Considering Switching to Nirvana from FacileThings, Thoughts?

Ariadne Marques said:
Thank you again @JMartinez !!

I see what you mean, this is brilliant! Just tried it and I feel I'm on the top of (my) world now!
Everything listed in such an orderly manner: Inbox, Next, Later, Waiting, Scheduled, Someday, Projects, Reference. Projects in blue are active, Inactive projects are grey! Awesome for weekly reviews! :)

I forgot to mention: yes, the "Focus" was the third reason I loved Nirvana! I tried to do that with my "Highlight Today" filter on Todoist, but it was too manual (I was using the priority flags to filter them... it was not easy and clean as Nirvana).

And, yes, my Todoist was maybe way too colorful and it was hard to focus. Sometimes I would be distracted by choosing (again) a better emoji to one list or another...

I have a question about Someday/Maybe lists on Nirvana. How do you handle the type of lists like: "Places to visit" or "Courses to take"? Do you create a Project called "Places to visit" and then one action for each item? Or an Action called "Places to Visit" and just leave the list in the notes?
I'm just asking because the "Places to Visit" list is just a bunch of ideas, it's not something I would be looking at every week, for example.
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Very easy too.
Simply, i Create a diferent tags called..

Someday places to visit.
Someday books to read
Someday restaurants to visit
Someday i like to buy...
Someday i like to write about...
Someday i read about... (category are on the name of task), Productivity, hàbits, personal development..

I attach One screenshoot from my Someday tags. Sorry At this moment i have only available my smartphone

Screenshot_20200406-233004.jpg
 
It's easy to see someone else's preferences that you don't share as unnecessary "bells and whistles" while seeing your own personal preferences as GTD canon. It's not reasonable, though.

Strictly speaking, neither linking projects to next actions nor filtering by AOFs are necessary for good GTD practice and could therefore be (wrongly) dismissed as "bells and whistles." Both features, however, can be useful.

By the same token, some of my preferences such as integration with Siri on an Apple Watch aren't necessary for GTD but can also be useful. In my case, digital tools make capture easier for me -- and therefore increase the likelihood that I'll capture things consistently.

I stand by my criticisms of Nirvana's UI, while fully accepting that there are those who disagree. I contributed my point-of-view to help the OP, who I trust to be intelligent enough to sift through the various opinions about Nirvana and decide whose advice rings truer.
 
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Longstreet said:
Well, I am sticking with Nirvana. I think it is fantastic. Everyone has different needs. I hope you find yours.
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I'm not in a hurry to change systems. It's a big undertaking. Nirvana is at least serviceable for the moment.

It's like I said before: if the OP thinks the UI shortcomings I described would be a concern, I'd recommend staying away from Nirvana. If they're not and the idea of software that is very faithful to GTD sounds attractive, Nirvana could be a good fit.
 
bcmyers2112 said:
It's like I said before: if the OP thinks the UI shortcomings I described would be a concern, I'd recommend staying away from Nirvana. If they're not and the idea of software that is very faithful to GTD sounds attractive, Nirvana could be a good fit.
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I wonder how we measure GTD faithfulness? What does it mean that Nirvana is "very faithful to GTD" and Nozbe, OmniFocus, Things and Todoist are "less faithful to GTD"? Is Nirvana's faithfulness 97% while Nozbe's 91%? And what about iOS Reminders? Faithfulness to GTD = 7%?
Let me be clear: IT'S RIDICULOUS. GTD is about maintaining the trusted system of lists and pieces of information. So all these apps are 100% faithful to GTD. @Longstreet @mcogilvie @JMartinez @Mateusz
 
TesTeq said:
I wonder how we measure GTD faithfulness? What does it mean that Nirvana is "very faithful to GTD" and Nozbe, OmniFocus, Things and Todoist are "less faithful to GTD"? Is Nirvana's faithfulness 97% while Nozbe's 91%? And what about iOS Reminders? Faithfulness to GTD = 7%?
Let me be clear: IT'S RIDICULOUS. GTD is about maintaining the trusted system of lists and pieces of information. So all these apps are 100% faithful to GTD. @Longstreet @mcogilvie @JMartinez @Mateusz
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Yes. I could make the case that Apple’s Reminders or Wunderlist and it’s successor, Microsoft To-Do were “more faithful” and therefore “better“ in the sense that the bare minimum is there and not too much more. That said, David Allen is a smart guy and his advice is pretty good. It’s easy to go overboard with software, and some people go crazy using paper too.
 
bcmyers2112 said:
It's easy to see someone else's preferences that you don't share as unnecessary "bells and whistles" while seeing your own personal preferences as GTD canon. It's not reasonable, though.
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It all depends on each person's needs. I meant to say that some features in Todoist were not necessary to me after I took a long, hard look at my system and my behavior while using it. We all have different needs. I don't hate Todoist, I think it's a wonderful app. There's a tool for everyone out there, as @Longstreet said :)

And yes, I agree that Nirvana is not perfect, there's lots of room for improvement, but it works for my needs at the moment.
 
TesTeq said:
I wonder how we measure GTD faithfulness? What does it mean that Nirvana is "very faithful to GTD" and Nozbe, OmniFocus, Things and Todoist are "less faithful to GTD"? Is Nirvana's faithfulness 97% while Nozbe's 91%? And what about iOS Reminders? Faithfulness to GTD = 7%?
Let me be clear: IT'S RIDICULOUS. GTD is about maintaining the trusted system of lists and pieces of information. So all these apps are 100% faithful to GTD. @Longstreet @mcogilvie @JMartinez @Mateusz
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I disagree. Just because we can't attach a percentage to something doesn't mean we can't say that software is more or less compliant with GTD.
For instance, NirvanaHQ allows for the creation of a standalone next action, whereas Nozbe requires every next action must be assigned to a project. So Nozbe requires a workaround if you're going to use it for GTD, such as the creation of a dummy project for standalone actions. In that respect, I can reasonably say Nirvana by design is more faithful to GTD than Nozbe.

Taking a step back, I think NirvanaHQ's biggest strength is that it was designed with GTD in mind and it actually gets it right. No workarounds are required. Todoist wasn't designed for GTD; I don't know enough about Nozbe to say one way or another. But in both cases some workarounds are needed.

But the thing is, I used Evernote very effectively as my GTD list manager for years and that solution isn't even an actual list manager. As I've said more than once, any number of tools can work for GTD as long as you have a good understanding of GTD principles.

I have no dog in this fight. I don't care whether someone shares my GTD preferences or likes the same software I like. I expressed my frustrations with Nirvana to give the OP another point of view to consider. If the OP ends up following someone else's advice I'm perfectly happy. There are certainly a number of happy Nirvana users out there.
 
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You know what? I changed my mind. I do have a dog in this fight. The only way to resolve this is by wrestling in the GTD Jell-O pit. I'm willing to get sticky in the name of GTD.
 
bcmyers2112 said:
I disagree. Just because we can't attach a percentage to something doesn't mean we can't say that software is more or less compliant with GTD.
For instance, NirvanaHQ allows for the creation of a standalone next action, whereas Nozbe requires every next action must be assigned to a project. So Nozbe requires a workaround if you're going to use it for GTD, such as the creation of a dummy project for standalone actions. In that respect, I can reasonably say Nirvana by design is more faithful to GTD than Nozbe.

Taking a step back, I think NirvanaHQ's biggest strength is that it was designed with GTD in mind and it actually gets it right. No workarounds are required. Todoist wasn't designed for GTD; I don't know enough about Nozbe to say one way or another. But in both cases some workarounds are needed.
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Yes, but Omnifocus was originally designed with GTD in mind, and it too requires that a singleton action be assigned to a list. Now Omnigroup appears to be playing down the emphasis on GTD a bit saying “Tags make all things possible. Franklin, Eisenhower, the frog-eating guy- you can have it your way.” Of course this is all not so simple In the real world: Things 3 is rated 4.9/5 on the iOS App Store, with Todoist and a few others not far behind, while Omnifocus has slipped down to 4/5. Things and Todoist are not particularly GTD-compliant, but you can bend them that way. What they do have is really pretty good UI’s and functionality, while Omnifocus drives like an 18-wheeler: slow to start, slow to turn, slow to stop, but solid and gets you there. None of these programs are right for everyone.

And what is it with you and Jello and GTD, for crying out loud? :oops:
 
bcmyers2112 said:
I disagree. Just because we can't attach a percentage to something doesn't mean we can't say that software is more or less compliant with GTD.
For instance, NirvanaHQ allows for the creation of a standalone next action, whereas Nozbe requires every next action must be assigned to a project. So Nozbe requires a workaround if you're going to use it for GTD, such as the creation of a dummy project for standalone actions. In that respect, I can reasonably say Nirvana by design is more faithful to GTD than Nozbe.
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Unfortunately I have to disagree with your disagreement. If we want to measure the faithfulness to GTD we have to develop a measure - a number which will allow us to compare the faithfulness to GTD of different apps.
I agree that Nozbe loses some points if it requires the creation of a dummy project but it can "win" in other categories.
So let's create The App Faithfulness To GTD Institute which will then develop The Universal App Faithfulness To GTD Formula. First let's obtain a research grant from DavidCo company to establish The App Faithfulness To GTD Institute and its regional branches... :D
 
JMartinez said:
Very easy too.
Simply, i Create a diferent tags called..

Someday places to visit.
Someday books to read
Someday restaurants to visit
Someday i like to buy...
Someday i like to write about...
Someday i read about... (category are on the name of task), Productivity, hàbits, personal development..
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Hi, @JMartinez!

So, do you have a project called Someday/Maybe? And then list the someday categories as tasks, and make the list using the notes field inside the task?
Why do you have the tags? How od you use them?

I was doing like this: using the Reference area to create the lists:
Using Reference as Someday Maybe lists2.PNG

I once had those types of lists in Evernote, so I'm testing the options available on Nirvana.
 
mcogilvie said:
Things and Todoist are not particularly GTD-compliant, but you can bend them that way. What they do have is really pretty good UI’s and functionality, while Omnifocus drives like an 18-wheeler: slow to start, slow to turn, slow to stop, but solid and gets you there. None of these programs are right for everyone.
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This is purely anecdotal so I could be wrong, but it seems to me that software designed specifically for GTD is aiming for a very niche market. Therefore you're often talking about a relatively small user base and limitations on revenue that comes with it. So GTD-specific solutions often don't have the bench strength that bigger companies do, and that limits what they can do development-wise.

But like I said, I could be wrong.

And no, none of those programs are right for everyone. No list manager is. The reason I articulated my complaints about Nirvana in such detail was to give others an idea of how I have been using it. If you're like me, these things may bother you as well. If you're not, you may think, "Eh. I could live with all that."
 
Was away from the forums for awhile and was thrilled to return and see Nirvana continues to be a hot topic :)

I'd love to switch, I think it would be easier to manage and create projects than the system I have in Todoist. But, I've got my Todoist set up on cruise control and I don't want to fix what ain't broke. Plus, I have that sweet sweet teacher discount on Todoist.
 
My two cents on Nirvana:

I was a paid user of Nirvana HQ for two years. I really like their web app despite the lack of updates. It's robust and very clean. I even tried replicating Nirvana's GUI in other applications.

But where Nirvana fails for me is their very sub par mobile apps. The Android app is not only clunky and cumbersome to use but it also lacks any quick capture functionality. My phone is a perfect ubiquitous capture tool. It's always with me and I'm already addicted to it (this is not a good thing, but oh well). That's why the number one thing I look for in a digital GTD tool is a good mobile app that has a widget or a notification shade shortcut for quickly capturing things to the inbox.

I really wish they'd step-up the development of their their mobiles apps and bring them up to speed to modern standards. If that happened, I'd be back in Nirvana's embrace in a heartbeat.
 
I really wish Nirvana had a full trial. I'd love to transfer my entire system over to test it out, not just monkey around with the limited free version.
 
Fedja_b said:
... The Android app is not only clunky and cumbersome to use but it also lacks any quick capture functionality. My phone is a perfect ubiquitous capture tool. It's always with me and I'm already addicted to it (this is not a good thing, but oh well). That's why the number one thing I look for in a digital GTD tool is a good mobile app that has a widget or a notification shade shortcut for quickly capturing things to the inbox....
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While I'd like an actual Android widget for quick capture, I've been fairly satisfied with EmailMe. It's free here on google play. I bought the pro version to support the developer, but I don't actually use any of the pro features.

I click a shortcut on my homescreen and it brings up a GMail compose where I can tap subject and then either type or dictate my note. Hit send and it gets emailed to my Nirvana inbox. If I care to, I can also add text to the body of the email to be included in the Nirvana note.

It's not longer maintained. Not since 2005. But it's the best I've found so far for me.
 
bcmyers2112 said:
By the same token, some of my preferences such as integration with Siri on an Apple Watch aren't necessary for GTD but can also be useful. In my case, digital tools make capture easier for me -- and therefore increase the likelihood that I'll capture things consistently.
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nobody stops you using Siri on Apple Watch for capturing by the way.
You don't have to process them fast anyways. As Allen says, you just have to know that you'll process them in the next 24-48 hours.

Besides the 'inbox' on the app, I use a notebook for 'capturing' stuff also and put it on my desk.
Because i know ( by making a habit) that i'm going to process the notes anyways in the next 24-48 hours.


Not having Siri integrated with Nirvana shouldn't be a block of using Nirvana as a general GTD system
 
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