Apple's new iOS5 Reminders feature

[pxt]

Just announced at Apple's WWDC, would it be fair to say that this is a disaster of a non-GTD feature that Apple have just created. It's the classic to-do list combined with dates, which would just get pushed back each day you don't complete the to-do list.

What I find weird about this is that I actually got into GTD via various Apple-related podcasts which talked about David Allen, from people such as Merlin Mann. The Apple community is one of the most GTD-aware groups out there.

Info:

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html#reminders

http://www.macworld.com/article/160435/2011/06/ios5_reminders.html?lsrc="top_1"

 

[mcogilvie]

Don't worry!

It looks to me like Reminders allows multiple lists, and does not require due dates. It should be possible to implement a basic set of gtd-style lists with it. It may cut into the sale of $0.99 todo apps, but it's hardly a disaster.

 

[kelstarrising]

Thanks for posting this PXT. The hugely helpful news here is that the new OS will finally have a native To Do list that syncs to other things. This has been an unbelievably confusing matrix for people to figure out and has forced people to cobble together a complex web of 3rd party apps to fill this hole.

Of course we'll have to check it out to see if it's something we'd recommend to people for GTD, but just the fact that something native to the OS from Apple will be available is a huge win for iPhone, iPad and iTouch users.

 

[Todd V]

re: Reminders App on iOS

If you think about it, Reminders will keep your next actions available to you across multiple platforms without a web app. Consider someone who has a PC at work, a Mac at home, and an iPhone. With Reminders, she can change an action on the Reminders app on her iPhone and it is automatically updated on her Outlook at work and her mac at home. She can do the same from her PC or her mac and it updates the action on her iPhone.

This will be extremely helpful. But I also think it's important to put it in perspective. These handheld devices—with respect to GTD—are primarily for collecting and doing. While some minor tweaks to tasks and projects are possible, these devices still have yet to become the command and control center for higher horizon planning and managing our files and documents (especially the large ones). Currently the programs available on iOS devices provide lists of tasks but very little by way of access and modification of these digital documents. Have you ever been looking at a task on your iPhone and realized the document you need to complete it is at home on your computer? This is the disconnect that exists for many of the task-management apps currently available on these devices (i.e., they need better access and interaction with our digital inventories of files and documents). If the marriage of iCloud and Reminders eventually provides this functionality of linking tasks with their relevant documents and files, it will be heaven for GTDers with iOS devices. We shall see.

 

[Oth]

Evernote

This will be extremely helpful. But I also think it's important to put it in perspective. These handheld devices—with respect to GTD—are primarily for collecting and doing. While some minor tweaks to tasks and projects are possible, these devices still have yet to become the command and control center for higher horizon planning and managing our files and documents (especially the large ones). Currently the programs available on iOS devices provide lists of tasks but very little by way of access and modification of these digital documents. Have you ever been looking at a task on your iPhone and realized the document you need to complete it is at home on your computer?.

If you haven't already, I would highly recommend checking out Evernote. This ubiquitous cloud-based note storage application fills the gap you mention very very nicely.

I have started experimenting with a mixed Reminders + Evernote setup and I am finding that it has the potential of working extremely well in the long run. I am experimenting with this for my personal projects and tasks.

1. Reminders on iPhone for next action list (one separate list by context), project list, waiting list, someday/maybe list (with reminders)

2. Evernote on iPhone and Mac (and in my near future iPad) for vertical project planning and project support. Evernote works particularly well for so-called natural planning that most projects require.

3. Evernote for reference documentation storage and retrieval, with instant full-text search and image OCR.

4. Confidential/private project and reference documentation are kept in local notebooks within my Evernote Mac client storage.

As a complement, I use paper for paper-based tasks, projects and references. Paper means: legal paper and folders.

 

[tjhoo]

I use both

Evernote (EN) user for I think at least 2 years.

Like the concept of reminders on iOS (generated from Tasks in Outlook [OL] for me).

I'm hoping that iOS reminders become more refined and flexible. I can't even figure out how the reminders are prioritized/sorted on the screen. Also a reminder created in iOS does not have a "due date" in OL.

I thought I had read that EN is planning on creating a due date function. This may really take EN to a new level for GTD'rs. Now if EN had a calendar, I might do away with OL altogether and just use my EN email address for everything.

 

[Guest]

If you're on an Exchange server then no, it doesn't matter whether Outlook is open on your local machine. Your data (calendar items, tasks, notes, etc.) are stored on the Exchange server. The various iPhone apps access the Exchange server to get the data.

 

[apastuszak]

I just installed Pocket Informant

I just installed Pocket Informant on my iPad and am quite happy with it so far. It's task list syncs with ToodleDo, and the calendar will sync with Google Calendar or the built in iOS calendars.

The task preferences let you turn on either Franklin-Covey, GTD or Traditional. And you can set tasks to default to no priority and no due date, which is nice. At $15 it's not cheap, but it was cheaper than the $20 Action Lists I was looking at that only did Lists and no calendar.

I also checked out Todo. Though a very nice looking app, the fact it would not sync the Toodledo Status field left me wanting, since I use Due Today on my Fascinate (Android) and the ToodleDo website and Task Unifier from my home or work computer, so I needed something that would sync ALL ToodleDo fields and not force me to use tags.