Is it just me or are task managers getting more and more complicated? I’m not against this in every respect but it does make me nervous. A little bit at least. Task management, in essence is a really simple matter and its when we over complicate things that it can get really messy. Here is the point, setting up, organising and using your task manager is rarely going to be your work. The idea of a good task manager is that for the most part, it gets out of your way and enables you to get on with your actual tasks. Some of the most productive people I know just write a list on paper. I had a renewed hope for many task managers out there as there seemed to be a drive for simplicity that was dealing was crushing to overcomplicated and feature bloated task managers. But now, I am concerned that we are in Task Manager Wars – The complexity Strikes back!
The Problem app developers face
I am led to understand that one of the metrics that potential investors will look at is how much time users spend in the app. Therefore, there is an ever present pressure on app developers to try and make you spend more time using their app. This pressure leads to increasing the complexity of the app and feature bloat. There is also the pressure from app users themselves. We see the bells and whistles of other apps, apps that have a different purpose or time management principle method in mind and we submit requests for those features.
Also, the market is very competitive here and the market is growing a lot. There is huge potential for apps here. But, in order to keep up and in order to compete, you need to differentiate yourselves somehow and not get left behind in terms of what the app can do. Thus, developers are caught in a pincer between their investors and their customers. What else can they do?
The problem app users face
We face pressure as well. A different kind though. We face shiny new app syndrome all the time. We see successful people on YouTube swear by there apps and their workflows. One of the key characters that people who are really interested in all this productivity have is a desire to keep on top of things. If we see someone doing something that we don’t do there is a huge temptation to feel we must be missing something and to want to replicate it. Which, with the kind of thing I have in view here, often involves increasing complexity.
The Complexity Strikes Back!
If you read my post yesterday, then you will have read about bloat that I introduced into my task management because the features were there in the app I used. If you have read my posts on my deliberations between ClickUp and ToDoist, part 1 and part 2, then you will know that I have tried using ClickUp significantly in the past. But ClickUp is a highly complex application. Let me give you a few examples of where I have started seeing this complexity creep.
The All-in-One Application
The big culprits here, in my view, would be ClickUp and Notion. Let me be clear, I like both of these apps, but I am also clear that for basic task management, both of these are overkill. Both of these apps are designed to be your one stop spot to shop for all your work, thus maximising the amount of time that you spend in the app. Happy Investors! But, both contain so much potential for complexity to creep in that I am wary on that basis alone. It also occurred to me, before I rush to copy and emulate all my favourite YouTubers who use these apps, whilst I am certain that their are people who use them for ‘normal’ work, all the people who I watch online, their core work is literally to build, play around with and showcase the use of Notion & ClickUp.
But, we face the temptation to move to these significantly more complex applications because we see people doing things with them that our app cannot do. But, do we need that from our app? Worth asking!
Adding features to keep up with the competition or a vocal portion of their customer base
I am on shakier ground here as I cannot know why a developer opted to add a particular feature or not. But, let’s take the example of Trello. For a long time, Trello’s USP was that it was a task management app based around the Kanban Board method. This was it’s focus and it did it really well. But now, every app under the sun does this. ToDoist, Tick Tick, Notion, ClickUp, Asana, etc etc. They all have board views. So what does Trello do? We add a timeline view, a list view, a calendar view and others too. I’m not saying this was a bad choice, I am just observing that it happened.
ToDoist seems to be on the brink of releasing a Calendar View, probably to enable Time Blocking. Again, I’m not criticising this decision, I am just observing that ToDoist is making this change and becoming an app that offers 3 different ways of organising and viewing your tasks. Is this because of apps like SunSama? Is it because TickTick, probably their closest rival, did it first or is it because a sizeable chunk of their customer requested it, or is it because the developers themselves wanted it? I don’t know.
Whilst I am on the subject of Tick Tick, since I first tried it out, the app has added calendar views, board views, an Eisenhower Matrix, a Pomodoro Timer and a habit tracker.
Why might added complexity in our apps be bad?
I have two reasons:
- The added complexity, especially with things like calendar views etc, means that the developer’s focus increasingly divided. This is relevant in multiple ways. It effects how the developers are expecting users to use the app, meaning their development focus gets split. It increases the number of different elements that need updating, bugs fixing and the number of things that might go wrong.
- A lot of the new features I see, are based around a specific productivity method in some way. So a calendar view for task management screams Time Blocking. With Tick Tick, the feature set pushes you towards the Kanban or Eisenhower method with a bit of Pomodoro thrown in. The point is, all the great productivity experts will tell you that your system matters more than the app. But, when the app we use incorporates a big new release that is based around a productivity system that we are not using, there is pressure to incorporate it into our system.
Before you know it you have that ONE SYSTEM TO RULE THEM ALL….
The EisenhowerIvyLeeTimeSectorGTDPARAPPVCODECOPEBentoPomodoroBatchingBlockingBulletJournal of ZEN method.
Complexity in our apps can be bad. It pushes us to make our organisation and management system more complex. In task managers, I want my task manager to manage my tasks, not my time or my projects or my notes.
So, I am not saying that all complexity is bad. I am not saying that if your app has a big new release looming that this will be of no benefit to you. I am encouraging you to at least ask the question “is this unnecessary complexity – at least for me right now? For more on the issues of complexity and productivity – check out this from Carl Pullein.
