I am still excited to be coding TaskBlaze’s next generation of features – including new automatic posting of tasks to Twitter.  But apparently not everyone happy.  In one email, the writer indicated the new TweetBlaze feature will kill Twitter.

But before I get further into that subject, I want to mention the TaskBlaze updates since my last post:

1. Twitter approved our source parameter! – meaning after you post to Twitter, in the text below your post, it says from TaskBlaze (thereby recognizing TaskBlaze as a Twitter friendly app.)
   
2. Better error handling for Twitter and Google Calendar – in certain instances you may have crashed if something goes wrong when entering username/password and then starting a task.  The new version addresses this by “refreshing” TaskBlaze’s settings if you make a change.
   
3. Update engine fixed – If the latest update didn’t come through for you, you can download it here.  It will fix the delays with getting updates.  It is also set to not replace your configuration files – sorry that happened in the first place.

To the ones who have written in, thanks for all of your helpful feedback for the latest Beta.  You’ve found many of the little bugs that I missed.  I’ve corrected many of them already and I posted a new Beta last night.

Twitter Killer?

During a coding session yesterday I noticed my email chime in with a new message.

The writer said in reference to TaskBlaze’s new automatic task posting to Twitter feature :

Oh, goody.  Now we get to read, “I’m writing a letter.” “I’m updating my resume.” “I’m going to lunch with Max.” “I’m updating the Q4 sales reports.” Ad nauseum.

Automated crap like this is going to kill Twitter.

hmmm… It never occurred to me that TaskBlaze would destroy Twitter.  Plus, why would I want it to?  Twitter are good people.    I have no reason to do the company harm.

Why TaskBlaze Won’t Kill Twitter – and a few hidden benefits

1. TaskBlaze is mainly used by professionals for time tracking - I think the users are bright enough to know that a task they are sending to Twitter is going to be read by other people.  They may choose to make the task description more interesting to their readers.  for example: Instead of posting “Writing a letter.”  They may rephrase the task as “Writing a long overdue letter to my sister whom I haven’t seen in 7 years…”That is one of the hidden benefits of using TaskBlaze and Twitter together.  It helps you make the tasks more interesting to your readers – but more importantly to YOU.
2. TaskBlaze does not post anything you don’t want to post – Let me clear up any confusion.  TaskBlaze, like any other Twitter software, posts only what you choose to post. It is incapable of spamming Twitter.It does not manufacture any posts, nor does it grab your task list and post it.  It simply grabs the task you are working on and posts that.  But it only posts it if you want it to!
3. People post unimportant stuff Ad nauseum with or without TaskBlaze – Let’s face it, some people post garbage to Twitter.  In fact, I once followed a popular Twitter user who posted complete nonsense all day every day.  The silly and unintelligible posts grew tiresome quickly, so I unsubscribed.You can help decrease the garbage too.  Improve the signal to noise ratio on Twitter by un-following those who don’t contribute in a meaningful way.TaskBlaze can neither cause nor prevent mindless posts.  But considering it is used by some smart people, they probably aren’t going to want to clutter up their calendars with stuff like “Going to the bathroom” or “Eating a peach.”
4. TaskBlaze can be blocked by Twitter - As nice as it was for the Twitter API team to quickly approve TaskBlaze as a source app.  They can just as quickly revoke it.We would be lying to ourselves if we thought somehow TaskBlaze took away power from Twitter.  They own and control the engine.  I feel privileged to be included in the group, but I also know that if TaskBlaze becomes a Terminator rise of the machines, they’ll cut the cord – plain and simple.
5. I won’t let it happen – I always put a lot of thought into unintended consequences.  I met with other network engineering experts prior to, during and after coding the TweetBlaze module.  Just about every doomsday scenario – was discussed including:Q: What if someone hacks TaskBlaze so it will automatically spam the same message over and over to Twitter?
   Q: What if someone breaks into TaskBlaze source code and steals the API key?
   Q: Is there any possible way someone can use TaskBlaze to post someone else’s private Google calendar to Twitter?

   In all of these cases, security measures are built into Twitter and TaskBlaze to prevent any abuse by a rogue user.  Twitter has a terms of service agreement with users.  And I’ve encrypted TaskBlaze executables to prevent hacking.

   Never mind the fact TaskBlaze would be incredibly slow if used for spamming.    And, it cannot “grab” any information anyway.  It can only post one update at a time.

So what are your thoughts?  Did I answer your concerns with regard to the Twitter posting via TaskBlaze?  Do you have more questions?  Or do you think TaskBlaze is still a risk?  Please share in the comments.

And if you love TaskBlaze as much as I do, please Stumble this post.  You’d be helping me a lot.

The new TaskBlaze beta is here!

Taskblaze features

What is TaskBlaze?

TaskBlaze is simply the easiest task timer and tracker you’ve ever used.  Plus, it’s the most precise and effective.  It automatically updates your Outlook or Google calendar with the exact time you spent on your task.

So accounting for your time, being more effective, billing, making sure you are spending your time wisely don’t require a MS Project course, just download TaskBlaze 2009 Beta .

Just imagine how easy it is to give a time report to a client.  Think of all the wasted time you can free up.  And picture your jealous partner thinking you are having an affair, all she has to do is look at your calendar and know you were Blazing your time on writing a cost/benefit report – TaskBlaze prevents DIVORCE! Ok, maybe not, but it is still pretty nifty.

Get Started With 2 Simple Steps

There are two simple steps to use it:

1. Enter a name for your task.
2. Hit the Start button

…Thank you and good night!!

– But wait, there’s more –

Use TweetBlaze® to Send Your Tasks to Twitter

Have you ever completed a task and thought a week later “I should have posted that to Twitter”?  Now you don’t have to worry about forgetting.  TaskBlaze will post your tasks to Twitter automatically utilizing a highly classified function I like to call TweetBlaze®.  Start a task and bam, all your friends will know you are working – when before they thought you were just goofing off.

Warning: TweetBlaze® is for external use only.  Do not swallow.

More TaskBlaze Goodness

But you needn’t stop at just naming your task.  You can also set a category.  Good for tracking home projects too.

Plus, creative people can now make their own skins to customize TaskBlaze and make it all your own.

Simple skinning guide – I tried to make skinning easy – especially for people like me who feel using Photoshop is like driving to work every day in a paddleboat.

Here’s a method for creating a skin that is so simple a 27 year old grad student could do it.

1. Find the TaskBlaze folder on your desktop computer (normally C:\Program Files\TaskBlaze)
2. Open the Skins folder
3. Create a new folder with a skin name you like (i.e. Tribute to Brad)
4. Copy and paste the graphics from an existing skin folder to your new folder.
5. Use MS Paint, Adobe Photoshop or your preferred tool to edit the graphics in your skin folder to reflect your own style and individuality.
6. Launch TaskBlaze, go into settings and choose your new skinny-skin-skin.

Sharing and Showing Off

Think you can make a better skin than me?

Well, you’d have to be blind and missing both hands (AND FEET) not to be able to – but that’s not the point.  If you’ve got a great skin to share, please do.  You can .zip it up and email it to me bradisaac at gmail.com. If it’s good I’ll be happy to post it and link to your site until I can get a skins repository set up.

Download TaskBlaze 2009 Beta for Windows

Send Me Your Feedback about the TaskBlaze Beta

As this a Beta version of TaskBlaze your comments are appreciated and will make it better.  Feel free to email me or better post them in the comments below.  I’ll try to resolve them as quickly as possible.

The good news is I’ve finally got an auto updater working so if I post a fix or release you can get it immediately.

Many people love TaskBlaze.  But admittedly, there are some headaches.  Those who use the old Beta version know it’s got some bugs.  Although it looks simple, there’s a lot of coding that went into building it.

 
Default Skin

Well, I’ve been burning the midnight oil on the latest version.  It fixes a lot of bugs and introduces new features too.  I am tidying up a few things and then will post a beta in a few days.

Here’s a sneak peek of what’s to come:

1. Post what you are doing to Twitter – Feeling social?  You can now Tweet what you are doing via TaskBlaze!  When you start a new task, your you can set it so your task-tweet automatically gets posted to Twitter.   Integration with Facebook and other services on the way.
2. New Timer Engine – I rebuilt the timing engine so it is much more reliable, easier to understand, and more bulletproof.
3. Improved skinning – Those of you who like customizing TaskBlaze can now go hog wild.  Skinning is now “folder based.”  That means pop your skin into a folder and pick it from a dropdown.  You can have as many different skins as you want.

   

   Left4Dead Smoker Skin

4. No more textbox clutter – Want to see your skin?  The Textboxes now hide to display your task, tags and other relevant info.
5. Font color picker – Choose the color of the fonts displayed in Taskblaze.
6. 30 Second Throbber -  What’s a throbber?  In the case of TaskBlaze, it is a ‘blink’ of your main button to catch your attention and remind you to stay on task.  Many wanted this feature.  It’s in the new beta.
7. Display optimized for older PCs – There was a display headache with older PCs where Taskblaze would look funky.  This newly optimized display works for those PCs.
8. Send to a friend – Many of you indicated you wanted an easier way to share the pleasures of TaskBlaze.  Now with the click of a button, TaskBlaze will create you an email that you can customize and send the download link to your friends.

 
Blueblazin’ Skin

I am especially thrilled with the Twitter posting abilities of the new version.  Where Twitter asks “What are you doing now”.  With TaskBlaze you can tell people really what you are doing and track it at the same time.  

So check the blog in a few days and I’ll have a new Beta ready for download.

Hey you!  Yes you! 

Where is your time going every day?  Is it being spent on productive tasks?   Are you using your time to build successful outcomes for your life? 

Or are you…. Surfing?  Watching TV?  Chatting over IM? 

Bah!  Let’s get going in the right direction already!

One sure-fire way to find out where your time is going is to track it.   And what many of us consider the best way to track our time is through using TaskBlaze.  If you haven’t heard of Taskblaze before, let me tell you a bit about it. 

Really it’s simple.  Just launch Taskblaze and put in the task you are working (or *cough* playing on) and hit the start button.  It will time how long you’ve been working on your task.  But not only that, once you click the stop button, it automatically exports the task and time spent to your Outlook calendar – so you’ll have a fast convenient record of everything.  Pretty cool eh?

Yes, I am the creator, but I’m definately not the only one who loves Taskblaze.  Last week I got a note from a TaskBlaze user who wrote to tell me that his firm had dumped thousands of dollars into time tracking software that never really met expectations and this little freeware app. is the best he’s seen yet. 

Here are the latest enhancements for TaskBlaze Beta 0.8:

• Hover over the Stop button to get a readout of what task you are working on and how long you’ve been working.
• There is a blue bar above the button you can use to activate TaskBlaze and reposition it on your desktop

So how do you get TaskBlaze? 

1. Download and install yourself a copy of Microsoft’s .NET Framework (free) if you don’t have it already.
2. Download and unzip a copy of Download Taskblaze_B8.zip (194.4K) to a handy place on your Windows computer.

Then launch TaskBlaze and you will be well on your way to productivity utopia!  Can it be any more simple?  I think not…

Taskblaze is tell-a-friendware.  No charge, just send it on to a friend.  No sense in you hogging all the success right?   And while you’re at it..be sure and tell ‘em about my little blog here.

FAQ:

Q:  Gee Brad, you mean I can get TaskBlaze for Free if I share the wealth by sending a copy to a friend or two? 
A:  Yes indeedy..take it with my compliments, live long and prosper…

Q:  Thanks!  But I’d still like to do something for you to return the favor, any ideas?
A: You are so kind.  You can either send me a tip or put your goals into warp speed by getting a copy of Achieve-IT! Goal Software.  A portion of all donations and Achieve-IT! purchases will go towards maintaining the blog and for future software enhancements.

Q: I downloaded TaskBlaze but it doesn’t run, I get an error!
A: You probably didn’t install the Microsoft’s .NET Framework.  Please download and install it.

Q: I am getting pop up ads for casinos, p0rn and "enhancement" drugs did you put spyware in TaskBlaze?
A:  Absolutely NOT!  You need a copy of Firefox or Opera browser.  You’ve probably picked up spyware while surfing.  TaskBlaze has absolutely no spyware or virii. 

Technorati Tags: taskblaze, productivity, gtd

I am happy to post a new update to TaskBlaze productivity software.   Before I get into the updates, I want to first introduce it to readers who may not have heard of it with a short description:

TaskBlaze is a simple stand-alone productivity application which helps you keep accurate track of the time you spend on tasks and exports that time to your Outlook Calendar.

Some of the benefits of using Taskblaze:

   It’s simple – There’s only 3 easy things for you to do and you’re off!
   It tracks your time precisely and once you end a task it exports the task to your Outlook schedule so you have an exact measurement recorded for time management, billing or general reporting.
  TaskBlaze is a stand alone application, so you don’t need a web connection to use it.

  TaskBlaze is free!  TaskBlaze is "Tell-A-Friend-Ware" use it, but share it with at least two of your friends.  Don’t let it be only your productivity secret!  Let your friends benefit too.

This version enables the settings to save in the setting screen: transparency, minimize to button and Always on Top.  If you make changes to your settings, they will save between launches. 

I’ve also fixed a number of bugs and increased stability.

Get your copy here: Download TaskBlaze_B75.zip (202.5K)

Note: TaskBlaze requires the Microsoft .NET Framework to be installed on your computer. 

Related Posts:

• The 5-Minute Productivity Breakthrough

• How-to Set Up Productivity Triggers to Get More Done

• Can You Be 2 % Better?

• What to do when others are late for a meeting

• Make a pile of chips

Reading through your comments, I got excited by some of the ideas presented about how to better implement TaskBlaze to help improve productivity.

Option to make TaskBlaze Transparent
Option to have TaskBlaze shrink to simply the stop button

I think those two ideas were great and put them into a beta build .7 for people who would like the cutting edge.

Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like:

Just be aware, the settings do not save yet and by default it will minimize to a stop button. So if you don’t like that idea, keep your current version. Like I said above, this build is for people who want those features now. I will be working on getting those features added ASAP. I am posting now because thought “Hey, I’m having so much fun with it”, you should have fun too.

Another note, with this version, you’ll need to put TaskBlaze into the location you want it before hitting “Start”. You can’t move it once it’s started.

The brave and TaskBlaze aficionados among us can download the latest beta here: Download Taskblaze_B7.zip (131.2K)

Note: TaskBlaze is “Tell-A-FriendWare” . There is no cost for downloading or using it, I only ask you tell a friend or two about it so they can benefit too.

Technorati Tags: TaskBlaze, Freeware, productivity, Goals and goal setting

I was doing some code optimizing on TaskBlaze today and decided to do a new build which would join the last two builds together.  It’s another minor upgrade.  Personally, I don’t enjoy making settings screens because they are boring.  But I put one together anyway so we can make adjustments.  This build simply allows you to choose whether you want TaskBlaze always on top or not.  Whatever you choose is stored in a config file so you won’t have to keep choosing every time.

This will also allow me to add in more options in future releases.

Enjoy!

Download TaskBlaze1.29.zip (240.1K)

Technorati Tags: TaskBlaze, productivity, tools, freeware