Another take on task management
REVIEW: Users may have difficulty getting started with e-mail-oriented Chandler
By Tiffany Maleshefski GWEEK LABS available for free and can be down- I then opened the Chandler
To-do lists are simple to cre- loaded at www.chandlerproject.org. desktop application and clicked
ate but ridiculously hard to The application runs on Windows-, the Sync button from the tool bar,
complete. Whether that para- Mac OS- and Linux-based systems. which allowed my selected e-mails
dox is the result of human apathy A Web hub that lets others see your to funnel into Chandler. In addition,
or ineffective tools and software is tasks and events without having to anything I designated as an event
a riddle developers have sought to install Chandler themselves is also was immediately integrated into the
solve for decades. available. This is nice to have because application’s calendar feature.
The open-source Chandler is a per- project management has so much to I also had the option of configuring
sonal information manager aimed at do with interacting with others. outgoing e-mail accounts so I could
reshaping how users designate and take action on e-mails I had funneled accomplish tasks. I tested Version 0.7.4 Flexible solution into the application’s mail folder.
of the software, currently in beta. these days, e-mails and tasks are One innovative feature is Chandler’s
Intentionally free-form in struc- often one and the same. Chandler ability to let users turn an e-mail into
ture, Chandler gives users much helps users create what essentially something other than an e-mail. For
flexibility in terms of workflow in amounts to a centralized to-do list example, I could make an e-mail a
their office environment. That very that can be broken down into more task or an event. If I did the latter,
characteristic, however, often works specific to-do lists. the e-mail/event then appeared in
against Chandler, as its user the Chandler’s calendar
interface makes it difficult feature, which meant it
for users to even define what could also be sent to other
constitutes a task. invitees via my Outlook or
In fact, the biggest challenge Gmail accounts.
with Chandler is actually initi- I was able to further
ating a workflow at all. This, prioritize tasks, e-mail and
I discovered, requires a good events byusing Chandler’s
deal of ambition and plan- triagefunction, whichsorts
ning. Add in the integration items as “now,” “later”
of yet another application, and and “done.” This feature
reinventing office workflow is handy, but I thought it
feels like more of a problem could be expanded on to
than a perk. When users click on an item from the list that appears in Chandler’s give users more options
The 1.0 release of Chandler main view window, the particulars of that item appear in a separate for prioritizing when
is expected to provide additional window. Users can then add notes to the item, set an alarm or things get done. For
tools to help get users started, change its triage status. example, it would be nice
with the Open Source Applications To do this, I configured Chan- to have more variations in the “later”
Foundation, the group behind Chan- dler to work with both my corporate category—something that would help
dler, making some promising efforts Microsoft Outlook account and my light a fire under users when needed.
to facilitate this. For now, given that personal Gmail account. Once I set The product’s developers say there
the software is still in its developmental this up, three Chandler folders—for will be less emphasis on using Chandler
stage and various UI quirks still need tasks, events and e-mail—appeared in as an e-mail client in the 1.0 release. ´
solving, taking Chandler out for a test both of these accounts. I could then go
drive is as far as you’d want to go. through my in-boxes and put appropri- Technical Analyst Tiffany Maleshefski
Chandler’s desktop application is ate e-mails into these folders. is at tmaleshefski@eweek.com.
