Tech Tip: Sync your overdue tasks to Google Calendar

CompanionLink for Google has the ability to sync tasks from the PC as calendar entries into the Google Calendar. If the tasks have a due date associated with them, those will map into the Google Calendar at the appropriate time and date. However, many users have been asking, “What happens to overdue tasks?”

CompanionLink syncs all overdue tasks into a single all-day entry on the Google Calendar. This makes it easy to quickly view a summary of all overdue tasks. When that task is completed on the PC, CompanionLink will sync changes and remove that task from the list of overdue tasks.

Overdue Tasks

CompanionLink for Google retails for $39.95, a 14-day free trial is available here.

Syncing tasks with Google, Gmail or Google Apps

While Google still hasn’t given us access to their Tasks API (so we can sync Tasks), we’ve created a workaround for the time being.  CompanionLink will sync your Tasks in Outlook, Palm Desktop, and other desktop software to your Google calendar as untimed events.

If you have a phone that syncs with your Google account, you can complete the task on your phone by inserting (complete) at the end of the subject of the task.

Original Task:
Task: Send email updates on the new product line

Completed Task:
Task: Send email updates on the new product line (complete)

Syncing overdue tasks in Google

When you sync overdue Outlook tasks to your Google account using CompanionLink, they now get summarized into a sorted list (by date) and entered as a calendar event for the current day.  The calendar event is called Overdue Tasks.

This is extremely useful for people who use Outlook tasks with Google, and tend to lag behind the due dates they set on those tasks.  Previously, you would loose sight of those tasks as they fail to show up on your calendar after a certain point in time.  The latest build of CompanionLink for Google fixes that by having all overdue tasks summarized for you in a single calendar event.

Here’s a screenshot of how Overdue Tasks look in your Google calendar.