20 ms·

The (logarithmic) calendar I want

173 points by pankratiev 15y ago

epaga 15y ago
Would love this for a paper calendar. I remember being stumped by the same problem of wanting a better overview over periods of time, and so came up with a scrollable-zoomable-timeline visualization called LineTime (http://www.linetimeapp.com http://www.linetimeapp.com). Smooth pinch-to-zoom and it displays days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. At this point, LineTime isn't a productivity app but a history timeline. But actually I like this idea almost better for a productivity tool, since it enables you to "compartmentalize" a bit better than with a flowing timeline like LineTime.
- praptak 15y ago
  "Would love this for a paper calendar." This one would be tricky - it looks like this needs continuous re-scaling. This would probably need a system of movable paper parts - labels, post-its or whatever. There's a serious danger you'd spend more energy tweaking those than thinking about the actual tasks :)
  - dredmorbius 15y ago
    A magnetic / whiteboard planning calendar might work though. You'd have current month large, then scale down through future 3 months, remainder of year, future years. Post-its / whiteboard marker / magnetic markers for various events. The advantage of software is of course that you can have scaled views but infinite (or at least very large) storage capacity.
    - mbreese 15y ago
      Well, the other advantage of software is that you wouldn't have to re-draw your paper version of a calendar when the months change. Imagine having to move important events from the smaller "future" boxes to the now much bigger "soon" boxes.
praptak 15y ago
The 43 folders system bears some resemblance to this idea. If you haven't already heard about it a hundred times, it's about having 31 "day of month" folders - the shorter time frame, plus 12 "month" folders - the longer time frame. The shuffling of tasks is pretty obvious: the tasks from upcoming month get reshuffled into their respective day folders. You could extend it with one or two more levels (year? decade?) and get something similar to what the author describes.
ctdonath 15y ago
"Logarithmic". That's the word I needed. I've been trying to visualize a calendar that captures everything from seconds to years (akin to the marvelous but abandoned "once around the sun" work some years back), and at last pondering was wondering how to scale a spiral-of-spirals-of... which would capture the cyclic nature of our model of time; problem was scaling. Some application of logarithmic scaling may work...
- DanI-S 15y ago
  Since I can remember, I've visualised time as a set of continuous spirals - years are the largest, with Christmas at the top and early summer at the bottom. The years lie on top of one another and fade off into the distance, like a slinky viewed end-on. I see days, weeks and months separately, but in continuous spirals of their own. I don't know how common this is, but I vaguely recall reading that it is a form of synaesthesia. I've always found this pretty useful. I can see the positions between events and intuitively judge their distance. I can see how recurring events are 'pinned' through multiple years. I see time periods - like months, or vacation times, as segments of the coil that are somehow 'different' (like being a different colour, except not). If I'm trying to remember when something happened, or is going to happen, I mentally flip through the slinky layers. Does anyone else think this way? How do people regularly visualise time? I've always thought it'd be a pretty fantastic digital calendar UI, since it seems so intuitive to me - how does it sound to others? Edit: Here's an article I just found. There are some people with similar visualizations to mine, and someone who perceives a year as a giant numeral '7'! Interestingly, the article talks about this perception underlying unusually good memory - but my memory of the past is actually pretty atrocious. http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/11/the_cognitive_benefits_of_time-space_synaesthesia.php http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/11/the_cognitiv...
  - saraid216 15y ago
    Just want to say that that is extremely cool and I wish I could see the world through your brain.
    - 15y ago
kilovoltaire 15y ago
This is a great idea, and fits nicely with the observation that humans seem to perceive many things, including time, logarithmically: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber–Fechner_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber–Fechner_law
- eru 15y ago
  Yes. Though there are some interesting aversions. For example people seem to discount future income by 1/t rather than by log t.
- iansinke 15y ago
  One thing I've always wondered about is the dials or sliders for temperature settings in the car. Many of them (especially the linear sliders) seem to be set up in a logarithmic way rather than a direct linear scale. Although I'm not sure whether I'm basing that on the scale of the tick marks next to the slider or on my actual perception of the temperature -- probably the former...
s-phi-nl 15y ago
See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248496 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248496 and especially http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248922 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248922 for another discussion of the same idea.
jqueryin 15y ago
I posted a submission to the JavaScript 10K apart competition last year which was an HTML5 calendar utilizing localStorage. It essentially gave you a view of all twelve upcoming months in a snapshot. Perhaps even something as simple as this would help with the visual aspect. As far as the "bindings" are concerned, I think you could use tabs along the top and do some redesigning for the different timeframes. http://10k.aneventapart.com/1/Entry/233 http://10k.aneventapart.com/1/Entry/233
pbnjay 15y ago
I actually created a logarithmic calendar app for a class a few years ago... Maybe I'll dig it out, update it and post since other people seem to like the idea...
- runjake 15y ago
  Just do it and post it. Don't post a comment with "Maybe..."
  - user24 15y ago
    One 'getting things done' tip I've adopted is to catch myself writing "I will" in an email and change it to "I have", then go and do it. It works pretty well.
  - pbnjay 15y ago
    Pay for my time and I will. Don't post a comment with "Just do it..." when you have no idea what other stuff I have going on or how much effort it would be to get it to any sort of presentable state. Lighten up man.
    - lwat 15y ago
      Do or do not, there is no 'try' -- Yoda
  - gojomo 15y ago
    I think saying 'Maybe I'll...' is a perfectly good way to poll if there's enough interest to make the effort worthwhile. Getting upvotes and supportive comments like "Please do, I'd like to see that" would make the follow-through posting more likely. Critical complaints like yours make the follow-through posting less likely.
bettse 15y ago
caliander
dm5037 15y ago
Spot on. I feel quite sure people do think in something like this way. I've thought about it in the past as well and have been working on some similar ideas for mapping: http://danieljmaxwell.tumblr.com/post/12074739965/a-better-kind-of-mapping http://danieljmaxwell.tumblr.com/post/12074739965/a-better-k...
Robin_Message 15y ago
Dave Allen's Getting Things Done suggests having multiple levels of task/tactical/strategic/life tracking and review, roughly like you are describing, although doesn't suggest a special view for it.
Gambit89 15y ago
Combining this long-range view with a short-range view like SpiraClock ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2605709 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2605709 ) might be an interesting app.

173 points by pankratiev 15y ago

epaga 15y ago

Would love this for a paper calendar. I remember being stumped by the same problem of wanting a better overview over periods of time, and so came up with a scrollable-zoomable-timeline visualization called LineTime (http://www.linetimeapp.com http://www.linetimeapp.com). Smooth pinch-to-zoom and it displays days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. At this point, LineTime isn't a productivity app but a history timeline. But actually I like this idea almost better for a productivity tool, since it enables you to "compartmentalize" a bit better than with a flowing timeline like LineTime.

praptak 15y ago
"Would love this for a paper calendar." This one would be tricky - it looks like this needs continuous re-scaling. This would probably need a system of movable paper parts - labels, post-its or whatever. There's a serious danger you'd spend more energy tweaking those than thinking about the actual tasks :)
- dredmorbius 15y ago
  A magnetic / whiteboard planning calendar might work though. You'd have current month large, then scale down through future 3 months, remainder of year, future years. Post-its / whiteboard marker / magnetic markers for various events. The advantage of software is of course that you can have scaled views but infinite (or at least very large) storage capacity.
  - mbreese 15y ago
    Well, the other advantage of software is that you wouldn't have to re-draw your paper version of a calendar when the months change. Imagine having to move important events from the smaller "future" boxes to the now much bigger "soon" boxes.

praptak 15y ago

The 43 folders system bears some resemblance to this idea. If you haven't already heard about it a hundred times, it's about having 31 "day of month" folders - the shorter time frame, plus 12 "month" folders - the longer time frame. The shuffling of tasks is pretty obvious: the tasks from upcoming month get reshuffled into their respective day folders. You could extend it with one or two more levels (year? decade?) and get something similar to what the author describes.

ctdonath 15y ago

"Logarithmic". That's the word I needed. I've been trying to visualize a calendar that captures everything from seconds to years (akin to the marvelous but abandoned "once around the sun" work some years back), and at last pondering was wondering how to scale a spiral-of-spirals-of... which would capture the cyclic nature of our model of time; problem was scaling. Some application of logarithmic scaling may work...

DanI-S 15y ago
Since I can remember, I've visualised time as a set of continuous spirals - years are the largest, with Christmas at the top and early summer at the bottom. The years lie on top of one another and fade off into the distance, like a slinky viewed end-on. I see days, weeks and months separately, but in continuous spirals of their own. I don't know how common this is, but I vaguely recall reading that it is a form of synaesthesia. I've always found this pretty useful. I can see the positions between events and intuitively judge their distance. I can see how recurring events are 'pinned' through multiple years. I see time periods - like months, or vacation times, as segments of the coil that are somehow 'different' (like being a different colour, except not). If I'm trying to remember when something happened, or is going to happen, I mentally flip through the slinky layers. Does anyone else think this way? How do people regularly visualise time? I've always thought it'd be a pretty fantastic digital calendar UI, since it seems so intuitive to me - how does it sound to others? Edit: Here's an article I just found. There are some people with similar visualizations to mine, and someone who perceives a year as a giant numeral '7'! Interestingly, the article talks about this perception underlying unusually good memory - but my memory of the past is actually pretty atrocious. http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/11/the_cognitive_benefits_of_time-space_synaesthesia.php http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/11/the_cognitiv...
- saraid216 15y ago
  Just want to say that that is extremely cool and I wish I could see the world through your brain.
  - 15y ago

kilovoltaire 15y ago

This is a great idea, and fits nicely with the observation that humans seem to perceive many things, including time, logarithmically: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber–Fechner_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber–Fechner_law

eru 15y ago
Yes. Though there are some interesting aversions. For example people seem to discount future income by 1/t rather than by log t.
iansinke 15y ago
One thing I've always wondered about is the dials or sliders for temperature settings in the car. Many of them (especially the linear sliders) seem to be set up in a logarithmic way rather than a direct linear scale. Although I'm not sure whether I'm basing that on the scale of the tick marks next to the slider or on my actual perception of the temperature -- probably the former...

s-phi-nl 15y ago

See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248496 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248496 and especially http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248922 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248922 for another discussion of the same idea.

jqueryin 15y ago

I posted a submission to the JavaScript 10K apart competition last year which was an HTML5 calendar utilizing localStorage. It essentially gave you a view of all twelve upcoming months in a snapshot. Perhaps even something as simple as this would help with the visual aspect. As far as the "bindings" are concerned, I think you could use tabs along the top and do some redesigning for the different timeframes. http://10k.aneventapart.com/1/Entry/233 http://10k.aneventapart.com/1/Entry/233

pbnjay 15y ago

I actually created a logarithmic calendar app for a class a few years ago... Maybe I'll dig it out, update it and post since other people seem to like the idea...

runjake 15y ago
Just do it and post it. Don't post a comment with "Maybe..."
- user24 15y ago
  One 'getting things done' tip I've adopted is to catch myself writing "I will" in an email and change it to "I have", then go and do it. It works pretty well.
- pbnjay 15y ago
  Pay for my time and I will. Don't post a comment with "Just do it..." when you have no idea what other stuff I have going on or how much effort it would be to get it to any sort of presentable state. Lighten up man.
  - lwat 15y ago
    Do or do not, there is no 'try' -- Yoda
- gojomo 15y ago
  I think saying 'Maybe I'll...' is a perfectly good way to poll if there's enough interest to make the effort worthwhile. Getting upvotes and supportive comments like "Please do, I'd like to see that" would make the follow-through posting more likely. Critical complaints like yours make the follow-through posting less likely.

bettse 15y ago

caliander

dm5037 15y ago

Spot on. I feel quite sure people do think in something like this way. I've thought about it in the past as well and have been working on some similar ideas for mapping: http://danieljmaxwell.tumblr.com/post/12074739965/a-better-kind-of-mapping http://danieljmaxwell.tumblr.com/post/12074739965/a-better-k...

Robin_Message 15y ago

Dave Allen's Getting Things Done suggests having multiple levels of task/tactical/strategic/life tracking and review, roughly like you are describing, although doesn't suggest a special view for it.

Gambit89 15y ago

Combining this long-range view with a short-range view like SpiraClock ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2605709 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2605709 ) might be an interesting app.