Nozbe...near perfection...but why can't they achieve perfection?

[BillyIdol]

Overall, I like this app. I really want to LOVE them, but they make it hard to do this. I started with Nozbe, and then I looked around at others. Nozbe is near perfection because it is simple and easy to use without a bunch of junk you don't need. Nozbe would achieve perfection if they could solve these 3 problems:

1-The web Nozbe is fantastic, but dates on the calendar are often off by a day. I can't trust it. So now, whenever I put something on the calendar, I type out the exact date and time in addition to the "due date". I love Nozbe, but why can't they freaking fix this. CAN'T THESE GUYS FIX A SIMPLE CALENDAR PROBLEM. I mean....does it take a year to fix a calendar/date problem? Sheesh

2-The Nozbe calendar is pathetic. This is just a serial list of dates. Very hard to visualize mentally. Please go see Pocket Informant for a real calendar.

3-While web Nozbe is great, it only syncs with the Iphone about 98% of the information. I just hope that the directions to your heart transplant center are not the 2% that are lost...but who is counting? I lots of my someday/maybe entries are in the wrong category and won't move to the correct one.

Why am I still with Nozbe? Because I can't find anything better, and it works well enough, plus I don't want to waste a bunch of time trying to find another app. The only others that I'm interested in are Action Lists with Mr. Perry and ToddleDo. I like how GTD specific Nozbe is.

I guess the best system is the one you design. I think that paper is actually the best, because, essentially....you are the designer.

I still can't believe that all these programmers out there can't produce a GTD based list manager that actually has a calendar that works, projects, and contexts that actually syncs. I would design it myself, but I don't know how to program. Geez....this is pathetic.

I always had fun with my GTD when I was using index cards, then I'll just have Toodledo web for Someday/Maybe and projects on my IPhone and then I'll carry a gaggle of index cards with me also. I always had a visual paper calendar on top of my index cards, so it was hard to miss an appointment.

John

 

[djh]

Hey there John,

I use Nozbe as well and agree with you that it could be really good but currently falls short.

Nozbe does do a lot of things very well, but if you want to follow the David Allen concept of GTD it really doesn't help. The lack of an inbox and the fact that there are no folders for deferred tasks or someday/maybe don't help.

If your iPhone app is working 98%, you are doing much better than me - it is totally not usable as far as I'm concerned. There is supposed to be a new version coming soon though.

Have you looked at Nirvana? http://www.nirvanahq.com/

This is still in beta (you can sign up for an invite on the site) but looks very promising. The people developing it are sticking very closely to the David Allen concept - it might well end up being a real GTD system.

I'm waiting for a few more features to arrive, particularly the ability to be able to import projects and tasks from email or files, and I'll be using it for real.

I really like the fact that the Nirvana folks seem to listen to their users and use feedback to back their system better.

Anyway, I think I'll be using Nozbe for a while yet, I really hope some of the issues are addressed soon.

 

[Nozbe]

BillyIdol, thanks for the great post and sorry for the hiccups that make Nozbe almost perferct but still not perfect.

First of all, please contact us at questions@nozbe.com and let us know which of your tasks are off by a day and we'll investigate the issue - your support and detailed help will definitely help us nail the thing and make it perfect.

Nozbe calendar is not meant to be a real calendar - I use iCal on my mac and sometimes Gcal and both display my Nozbe calendar stuff there so that I can see what needs to be done. David Allen says the calendar should be sacred and shouldn't be filled out with deadlines and milestones and tasks, just the very time-specific stuff.

Inbox in Nozbe is coming this month.

Nozbe doesn't mean to be a full implementation of GTD, but a little simplistic implementation of GTD that can be enhanced by adding Evernote, Twitter, Jott support. Many of the high profile GTDers use Nozbe with success and they love the simple Nozbe interface and how it really helps them get things done.

We want Nozbe to be perfect, but not complicated. Nozbe's tagline is "simply get it done"

Again, thanks for your feedback and please help us make Nozbe perfect

P.S. We're working day and night on the iPhone app... it should be ready in March and it'll be fantastic with great collaboration features.

 

[PeterW]

I've looked at quite a few of the online systems and decided that Toodledo was the best. I know that some complain that the general look/feel is not as pretty as others (Nozbe, RTM, etc), it is very powerful and flexible so can be molded to pretty much anything you need and does GTD well. And it syncs with a few stable iPhone apps (Toodledo's own app, and my favourite Appigdo Todo).