Managing What To Get Done != GTD
First and foremost, this is a “call to arms” of sorts. It is primarily directed at myself but if you find it rings a bell with you, then great. I find writing really helps me solidify opinions and thoughts, so here goes it.
I’ll be honest: I’m sick and tired of being in a limbo in regards to a task/project manager. I’m not talking about a team tool (eg. GoPlan et al). I’m talking about software like Things, The Hit List and others. My one requirement: ubiquity, specifically an iPhone counter-part app with seamless syncing.
When Things for the iPhone came out, Things for Mac was still in beta and I was using it. I bought the iPhone version the minute it came out (one of the first native apps back in 2008) and enjoyed the (ignorant) bliss for a while. Then along came The Hit List (THL). Its “realistic” user interface was soothing and the app really fit my GTD™paradigm better than Things ever did. A few months later, THL still hadn’t released an iPhone app, so I gave up and bought Things for Mac. Yes, the whole $50 of it. [1]
I’ve tried countless web-based systems but none feel natural for personal stuff. They’re awesome if you want to add folks to projects and share tasks, but tend to fail for a more natural, personal task management.
About a month ago, I finally gave up on Things and moved everything to THL. I’ve been using it lately and I like it. On the other hand, its developer seems to have a pretty bad “delegation problem” (I shall write a post about that soon) and no updates have been published lately (except one, extending the beta date limit which was April, 30th) and there’s no feedback on any of his sites, twitter accounts, flickr, blog… And moving back and forth between apps/systems is nothing I’d recommend… at all! Besides, the one requirement I have (an iPhone app) THL doesn’t comply with (yet).
Less Pretty, More Done
I don’t mean to diminish the importance of attractive user interfaces in productivity. I know a good UI and UX can really enhance the usefulness and interaction of an app but… I’m sick and tired of trying to find a GTD™ tool that fits my workflow AND looks good. I’m beggining to think this could well be a lost fight. Besides, maybe I should be spending more effort and focusing on actually getting things done than on figuring an *auxiliary* system that looks good doing so. I might just move “back” to TaskPaper and send the rest down the drain. It sure doesn’t look as good (although this theme makes it extremely good looking) as Things or THL, but that might be perfect for someone like me, that spends way too much time researching and picking “systems” instead of actually using them.
Remember “Less is more”? Now go get things done.
Notes
- If there software I regret paying for is those $60 bucks spent on Things ($50 + $10 for the iPhone app). As to THL, I got it on a Macheist bundle (that I bought specifically because of it and Espresso). [back to article]
