Disclaimer: I am by no means a professional software reviewer, so take what follows as my personal experience and nothing more.
During my undergraduate education I had to read a book by David Allen called Getting Things Done. This book as revolutionized the way in which people, from CEOs of multinational corporations to students to housewives, go about task management. His system, I believe, has many, many upsides. The only downside that I can think of is that one has to read his book in order to understand the philosophy of GTD (“getting things done”).
As a student who often has many different things going on at once, such as different classes and tasks that go along with those classes, work, church, social life, etc., life can get pretty hectic at times. I’ve found that the normal “to do list” just doesn’t get the job done. There’s nothing more overwhelming than looking at a list a mile long. That is why GTD is so useful. You can break up your tasks into projects, contexts, areas, locations, etc. For instance, right now there are over 200 tasks in my to do list. But when I look at my GTD software, I only see things that I need to do today or things that are next in a long list of things to do. By adding contexts and dates to tasks you have to do, the projects and tasks you have to complete become much more manageable. But that’s getting into David Allen’s book, which is not the purpose of this post.
Rather, I’d like to talk about a few programs and services that make my life manageable. I still have a lot to learn about using my time to be the most productive that I can be, but I feel as if I do reasonably well and do so only because of many of the tools I use on my computer.
There are loads of GTD software out there and you may find one that fits you perfectly and works for you. I don’t think that the way in which I go about using GTD software or the applications I like should be used by everybody everywhere. To each his own. Whatever application/strategy makes you more productive you should use.
Let’s start with GTD software.
I have been using OmniFocus for the past 6-8 months and found it to be a very good application. It is a powerhouse application with many different options for how to organize your tasks. It also has an iPhone version that can be synced over MobileMe with your desktop application. What I’ve found using OmniFocus is that it gets the job done, but is much more powerful and includes too many options that are completely meaningless to me. Not only that, but I’ve found that the iPhone app is sluggish: it takes a while to initially load and has an annoying delay when adding or checking off tasks. Unless you are very well versed in GTD then OmniFocus might be too intimidating to be helpful. Nothing takes away from productivity than bumbling around with an app that takes away precious time in order to learn it.
Recently I have switched back to Things. I have had things for a while as I purchased it back when it was in beta ($10). The addition of an iPhone app that can be synced with the desktop app was one of the reasons that I made the switch back. Another reason is that Things is extremely intuitive and looks more at home in Mac OSX. You honestly don’t need to do much more than watch the screencast, which explains how Things works, in order to jump right into the app and start getting things done (pardon the pun). The iPhone app is much quicker than OmniFocus’ app and also looks a lot better.
You can check out the websites of these GTD apps linked above in order to see what options each offer to see if you’d like to use them.
I use Things with every app on my computer with the universal shortcut key that you can set (mine is apple+spacebar…I took Spotlight off of my Mac in favor of Google Desktop). What this allows you to do is create a task in Things from any other application on your Mac. For instance, if I get an email that I need to respond to, I invoke Things (apple+spacebar) and create a task. I can even drag the email into the ‘notes’ section of the task so I know which email I am referring to when I look at my to do list in Things. I have my Mail app set with three smart folders: Unread, Flagged, and Sent. I don’t see any other mailboxes or folder in my mail app, which allows me to focus on what needs to be focused on. If I read an email that I need to come back to later, I’ll either create a task in Things or mark the email as flagged. If I don’t need to get back to it, I just let it go. The next time I go to my Unread Smart Mailbox, it’s not there so it doesn’t take up any more of time worrying about which folder to place it in or whether or not to delete it. If I ever need it again, I can simply search my Mail app to find it.
I’ve found that doing this greatly reduces the amount of time I spend reading, sending, and messing around with my email, which, if we are all honest, is a big time waster in our lives.
I’ve also switched to doing everything via my Google account. I have a MobileMe account, but it is a headache. Most of the time it takes a lot of time for something I add on my iPhone to show up in my iCal or Address Book on my Mac. Other times everything gets completely erased. Very annoying.
So I’ve started using Google Calendar, Contacts (on Gmail), and Reader. Reader has a nice looking web app that can be added to your iPhone’s homescreen and syncs perfectly with your online Google Reader. If you use Google Reader, you might want to get the Google Reader Notifier, which is nice to have, especially because it includes Growl support (if you are on a Mac and don’t have Growl, you need to get it immediately). Google Reader Notifier also saves time as you can see what feeds you are subscribed to have been updated and what the title of the posts are. If you don’t want to read it or don’t have time, you can click ‘Mark all as read’ from the menu bar without ever opening up your browser. Like email, blogs can eat up a lot of time that could better be used doing other, more productive things.
There are web apps for Google Calendar and Gmail for the iPhone, but I recommend the new Google Mobile Sync. It syncs the native iPhone Calendar and Address Book apps with your Google Calendar and your Gmail contacts. It does this in real time using push (think of what MobileMe was supposed to do and then imagine it actually working and being free…that’s Google Mobile Sync). If you’re worried about switching to this service because all of your contacts are in Apple’s Address Book and not your Gmail account, no worries. Download the free application A to G and it exports your Address Book contacts into a file that can be imported into your Gmail contacts. Now your Gmail contacts are the same as your Address Book contacts.
Another great and free program I use is Syncplicity. Syncplicity offers up to 2GB of online storage for free and works dynamically as the folders you chose to back-up change. For instance, my documents folder is linked to Syncplicity. If I open my notes from today’s class and make a few changes, Syncplicity notices that I simply changed one file and uploads the changed file to my online folder. You can access all of your backed up files from any computer through their website. This is nice if you are a person, like me, that has a lot of documents on your computer that you do not want to loose. It’s extra nice because its free.
The last application I’d like to mention is DropBox. It’s another free service that offers up to 2GB of online storage for free. I use Syncplicity for online back up and use DropBox as an online thumb drive. If I need to print off a lengthy paper at the library, I can drop the document into my online folder, to the library, get online, download the document and print it off. It beats looking for the USB ports the library’s computer or risking your thumb drive flaking out and deleting your work.
That about wraps it up. The only reason I am bothering writing about these applications and services are because they have helped me out tremendously. Without these applications I don’t think I would be nearly as productive as I am currently…although I still have a long way to go in being as productive as I possibly can be.
9 February 2009 at 11.02 pm
You really do need to get Refworks.
9 February 2009 at 11.06 pm
refworks (works with PC and mac) and end note (only parts of it work with mac) are a database of journal citations saved into the format you choose (most use APA). As you find citations during research you can upload them to your account, and they “live” there. Then.. while you are writing, use the “cite while you write” features. At the end of the sentence, just type the last name of the author for the end note, and the citations are automatically put alphabetically at the end of your document in APA format. it saves me about 5 hours per paper, b/c I am usually working with 30+ citations.
9 February 2009 at 11.12 pm
a: I use BookEnds that can access a similar database as well as the bibliographic information from the Library of Congress, Amazon, etc. It also allows me to import my entire library from Delicious Library. I can also choose which format my bibliography should be in (MLA, Chicago, APA, SBL, etc.). It works seamlessly with Mellel, which is the word processor I use as it allows for writing from right-to-left and works perfectly with unicode fonts for Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Akkadian, etc. I’ll check out Refworks and see if it’s easier to use. BookEnds took a while to use, but now that I know how it works I can use it really well.
10 February 2009 at 1.12 am
thank you SO much….i must have been braindead to miss the reader notifier ot google mobile sync to the iphone. despite my yahoo mail i use ical and google reader religiously. thank you again.
p.s. ever use evernote? i find it to be the best thing since sliced bread for keeping a running “to do” list can be edited on the road or computer…i just keep a simple text note with bullets for everything i need to get done.
10 February 2009 at 1.21 am
gump: I do use Evernote for random notes and audio notes. I like that it syncs flawlessly with the desktop app. IMHO, Apple really failed by not allowing their notes app to sync with Mail or Stickies. Evernote fills that gap perfectly.
10 February 2009 at 9.57 am
Zotero is another app/plugin I would highly recommend for bib citation/management. It even has the SBL format built-in, instead of having to rely upon an SBL format created by a user which needs to be updated (BE). Unfortunately, it only has scripts for Word and OpenOffice.org (no Mellel). But, compared to BookEnds, Sente, and EndNote it is free and extremely easy to use. I have pretty much given up on BookEnds since it has a steep learning curve.
I have found that OpenOffice.org does handle R to L pretty well on Mac, compared to Word’s inability, although the cantillation marks don’t line up correctly.
10 February 2009 at 10.25 am
So for those of us who are not trendy enough to have macs, who are not saavy enough to have a non windows based OS, and who are not nearly literate enough to mess with web browsers that don’t allow Bill Gates to employ people to collect mosquitos in a jar is there a program someone could recommend?
Pax Christi…Nick
(p.s. This is my first real attempt at any HTML link code stuff, so if there is a random string of letters in this post I apologize in advance)
10 February 2009 at 3.29 pm
Nick: I believe that both DropBox and Syncplicity are available for free for Windows computers. Google Mobile Sync will also work with Windows and your iPhone.
As for GTD programs, Remember the Milk offers syncing with your iPhone. You can get a free account at their website and use their website to add tasks or check off completed tasks that syncs automatically with your iPhone app. It also has the ability to add your to-do list to your Gmail account and can work offline with Google Gears. I know some people who have it and swear by it. It’s cross-platform because it’s a web application. It’s also free, which is very nice.
Evernote, that gump mentioned, is also cross platform and has native desktop apps for Windows and Mac. All of your written, photo, or recorded notes sync between the iPhone app (which is free) and the desktop app (which is also free).
10 February 2009 at 4.30 pm
Have you tried GMail Tasks? It is a GMail Labs feature. It allows you to create multiple lists and you can even use the shortcut key SHIFT+T which will create a task from an email. I love it!
Check this link for the official GMail blog regarding tasks: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-in-labs-tasks.html
10 February 2009 at 6.21 pm
I was also going to mention “Remember the Milk.”
This isn’t a productivity utility, but since you mentioned Omni—
I have found OmniOutliner to be a great app for writing papers.
11 February 2009 at 12.58 pm
Jesse: I have tasks on Gmail and I think it is a nice first step, especially since they have a corresponding web app for the iPhone. But the inability to add contexts, projects, or tags to my list as well as the inability to create repeating tasks are things that they will have to implement before I consider switching from Things. Again, I think it’s a good first step, but it still needs some more features if it is going to compete with or replace GTD apps.
11 February 2009 at 1.02 pm
Aaron: I like the OmniGroup. I’m always switching between Firefox and OmniWeb because they both have features that I like. I agree that OmniOutliner is very helpful when organizing large projects like term papers once you learn how to use it well. I struggled learning it for a while, but now am pretty proficient at using it.
19 February 2009 at 2.15 am
For implementing GTD you can also use this web-based application:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
25 February 2009 at 7.39 pm
Just discovered Evernote today. I won’t be using it as a ToDo list (can’t beat Things for that), but it is so powerful for other things. I’m going to use it to dump all the documents, emails, and web clippings that I’ll want to reference sometime later. You can use tags, but Evernote indexes all the text (even readable text in pictures) so you can find what you need later. Finally a mind dump for the things I can’t dump into Things!