TBLY Sally McGhee Software other comments

[jerendeb]

Some of you remember discussions about Take Back Your Life by Sally McGhee who was an early collaborator with David Allen in the beginning. Although there are very similar processes there are also differences in handling information processing. I am interested in merging some of the best into my system.

Both have software to add-in to Outlook. Hers however beneficial appears to be very costly. One can download a 30 day trial which was just released, but to purchase will cost $120 per computer! There is some per PC coding that prevents installation on another machine. I may not have all facts straight yet, but this appears to be a sign of the times. If I wanted this I'd have to fork over $360 for my laptop, home desktop & work desktop. That would be ridiculous in my humble opinion unless this software was so overwhelmingly fantastic & flawless I could never justify that kind of investment.

But it also appears that when Microsoft Vista is released in January that the same will apply. On installation per one PC.

To me that is greed. Why & what ever happened to the 2 PC tradition per software?

It seems that this'll make it a precedent that in order to take advantage of new Op Systems & Productivity Suites that it be better to buy new machines instead of upgrading.

For what it's worth. Plain vanilla with applied principles will be the cheapest requiring the most personal discipline to 'make it up - make it happen'.

 

[Max]

Another good reason to NOT use Microsoft and especially Outlook. It may be a precedent for MS stuff but lots of programs are going an opposite route. Namely, portable apps. Apps that you can run from a USB drive. MLO and Essential PIM are two great examples. There are also several online solutions. But $360 for an addon is steep. I recommend using virtually any other program for doing GTD.

BTW, I am forced to use Outlook at work. However, I use it just for email and for scheduling meetings with coworkers. It is just another income source of stuff. It just gets processed into the system.

 

[tim254]

I used the trial for a about 15 minutes and it's really lacking in features. I doesn't even come close to the GTD-Plugin or ClearContext. $120 is ridiculous for it's feature set or lack thereof. The only cool feature it has is a customized view of your calendar, tasks and inbox all on one screen. Does anyone know of an add-in that does just that?

 

[ckennedy]

Wow. I downloaded the trial and tried it for 5 minutes. What a waste of 5 minutes!

I bought and read Sally's book and found it a terrific addition to my workflow. But this software pales in comparison to ClearContext and Netcentrics and costs at least 2-3 times more. I bought both ClearContext and the Netcentrics product and actually use them both because each has it's own strengths.

My 2 cents.

 

[smithdoug]

tim254 - PlanPlus 4 does that

Franklin Covey's PlanPlus for Outlook (version 4) allows you to see tasks, calendar, and e-mail in one screen (and also the Journal, which I do use, and something called "PowerNotes", which I've never used). Most folks also find PlanPlus's "Today" view to be superior to the native Outlook view.

I've used Franklin Covey software and then their Outlook Add-In going back nearly 15 years but finally removed it all two or three months ago. I was using version 2 at the time and it was always slow and balky. I tried version 3 but it was impossible. Version 4 seems to work fine. You do take a performance hit with it, perhaps inevitable for what I presume must be a large and complex add-on, but on my system that means a second or two for a screen to open. What brought me back to PlanPlus, though, was it's project management feature. It's far from perfect, but I find it useful.

I was an early adopter of NetCentrics GTD add-in but uninstalled it a couple of months ago in favor of ClearContext. The PlanPlus 4 plus ClearContext combination is a better fit for my needs than the NetCentrics product... but that may change. NetCentrics has posted some screen shots of the next release of the GTD Add-In that look like a significant step forward.

 

[Eric Mack]

On software licensing... GTD & Lotus Notes

For those of you who happen to use Lotus Notes as your personal information management tool, you'll be pleased to know that, for more than 20 years, Lotus Notes remains licensed on a per named-user basis. You can load it on as many machines as you want as long as you use the one authenticated name. (e.g. Home, Office, TabletPC, UMPC, Laptops, etc.)

Since Lotus Notes replicates all settings, documents, actions, and work between all machines everything and anything that you do in one place is available all all of your other machines.

If you want to use Lotus Notes and GTD, there are two tools I can recommend.

The first is the new GTD & Notes document, available at the DavidCo store.

The second,is the ICA eProductivity Template for Lotus Notes.

I recommend starting with the GTD & Notes document; it will give you the basics and help reinforce the principles of GTD. Then, if you want to step up to a GTD-enabled Notes environment, you may wish to explore other options.

I hope this helps.

Eric