Best app for GTD
- Thread starter salilsurendran
- Start date
It is possible that the right half of @ERJ1's brain is still shilling TickTick while the left half has switched to Todoist...
So maybe my medulla is still using Toodledo, my cerebellum is stuck on Omnifocus, and my cerebrum uses Things? This could explain... everything.
Bill Myers
Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny
So one of our members may be a zombie, or his brain may have bifurcated. And @mcogilvie may have gone full MPD on us.
These are the conversations I most love to have.
These are the conversations I most love to have.
I prefer to think of myself as having a lot of depth to my personality.
Damian Stalls
Registered
So i am almost 50% through the GTD book and have a massive pile of crap in my "IN" box. I did some brainstorming on applications trying to find the "best" app. Unfortunately it does not exist. I settled on trying to use Outlook + MS To-Do as there is a guide and it did not require me adding a new App into my portfolio. However, MS sucks as usual in that they are unwinding integration between Outlook and OneNote since they are pushing the native App now. My dilemma is I have so many apps that I need to use for work:
Outlook - Email
Outlook - Calendar
ConnectWise - Service Tickets & Time Sheet Entry (Syncs to Outlook Calendar)
OneNote - For "notes"
ITGlue - For Official documentation
Based on this it seems to make sense to stick with Outlook since most everything is connected to it. In addition creating tasks from emails is simple and creating calendar events from tasks is also easy (although nothing is linked - it just makes copies). To-Do is ok but does not support categories and only full URL's transfer correctly between Outlook and To-Do.
My next issue comes from the "Agenda" concept which is how I came across the GTD method in the first place. Many of my Tasks or Projects are typically mine to do. However I have (2) individuals I meet with weekly and often my next action required me talking to that person.
I need an intelligent way of Creating Tasks and linking them to the person I need to speak to. Based on Outlook, the only way I see in doing this is creating specific Agenda Task folders in Outlook for these two individuals and dragging each task there so i know to talk to them. It just seems too clunky (compared to the interfaces on GTDnext, NirvanaHQ, TickTick, etc).
Also for sticking so Outlook is since that calendar syncs to ConnectWise I have to live by it. (sigh)
Any thoughts would be appreciated...
Outlook - Email
Outlook - Calendar
ConnectWise - Service Tickets & Time Sheet Entry (Syncs to Outlook Calendar)
OneNote - For "notes"
ITGlue - For Official documentation
Based on this it seems to make sense to stick with Outlook since most everything is connected to it. In addition creating tasks from emails is simple and creating calendar events from tasks is also easy (although nothing is linked - it just makes copies). To-Do is ok but does not support categories and only full URL's transfer correctly between Outlook and To-Do.
My next issue comes from the "Agenda" concept which is how I came across the GTD method in the first place. Many of my Tasks or Projects are typically mine to do. However I have (2) individuals I meet with weekly and often my next action required me talking to that person.
I need an intelligent way of Creating Tasks and linking them to the person I need to speak to. Based on Outlook, the only way I see in doing this is creating specific Agenda Task folders in Outlook for these two individuals and dragging each task there so i know to talk to them. It just seems too clunky (compared to the interfaces on GTDnext, NirvanaHQ, TickTick, etc).
Also for sticking so Outlook is since that calendar syncs to ConnectWise I have to live by it. (sigh)
Any thoughts would be appreciated...
I think most of us just have lists for the people we communicate with most often: “spouse”, “boss”, “dog” et cetera. I don’t use Outlook, but the only way I have to link to a person is a sticky note on their back. Which I may try with my wife.
Damian Stalls
Registered
The one issue I just now realized I have with the different task folders is that I have one task that needs to be in two other agenda folders. This is where tagging would be incredible.
TesTeq
0
Isn't there a full text search in Outlook? If there is such thing you can create text tags and search for them:
bbb - boss, fff - Fred etc.
Damian Stalls
Registered
Yes, that would be one way of doing it - just not super intuitive. Also in order to use Outlook Tasks you have to use MS To-Do for web/mobile access. Most of the features in Outlook do not exist in To-Do so... Categories would help immensely for organizing but those do not exist in To-Do either.
If I were using folders--which I don't; I refer to the email rather than sorting the emails themselves--I'd probably just forward the email to myself so that I ended up with two copies.
Damian Stalls
Registered
Yeah, but most of my tasks are not* based on emails. Then I have to store notes someplace outside of the task (which I would be ok with) but MS is tearing apart integration between Outlook Tasks and OneNote.
*corrected
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Depending on the version of Outlook (2010 desktop at work) does allow you to actually edit the email. When I need to add a note for tasks I just open the message, click action drop down then edit.
Otherwise the drag to Task will make a task but now it will not be tracked to the original message which can cause issues.
Add notes to an email can also be done in The Bat! or Pegasus and may be a way in other non-webased clients.
Zoot from Zoot Software does allow increased Outlook to task integration with excellent search, filtering, category support. Has a bit of a learning curve, the final help file is almost done that should make for easier use.
Sarahsuccess
Registered
David Allen, in the book Making It All Work page 111, in discussing the Processing stage of GTD says, "Once you really integrate this clarification process into your life-and work style, you will find yourself comfortable with a wide range of tools that can genuinely work for you. If you haven't applied this process, nothing will seem to serve you very well."
Sarah