ivanjay205
Registered
I have written about this before, but it has been quite a while and technology has come a long way. So I wanted to re-open the topic.
I am dedicated to GTD, I organize in projects and next actions, I do my weekly review, I have startup/shutdown routines.... All of these things are in place.
For a long time I used Omnifocus. And while I LOVE omnifocus and the built in review and the UI (since they went to V4 anyway) I know as a business owner I take on too much and at times my lists get a bit long. When that happens I "trim the hedges" and bring it back in order. However, I find that if my calendar is not protected.... I lose my working time to meetings and requests from others.
So I tried an app called Skekpal which I do love (differently than omnifocus). I was able to create a GTD system in there without an issue and once I really learned how to do it, it does a really good job of presenting the right things at the right times to me and keeping me on my priorities.
Fast forward though and the three drawbacks I have found is Skedpal are:
Just curious on thoughts..... Omnifocus worked very well for me for many years. However, I have always found that the decision making of which context to go to and which action to handle gives me some decision fatigue and allows me to procrastinate in email. I do enjoy that thinking done for me. And the calendar management has been phenomenal in skedpal. But..... I have this nagging feeling I am not working on the right things and I am a bit less in control and just reacting to what is presented to me (even if it is the right thing).
I am dedicated to GTD, I organize in projects and next actions, I do my weekly review, I have startup/shutdown routines.... All of these things are in place.
For a long time I used Omnifocus. And while I LOVE omnifocus and the built in review and the UI (since they went to V4 anyway) I know as a business owner I take on too much and at times my lists get a bit long. When that happens I "trim the hedges" and bring it back in order. However, I find that if my calendar is not protected.... I lose my working time to meetings and requests from others.
So I tried an app called Skekpal which I do love (differently than omnifocus). I was able to create a GTD system in there without an issue and once I really learned how to do it, it does a really good job of presenting the right things at the right times to me and keeping me on my priorities.
Fast forward though and the three drawbacks I have found is Skedpal are:
- It is a bit more cumbersome than Omnifocus to create projects and group next actions. I found myself starting to create a single next action with bullets in it for the steps (for items I would want to work into within one block)
- It takes a bit more entry to get things right to show at the right time. Once done, it takes ALL of the friction out of decision making as I am presented a nice and neat list of things to do. But my clarify is quite a bit harder and it takes more time and therefore my inbox builds up a bit more
- It is WAY too easy to take in everything. Because it will automate the decision making to a degree like a personal assistant there is almost no hard reason to decide not to do something, it will just keep getting pushed down the road if it is low priority but it will be there. As such my system is starting to feel a bit large
- I did "program" it to know my peak work hours when I am at my best to give me my focus tasks in the AM for example and it does that great. I have not figured out how to really get the personal side right yet.
- It doesnt understand when you just need a break, it just fills the hours you allow it too. So if Friday I was a bit burnt out there is no way to intelligently tell it, hey give me the easy stuff today to keep moving. I either need to power through what it presents or know in my mind what I need to do.
- As it knows my schedule it presents things when I actually have time to get them done. I have found my productivity in "checking things off" which I understand is not necessarily the right productivity has gone up significantly. For example I need to process payroll every other Tuesday. If that Tuesday is busy it will slot it for Monday on its own.... If my calendar is nearing full it will block my calendar so my colleagues cannot take another meeting
- It clearly tells me when I am overcommitted. For example, this week I am going to a conference so I am pretty much jammed up 8 AM - 10 PM 4 days this week. Well all of my committments I need to get done get flagged in this system so I can proactively know of them the week before and say okay I am really overcommitted so how will I handle this. A few things I need to do so I already looked at a session I can skip as the least important one of the conference so I can tackle those things and I am ahead of the game.
- It has worked well and sometimes I want to jump ship on software when it is getting busy and maybe that is not a need.... Maybe there is another way to get myself back on track.
- It holds my time from my colleagues with flexibility. If my scheduling slack is green, meaning there is room on my calendar, it will timeblock to my outlook calendar but mark it as free so colleagues can schedule meetings. Once my scheduling slack gets yellow meaning I am starting to get tight, it will change that to busy and move around the times to accommodate so my time is held from my colleagues. This has been an AMAZING feature for me.
Just curious on thoughts..... Omnifocus worked very well for me for many years. However, I have always found that the decision making of which context to go to and which action to handle gives me some decision fatigue and allows me to procrastinate in email. I do enjoy that thinking done for me. And the calendar management has been phenomenal in skedpal. But..... I have this nagging feeling I am not working on the right things and I am a bit less in control and just reacting to what is presented to me (even if it is the right thing).