GTD in your phone. Help to choose app. 3 finalist.

[enezeusx]

Hello, Im new in GTD and I´m looking for an APP to my phone that can work like David Allen his methodology. After having tried several APPs and online task managers system that can sync, I need to choose between 3 i liked.


GetItDoneapp (http://getitdoneapp.com) is a very good app, easy to use, the web site sync with the app, and it sync with google calendar too. I like it, because it works like the GTD book told me.

Remember the milk (https://www.rememberthemilk.com/). Very complete task manager, can sync with google calendar and the website. Not to easy to use, but maybe I need more time with this.

Google task manager. I liked too, but it is maybe not too complete like Getitdoneapp or Remember the milk.

Did you read the GTD book and you use one of these app? Plese tell me why I must to choose one of these app. (and why not)

Thanks for your help!

[danreading]

I used to use GTM because I can assign tasks to any email I receive and the interface is simple enough that I'm not spending a lot of time playing with options. I just made a list for each context and ran with it. Currently, however I started using SpringPad because I'm offline about half the time and it syncs my lists automatically. My advice is to download 10 of the highest rated ones and after two weeks stick with the one you use.

[mcogilvie]

Honestly, I don't care for any of your choices very much. GetItDone was very buggy as of a few weeks ago. Google tasks seems too simple, and I don't care for the web interface of RTM. My advice is to look at the most highly-rated gtd apps around.

[jrdouce]

I've been using RTM. I'm not completely satisfied, but it's serviceable. The Web interface is ponderous to edit. If you learn the shortcuts, however, adding tasks is decent. The Android app is very good.

I'd like to use Google tasks, but I'd like a slightly more robust interface than the popup window on the bottom of gmail. Still, for I'm a big fan of simplicity, and gtm is very simple.

[kelstarrising]

Has anyone tried SmartyTask (http://www.smartytask.com/)? It's web-based only.

[mshparber]

Evernote and springpad.
Google those & getting things done

[ste.witton]

I've tried loads including Todo, toodledoo and things but the best by far is Omnifocus. Granted, it's probably the most expensive but you get what you pay for. It handles projects superbly which is a must.

[clango]

Has anyone tried SmartyTask (http://www.smartytask.com/)? It's web-based only.

it seems to be too expensive! 99$ per year? this is the cost to buy a software!

I use Toodledo and gOT TO DO ( now Ultimate TO do list, Got To Do end)

[Mark Jantzen]

I use OmniFocus on my iPhone 4 and after getting up the learning curve it is an excellent app to help implement GTD particularly with the ability to sync across devices - e.g. Mac, iPhone, iPad.

[hacker]

I use OmniFocus on my iPhone 4 and after getting up the learning curve it is an excellent app to help implement GTD particularly with the ability to sync across devices - e.g. Mac, iPhone, iPad.

Two words: Bleh, iPhone.

[Mark Jantzen]

Two words: Bleh, iPhone.

You're not supposed to eat the darn thing!

[PeterW]

I've been using Toodledo.com (web-based service) and Appigo Todo on my iPhone for a few years now and find it very solid and reliable. Toodledo's own iPhone app is a bit more comprehensive but I find the interface more cumbersome and therefore less easy to use.


Has anyone tried SmartyTask (http://www.smartytask.com/)? It's web-based only.
I took Smartytask for a trial run just after it was 'released'. I liked it a lot - nice clean user interface and some neat features. However the issues for me were:
[a] Cost - $9.95/month is expensive compared to $15.00/year for Toodledo;
[b] No native mobile app - their mobile web version is nice but not enough for me;
[c] No online user community - & responses from the developer were slow.

Another service worth looking at is Nirvana (www.nirvanahq.com). They are still in beta so it's missing functionality but it looks great and has a commitment to following GTD (whereas Toodledo can do GTD but is not designed specifically for it). Nirvana does not have a native mobile app either but they have a functional mobile web version like Smartytask.

[elizabethm]

Try those three, they are very much GTD-centric if you know what you are doing. I wouldn't recommend Remember the Milk for managing projects. Sure, if you had a few, I'll say go for it and Google several project workarounds for it. But it is particularly fussy to manage if you have over sixty active projects. Meh.

Get It Done is a bit buggy on the iPhone. I am currently running iOS 4.1 and when I ran the app I experienced slow response and some crashes. See if it works for you.

But, of course, this is all advice. It takes some months to find the perfect tool for your workflow. If not the perfect tool, the most flexible and customizable one so it'll match you.

[enezeusx]

Finnaly I paid for RTM, it works perfect if you implemented GTD with this guide:
http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2008/05/guest-post-advanced-gtd-with-remember-the-milk/ This guide make the difference!

I paid for getitdoneapp too, but I experimented some syncronizacion problems and the APP was very slow to use.

Smartytask was nice, but it has not android app and it is expensive.

Toodledo and Nirvanahq are very, very good, but they have not android app.

[mhm802]

Toodledo doesn't have a native Android app, but it has several excellent Android interfaces. I use Ultimate To-Do list, which synchs perfectly with Toodledo online.

[fanlynne]

How do I work a combined digital/physical situation?

[enezeusx]

Toodledo doesn't have a native Android app, but it has several excellent Android interfaces. I use Ultimate To-Do list, which synchs perfectly with Toodledo online.

Thanks for de advice, mhm802!
Toodledo (http://www.toodledo.com) with Ultimate To-Do (http://www.todolist.co/compare.html) list have the remember the milk does not have and more.
Notes, sub-tasks, easy and powerfull search, saved searchs, customizable views, a lot of tools and services (http://www.toodledo.com/connections.php) (google calendar, outlook, send your task via email, etc), perfect synchronization, customizable themes (http://userstyles.org/styles/browse/toodledo.com) ...and the most important, nice price :-)

Thanks again for the advice!

[clango]

I've been using Toodledo.com (web-based service) and Appigo Todo on my iPhone for a few years now and find it very solid and reliable.

I took Smartytask for a trial run just after it was 'released'. I liked it a lot - nice clean user interface and some neat features. However the issues for me were:
[a] Cost - $9.95/month is expensive compared to $15.00/year for Toodledo;
[b] No native mobile app - their mobile web version is nice but not enough for me;
[c] No online user community - & responses from the developer were slow.


Peter,

I use Toodledo and I think as you is a reliable service at an affordable cost.

SmartyTask, I had your same evaluations and if there is not a community and response "center" it is, for me, a negative indicator.

Then I found Got To Do on Android, as well reliable as Toodledo, and they synch together.

However, recently the developer of Got To Do announced there will be anymore updates of the app and the actual competitors seem to be far from the characteristics of Got to Do.:(

Edit 2/04/11: I found the alternative: Ultimate To Do List (http://www.ToDoList.co) is better than Got To Do!

[vicve]

I use Informant to manage my tasks and Evernote for reference materials and project plans. This combo is working very well for me. I'm not very familiar with your 3 finalist apps but it's hard to say which one is "best" because I think any app can work for you. It just depends on appeals to you and fits into your style. If any are hard to use, they will probably repel you so I would stay away from the types of apps especially if you are newer to GTD and just trying to get the basic concepts under your belt.

Vickie

[AE Thanh]

Does it have to be a web based platform?

Honestly, I haven't found anything as good as Omnifocus. Unfortunately it is Mac-only (or iPhone / iPad) but by far the task manager out there.

I know RTM syncs nicely with Google Calendar plus it has apps for Android and iPhone. That makes capturing fairly easy and syncing.

[developPEOPLE]

I realize I'm late posting to this thread, but want to tell you about a great cloud app that I am loving called GQueues. It hooks in to Gmail through the Google Apps marketplace, has a widget to create tasks (or add to your Project or SomedayMaybe lists if you've set those up) from within Gmail, works excellent from any smartphone using the browser, and has offline capability as well. I'm loving GQueues. There is a video in the help showing how the founder Cameron set up his GQueues for use with the GTD methodology. I've taken a similar approach with mine, as has my assistant (I'm a consultant) and it is really working for us.
Best wishes!

[Fireproof]

I've tried a lot of different GTD / To Do apps and have landed on Appigo's ToDo app for now.

I bought and used Things for a while. Very elegant. Loved it. But was missing some key features at the time and is STILL missing over-the-air sync. It's a pain to try to keep 3 devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad) in-sync when you have to do it on a local network with all three apps open. PASS.

I then tried Appigo ToDo for a while and liked it. But it had some short comings in the past, requiring to sync with either Remember the Milk or Toodledo.

So i moved on to Omnifocus. Spent a butt load of money on their apps and used it for quite a while. But for some reason, it just never "excited" me from a user interface or look and feel standpoint. Seemed (to me) to also require more work than needed for the way I implement GTD. I was filling out too many unneccessary fields just so my "perspectives" would display the right information.

So I checked out Appigo ToDo again and lo' and behold - they have a new ToDo Online web-based version!! This allows me to sync my iPhone ToDo app, my iPad ToDo app, with the Web-Based ToDo Online, in realtime!! I'm always in sync and it works great. Supports the GTD work flow just fine, allows both Contexts and Tags for greater flexibility, and has a nice user interface. I love the quick and simple iphone app too.

They say they are developing desktop versions (Mac and Windows) so that will be slick too. I'd love a Mac desktop version so I don't have to use my browser.

Highly recommend looking into it if you haven't checked it out.

For me - it's now a race:
- if Things comes out with OTA syncing, I'll likely move back to it, since I've already purchased the Mac and iPhone versions.
- but if Appigo releases a desktop (Mac) version of their app, then they might just keep me for good.

[AndrewGM1]

I've been using RTM. I'm not completely satisfied, but it's serviceable. The Web interface is ponderous to edit. If you learn the shortcuts, however, adding tasks is decent. The Android app is very good.

I'd like to use Google tasks, but I'd like a slightly more robust interface than the popup window on the bottom of gmail. Still, for I'm a big fan of simplicity, and gtm is very simple.

I tried RTM and found it clunky to use with GTD, although there is an extension for Firefox (and maybe Chrome) that provides an improved interface (called something like A Better RTM). RTM has a nice iPhone app, although the free version is limited.

Regarding Google Tasks, I've found that it can work OK with GTD. I set up GTasks according to the GTD Outlook guidelines from davidco, then bookmarked/docked the following link for an expanded, full-screen view of GTasks (including menu bar):

https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas

This setup requires more manual processing than some web apps, but it's free and keyboard shortcuts (like shift-return to access the notes part of a task, and tabbing) can help speed the process. Also, using X's and asterisks can help flag items or mark them as done.

Having said all that, I'm trying to work on my GTD flow using paper right now, but in the long run may go with GTasks (advantages: free; can be embedded in GCal if tasks are given a due date and also can show in GCal's sidebar; has the canvas view; syncs with a nice third-party, inexpensive iPhone app called GeeTasks; may someday be updated by Google) or perhaps go with Omnifocus (which offers more features/power, flagging, good iPhone and iPad apps, and is testing cloud synching).

[ccoleman99]

I tried Toodledo and Appigo's ToDo for a while, but eventually gave them up because the user interface never clicked for me. Toodledo's web interface in particular is just ugly -- which I think either doesn't matter to you at all or else it matters a great deal.

I also tried Things, but agree with a post above that until Things gets cloud sync it's just too painful to deal with.

OmniFocus costs more, but it is powerful, works well, and has an elegant user interface.

[cmspangle]

As I've been testing out gear the last week as I get started on my GTD system, I found that I like Pagico the best. It's still a little buggy, but it's all packed in there. Today was the first day using it, and I got more done than normal.

My second choice is Doit.im. Third is Get it Done.

Has anyone else tried Pagico?

[cmspangle]

And add in Active Inbox for GMail. Pagico and Active Inbox Connect.

[Conejo23]

I started using OmniFocus when it was first released. Was somewhat daunted by what I perceived was the complexity and the learning curve of it. Didn't really embrace it and then looked at virtually every alternative out there, including most of what's been mentioned on this thread. I found each lacking in some important process point, so I came back to OmniFocus and dedicated myself to really digging into it for 3 months, after which I'd decide what I wanted to do with it. I am REALLY glad I did that.

I don't know if I'm black belt with it or not yet, but I've gotten really good at using it efficiently and now I'd be lost without it. For me, one of the most important things I needed was the ability to robustly handle email and OmniFocus is by far the best I've demoed at doing this.

I could list a couple dozen things I love about the app, but I'll just say it's the one app that I've found allows for the most classical implementation of David's methodology. And the Review functionality is powerful, and something I never found in any other app, at least not this kind of implementation.

also have it paired up with the iPhone version, then I use Reqall to be able to use my voice to be able to dump new ideas/items into my inbox on the fly. As an example, let's stay I'm stuck in traffic and I get an idea for something I want to do. I bring up the Reqall app on my iphone and say "email Joe about the new marketing project" and about 5 minutes later, an email shows up in my inbox with that text transcribed. That email is then automatically imported into my OmniFocus inbox without me having to do anything to put it there. Very cool.

If I get an email I need to convert into an action item, I hit a hotkey and it brings up the OmniFocus quick entry window with that email attached to it as a note with a built in link to bring up the original email. I type whatever task title I want, can fill in project/context info very quickly, hit enter and it's done.

it's a powerful program and if you're on a mac and want a computer based list manager, I'd recommend taking it for a test drive.

[AE Thanh]

Did the OP ever settle on the program of choice? I'm curious about the decision. A lot of people mentioned different programs, but I still believe Omnifocus is the best one out there (I also wrote how you can start using Omnifocus (http://www.asianefficiency.com/task-management/omnifocus-series-part-02-getting-started-with-omnifocus/)).

In general though, if you have to pay for a task manager on a monthly basis, you're getting screwed over. I can understand it for a web-based app like RTM where you pay a small annual fee (hey they have to cover traffic, hosting, and app development), but monthly is ridiculous.

[JohnV474]

Two words: Bleh, iPhone.



^^^^^^^ +1

[Anitteb]

Has anyone tried SmartyTask (http://www.smartytask.com/)? It's web-based only.

I've tried it. Looks good at very first glance - but then: very disappointing. Extremely limited. No support or help functions at all. No explanations on how to use what. No sync with iCal. No tie in with emails. No mobile apps. No ......