Introduction
This week, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Tasks—a new way to ask ChatGPT to do things for you at a future time. If you kicked off the new year hoping to better manage your time, the new feature can be a helpful tool, but it has its limitations.
In this article, we’ll explore how ChatGPT Tasks can help you with daily planning, what its limitations are, and how to overcome them.
What is ChatGPT Tasks?
ChatGPT Tasks is a new feature in ChatGPT that enables users to request tasks to be performed at a future time. Users can take advantage of this assistant-like feature for both one-off and recurring tasks. For instance, you can prompt it to remind you about someone’s birthday every year, to meditate once a day, or to register for classes on the day registration opens.
How do you use ChatGPT Tasks for daily planning?
While ChatGPT tasks is built mainly for scheduling things you want ChatGPT to do at specific times, you can also use it to help with daily planning. ChatGPT can remind you when it’s time to work on certain tasks or habits and even generate helpful information for each task. Here’s how you can get started using ChatGPT Tasks for daily planning:
1. Enable ChatGPT Tasks: Before you can use this feature, you’ll need to change the model to “GTP-4o with scheduled tasks”. This model is currently rolling out in beta to users of the Plus, Pro, and Team plans.
2. Create a list of everything you need to do, both one-off tasks and recurring tasks. You can use any basic notes app for this, or even a pen and paper. You’ll just need to list out everything you want ChatGPT to help you with.
3. Choose times for when you’ll do each task. ChatGPT requires you to tell it what time to execute the prompt, so it can’t find time in your schedule for you. If you want an app to automatically find time in your schedule for your tasks, an auto-scheduler like FlowSavvy would work better for you.
4. Enter tasks one by one into ChatGPT Tasks, telling it when you want to be reminded to do the task. For example, “Remind me to read 10 pages at 9pm every day”. You can give ChatGPT any other instructions that you want it to follow at the specified time. For example, you can ask it to generate a workout routine for you every time you workout.
5. Edit scheduled tasks as needed. You can tweak the prompt that will execute at your chosen time, or change the date, time, and recurrence pattern for when you want the prompt to execute.
6. When the time arrives, ChatGPT Tasks will send you an email notification with a link back to the conversation where you can see the result of the prompt.
What are ChatGPT Tasks’ limitations when it comes to daily planning?
If you know exactly what you need and when you need it done, using ChatGPT Tasks for daily planning can work. However, for most daily planning needs, ChatGPT Tasks has some limitations:
Lack of a visual calendar: If you’re a visual person, ChatGPT Tasks may not be enough to help you manage your day-to-day life. It provides only text-based outputs, rather than a full calendar in which you can see your one-off and recurring tasks.
Not designed to be used as a to-do list: Since ChatGPT Tasks is mostly a prompt scheduler, the task list is not intended to be used as a to-do list, meaning you can’t do things like mark tasks complete. It’s more of just a list of automations, so if you’re looking for a to-do list, ChatGPT Tasks is not designed for this use case. For this use case, it would be better to use to-do list apps with natural language capabilities, like ToDoist.
No auto scheduling: ChatGPT needs to be told exactly when to do each task, and it does not integrate with your calendar. So while it can respond to your prompts, it can’t intuitively move your tasks around without your direction. For instance, let’s say you ask ChatGPT Tasks to remind you to work out at 2pm each day. If something unexpected pops up on your calendar at 2pm, it won’t automatically reschedule your reminder. If you’re looking for automatic scheduling, you can use a dedicated auto-scheduling calendar like FlowSavvy.
Irregularities in reliability: ChatGPT Tasks can sometimes struggle to manage complex prompts. For example, it can only handle creating one task at a time right now, meaning you couldn’t give it all your tasks for the day at once and have it create a task for each one.
Limited number of tasks: You can only have 10 active tasks at once, meaning if you’re using this for daily planning, you might find this limit restricting.
How to automatically schedule tasks into your calendar
If you’re just looking for some basic help scheduling tasks in the future, ChatGPT Tasks could be a good fit for you. But if your schedule is too complex or unpredictable to manage through ChatGPT Tasks, you can use a dedicated auto-scheduler like FlowSavvy to automatically build and adapt your schedule.
FlowSavvy is a better fit for managing your calendar and daily planning needs for the following reasons:
Effortless auto-scheduling: FlowSavvy auto-schedules your to-dos into your calendar around your meetings and events.
Automatic conflict resolution and rescheduling: If a last minute meeting comes up or you get behind, FlowSavvy instantly reschedules tasks to give you your new re-optimized schedule
Flexible repeating tasks: ChatGPT Tasks can schedule repeating tasks for the same time every day, but every day is different, meaning you might not be able to stick to your habits at the same time every day. FlowSavvy finds time for your repeating tasks every day, even when your days are different.
Intuitive scheduling interface: FlowSavvy offers a simple yet robust calendar interface designed from the ground up for automatic time-blocking. Its drag-and-drop functionality and color coded tasks make scheduling a breeze – without the need to take time typing detailed instructions into ChatGPT.
Integrated calendar syncing: ChatGPT Tasks lacks native calendar integrations. FlowSavvy integrates seamlessly with Google Calendar, iCloud, and Outlook.com calendars, making it easy to manage both personal and professional commitments.
Unmatched reliability: FlowSavvy is designed to handle complex schedules and frequent changes. It will also never forget details or hallucinate, which is a known weakness of generative AI tools like ChatGPT.
Conclusion
ChatGPT Tasks can be a helpful tool for scheduling tasks you want ChatGPT to do, and for obtaining text-based suggestions on how to optimize your time. But when it comes to daily planning and accounting for unpredictability, ChatGPT Tasks falls short.
Using a tool that integrates seamlessly with your calendar can significantly enhance your daily planning and ensure the things that are most important to you don’t fall through the cracks. When it comes to managing complex scheduling needs effortlessly, FlowSavvy’s auto-scheduling platform offers unmatched functionality, flexibility and freedom.
Looking for a way to auto-schedule your to-do list into your calendar? Try FlowSavvy for free today!