From GTD to priorities pt. 2 of 3

For part 1 of 3 please click here

Any contenders I need look at?

This is where this blog gets even more interesting. Having evaluated a number of programs made me realise there are some really smart new developments around. It is all about linking functionalities, resulting in great new applications.

Yet, you will find that among the products I will describe next, there are quite a few that do not adhere to my six requirements. However, if you think that only a subset of these six is necessary for you, there can be some products which are totally what you need. What I am driving at is that each of the next products contains some very impressive functions or new approaches.

First a brief overview. An extensive review of each follows right away. By the way, I am not into ® and ™ signs all over the place. Please fill them in where appropriate.

FCmobilelife Tasks, by FranklinCovey (yes, THE Covey)
Caters for the importance/urgency prioritisation of your actions.

Helium Now, by Robot Blimp Industries
Mainly oriented on GTD and ‘Inbox zero’, with the best email integration ever, but can I Eisenhower it?

Life Balance, by Llamagraphics
Superb prioritising, mixed with a hefty dose of timing and location-awareness.

Nozbe, by Apivision
I really like its web UI and its hotkeys (fast input and control!), but can I set it up to better reflect my priorities?

RememberTheMilk,
It has been around for some now. In it you can configure your own approach to action management.

Todo, by Appigo
Great for keeping tabs on what to do, but also why (importance) and when (due dates) to do it.

ToDoMatrix, by REXWireless Software
They have really put an effort in combining GTD’s and Covey’s trains of thought into one application. They have written a whitepaper that describes what is needed for that in an excellent manner.

Wunderlist, by 6wunderkinder
Really free multi-list system.

.. your suggestions?

For each of the contenders mentioned above I will give you my thoughts and experiences.

• FCmobilelife Tasks
It is available as a web client and as applications for BlackBerry and iPhone/iPod touch.

Pros
FC Tasks is one a the few applications that really seems to cater for the two dimensional prioritisation of Covey/Eisenhower.

Great additional features
It has a polished interface, and you can add voice memos as tasks. Really clear web interface.

Cons
Its use of the urgency dimension differs from my definition of urgency. In the app urgency simply is another level of prioritisation. It does not seem to have to do anything with time and duration. In fact a task can have a deadline attached to it that has no connection with urgency. This is really beyond me!

Workarounds
I would not know of any. This inconsistency in dealing with urgency is part of the way the app has been developed. So FC Tasks is a no-no for me.

• Helium Now
It is available for Windows and iOS. And you can use it offline and sync later.

Pros
Really simple interface.

Great additional features
You can set it up to automatically link with your email server, e.g. Gmail. If you use the same folders in your email as in your Helium client, all mails in these folders can be treated as actions. No editing necessary. Have a look at the video on their site to find out what is so neat about this.

Cons
You cannot have repeating tasks. And it is still very (too?) much GTD based. But important status info is there at your fingertips: waiting for, maybe/someday. They’re all there. No priority support, but you can always order the actions by dragging them to another position. However, I find that unsatisfying.

Workarounds
None yet for repeating tasks and priorities, so this one is out.

• Life Balance
Life Balance is available for Windows, OS X, iOS, and even PalmOS.

Pros
The outstanding feature of Life Balance is the way it handles importance. I would almost go so far as to say that this is really the only way to deal with importance. In Life Balance the importance of an action is defined relative to a goal or project, instead of existing in an abstract sense. Life Balance is a hierarchical system: sub-goals or projects are ordered subordinate to a top level domain. The top level domains are the main goals/roles in your life, cf. Covey. Actions created within a project inherit the project’s properties in terms of place, etc.
It has a steep learning curve but the ROI is great. It really helps you stay in control of your goals and actions.
The closer the deadline for action gets, the higher the action will be ordered in the list of actions to do. So there is a neat mix of importance and urgency weighting. I can blindly trust that.

Great additional features
You can define time frames for particular places. This will allow you to see only actions that are relevant to where you are. E.g. your hours at work can be entered into the system. During those hours you will only see those actions that pertain to your work.

Cons
Life Balance has not had any major recent updates. It has been overtaken by other, smarter, applications. But none come even close to the superb importance/urgency handling that Life Balance has.
You need to start Life Balance on both platforms to synchronise actions. Syncing over a network needs extra attention each time you do it (manually!). There is no link to the cloud. The software is pricey, but the core features might be important enough for you to make up for this.
There is no quick-fire inbox to dump your stuff in. Entering and editing is really a big hassle. You end up spending too much time in managing your tasks to the detriment of executing them. Yes, I have used LB some years ago, but I have left it for exactly the reasons I describe here.

Workarounds
I am really sorry to say there are none. The lack of cloud support and the hassle to use it cause this contender to drop out of my list .

• Nozbe
Cloud based and apps for iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, Android. Windows application with off-line support available in beta as I write this blog.

Pros
Superb web UI. Really fast task entry, with simple and very useable hotkeys to speed up this process even more. The default folder is the inbox. Nozbe is very easy to use and allows for quick fire entry of multiple to-dos.
Multi language (I have been the moderator of the Dutch translations).

Great additional features
Send tasks to a special email address linked to your Nozbe account. You can use simple codes to directly have the tasks appear in the correct project folder, with due dates and contexts too if you like. Evernote and Gmail task support.

Cons
No built in support for priorities whatsoever. The only thing you can do, is to drag the tasks around and put them in the order you prefer. But this is no real solution. The choice in repetition patterns is rather limited.

Workarounds
None yet for repeating tasks and priorities, so I will leave Nozbe.

• RememberTheMilk
Cloud based with apps for iOS and Windows.

Pros
Highly configurable, build your own filters. Very flexible repetition descriptions. Really fast user interface in the web app, especially if you are into hotkeys.

Great additional features
It boasts automatic location-awareness in your iOS device.

Cons
No prefab support for either Covey or GTD. It is highly flexible, but you need to invest more than a little time to get it working for you. Syncing is only supported in the Pro account, so you need to divest some money to have that.

Workarounds
You can search the web for advice on how to set up RTM for your favourite brand of action management.

• Appigo’s Todo
Only for iOS.

Pros
A really stable and fast app for the iOS platform. And it has the simplicity that really helps you stay in control of your priorities and get things done (Isn’t that a nice mix?). It synchronises with a (free) Toodledo account on the web. Toodledo has an iOS app as well, but Appigo’s app tops it. Simply put, ToDo seems to meet all my requirements, and yet… (please continue reading).

Great additional features
It has lots of settings that do not need elaborate explanations. It is based an a simple 4 level importance indication, where the lowest importance can be filtered out and thus be used as a maybe/someday indication, to be checked during the weekly review. My preferred sorting option: importance primary, due date secondary. I had used ToDo for some time before I adopted Nozbe.

Cons
Appigo’s Todo locates its data in Toodledo on the web. If you want to access your to-do list on the web you have to struggle with Toodledo’s awkward UI. (Toodledo’s iOS app has a really neat interface, so they ought to know how to make a proper UI!)

Workarounds
Appigo’s ToDo is great in itself, but the web GUI (= Toodledo) is a kludge. There does not seem to be a web based alternative for this. The organisation I work for does not allow installing my own software on my workstation, so a proper web interface is quite important.

• ToDoMatrix
Apps for BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, cloud access from your PC or Mac.

Pros
Highly configurable like RememberTheMilk, but more prefab support specific to GTD and to Covey. YES, I can have my own mix of the best of both worlds.

Great additional features
Add your own labels for more control.

Cons
Web access entails yearly costs. There are less expensive solutions around and if possible I prefer a one time license fee.

Workarounds
None for the costs.

• Wunderlist
It is free and supports most major platforms (Apple OS X, Windows, iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, Android). It is a web app as well, which allows for cloud syncing.

Pros
You can make a list for anything, i.e. for all your projects. You just don’t have to think about syncing. Whatever you do and on whatever platform you do it: within 15 minutes all changes will have been synced with your account in the cloud.

Great additional features
Wunderlist in all its renditionings has a wonderfully clean interface. Ease of use has been foremost in the developers’ minds. Wunderlist enables you to make as many different lists as you want – call them projects.

Cons
Wunderlist does not support repeating actions! Wunderlist does not cater for priorities.
It uses an email address “me@wunderlist.com” for everyone and yet your actions are added to your own account. How? Simply because your account name is equal to the email address that you have sent the email from. These actions are added to a list that is equal to the contents of the About field of your email. Neat trick, BUT: when I forward emails to turn them into tasks, I get ‘spammed’ with as many lists as I have forwarded emails. It would have been better if the subject field would serve as the task description and the email contents as a note concomitant with the task. And for all converted tasks to appear in the inbox.
My Wunderlist account is linked to my personal email address, this prohibits me to send action mails from my work email address.

Workarounds
You could remedy the email-list-spam problem by editing an email first before you send it to your Wunderlist account. But this compromises the ease of use Wunderlist strives for. The email sender problem remains, however.
More importantly, there is no remedy for dealing with priorities and the lack of repeating actions. So this contender is out.

Duh, there is not one program that fits the bill straight away!
It is time to make a compromise…

To be continued…