on a particular activity in a way that a calendar doesn’t. So importing Tiimo activities into a general calendar app often doesn’t make sense. Most of the activities within Tiimo are personal ones, and the larger broaded activities, tend to have been created in an external app - which is why we have import, so you can bring those activities into the app. The amount of development that would be needed to make this feature work 2 ways is disproportionate to the amount of actual use that people would get out of it. There are also privacy concerns when possibly importing private activities and routines into calendars which might be able to be seen by other groups of people. Even with non-private events or appointments, you can quickly get into a problem with them being edited and shared back and forwards between applications, with little quality checks over which is the correct one - especially when the appointment could be between several people. This is why very few apps from different developers actually have two way synchronization. Finally, as this feature works with third-party applications, we would have no control when they choose to update or change their programme, but then would have to use significant development time to debug or get issues sorted, which often would be outside our control.

Hope that this answers your question and gives some background to why this is not a feature on our roadmap. Thanks, Team Tiimo

I understand what you’re saying but I still think that you should give us the option to make that decision ourselves. Having ADHD as I do, I struggle to keep one calendar in order, imagine if I have to manage two or more different apps, I’m looking to facilitate my life not to make it more complicated. So I think, I have to reevaluate if it works for me or not.

I can understand the problems in implementing a 2-way synchronization described by Natasha. I think in my case a flat read only export from Tiimo back to other calendar apps would be enough. It’s enough for me just to see that there is some task to do in most cases. For more information I can open the Tiimo app.
So here is my idea, what is just about an export from Tiimo in form of a iCal-file. Most calendar apps can handle such web calendars. They can be read only, so no debuging of failed write actions by third party software. If an edit option should be also implemented, a hyperlink to the web app could be written in the event description offering edit options in the web app.
Maybe this idea helps.

Thank you very much for your reply, I think it would be helpful to export Tiimo’s tasks to a read-only calendar, so I can see my Time Block on a calendar at all times!

I actually agree with @Tiimo Natasha in that I don’t really need to see my Tiimo activities / routines in my calendar app.

But I do have a lot of meetings (mostly work) managed through calendar events - and they sometimes get rescheduled or moved around. Not having these calendar updates reflected in Tiimo means I can’t rely on Tiimo for my planning or personal schedule.

I want to use Tiimo to see my plan and schedule for the day - which absolutely includes scheduled events. But my personal plans are more flexible / detailed than a calendar (which is best for seeing actual commitments and organizing meetings).
In other words: “Personal plans include your calendar events, but a calendar doesn’t need to include your personal plans.”

So yeah, I don’t really want Tiimo activities synced to my calendar. But events that were created from a calendar import should stay synced within Tiimo.

This would make it possible to just have one I place to check my schedule (and actually be able to trust it).

Thanks Tiimo team 🙏🏻

I agree with Kat’s comment that events that were created from a calendar import should stay synced.

Personally, I continually update and rearrange my calendar (with todos in the item description). Having Tiimo as an extra visual layer is a revelation for me; however, unlinking calendar items by adding todos is a dealbreaker for me as it messes up my overview as soon as I reschedule a calendar item (which happens often).

I like the facts that Tiimo works as an extra layer, it would be lovely if that extra layer could remain linked to the calendar item even after it’s rescheduled.

Please have the option for us to have a two way sync with google calendar and events created in google calendar continually be synced. I absolutely love tiimo but I need my google calendar events to remain synced.

The way it works today is perfect for me. I’m glad to NOT export from Tiimo to my calendar. I need calendar items to appear in Timmo so that I can incorporate into my daily balance but it helps me to break out the calendar event into steps in Tiimo which differs from the actual appointments in calendar.
That’s my use case. :)
However, remaining linked would be great because of the obvious changes in my Tiimo plan that a calendar reschedule would cause.

I think that this feature would do wonders for helping myself with not only accountability but also knowing that everything is in one location. I have a work calendar, a family calendar, and used to have Tiimo, but it became too much to manage. Two-way sync that would put my Tiimo events on my Google Calendar and I could easily share it with family members would eliminate my needing to re-explain my personal scheduling needs for each family event request. I would never want to ask for a feature that couldn’t be toggled on/off since a lot of the feedback here makes perfect sense with the separation. There are times though that being able to enable two-way sync, if desired, would make my life that much easier. Until that’s available, I’ll unfortunately need to keep managing my Google Calendar with a Personal Planning calendar attached to it so that I can show busy/free times and share personal plans with my wife.

Wow - I didnt even think about the value of this feature until I read this… heck yes.

Jhfdyhh

I’m coming here from a need or wish to export only selected tags/categories from tiimo to my calendar app (Google in my case). I would never want to sync everything in tiimo, BUT I have an example that maybe can explain what I mean:

With a tag feature it would be really helpful to be able to import/export certain tags/categories of activities/routines into other calendars.. Because the import already works the other way around. But say I have a routine of doing weekly cleaning with lots of checklist points, then I wouldn’t have those checklist items if I were to import that from my Google calendar. So I would lose those if I wanted to have the weekly cleaning scheduled in my Google calendar as well, but not import it to tiimo (because that would mean double trouble).

To have it import the other way around would be awesome, but I wouldn’t necessarily want to import every activity I have going on in tiimo. It would be useful for only a few select categories/tags.

I also agree with everyone making the point about the overwhelm of managing several different organisational systems and it would be so much easier and simple for the planning routines. And I think when it comes to routines/events that you want to include in your calendar that also has checklist items, it would be so helpful if we were to export/sync only those few selected ones.

Tiimo is sooooo close to being what I need!
The missing two-way sync is a serious missing feature. In fact, I’m considering to just going with Google Calendar, for desktop access, easy rescheduling, tasks-lists, and it’s native integration with the Google Suite.
I would love to combine Tiimo’s visual time counter (amazing, love it, for the love of all that is holy please do not remove this!) and phone widgets, and notifications with the benefits that Google brings.

A two way sync would allow me to combine the best features when I need them how I need them. Plus, it would help me rest assured that whatever plans I make or adjust, regardless of app, are reflected on both platforms.

I think Tiimo is seriously underestimating the usefulness of this feature. And I find it interesting that an app made for people with ADHD (and others) wants their clients to manage two apps.

Regarding specific arguments raised by Tiimo two years ago:

→ I don’t want to 2-way sync with my work-calendar. In my personal calendar, work is simply scheduled as “Work Shift 1” and “Work Shift 2”. (My meetings and tasks for work are in a separate company-calendar, which is shared with the rest of the company. Far, far away from my personal calendar.)
My personal calendar holds my personal appointment, tasks, plans, etc. That’s what I want to sync 2-way with Tiimo. Managing three calendars (meaning 2 Google calendars + Tiimo) is draining and confusing.

→ Add a pop-up at sync initiation warning of potential privacy issues: “All of your Tiimo Activities (including checklists) will be reflected on your Google Calendar. Everyone with access to that calendar will be able to see.” + Checkbox “I understand and want to move forward.”
You can even add T&Cs to this to absolve you of any responsibility.

Really hope Tiimo will reconsider this feedback!