A Review of Stylish GTD Apps

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tommysqueak

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I'm making the switch to a new GTD system, from my old MyLifeOrganized system. I've decided write up this quest as a series of posts. Here's the first one, with the apps and what I think makes a good GTD app/system. I'm then going to review each shortlisted app in detail.

http://tomphilip.me/index.php/gtd-app-review-introduction/

It'd be great to get some feedback. Especially about if the criteria that GTD worthy apps should be reviewed against and also whether I've missed any apps off the shortlist.
 
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AndrewGM1

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tommysqueak;92091 said:
I'm making the switch to a new GTD system, from my old MyLifeOrganized system. I've decided write up this quest as a series of posts. Here's the first one, with the apps and what I think makes a good GTD app/system. I'm then going to review each shortlisted app in detail.

http://tomphilip.me/index.php/gtd-app-review-introduction/

It'd be great to get some feedback. Especially about if the criteria that GTD worthy apps should be reviewed against and also whether I've missed any apps off the shortlist.
Click to expand...

Posted this on your site too:

I think this could be interesting, so thanks for doing it. I am now trying to settle on one GTD system, and right now that is Toodledo and a paper capture book, although I don’t love Toodledo’s interface, but it works.

Have you thought about trying http://www.omnifocus.com, http://www.gqueues.com, http://smartytask.com, http://www.rememberthemilk.com, http://www.nirvanahq.com, http://www.potionfactory.com/thehitlist/, http://culturedcode.com/things/, or https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas?pli=1?

I really like Omnifocus but currently am not on a Mac at home (but might be later) and at work. GQueues syncs very well with GCal but is not a great interface. Haven’t tried SmartyTask, but it looks pretty and useful. RTM I tried but didn’t love working with it. Nirvana’s latest beta version is very nice, but could use a great smartphone app. The Hit List and Things I haven’t really tried, but I’m sure you know they have their fans. Google Tasks is convenient for GCal, but no doubt too limited, although supposedly an upgrade may come at some point.

And what about paper? I can see why it doesn’t meet your criteria, though.
 
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chris101

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some additional criteria

A couple of other criteria that you might want to consider is how often the app is updated (features added/bugs fixed) and what types of support they provide to users. While these will obviously be hard to operationalise, for me they're key to having confidence in my "trusted system".

Good luck with it,
chris.
 
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letega

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Looking forward to it, thanks.

I have the same set up as you and am very interested to see what you find. I used Omnifocus for a long time but now I have an Android phone. That's the part that takes a lot of heavy hitters out of the running.
 
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tommysqueak

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chris101;92098 said:
A couple of other criteria that you might want to consider is how often the app is updated (features added/bugs fixed) and what types of support they provide to users. While these will obviously be hard to operationalise, for me they're key to having confidence in my "trusted system".

Good luck with it,
chris.
Click to expand...

I think that's a good idea. I know some of the sites have a roadmap of features coming soon and are very good at keeping customers informed. For some it might be difficult to work out what there support is like but for the ones that are have active support I'll mention it.

letega;92101 said:
I have the same set up as you and am very interested to see what you find. I used Omnifocus for a long time but now I have an Android phone. That's the part that takes a lot of heavy hitters out of the running.
Click to expand...

That's the thing I find a lot of the Mac apps have iphone/ipad apps as companions.
 
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mhm802

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^ Interesting to read your reviews, but as a Toodledo user, I'd like to comment on your observations. First of all, I think most Toodledo users would agree with you that the UI leaves a lot to be desired (but you should have seen it before the re-design ha ha). However, your comments suggest that you might not have given it a thorough test drive before giving up in frustration.

It's true there are a lot of options, and that may feel confusing at first. Many people have to tinker a while to figure out how to customize Toodledo for their needs, and many ultimately streamline their system so they are not using using all the bells and whistles that Toodledo offers. That may be one reason why your screen appears so cramped. As for an "inbox" many people use the default "no folder" as an inbox, or alternatively set up a folder called "in box" and adjust the settings to push new items there automatically. It's not difficult to do. And there is definitely a task count on folders and contexts; it's possible you did not turn on that feature.

Just to clarify -- Toodledo is not for everyone, and it's perfectly understandable that if a tool doesn't "click" for you, there's no point in struggling to push that stone uphill when there are other tools that work better FOR YOU. But it's also important not to mislead others with information that is not accurate.

I hope you find something that works well for you.
 
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tommysqueak

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I never gave up on this in frustration and I went through the same tests that all the apps have gone through so far. I'm trying to give a balanced view across the 10 apps. It is no way misleading, as it's been tested against a set of criteria set out at the beginning and the same for all reviewed apps.

I did find the setting to turn on the list counts and have updated the post. Thanks for pointing that out. Would've thought that would have been on by default, it's useful.

Although the UI was pretty bad, I haven't given up on this and it hasn't been exlcuded from being picked as part of my GTD system. The 3rd party apps Due Today and TODO for Mac, still make Toodledo a viable choice.
 
mcogilvie

mcogilvie

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Interesting to see your opinions. I'm not sure what your criteria were for picking the apps you picked. My experience with the Apple app store is that generally anything rated less than four stars is not going to be good enough for a gtd list manager. I've looked at almost all of the apps you've picked, and rejected all but Toodledo, on the grounds of functionality and robustness. But it's always fun to find out how other people see these things.
 
TesTeq

TesTeq

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Comparison criteria.

tommysqueak;92837 said:
I shortlisted the 10 apps based on
  • Speed
  • Offline Access
  • Beauty
  • Multi Device - Android, Mac, Windows
Click to expand...

Commenting on your comparison criteria:
  • Speed - important (noticable delays disqualify the product)
  • Offline Access - important for most of the users
  • Beauty - very subjective
  • Multi Device - Android, Mac, Windows - not important for most of the mere mortals.
 
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tommysqueak

Registered
I've had Astrid for a while and I think it used to be called tags but it got renamed to lists. It's not that you can't do GTD with it, it's just you'd have to have to use lists for projects as well as contexts.

This was based on the Android version, so you'd assume they're the same but I can't vouch for it.
 
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dalewking

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Might want to try Nirvana

I would add Nirvana 2 to your list (https://www.nirvanahq.com/). It is a web app (so therefore is cross platform), but has mobile web interface as well. I put a bookmark to it on my Android home screen and it looks pretty much like a native app other than the address bar at the top.

It does not fully fulfill your offline criteria, but might meet some people's needs. If you had the web site open when you had a connection and then lose the connection it will continue to operate. If you did not have it open before losing connection you won't be able to open the web page.

It is very stylish and has lots of nice features. It is what I am using, but I must say I found this thread looking to see if there was anything new in the GTD app space, since I am hoping to get an Android tablet next week in which case off-line will become more important to me.
 
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tommysqueak

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Someone was very kind enough to let me use their Nirvana account, so I could try it out. I did love the interface but as you say offline support was only partially supported and it being in private beta means it wasn't review worthy (yet). Apparently there's going to be Android app,. Looking forward to that.

Tablet-wise, Due Today is great http://tomphilip.me/index.php/gtd-app-review-due-today/ and Conqu looks sweet too (review to come).
 
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dalewking

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Just checked out conqu

Wow, very impressed with Conqu. I think once it gets recurring tasks (reportedly 10% done on the roadmap) I will be switching from Nirvana to Conqu, although still waiting to see what happens with WunderKit.
 
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