ThinkingRock

  • Thread starter Thread starter nzamani
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nzamani

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Has anyone here tried ThinkingRock?
It's supposed to be a GTD-lige PIM-replacement.

I took a quick look and feel that it matches the principles pretty well.
But i'm just starting with it.

I wonder how far you can go until it breaks down because of some important thing of the GTD-system that they probably forgot...?

I'm really thinking of moving all my stuff into it. (I can even build my own programs that use it's files, so i would be free to do anything i want if i woild get some time on my hands.)

Please tell me what you think...

P.S.: Nope, i'm not affiliated to them. In fact i'm more like a concurrent because i'm planning my own GTD-tool (despite extremely extended and advanced technology including neuronal networks). So this is certanly no spam/ad/wtf. :)
 
ThinkingRock

I tried it for about 4 months.

Some positives: Love the tight integration with GTD. Loved the UI. Flexible enough to flush/plan out ideas in more detail without actually starting them. Flexible enough to create a project "template", the copy to new projects. The delegate to functionality is great.

Some not so positives. I never understood categories, so I ended up spending time tinkering without much reward. I had over 600 actions, 10 contexts and projects nested up to 6 deep - I think this caused some performance problems on start up (I haven't found anything that can deal with that number of actions (no I don't do that much, just an ace at delegating - a.k.a. certified project manager). Reports were... just okay, not great.

Would like: better integration with Outlook, better integration with MS Project, integration with software process dashboard, & better reports.

Biggest concern: long term viability. I heard they were going to make it open source, so maybe that maybe a brighter future.

Back to paper for now.
 
I like the categories thing. unfortunately they are flat and you can't add something to multiple categories, but i guess that's ok, because before i used 3 master directories with some 18 groups in them, representing nothing other than the categories for my projects. Theyweren't hierarchical too. But i still think what i miss the most is to do "softlinks" eg. to put a sub-project in TWO main projects as a sub-task, because they BOTH depend on it...

I laugh at your 600 actions. ;)
I once added all my actions to a mindmap (FreeMind, nice software, but hierarchical too, unfortunately) and printed them out because i had to zoom no low that i could not see the tasks lines anymore (1600x1200). iafter glueing the shets together, the MM was higher than my room's walls. and i still thought the font was too small (10pt? 8pt?). *sweat*
I wonder how far i can go now. Java 6 has great optimizations in IO.

Yeah, they made it open source. And if it's too slow for me, i'll simply tell them to give me that source code, because i'm gonna port the UI to OpenGL. (i'm a pro in opengl in java) :D

Hmm, how views can differ... :)
I'm actually happy it demotivates use of outlook, ms project and other ms-software. MS fights hard to stop other developers from integrating their stuff with others. It's very hard to integrate stuff with them.
So if you fell in their proprietary trap, you're alone there. It's your own fault. ;) So tell me about viability... ;P

About reports: That's what i never saw a need for... :)

And i'm proudly paper-free here. (As far as possible, due to some companies still not being able to use digital signatures...)
I love my search function and my many useful program scripts too much. :)
 
May the (electric) power be with you.

nzamani said:
And i'm proudly paper-free here. (As far as possible, due to some companies still not being able to use digital signatures...)
Click to expand...

May the (electric) power be with you. :-)
 
Simple yet effective . . .

I have tried MyLife Organized, MindManager Pro, Outlook Add-in and ThinkingRock to implement GTD. Initially when I started GTD, I developed a complicated system with many sublevels that became too much to handle. So, set out to simplify my system.

I did not like MyLife Organized at all. I use MindManager for mind maps, which is a good tool for its purpose, but it is not a good tool to manage Next Actions.

I use Outlook Add-in for my Next Actions in Tasks. I use ThinkingRock for Projects. With ThinkingRock, I can brainstorm all of my Next Actions for a project yet make them "Inactive". When I get ready for the Next Action for a particular project, I e-mail that action to myself and use the Outlook Add-in to manage the Next Action as I would any other e-mail.

During my Weekly Review, which occurs every Friday at 10 a.m., I review all projects in ThinkingRock to ensure all completed actions are "done" and that all "active" Next Actions are in Outlook.

So far, I have found the combination of ThinkingRock and Outlook Add-in as the best tools for me.
 
Some of the issues mentioned above will be addressed in the upcoming revision to the program due around the end of Feb. I think the new version of TR will be worth a second look for those who don't like something in the current version.
 
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