Short Takes: Sandglaz adds subtasks, Kippt releases Inc
Subtasks is one of the task management features that is on the ‘must have’ list for me. Sandglaz has become the newest task management tool to include this critical feature.
Their approach is to create subtasks within the body of the parent task, which reduces clutter when looking at the tasks in a Sandglaz Grid. Here you see the task ‘example’ has two incomplete subtasks.
Subtasks can be dragged and dropped in the canvas inside of tasks.


Personally, I like the alternative way to represent subtasks, which is to nest tasks under others and have that displayed in the list of tasks at the higher level, and not concealed inside of a task. First of all, subtasks of that sort have their own metadata: like deadlines, priorities, notes, assignees, and so on. Sandglaz subtasks do not. And you don’t have to determine at the time of creation whether something is a subtask or a task. Also, the way that Sandglaz has implemented subtasks, there is only one level of subtasking available.
My personal favorite in this regard is Todoist, where subtasks can have subtasks, and so on, and can be moved around by order and by level of nesting:
The triangles are toggles for expanding/contracting the subtask at any level of the tasks outline.
But the approach Sandglaz has taken has its merits, as well, and fits better with the design aesthetic of Grids, perhaps.
I had a chance to speak with Jori Lallo of Kippt this week, and we discusses the new group solution they’ve built, called Inc. I used Kippt for several months in 2012, and I liked its look and feel as a personal information management tool. However, I wanted to be able to share with others in a private way, and so gradually drifted off to alternatives, like Honey, Refinder (defunct), MightyBell, and Dispatch (defunct): none of which I am using in that way at present. I am using MightyBell, but in the form of its new incarnation: as the organizational framework of Chautauqua.cc, the future of work open community launching in March.
For the past few months I’ve settled on for personal (and semi-shared) information management is Workflowy, which has its own issues, although a lot of plusses.
So, I am still very much searching for a viable alternative for group sharing.
Inc is a minimal solution, based on what the developers learned from Kippt (which is still up and running).
Here’s the UI:

And posting is a cinch:

The thing that really attracts me is the @mentions, #hashtags and sharing. I am going to try it for a week and see what it feels like.

