Nirvana HQ

Yes, nice update! I also prefer the light theme with dark blue. Although most updates are bug fixes at least the NHQ development is active and support excellent, they respond very quickly to any questions. Since all Nirvana HQ operating systems now share the same code base, hopefully it will not take long before the next interesting update.

@Bill Myers: I think the superiority of NHQ is it's simplicity. For GTD one does not want to think about using the tools at hand, they should have minimal impact on your work flow (just in a way like paper does) and the mind like water mindset. So (agree with you), for me there is no other tool so simple and 99% close to the GTD methodology.

I'm using Onenote for reference and project support with the A.P.A.R. method. It works well for me, I'm however keeping my eye our to be able to use one tool for all, that is a challenge though. So for now these wil stay my GTD tools as I'm closing into retirement at the end of this year and can keep it as simple as possible. Looking forward to a zero email inbox at the beginning of the day!
 
I'm also excited about the latest update.

  • Funny side story... see my previous post in this forum about a similar facelift that made it's way into the Nirvana beta back in 2022. I used the beta and experimented with some of the theme colors including one I really came to dislike, some kind of sea foam green or something. Anyway, before I had a chance to change it, the feature was removed. This left my Nirvana UI stuck in sea foam green until these recent updates - nearly 2 years! So I'm definitely glad to get my theme back to normal.

It's definitely good to see Nirvana getting a little attention. But let me also add, Nirvana wins hands-down/as-is for my purposes. There's nothing better - for me - after crunching my tasks/notes back & forth through dozens of tools for years and years.

Anyway, I'd like to highlight the small note "for now" in the release notes (pasted below) that hopefully could mean some very interesting enhancements are planned. If Nirvana allows more than text & URLs in the notes field, that could mean Markdown support or what I'd really like is Toggle Lists & Tables. Either of these features would enable less dependency on outside notes tools. I currently put UpNote links in some of my Nirvana tasks where I need more formatting like Toggle Lists or Tables.

Heck, while I'm driving Nirvana development :p, I'd like to be able to:
  • paste images into Tables
  • paste Images & Tables into collapsible Toggle Lists

August 29, 2024

Android & iOS, version 3.9.0

  • New: Tap “share” from other Android apps to create new to-do’s directly in Nirvana (text and urls only, for now).
  • Updated a bunch of stuff under the hood to keep current with latest Android requirements.
Click to expand...
 
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bobusa said:
@Bill Myers: I think the superiority of NHQ is it's simplicity. For GTD one does not want to think about using the tools at hand, they should have minimal impact on your work flow (just in a way like paper does) and the mind like water mindset. So (agree with you), for me there is no other tool so simple and 99% close to the GTD methodology.
Click to expand...
I don't feel that I can objectively judge whether an app is "superior" or not. But I do agree with you that Nirvana's simplicity is one of its' strengths.
 
tdurden said:
  • Funny side story... see my previous post in this forum about a similar facelift that made it's way into the Nirvana beta back in 2022. I used the beta and experimented with some of the theme colors including one I really came to dislike, some kind of sea foam green or something. Anyway, before I had a chance to change it, the feature was removed. This left my Nirvana UI stuck in sea foam green until these recent updates - nearly 2 years! So I'm definitely glad to get my theme back to normal.
Click to expand...
Right! Something similar happened to me as well back then, I had the "plum" color theme for quite some time on my Windows version and just recently I changed it.
 
tdurden said:
Anyway, I'd like to highlight the small note "for now" in the release notes (pasted below) that hopefully could mean some very interesting enhancements are planned.
Click to expand...
That could be very good for Nirvana users -- assuming they don't bog down the app with extraneous features. Like I said in my prior post, I like Nirvana's simplicity.
 
Count me in as an avid Nirvana enthusiast. It's been 6 years since I bought the "Lifetime" license. I mean, it's my daily driver, I spend more time inside this app than nearly any other! Any love given to it in the form of updates is welcomed by me.

That said...there is something bothering me about the app. I recently was writing a long-form note in the "Notes" field of one of my actions. Before finishing this note, I was reminded of the context I should give to a related action, so I clicked out of the Notes window in order to apply that context/tag. Guess what? Nirvana does not auto-save notes! So when I went back to complete that note, it was gone. In fact, if you click out of that window at any time while drafting a note, it'll wipe that note from existence. I lost over an hour of work in this instance and learned a valuable lesson....Nirvana is half-baked in a lot of areas that we take for granted in a modern app.
 
Chuck Liston said:
Count me in as an avid Nirvana enthusiast. It's been 6 years since I bought the "Lifetime" license. I mean, it's my daily driver, I spend more time inside this app than nearly any other! Any love given to it in the form of updates is welcomed by me.

That said...there is something bothering me about the app. I recently was writing a long-form note in the "Notes" field of one of my actions. Before finishing this note, I was reminded of the context I should give to a related action, so I clicked out of the Notes window in order to apply that context/tag. Guess what? Nirvana does not auto-save notes! So when I went back to complete that note, it was gone. In fact, if you click out of that window at any time while drafting a note, it'll wipe that note from existence. I lost over an hour of work in this instance and learned a valuable lesson....Nirvana is half-baked in a lot of areas that we take for granted in a modern app.
Click to expand...
Hi Chuck, I presume that to be with the desktop version? In the App versions there is a full size text editing window and it saves the content when you go back with the arrow. But good to know. In any case, I do not trust the note section other then short notes, checklists or email content send to the NHQ inbox. For any important (project) support materials I use Onenote. It saves anything you type or draw automatically.
It would be better however for the next NHQ update to have a rich text editor with an automated save algorithm.
 
On a roll with another update!
April 30, 2025

Windows & macOS, version 3.9.10

New: Filter by (not) Tag by clicking on tags twice — the first click will filter to show only tasks containing that tag. Click again to get the inverse… all the tasks that do not have that tag. Ctrl+click (Windows) / Cmd+click (macOS) to combine multiple tags.

New: Copy Tasks in current view (or just selected tasks) for pasting into other apps on your computer. The format is “light-markdown” in that it’s easy to read as plain-text, but has just enough formatting for markdown compatible apps. Ctrl+C (Windows) / Cmd+C (macOS).

New: Print Tasks in current view from desktop app. Finally, no need to switch to the web-browser version of Nirvana for printing. Ctrl+P (Windows) / Cmd+P (macOS).

Fix: Update Notifications when new desktop versions become available is now less aggressive.

These are very useful indeed.
 
Chuck Liston said:
That said...there is something bothering me about the app. I recently was writing a long-form note in the "Notes" field of one of my actions. Before finishing this note, I was reminded of the context I should give to a related action, so I clicked out of the Notes window in order to apply that context/tag. Guess what? Nirvana does not auto-save notes! So when I went back to complete that note, it was gone. In fact, if you click out of that window at any time while drafting a note, it'll wipe that note from existence. I lost over an hour of work in this instance and learned a valuable lesson....Nirvana is half-baked in a lot of areas that we take for granted in a modern app.
Click to expand...
I see what you mean! Yes, if you have a next action open and you don't click on "save" before closing or moving from that window, Nirvana doesn't save it. I think I got used to this behaviour in Nirvana and I always make sure to click save. But I think it's a good thing to suggest the developers for implementation.
 
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I really appreciate how Nirvana handles active filtering by context. It’s such an easy and effective way to narrow down your Next Actions list to the most relevant tasks at the moment.

This is especially important because choosing the right task from a long list can create cognitive load — sometimes enough to drain your energy before you’ve even started working.

But I'm not very optimistic about the future development of the app.
 
Lucas W. said:
I really appreciate how Nirvana handles active filtering by context. It’s such an easy and effective way to narrow down your Next Actions list to the most relevant tasks at the moment.

This is especially important because choosing the right task from a long list can create cognitive load — sometimes enough to drain your energy before you’ve even started working.

But I'm not very optimistic about the future development of the app.
Click to expand...
I understand where you're coming from. There have been some promises in the past from the developer and sometimes it looks like he's keeping his customers on the line. However, in my view there is no simpler GTD tool then Nirvana HQ. So, even if it stays the way it is, I will be fine with that. The more options they add the more it will start to look like the other apps with a zillion settings and options, which deduces from a clear mind, and one loses focus. But of course, this is all very personal. there are plenty that love to have as many options as possible and that's fine as well if you like to thinker around.
And yes, I've tried many GTD (like) apps, but none do better at, as you correctly describe, active filtering of the next actions and all in one view.
 
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