Web app that REALLY gets projects/NAs?

S

stevie

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For me, one of the important parts of GTD is the idea that if you have a Project, there should always be at least one Next Action associated with that Project in your lists of tasks to do. For instance, if you had 20 active Projects, I would expect that the there are AT LEAST 20 active tasks (plus there may be some active tasks that are simple enough not to be associated with any project.)

So, it seems to me that software that supports GTD should have some really obvious way of letting me know which Projects aren't currently "represented" in my tasks lists. But, I haven't found a single web application that works that way. Does any GTD software handle this?

Thanks for advice! -Steve
 
Todd V

Todd V

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re: Really Getting Projects/NAs

Ready-Set-Do! has a good approach for projects and next actions on the Mac. There's a couple of Quicktime movie tutorials you can download that explain how it handles projects and next actions. Other programs on the mac include Things and Omnifocus, the former is more 'tag'-based and the latter is more 'outline' based.

ThinkingRock also handles projects well and is platform independent -- a Java application you can use on either a PC or a mac.

Web-apps have a number of drawbacks, but chief among them is just how many times you have to refresh and upload things. That extra time makes them less effective for both capture and processing in comparison with native applications.
 
S

sdann

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Thinking Rock definitely does that. The project folder turns red if there is no next action associated with it.
 
S

stevie

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Thanks for the tips, but I reallly do need cross-platform app, if not a web app, I think. On a daily basis I use two Windows computers and a Mac and my iPhone (hey, I work in IT, what can I say).

I've had bad experiences with Java apps in the past, so I hadn't really looked at Thinking Rock, but I'm checking it now. It looks pretty nice. It won't work with my iPhone, but I'm usually pretty close to one of my computers.

I did find a web app that handles projects the way I want - Nozbe. When you look at a list of projects, you can see at a glance how many active tasks are associated with each project - so if a project doesn't have any tasks it's obvious. It also seems to work nicely on the iPhone. But, it's $60 a year if you don't want strict limits on how many Projects and Contexts you can use. I wouldn't mind paying the money *after* I'm convinced its a good service, but there's no trial subscription available.

-Steve
 
K

katy

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Hi Stevie, that's a really nice idea, actually. I've seen your post yesterday, and we've added this feature today to taskwriter.

Have a look at the screenshot on our blog, and give it a try if you think it's worth. I'd be really happy to have further suggestions from you.

Katy
 
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