A while back I posted about trying the OmniFocus ‘task management’ software which implements Getting Things Done type lists. As I said, it’s not that I haven’t tasks to do, and the GTD idea really does work. But, having played about a bit with it, I reckoned my life isn’t so cluttered that carrying on using NoteBook and iCal wouldn’t work well enough for me.
I’ve not changed my mind about Omnifocus. But now I’ve just discovered an alternative, lighter weight, more free-form task management OS X application simply called Things. Still in beta and free, but very well regarded (for a tour, see here): very clean and easy to learn, and even easier to use. I’m a convert. Well worth checking out.
johnk, unfortunately mere sheets of A4 don’t come with enough ideology attached. ;)
Can I make a case for techno-ludditism? LaTeX (20 years old and counting); Bash (ditto); and to-do lists on sheets of A5 paper and a bulldog clip. I don’t know when the bulldog clip was invented, but they’re still going strong. (Wikipedia is quite new and useful I suppose: I’ve just learned that Bulldog as a UK stationery trademark dates from 1944.)
You might also want to take a look at the application I use. It is very simple and allows me to view my entire GTD at work on my Win machine, at home on my Macs and even on my cell phone. And another app lets me call in tasks to my GTD without any writing or typing, great for those thoughts that hit me while driving. I’ve written about my experiences with GTD in a blog post at http://johnkendrick.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/more-getting-things-done/ I also have some links there to some great (simple) GTD video training. John
For implementing GTD you can use this web-based application:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version and iCal are available too.