Praise for Remember the Milk

[Paper Ninja]

I have been using Remember the Milk for just about as long as it has been around, and it has always been a key part of my GTD systems. It is simply THE best list manager I have ever used - bar none.

3 best things about RTM

1. In the cloud so you can access your lists anywhere, including smartphones and tablets
2. Easy list creation and separation by tags and tabs
3. Phenomenal search capabilities

I have no relation or interest to RTM, but have been a happy user for so long, I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that it is a great option.

Thanks

 

[mmorowitz]

I went through A LOT of different apps and finally landed on RTM. I really avoided paid apps but finally came to the conclusion that it would be the way to go.

Cloud access is very important to me, but the biggest RTM benefit is the flexibility of the smart lists. It allows you to really fine-tune your GTD system as you learn and improve.

 

[May]

A very bad name for an app if you're vegan though
Milk (except mothers milk) isn't made for humans and RTM isn't made for gtd.
I've tried RTM but it's very limited for gtd and has to be hacked and gets too cluttered with all those tags, tabs and smart lists, not really designed for gtd.
There are lots of better options, I think even using Evernote would be more convenient. Nirvana2 is a really good option...

 

[mmorowitz]

I've tried RTM but it's very limited for gtd and has to be hacked and gets too cluttered with all those tags, tabs and smart lists, not really designed for gtd.
There are lots of better options, I think even using Evernote would be more convenient. Nirvana2 is a really good option...

To each, his/her own, but I'm a bit confused by your analysis. Sure RTM isn't design "for" GTD. It's designed for flexibility which allows it to be used for GTD. It's the most flexible system I've seen and has allowed me to grow, change, and learn. Frankly, it's the closest thing to paper that I've found in a cloud-based system with offline access.

How would Evernote be more convenient? I use Evernote for my reference system but I would find it astoundingly limited, inflexible, and slow as a robust GTD/task management system. If anything is designed "for" GTD, Evernote is much less so than RTM.

There's an inherent convenience limitation in Nirvana also: it's web-based and doesn't have an app for offline use. I would hate for my ability to review or reference my tasks to be tied to my connection. Very inconvenient.

Everyone has their own requirements and needs for their own productivity management. To each, their own.

 

[hacker]

Back on track, let's keep the rants to a minimum

So in keeping with the spirit of this thread, let's see how everyone is actually using RTM for their GTD/list-capture within their workflow.

Only then can we make an accurate assessment as to whether or not it works within the goals of GTD or not.

In my particular case, RTM (web-side of the app) is rife with bugs, duplication and lots of problems synchronizing with my BlackBerry. On the BB side, everything looks great, organized and syncs to my Tasks list.

I'm not sure why, or where it happened, but every single time I log into the website, every task I have, is duplicated by 2.

It's very frustrating to have to log into the website, select all tasks, delete them all, then go to my BB, uninstall the RTM app, reinstall the app and force an upstream sync.

I have to do this because simply deleting everything from the web side of things, then forcing a one-way sync from my BB does not push all tasks upstream to the RTM servers.

I too, have a problem with the lack of clear, reliable function in cloud-based task/list apps, and so I rely on what is on my BB only, always, and keep the web side of things as "backup", in case my BB breaks or blows up.

 

[mmorowitz]

So in keeping with the spirit of this thread, let's see how everyone is actually using RTM for their GTD/list-capture within their workflow.

Only then can we make an accurate assessment as to whether or not it works within the goals of GTD or not.

In my particular case, RTM (web-side of the app) is rife with bugs, duplication and lots of problems synchronizing with my BlackBerry. On the BB side, everything looks great, organized and syncs to my Tasks list.

I'm not sure why, or where it happened, but every single time I log into the website, every task I have, is duplicated by 2.

It's very frustrating to have to log into the website, select all tasks, delete them all, then go to my BB, uninstall the RTM app, reinstall the app and force an upstream sync.

I have to do this because simply deleting everything from the web side of things, then forcing a one-way sync from my BB does not push all tasks upstream to the RTM servers.

I too, have a problem with the lack of clear, reliable function in cloud-based task/list apps, and so I rely on what is on my BB only, always, and keep the web side of things as "backup", in case my BB breaks or blows up.

Sounds like a frustrating bug and would definitely be a deal breaker for me. I'm an Android user and I have no issues between web and device.

My RTM implementation consists of:

1. Project lists

2. Checklist storage

3. Someday lists (personal and professional)

4. Tags for contexts (prefixed with "@")

5. Non-project lists, "buckets", for next actions that are not project oriented (I don't like keeping these things in "Inbox" so NAs like "mop the kitchen floor" go into a "household" bucket).

6. Smart lists: Global Focus (all NAs and all tasks for the next two days), Work focus (filtered by context), Home Focus, Waiting On (tasks get tagged "waiting" in any project/list).

On place that I break a GTD rule is that RTM serves as a kind of calendar for me for recurring tasks or time based tasks or tickler items (pay a bill, call someone for their b-day -- tings like this usually wind up in non-project buckets) My regular google calendar is only for appointments and events, not tasks.

A couple rules I have for my implementation are

1. Anything in a non-project bucket is either tagged "next action" or has a date. This ensures that there are no hidden items or closed loops. They will all appear in global focus or a context search of NAs.

2. Date-stamped items have no priority, every other item must be prioritized. This allows my "focus" smart lists to be easily visually grouped by today's tasks and a color-coded prioritized list of NAs.

RTM is not perfect. I'd love to be able to nest lists so I could group my checklists, projects, smart lists, etc. Currently I use the "A bit better RTM" browser extension to put the lists in a nicely formatted list, and I use a single-character alphabetic prefix to keep things visually grouped. I also hate the name and logo (I'd love a more professional look). There are a few minor interface tweaks that it needs to make it more functional and I'd LOVE to be able to attach documents to tasks.

Beyond those relatively small gripes, it works nearly perfectly for me and it allows me to tweak, add, and subtract things to my system with relative ease. Android syncing works great. I have my global focus screen right on my phone's home screen.

Best,
Michael

 

[mcogilvie]

I think the only outstanding feature of RTM is smart lists. The rest of it looks dated compared to it's competition: no hierarchy of projects and next actions, no start dates, and weak sorting. I don't care for the web interface, but I have to admit the iOS app looks nice. I don't really understand the reason for the sliding panel interface, though. Can anyone explain what that's about?

 

[Sue H]

Advanced GTD with Remember the Milk RTM

I have been using Remember the Milk for just about as long as it has been around, and it has always been a key part of my GTD systems. It is simply THE best list manager I have ever used - bar none.

3 best things about RTM

1. In the cloud so you can access your lists anywhere, including smartphones and tablets
2. Easy list creation and separation by tags and tabs
3. Phenomenal search capabilities

Found a great post on step by step implementation - merging GTD philosophy with RTM tools - http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2008/05/guest-post-advanced-gtd-with-remember-the-milk/ - haven't done it yet, myself, but I think this is the roadmap to save me all sorts of time and pain.

 

[jlfreire]

Limitations that I found

I liked the tool. I even made me a pro user.
But in the end failed because it couln't sync the smart list with my outlook or blackberry (my everyday work tools).

The web page I found that was not so easy to fill a task. If I want only to put the task name, it's Ok, but is I need to put due dates and other categories, I found myself having to do too much mouse clicks to fill field that should be immediately available to fill.

In the other end, I found the iPad app Gerry solid.

Maybe in the near future when they overcome this limitation I could try again.

Thank,
Joao Freire

 

[PeterW]

There's an inherent convenience limitation in Nirvana also: it's web-based and doesn't have an app for offline use.

Not any more... NirvanaHQ have just released their iPhone app. And it's free.

 

[robertedwards]

No support for Mac so I can't use it. Appigo Sync once did but the two companies had a falling out - in the end users suffered. I now use Toodledo on Mac, Windows, Android, BlackBerry and web where they sync happily ever after.

-- Robert.

 

[mart007]

The web page I found that was not so easy to fill a task. If I want only to put the task name, it's Ok, but is I need to put due dates and other categories, I found myself having to do too much mouse clicks to fill field that should be immediately available to fill.

RTM has a fairly extensive shortcut list - so something like
"Buy Milk ^today 5pm" will schedule it or 5pm today (without the quotes).
Just an fyi

 

[jrdouce]

I used RTM for a year, but found data entry to labor intensive.
I hate having to add a task, hit enter, scroll through my list select the task, check Edit, then add tags, dates, notes etc. Way too much work to capture the task. I know there are some shortcuts ^, ! etc. But, I found that if it is that much work to enter a task, I was not entering tasks.

I'm using Google Tasks and the GTasks app now. I'm very simple in my lists. Task name, support note (maybe) and due date(maybe). Sure, I'd like tagging and location options, but I can live without them in favor of the simplicity.