Hi all,
I am glad to have found all these information on the forum. However I am still searching for an application that fits my need before I spend a (sometimes high) amount to install and use some of them. I am looking after a very specific set of features, I think what is most important is that i am a quite "artistic" person and analytical, and I have a big need of visualising my data (or tasks) in different contexts or views. The system I look for has a dormant/thinking part where I plan step by step, think, add data etc., and an action part where here it is just muscle I follow task by task... and an opportunitic part I am in the area, i can do that too... (and a flexible customisable part)
The features I would like are:
- Data-centered system / visualisation and organisation: 1.Horizontal 2. Vertical 3. Geographic/Opportunitic 4. Customised. Ideally, the system is task/data-centered: that means the central item of the system is the TASK, and around a task you associate information all linkable that are: Project, Context, GeoLocalisation, Due Date. So I can view my tasks by projects (Horizontal) at a click of a button, in a sort of "project management mode" where I can visualise how I am advancing in the project and plan the next steps of this project. But then I want to forget about project and focus my mind on action and use all my strength to get things done, so I can also switch the perspective and click on a Calendar view, so now the tasks appear in a calendar (Vertical) with my week, month or day view (Connection to Outlook/Gmail accepted from third party if not native) and I visualise the data in "action mode" by chronology, and focus on accomplishing the tasks and planning their future steps (Vertical view of data). Then for the more scruffy days, I want to by able to switch all my data into an "opportunitic/area-centered" mode, so the Geolocalisation of tasks is associated (Geographic/Opprtunistic), regardless of projects or due date (Well I am in Paris that day, actually I will need to redo my passport in Paris at some point, great! let's get that done). Finally I want to be able to group projects by context (Customisable) so I could for example put a colour code, or a tag to data that is all in all more flexible and free-text and customise the way I cascade my tasks (For example i could have a tag: Health situation for Projects such as Shoulder healthm and associated tasks such as "calling for an appointment" and another project about general health check-ups) so assemble projects or data by Health context. The closest to that I have seen is called Omnifocus for Mac and iOS.
- Automatic Next-Task prompt/triggering: This is a feature that I struggle to see anywhere and one that is really going to avoid making life complicated... I don't want to spend my brain power on remembering what I did plan next, and manualluy search and set next action, that just makes me tired thinking about it. if I could save this energy and leave the automatic prmpting of a next action in autopilot so when I complete a task (i.e.: call the doctor and get appointment), I don't have to think about anything since I planned that earlier, so the next chronological task appears with a pop-up or promt and tells me: your next chronological task in this project is to go to the doctor, could you now set a date and time for your appointment", that would be amazing. And at that stage I could have 4 or 5 chronological tasks in this project that are on hold and do not show in calendar view but as soon as I complete the task it appears and gets set in the calendar view. So these subsequent tasks would appear on a project level view but not in calendar. This would work particularly well for tasks of a "tracking" nature (i.e. I am waiting on a document sent by mail, then I don't know when I will receive it, so I am unable to set a date for the subsequent task since it depends on the task being done, in other system that means putting an estomated date and from there you have 100 tasks estimated and it becomes a mess you spend time just worrying about it... I want to "bank" my sebsequent task and they magically appear when needed). So the day I get this mail, I would like to complete the task and the system prompts me with the next chronological task and asking me to confirm now the date of completion.
- Multimedia and context: Images, pictures, web-links, geolocalisation, notes and thoughts, check-lists, phone number, contact details, I would like to add ideas and have the same flexibility there is in my brain where I could enter any type of data associated in a task. For example if I go to the doctor for a shoulder pain, that is difficult to explain, I would love to draw this and attach the Paint document, add 2 articles I found on the net about something that looks similar (PDF, links) and some notes and pictures of my shoulders because when I plan it 2 weeks ago, I had many ideas... today i go to the doctor and I am very busy and I forgot half of what i set up the appointment for, so in the midst of my tasks for the day I stop and start browsing the net and searching on which excel and paper notes I scribbled all of this and worrying about my shoulder, so I screw up my day again! instead I could have access to all this in 10 minutes without worrying, it is all captured in a central system in a graphical way like I think. Something that allows the flexibility of Trello would be great, drag and drop, easy etc... But Trello itself is not good for me, I don't like Kanplan stuff...
A system that has the functionality above, I am happy to spend money on it... If on top of this it allows a connection to gmail or outlook when you put a due date (only) for the action part... then it is incredible!
The closest application I found is Omnifocus, but I can not trial it since I don t have a mac and on tablets or iphone you have to pay...
I came accross Trello, Todoist and Toodledo... but I might as well work on excel... it does not make things that much easier for me...
Do you guys have any suggestion? Can anybody relate to the way i work and would like a system that gives the breadth and depth and other dimensions in your tasks management like this? I am looking forward to hearing from you...
Fabio
I am glad to have found all these information on the forum. However I am still searching for an application that fits my need before I spend a (sometimes high) amount to install and use some of them. I am looking after a very specific set of features, I think what is most important is that i am a quite "artistic" person and analytical, and I have a big need of visualising my data (or tasks) in different contexts or views. The system I look for has a dormant/thinking part where I plan step by step, think, add data etc., and an action part where here it is just muscle I follow task by task... and an opportunitic part I am in the area, i can do that too... (and a flexible customisable part)
The features I would like are:
- Data-centered system / visualisation and organisation: 1.Horizontal 2. Vertical 3. Geographic/Opportunitic 4. Customised. Ideally, the system is task/data-centered: that means the central item of the system is the TASK, and around a task you associate information all linkable that are: Project, Context, GeoLocalisation, Due Date. So I can view my tasks by projects (Horizontal) at a click of a button, in a sort of "project management mode" where I can visualise how I am advancing in the project and plan the next steps of this project. But then I want to forget about project and focus my mind on action and use all my strength to get things done, so I can also switch the perspective and click on a Calendar view, so now the tasks appear in a calendar (Vertical) with my week, month or day view (Connection to Outlook/Gmail accepted from third party if not native) and I visualise the data in "action mode" by chronology, and focus on accomplishing the tasks and planning their future steps (Vertical view of data). Then for the more scruffy days, I want to by able to switch all my data into an "opportunitic/area-centered" mode, so the Geolocalisation of tasks is associated (Geographic/Opprtunistic), regardless of projects or due date (Well I am in Paris that day, actually I will need to redo my passport in Paris at some point, great! let's get that done). Finally I want to be able to group projects by context (Customisable) so I could for example put a colour code, or a tag to data that is all in all more flexible and free-text and customise the way I cascade my tasks (For example i could have a tag: Health situation for Projects such as Shoulder healthm and associated tasks such as "calling for an appointment" and another project about general health check-ups) so assemble projects or data by Health context. The closest to that I have seen is called Omnifocus for Mac and iOS.
- Automatic Next-Task prompt/triggering: This is a feature that I struggle to see anywhere and one that is really going to avoid making life complicated... I don't want to spend my brain power on remembering what I did plan next, and manualluy search and set next action, that just makes me tired thinking about it. if I could save this energy and leave the automatic prmpting of a next action in autopilot so when I complete a task (i.e.: call the doctor and get appointment), I don't have to think about anything since I planned that earlier, so the next chronological task appears with a pop-up or promt and tells me: your next chronological task in this project is to go to the doctor, could you now set a date and time for your appointment", that would be amazing. And at that stage I could have 4 or 5 chronological tasks in this project that are on hold and do not show in calendar view but as soon as I complete the task it appears and gets set in the calendar view. So these subsequent tasks would appear on a project level view but not in calendar. This would work particularly well for tasks of a "tracking" nature (i.e. I am waiting on a document sent by mail, then I don't know when I will receive it, so I am unable to set a date for the subsequent task since it depends on the task being done, in other system that means putting an estomated date and from there you have 100 tasks estimated and it becomes a mess you spend time just worrying about it... I want to "bank" my sebsequent task and they magically appear when needed). So the day I get this mail, I would like to complete the task and the system prompts me with the next chronological task and asking me to confirm now the date of completion.
- Multimedia and context: Images, pictures, web-links, geolocalisation, notes and thoughts, check-lists, phone number, contact details, I would like to add ideas and have the same flexibility there is in my brain where I could enter any type of data associated in a task. For example if I go to the doctor for a shoulder pain, that is difficult to explain, I would love to draw this and attach the Paint document, add 2 articles I found on the net about something that looks similar (PDF, links) and some notes and pictures of my shoulders because when I plan it 2 weeks ago, I had many ideas... today i go to the doctor and I am very busy and I forgot half of what i set up the appointment for, so in the midst of my tasks for the day I stop and start browsing the net and searching on which excel and paper notes I scribbled all of this and worrying about my shoulder, so I screw up my day again! instead I could have access to all this in 10 minutes without worrying, it is all captured in a central system in a graphical way like I think. Something that allows the flexibility of Trello would be great, drag and drop, easy etc... But Trello itself is not good for me, I don't like Kanplan stuff...
A system that has the functionality above, I am happy to spend money on it... If on top of this it allows a connection to gmail or outlook when you put a due date (only) for the action part... then it is incredible!
The closest application I found is Omnifocus, but I can not trial it since I don t have a mac and on tablets or iphone you have to pay...
I came accross Trello, Todoist and Toodledo... but I might as well work on excel... it does not make things that much easier for me...
Do you guys have any suggestion? Can anybody relate to the way i work and would like a system that gives the breadth and depth and other dimensions in your tasks management like this? I am looking forward to hearing from you...
Fabio
