The iPhone: Usability for GTD / Switching from the Treo

[jschwimmer]

Like many users of the Treo, I'm considering switching to the iPhone, but I have a few reservations. Following the GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology, I've become used to rapidly creating lists and tasks. I'm concerned that the iPhone, with its touch screen keyboard and inability to cut and paste text, is not well-suited for word processing, business, and productivity applications -- but I'd like to be proved wrong...

(Full post on The Efficient MD.) (http://efficientmd.blogspot.com/2007/06/switching-from-treo-to-iphone-usability.html)

[darlakbrown]

Will be interesting to see. I think google docs and google spreadsheets will work on the web browser, right?

[Cpu_Modern]

Hey, with Goggle Maps you can have real context lists. Whereever you go :D .

[TesTeq]

Hey, with Goggle Maps you can have real context lists. Whereever you go :D .

There is no buit-in GPS (Nokia phones are equipped with GPS).

[Tom Shannon]

Will be interesting to see. I think google docs and google spreadsheets will work on the web browser, right?

Sorry to say there are simply too many places where I can't get Internet access.

Waiting for the subway train is by far the worst example. I get up, get my Starbucks, go to the station and I'm just sitting there. Its a perfect time to pull out the PPC, look at my schedule and start thinking about my day. If all my stuff in online, I'm are dead in the water.

Maybe some day (pun intended). But not yet.

Tom S.

[darlakbrown]

Hey, with Goggle Maps you can have real context lists. Whereever you go :D .

ooohh.. good point. perhaps that's the future of GTD. it detects where you are based on your GPS location and displays the tasks for the context you are physically in. i like where this is going. :-) no more training yourself to pull up the appropriate context.

[darlakbrown]

PS I got my iphone last night. Only stood in line for 10 minutes. But am now waiting AT&T activation before I can use it. :( It could take another 12 hours, they say, but hopefully less.

[CSGiles]

Hi Folks,

As a committed Applist I got one of the first iPhones.

At the present time it's not the best platform for GTD. There is a notes function, but it's lame. All you can do with a note is store it on your phone or email it to yourself or someone else. There are no other list-keeping utilities and iCal only tracks timed calendar appointments. Tasks without matching appointments do not sync to the phone.

However, this will change in October when Leopard, the next generation of the operating system, becomes available. The pre-released versions show significantly improved support for Tasks and Notes. At that point the iPhone will be a perfectly fine GTD platform for those of us on Mac computers.

Don't know what it will be like for Windows users.

If you are using a web based GTD approach the iPhone will work fine now. If you are not, there are work-arounds for most of the problems. For example, you can keep lists as Email folders or as Contacts, which sync fine. However, if you really want a turnkey GTD platform I'd wait on the iPhone if I were you.

Scot Giles

[darlakbrown]

yes I got my iPhone (writing from it now). I am very happy with it except the
missing task sync. I guess I could go web based gtd but that's a transition since I am used to my current list setup. Will have to play on it a bit more. Its a beauty otherwise.

[apinaud]

Please keep posting, as a geek and a nerd (my wife do not know the difference and call me both) i am looking forward to hear.

I was considering the iPhone and decide at the end to get the Treo 680 (I had a Treo 650)

This are my reason:

1.- It is a Close Platform, therefore I need that apple release the apps I need
2.- There is no task (I know I cannot understand this)
3.- There is no Categories for notes (What they were thinking)
4.- You can not do FIND (Again What they were thinking)

You can make it work, YES, you can go online, YES, but if I have learn anything from David Allen, GTD, and this forum is you do not force the tool to work, you discover the way you work and the tool need to naturally addapt, otherwise, the system will colapse. (has happened to me)

But again, please keep posting, I like to read the different ideas people is getting, even maybe the updates... for now, I am really happy with apple and their iphone, since has make me realice how incredible is my Treo, and the Treo 680 it is even better....

[CSGiles]

Sure. I think all the Applists will be happy to comment on how the iPhone evolves. It's the very first gadget of its kind from Apple and there are sure to be changes. As it's software driven, we will be able to update our phones as things mature.

And no two ways about it, the iPhone is beautiful. It's the first cell phone that does not appear to have been designed by the Borg.

For now I'm using an easy workaround. In Leopard the Notes function will be part of the Mail program. So, for now I've created a NOTES folder in Mail and keep my lists as unsent emails.

If I make a Note on the iPhone, I just email it to myself to get it into the computer and then drag it to the appropropriate Mail folder. If I want to take a list with me in the phone I just email it to myself and pick up the email with the phone.

However, it will be nicer when this is more automated and elegant.


Scot Giles

[TesTeq]

Don't know what it will be like for Windows users.

Windows users do have more choice. They can already purchase excelent Nokia phones with high speed Internet access, GPS built-in, 5 megapixel camera and reliable synchronization with desktop machine. Or they can buy one of the Windows-based smartphones.

[apinaud]

Windows users do have more choice. They can already purchase excelent Nokia phones with high speed Internet access, GPS built-in, 5 megapixel camera and reliable synchronization with desktop machine. Or they can buy one of the Windows-based smartphones.

Or they can get a Palm, that to this day has been my device of choice for GTD. Out of the box makes an great solution.

Best,

[CSGiles]

Yes, all that is true for Windows users, or for Mac users who wish to forego the iPhone.

The problem is you have to forego the iPhone.

This new machine is stunningly beautiful, fast and elegant. The user experience is amazing. For now and for me, I'm willing to work around the limitations until the software catches up.

I don't just want my life to be efficient. I also want it to be beautiful and stylish.

Scot Giles

[darlakbrown]

I agree. Of course there are those options. Some people will continue down that path. The iPhone is one option. However it will change how other phones are designed in the future. IMHO

[kewms]

I don't just want my life to be efficient. I also want it to be beautiful and stylish.


See Trish's search for a custom leather binder, elsewhere in this forum. The iPhone is by no means the only beautiful, stylish approach to GTD tools.

Not to mention, efficient tools leave more time for beauty and style elsewhere in your life. So do cheap tools: in most cities, the cost of an iPhone will buy between 4 and 10 annual museum memberships.

To each their own.

Katherine

[darlakbrown]

See Trish's search for a custom leather binder, elsewhere in this forum. The iPhone is by no means the only beautiful, stylish approach to GTD tools.

Not to mention, efficient tools leave more time for beauty and style elsewhere in your life. So do cheap tools: in most cities, the cost of an iPhone will buy between 4 and 10 annual museum memberships.

To each their own.

Katherine

You cant respond to a forum from a leather binder. Nor place a conf call. Nor surf the web. And who said it would replace going to a museum? Or the theater for that matter? These superstitious beliefs about technology are so silly. How about getting to know people before assuming. I am off to the dogpark w the fam.

[smithdoug]

Since I’ve never had an iPod (although I’m contemplating buying one of those diminutive—and relatively inexpensive—wearable iPod shuffles so that I can listen to podcasts and audio books while running) and since I’ve always had a disdain for cell phones (even though I’ve owned several of them), I will not be plunking down $600—and more importantly, tethering myself to a 2-year contract with AT&T—to buy a video iPod that also happens to be a cell phone. Although I certainly do appreciate all those folks who are willing to pay to be beta testers. By all accounts, the iPhone is gorgeous, a stunning engineering achievement a game changer and a glimpse of the future. My wife’s grandsons are no doubt already lusting for one. But it’s emphatically not the converged device that would make me more productive and effective or in any way make my life simpler and better. I’ll wait until they release the real one (perhaps version 2 or 3?). The question is: Will it be made by Apple? With a stock price that’s doubled over the past year—and with operating margins from iPods flattening out—Apple probably needs the iPhone to be a smashing success. But as “Tech Guy” Leo Laporte has pointed out (I listened to a fascinating 1 hour podcast discussion of the iPhone with Laporte, Merlin Mann, Scott Bourne and Alex Lindsay last night, and all but Merlin with new iPhones in-hand… Merlin’s waiting for version 2) the flip side of Apple’s brilliance is a sort of Apple arrogance: Apple will give you not what you think you need, but what Apple decides you should have.

No doubt engineers at Nokia, Palm, RIM, HP, Dell, Sanyo, Microsoft… are busy this weekend tearing apart iPhones to see what makes them tick. As interesting as the iPhone is now--and it indisputably is--it may be far more interesting to see who has what six months from now. We do live in interesting times.

[ssh]

My hope is that with the iPhone I will no longer have to fear a reboot at an inopportune time. That was my primary reason for moving from the Treo 650 I have had for a couple of years.

That said, the iPhone is certainly a phone designed for human use, though, more so than any phone I've used (iPaq, BlackBerry, and Treo). So far, it's clearly a better system than any of those with real multitasking.

That said, for GTD, it's not a smooth solution, for sure. No sync of tasks and the lame notes function are obvious issues for this. I will probably use e-mail as my capture in the meantime.

[emhpasador]

I hope I am not stepping over the line, but just wanted to say that I understand what Katherine means. I don't think she is superstitious about technology at all. She is saying that she is fine with her technology being efficient and cheaper and not necessarily the source of style and beauty in her life. She wants her technology to get the job done, so that she can enjoy the other things.

I am thrilled to be getting a new Treo 755p for my new position. I have a long way to go in making it work, and I hope it is not too big. This forum has been helpful in knowing what to expect and how I might try to make it work for me.

I will let you know how it goes!

Thanks! Elaine

[kewms]

I hope I am not stepping over the line, but just wanted to say that I understand what Katherine means. I don't think she is superstitious about technology at all. She is saying that she is fine with her technology being efficient and cheaper and not necessarily the source of style and beauty in her life. She wants her technology to get the job done, so that she can enjoy the other things.

Yes, exactly.

Now, I'm writing this on an iMac, so I wouldn't say I object to stylish technology. I just don't spend enough time with any portable device to value what the iPhone brings to the table.

Katherine

[mmurray]

There is some discussion on the Apple boards about this and the general consensus seems to be that To-Do's are built into Leapord (the next OS due for
release later in the year) in some more intrinsic way and that the implementation on the iPhone awaits this.

If you want to see this go to www.apple.com, select Support, find the link to Discussions and look at iPhone > Integrating into your digital life (or something like that)

Michael

[TesTeq]

This new machine is stunningly beautiful, fast and elegant. The user experience is amazing. For now and for me, I'm willing to work around the limitations until the software catches up.

My windsurfing board is also "stunningly beautiful, fast and elegant. The user experience is amazing." But I am not going to use it for GTD. I do prefer simplicity so I do not want to to work around the limitations of any device.

[emhpasador]

BTW, Darla, the idea of how the GPS would fit into GTD is brilliant!!!! I'm going to want one of those!!

[LJM]

My reaction to new things like the iPhone, including the iPhone is "Hey! Cool! Shiny! I want one! ...but I think I'll wait a year until theres a better version for half the price".

But my hat is off to those of you who do rush out to buy the cool-new first-generation technology as soon as it comes out: since your purchases provide the majority of funding for R&D and you yourselves provide the majority of the beta-testing, we wouldn't have so much cool, new technology and cool, new gadgets without the rush-to-be-first-in-line crowd :) .

(I finally got an iPod last year. I love it! And I love it a lot more than I would have loved the first generation ones, which did cost about double. And I'm not going to be tempted to "trade up" as quickly as if I had bought the first generation, since improvements tend to become more incremental with each release of a gadget.)

Edited to add: Also, as much as I love shiny new gadgets, I've discovered that for GTD, I do best with a case of index cards-- go figure. Simplicity is best, I suppose.

[Trish]

...how's your paper system working? We haven't had an update in a while. Still using the Levenger system? Do you lug it around? What about travel? Write me a couple of paragraphs if you find a minute:rolleyes: about what you are using now? Change? No Change?
Thanks, Trish

[kewms]

...how's your paper system working? We haven't had an update in a while. Still using the Levenger system? Do you lug it around? What about travel? Write me a couple of paragraphs if you find a minute:rolleyes: about what you are using now? Change? No Change?
Thanks, Trish

Too busy to change: I moved 3000 miles this spring. That confirmed the wisdom of a paper system for me. My main paper notebook is smaller than my laptop, and doesn't need electricity or connectivity to be useful. I couldn't always *do* the things on my lists, but I was able to at least maintain the lists consistently from start to finish.

Katherine