13 year toodledo user seeking advice for which software platform to move to

magic tingles

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Hi there,
I've been putting this off for too long and now that any type of the search is broken on the android app with new google pixel 4c (already reported) and my toodledo description coming up it's time to jump ship, within week or so, membership due jan 1, the company has been on a decline for a while.
I've had to re-examine GTD, how I've used it with toodledo, and how more modern apps use it.

I'm currently using GTD / toodledo to manage
Fixer upper house
Rental Property
Hobbies (custom RV and other toys)
General Financial and life stuff

I'm leaning toward Nirvana HQ
Tick Tick maybe second choice

Things that are important to me (for now)
- offline android support for version 11
- Reference Material (Notes in toodledo that correspond with the matching folders for tasks, I have 717 reference notes, not attached to tasks, not looking forward to importing them)
- Being able to navigate/crud from parent to child task and back (toodledo only 1 level deep, android app cannot navigate from sub task to parent, only from top down!!!, can with old dgtale GTD app) and since search is broken with toodledo one has to scroll through all the tasks, by folder to eyeball the parent to start from there.
- A nice to have would be checklists that can be exported easily, ie I'm having electrical work done on my house and need a simple punch list with check boxes complete/open for the trades people.
Right now I'm just using a google sheet with a checkbox column, printing it out with a version /date and taping it to the wall for them to look at
I've used toodledo's checklist and it's awful

Below are the ones I looked at today, recently, in the past and initial impressions
facilethings (pricey, poor android support)
nirvana
ticktick
todoist (seems like a lot of customization for gtd)
things 3 (apple ecosystem)
asana
omnifocus
remember the milk (this was around when i started with gtd on the orig iphone)
amazing marvin

I used to be a software developer and started with palm pilots when I did my first property and worked in tech in wall street back in the wild west days

Thank you for any and all advice

G
 

mcogilvie

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While Nirvana is a decent contender for what you want, Todoist would probably be my first recommendation. It is cross-platfrom, but has a lot of modern conveniences. It is actually completely straightforward to set up and use for GTD.
 

Cpu_Modern

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I used to be a software developer and started with palm pilots when I did my first property and worked in tech in wall street back in the wild west days

Since I am seeing that line, you may want to check out the geekier stuff? Text files, org-mode, TiddlyWiki, TaskPaper, things like that.

@mcogilvie: You once called org-mode "quaint" which gave me a good shuckle. It's not wrong! I still have to think of that once in a while. When I am using org-mode of course…
 

Airgunster

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I'd really recommend TickTick (cross-platform, has notes and calendar and habits tracker in itself + all other pretty standard (nowadays) features like folders/tags/sharing, etc.). I was using Todoist before for many-many years (however lack of calendar and weak notes integration did my decision).
 

Sarahsuccess

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Thanks for suggesting Ticktick. I downloaded it onto my iphone to check it out. Can you please share how you set it up for gtd? I see it has lists, folders and tags, and I have discovered how to assign icons to lists. Do you directly link projects to tasks? Do you use the Work and Personal lists as they have it set up?

Also, I don’t see a gtd set up guide for ticktick. Is this something gtdconnect can provide?

Thanks
 

mcogilvie

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Thanks for suggesting Ticktick. I downloaded it onto my iphone to check it out. Can you please share how you set it up for gtd? I see it has lists, folders and tags, and I have discovered how to assign icons to lists. Do you directly link projects to tasks? Do you use the Work and Personal lists as they have it set up?

Also, I don’t see a gtd set up guide for ticktick. Is this something gtdconnect can provide?

Thanks
No official guide, as far as I know. As you have seen, Ticktick has folders, lists and tags, which you can use for areas, projects and contexts in a straightforward way.
 

Sarahsuccess

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No official guide, as far as I know. As you have seen, Ticktick has folders, lists and tags, which you can use for areas, projects and contexts in a straightforward way.
Thanks for your reply, mcogilvie.
I want to be clear, though I realize this is a basic question: In ticktick would you use the folders, lists and tags for areas, projects and contexts in that order; folders for areas, lists for projects, and tags for contexts? (I’ve been using gtd in some form for a while now, but I do not use a tool that directly links projects and tasks. I’m using Trello now and I like the interface and flexibility of moving tasks, but there is no direct link from tasks to projects. )

Also, how would you handle one step tasks not assigned to a project? Would you have a list called “One time tasks”? Or what else would you call the list?
Thanks
 

mcogilvie

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Thanks for your reply, mcogilvie.
I want to be clear, though I realize this is a basic question: In ticktick would you use the folders, lists and tags for areas, projects and contexts in that order; folders for areas, lists for projects, and tags for contexts? (I’ve been using gtd in some form for a while now, but I do not use a tool that directly links projects and tasks. I’m using Trello now and I like the interface and flexibility of moving tasks, but there is no direct link from tasks to projects. )
I haven’t used it extensively, but that was how I set it up. Even if I just wanted list of next actions by context, I would use tags for that.
Also, how would you handle one step tasks not assigned to a project? Would you have a list called “One time tasks”? Or what else would you call the list?
Thanks
Some apps, like things, let you assign actions to both areas and projects inside of areas, but I don’t think Ticktick does. OmniFocus has “Single Action Lists”. You could do that, or just not assign some next actions to an area. If you are used to only dealing with context lists, that might work better for you. If you do use lists of one-time tasks inside areas, I recommend naming them something like “Single Actions- Finance” So you get whatever benefit there is from organizing by area.
 

magic tingles

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Hi folks, thanks again for your informative responses. I came across everdo as well, which is supposedly an copy of nirvana with some extra features, but does not have a web based interface (one has to install an app). I do like not having to install anything, but it is active by one dev?
Toodledo went downhill fast when the founder? Aaron jumped ship.

Also read a few places about the lack of updates for nirvana and it's a side hustle for parent company
I'm not sure how either handles reference material, toodledo's "folders" are also the reference material folders, maybe others call these "areas"
Someone mentioned that you don't have to actually keep the reference material in same app (like I was used to in toodledo) and use Joplin (open source)
Change sucks and I still haven't migrated from toodledo

This is a good reddit thread with implementation articles for different apps
https://www.reddit.com/r/gtd/comments/fvxt0q
 

mickdodge

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I second @Longstreet and recommend NirvanaHQ!

With one caveat concerning your need for "checklists that can be exported easily". For that I use the free open source Joplin. Technically, I could use Joplin for GTD as well, but my process is already so ingrained with Nirvana that I prefer Joplin for general notes, formulating ideas, and creating complex checklists outside of Nirvana. It's also my fallback if, in fact, Nirvana ever does stop development (but they appear to be planning ahead).

The things I like the most about Nirvana are:
  • It's designed around the GTD process and I believe it does that in a very effective, straightforward, and simple way (small learning curve)
  • It's multi-platform (Win, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android) and the web interface is very responsive (especially now that they retooled the code this past summer to allow for growth and expansion)
    • I for one prefer Nirvana not frequently release updates and feature changes. I like a stable application environment to work in with essential functionality at my finger tips and reduced cognitive load. I think Nirvana provides this sans a lot of bells and whistles.
  • The pricing can't be beat for a lifetime Pro version subscription at $49 (as of December 2020)
  • Areas is wonderful for separating work and personal tasks or projects, but at the same time allowing me to quickly switch between the two when new actions pop into my head.
  • With the Pro version, you can add tasks to the Inbox via email. Helpful in getting my email inbox next actions into Nirvana for follow-up.
  • The Focus area and email reminder are great for moving everything else out of my view and allowing me to focus all my attention on what matters the most right now or today.
  • You can export all your data as JSON, XML, or CSV so you're not locked into Nirvana if you ever did decide to migrate to another application. It's also good for easing your mind by making regular backups of your data.
  • They have a solidly decent Privacy Policy. I feel reasonably comfortable that they handle my data appropriately.
I've experimented with several other applications (e.g. Things 3, Todoist, Remember The Milk, Omnifocus), but kept coming back to Nirvana and eventually settled there. But everyone has their own way of doing things, so you'll need to experiment with Nirvana to know if it would work best for your personal GTD style.
 
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magic tingles

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I've been tinkering with everdo, nirvana and now tick tick (ui most like toodledo), also going to look at todoist when I have a minute
I think having a web ui is important
I'm trying to map the analogous features from toodledo
Folders - Areas (ex personal, bikes, snow, rv, fixer upper)
Contexts - tags? (ex @home, @garage, @car)
Priorities - some gtd platforms dont have priorities, can you sort numerically if using tags?)
Sorting - Importance (10 to 1 for toodledo) is a due date weighted + priority sort
Reference material - Reference list for nirvana
Importing - I have over 400 tasks/projects + 700 notes in toodledo, I'm looking at a few hrs cutting and pasting, maybe can reduce a bit
 

mickdodge

Registered
I've been tinkering with everdo, nirvana and now tick tick (ui most like toodledo), also going to look at todoist when I have a minute
I think having a web ui is important
I'm trying to map the analogous features from toodledo
Folders - Areas (ex personal, bikes, snow, rv, fixer upper)
Contexts - tags? (ex @home, @garage, @car)
Priorities - some gtd platforms dont have priorities, can you sort numerically if using tags?)
Sorting - Importance (10 to 1 for toodledo) is a due date weighted + priority sort
Reference material - Reference list for nirvana
Importing - I have over 400 tasks/projects + 700 notes in toodledo, I'm looking at a few hrs cutting and pasting, maybe can reduce a bit
Importing would be very tedious and time consuming!! :( From a Nirvana perspective, personally I would export a CSV from Toodledo and script a foreach loop to iterate over the CSV rows emailing each task with notes to my Nirvana personal email address (assuming you have Pro). That would at least save you time on the copy/paste, and would prevent the loss of any inadvertently overlooked task items. Then you would just have to manually work through the Nirvana Inbox to clarify and organize each of your tasks and projects. This could be a good chance to evaluate the value of each task or project, and remove any tasks/projects that are no longer pertinent or reflect your horizons. It would certainly make you hyper-aware of the status of all your tasks and projects. :)

You stated you have previous software development experience so can I assume you would have some familiarity with a script to iterate through a CSV file? Nirvana uses the subject line as the task and the body of the email as the notes. I'm not a software developer by any means, but I occasionally automate tasks using Powershell. Here is some "pseudocode" of how I might do it using Powershell:

Code:
$InFile = Import-Csv -Path "path/to/toodledo.csv"  # <--Location of file downloaded from Toodledo

ForEach($row in $InFile){
    $SendMailParameters = @{
            From = 'youremail@gmail.com'
            To = 'secretpersonalemailaddress@nirvanahq.com'  # <--You would need to find this address in your Nirvana account profile
            Subject = "$row.task"  # <--"task" is the corresponding CSV column header that contains the task itself
            Body = "$row.note"  # <--"note" is the corresponding CSV column header that contains the additional task notes
            SmtpServer = 'smtp.gmail.com'  # <--Change to a suitable email relay server, may require authentication
    }

        Send-MailMessage @SendMailParameters

}
 
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bcmyers2112

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FWIW I was a Nirvana user until last week. I liked the fact that it was designed for GTD but ultimately I found the interface very clunky and off-putting. I migrated my lists to Todoist and so far I've been very happy. It was easy to set up for GTD and I found the interface much easier to use. YMMV, but that's my two cents.
 
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