Being an advocate of the Getting Things Done GTD approach to work by Dave Allen, smartphones, tablets and PCs are great ways to use tools to keep on top of what I do on a daily basis.
At work and using the your corporate desktop image based on Windows 7, this is primarily achieved by using ToDo functionality in my mail client calendar. The key to managing stuff is in terms of:
For me and not saying I adhere to every aspect to the GTD methodology, it work well enough, given the limitations of tools. From an outside of work perspective, I get to put this into practice with the tools I want to use. As I use a phone, tablet and PC - the key value differentiator is finding the piece of software which allows me to use across all devices and allow cloud syncing wherever I am.
Now in answering the question of what tools in the personal life space, I have a number of scenarios to cater for:
For a number of months now, I've been using OmniFocus across the iPhone, iPad and Mac for the fully formed ToDo stuff. Of all the solutions out there, OmniFocus ticks all the boxes in terms of how I wanted to work and with a reputed solution which others had tried and tested. It's the most expensive with individually priced apps across both iOS devices as well as the additional cost of an OSX version. But, in terms of value, it's been an excellent companion and hugely reliable to date. David Sparks' recent review at Macworld highlights the good areas as well as its downsides.
What's most interesting in my experience here is how I actually prefer the iOS touch interface to OSX, which I find clunky, cumbersome and visually unappealing. In fact, most captures and updates are done on the wonderful iPad version, which as you would know, forms the mainstay of my daily experience outside of the office. The only downside, is that it's not on Android, and neither does it look like it ever will be.
The other solution I had invested in is Things for iPhone, iPad and Mac. At the time of writing, the cloud sync version is still in Beta (I have the wifi sync version at the moment), which I'll post about as soon as its out of beta. The UI on Things is deceptively simple across all platform and it had been a design award winner at WWDC a few years ago. That said, not much has been added in terms of functionality and the cloud sync version seems to have been in development for what feels like forever. Not a good sign.
Finally....yes, I know, I could use one software solution for most of my needs. But I'm a geek and where's the fun in that?
At work and using the your corporate desktop image based on Windows 7, this is primarily achieved by using ToDo functionality in my mail client calendar. The key to managing stuff is in terms of:
- Capturing and updating on items of works as you get through the day in new to dos
- Having a simple level of prioritisation, which should involve:
- Spending greatest time on items which add real value and deliver things
- Ensuring you're on top of the items which can bite you (pissing off wrong influencers/decision makers)
- Disciplining yourself to a habit of evaluating the list of GTDs at the end of each day
For me and not saying I adhere to every aspect to the GTD methodology, it work well enough, given the limitations of tools. From an outside of work perspective, I get to put this into practice with the tools I want to use. As I use a phone, tablet and PC - the key value differentiator is finding the piece of software which allows me to use across all devices and allow cloud syncing wherever I am.
Now in answering the question of what tools in the personal life space, I have a number of scenarios to cater for:
- Quickly capturing something and pin a target date on it. (A simple description and date). In this space, I use Due for iOS and Mac
- Capturing a more fully formed ToDo which is part of a aspect of my life and a theme important to me (say blogging, learning or doing something creative)
- Grabbing notes and thoughts just to dump them and have a place of record which I can go back to use. Of course, Evernote is the stand out app and extends also to Android. I use this approach a lot at Seminars and Conferences
- Anything I capture on the web to go back to read and possibly use in the future. Instapaper is still king for me. It recently became available on Android.
 |
| OmniFocus for iPad - my daily staple |
What's most interesting in my experience here is how I actually prefer the iOS touch interface to OSX, which I find clunky, cumbersome and visually unappealing. In fact, most captures and updates are done on the wonderful iPad version, which as you would know, forms the mainstay of my daily experience outside of the office. The only downside, is that it's not on Android, and neither does it look like it ever will be.
The other solution I had invested in is Things for iPhone, iPad and Mac. At the time of writing, the cloud sync version is still in Beta (I have the wifi sync version at the moment), which I'll post about as soon as its out of beta. The UI on Things is deceptively simple across all platform and it had been a design award winner at WWDC a few years ago. That said, not much has been added in terms of functionality and the cloud sync version seems to have been in development for what feels like forever. Not a good sign.
Finally....yes, I know, I could use one software solution for most of my needs. But I'm a geek and where's the fun in that?
No comments:
Post a Comment