I’m excited to announce that the very first alpha version of 2080 is now ready for testing. After weeks of collecting input, conceptualizing and building, you can now get a first taste of what’s to come.
What you can expect
Let’s make sure we’re all aligned on expectations here. This is not a final product. It’s a release of what we consider a major milestone which is what the rest of the app is going to be built around: task functionality – however, it’s not more than that. Please don’t use this as your productivity app yet as it’s unfinished, buggy, and your data will be deleted when we end this round of user testing.
I highly recommend you read the details below, but if you’re impatient and just want to play around, go here to get started: my.2080.app.
With this alpha version of 2080, you’ll be able to do things like:
- Creating tasks using the task creation form
- Providing details when creating or editing tasks such as context, timing & dependencies
- Experiencing auto-updating task statuses
As mentioned in our previous newsletter and as we’ve learned via our interviews, we’ve been heavily focused on building a task functionality that is powerful enough for advanced users but simple enough for quick daily use. In order to achieve both of these objectives, we’ve built a logic for a task’s completion status that is mostly automated, which is what this build is centered on.
Completion Statuses
Depending on your input, the tasks will output one of the following statuses.
- ✅ Completed/Discarded – if you’ve marked a task complete or decided not to do it.
- 🚫 Blocked – if there’s another task that needs to be completed/discarded/deleted before this one can be started (A comes before B)
- ⏳ Waiting For – if someone other than ‘Me’ is set as the ‘Assignee’ for the task
- 📆 Scheduled – if the task has a Start Date set in the future (time needs to pass before it can be started)
- ▶️ Available – this task can be worked on now with no other tasks or time constraints blocking it!
The completion statuses are listed in this order for a reason. It’s because these are hierarchical.
For example, even if the Start Date is no longer set in the future, if another task is still blocking this task, the status remains Blocked regardless of Start Date. Makes sense, right?
Of course, you remain in control which means you can see, edit, and mark complete any task as you see fit. But the goal is to build a user experience centered around the ‘Available’ status when you’re in ‘Doing’ mode – showing your next actions, since those is all you can do right now anyways.
What we’re asking of you with this testing round is to provide feedback specifically on this completion status automation. Hunt for bugs, test edge case scenarios, and let us know what you find!
Conditions & Lists
In addition to completion status, this build includes the ability to set up & manage multiple lists in which tasks can live. Right now, completion status and the other filters are handled on a list-by-list basis independently but our goal is to have these live across list membership.
Speaking of other filters, as you’ll notice in the task creation form, you have the ability to enter specific conditions that need to be met in order to perform a task. Also known as contexts, the value(s) you put in essentially create(s) a additional filter layer that you can apply on top of completion status. For example, if you have a task that require a specific tool, place, or person to be with, you can do so by entering that into the corresponding field.
We’re still ironing out our approach here, either doubling down on it with features like automatic location recognition, or potentially settling for a more simple tagging structure down the line. That is something you can help us with as well by providing feedback.
How to test
All right, enough talking. You just want to start playing around with this thing, don’t you?
Go to my.2080.app, create an account or log in with Google and use the “Submit feedback” button in the bottom right corner to submit as much input as you’d like!
We appreciate your support and involvement. We’re looking forward to building something great to help you unlock powerful, but simple & sustainable productivity – together. ❤️
