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Considered by this Mac-head to be the best GTD application in the Apple realm for iOS and Mac OS X. Omnifocus has got some David Allen backing and is definitely a premium app for iOS which you can tell by the pricing. One of the best functions that I have found is location aware contexts. https://heavenlyhd.weebly.com/cheat-engine-for-mac-os-x-el-capitan.html.
Do you ever feel overburdened by the weight of all the things you have to get done with during the day or during the week? We all do! Believe us when we say this, each one of us thinks, at least once a day, that maybe 24 hours of the day weren’t put in place for us to do this much of work. Or, maybe we need to manage our tasks better? Definitely the latter!
But, how exactly? A question many of you might ask. Let me introduce you to the GTD method.
- Aug 08, 2019 At the June 2019 GTD Summit, David Allen briefly shared a vision of the ultimate GTD app, which consists of 19 pages of hand-drawn drafts of the screens he would want to use. To expand on that topic, we recorded David talking with Eric Mack and John Forrister about the past, present, and future of GTD.
- This is the original version of Midnight Inbox that brings Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity to the desktop in true delicious style, now updated for the latest versions of Mac OS X with native support for 10.6 and 10.7! And now available for free! We have new versions of Inbox for the iPhone a.
What is GTD?
GTD or Getting Things Done is a popular time management method and the title of a best-selling book by author and productivity consultant David Allen. After years of research and practice, David Allen came up with this technique of getting all your to-dos done by following a systematic series of steps.
Often times, you may have a plethora of tasks in front of you which need to be taken care of, or you may experience a sudden outburst of inspiration to pull off an idea. Now, as David Allen says, ‘Your mind is for having ideas, not storing them’, therefore GTD comes to your rescue to pull these ideas out of your brain and converts them into actions.
GTD is not merely getting-things-done, but a step-by-step way of accomplishing tasks through the basic concept of transferring ideas from your mind into an external system, breaking them down into actionable steps and then finally, getting them done.
By following the GTD method, your brain will not have to remember and keep track of every other thing (which is humanly impossible anyway).
The correct implementation of the method can free up some of the brainpower and thus, increases the overall productivity of an individual or a team.
Let’s dive in to discover the basic pillars of the GTD method and how it can be implemented.
GTD Method Implementation:
The GTD approach is implemented through a sequence of steps which essentially makes up the 5 pillars of this method, which are:
Capture
If there’s something you need to do that’s stuck in your mind, you have to get it out, to get it done. Clearing your mind of all the clutter and properly organizing your tasks is one way of effectively dealing with things.
The first step of implementing the GTD method is to collect what’s stuck in your mind. This can be anything ranging from professional pending emails, phone calls, appointments, to simply cleaning your wardrobe. Transfer all these tasks to an external system which can be a task management tool, a simple to-do list app or even a paper.
Clarify
Often times, the human mind acts like a big hoarder of ideas, no matter how trivial they are. In order to properly convert all these muddled ideas into viable actions, you need to distinguish the actionable and non-actionable tasks to get rid of the ones that cannot be done, thus clearing up some brain memory. This makes up the second step of the GTD method.
Start processing the tasks that are jotted down in front of you and break them into smaller, more manageable actions to clear the clutter and get a clear picture of what lies ahead.
Organize
After you’ve decided on the actionable tasks, categorize and prioritize them according to due dates or urgency to effectively organize them. There are numerous tasks in front of you, some of which you don’t need to do right away, but the only record, so put them away in a place where you can retrieve them later when needed.
But, how exactly do you organize your tasks? Through the decision tree of the GTD method! A simple decision-making process assisting you in categorizing your tasks via a series of questions that eventually lead to appropriate actions.
You need to decide if your particular tasks are actionable and then move forward towards other questions to decide what exactly you need to do.
Let’s have a look at this tree for a better understanding:
Source: Asian EfficiencyIt’s not as confusing as it might look, because once you get a hold of it, you can easily make decisions about your next course of action.
This is also where the concept of ‘contexts’ comes into play. Categorize your tasks according to the context they’re referring to and link similar tasks together. For instance; important follow-up emails that need to be made will be grouped under the ‘email’ context. Doing this makes tracking of tasks extremely convenient and quick.
You can master the game of organizing by dividing your to-dos into appropriate task lists, according to their priority and urgency levels. You need to decide first whether the task is actionable or not. If it’s not, you move it to trash, references, or a someday/maybe list.
Task Lists in GTD
- Trash: the items that are not worth your time and do not require any kind of attention are moved in the trash list
- References: this list consists of all the useful information that does not require any action, but that might be needed sometime in the near future
- Someday/Maybe List: category of all the tasks that you’re not sure if should be done right away. Put them away, but regularly review them to see if any action needs to be taken
Now, this brings us to the second aspect, the actionable tasks. If the task is actionable, you further need to determine whether the next action can be done within 2 minutes. Do it right away if it can be done in under 2 minutes. If not, put it in the ‘projects’ list. In the GTD context, a ‘project’ is anything that requires more than one step to complete. If the tasks require more than one step to complete, place them in any of the following three categories:
- Waiting for List: all the tasks that you have delegated to other people for execution
- Next Action List: actions that need to be done, but are without any due date
- Calendar: actions that are to be completed on a specific date or time
Once you’ve organized your tasks, you’re one step closer to getting them done smartly.
Reflect
For GTD to work effectively, you need to frequently review your workflow. In-depth analysis for monitoring the progress and identifying the next to-do actions greatly help in reflecting back at your decisions and what adjustments you need to make.
Engage
Finally, just get started with the tasks and begin working on them. Everything is right in front of you, from due dates to priority levels. You just need to get to work and get done with things.
The 17 Best GTD Apps in the Market
Now that we’ve covered the basic concepts revolving around GTD method, you’re probably wondering if there are any getting things done tools and apps which help in implementing it, and yes there are! Numerous applications are specifically designed and developed to work with this distinctive method.
We’ve gathered and tested some of the best GTD apps that help you in getting more done. These are:
1. nTask
nTask makes it to the top of our list of the best GTD apps merely because of the fact that this simple to use application has everything that makes GTD implementation smooth for you. The software is packed with capabilities that make way for the method to work perfectly well and synchronize effectively with the core components.
It’s designed to help teams and project managers from all industries to intuitively organize their projects and tasks in a way that helps them in getting things done faster.
Let’s have a look at some of the features of nTask and how they facilitate light and crisp take on the GTD method:
Capture
No matter how big or small a task is, with nTask, you can capture or list down all your to-dos in the form of a checklist and convert them to independent projects. This sets the basis for the next step of clarifying where you can create tasks and subtasks to get things done in an organized manner.
You just need to deport all the things (whether professional or personal) which are in your mind into the nTask software and TADA! You just took a leap towards better task management.
Clarify
Clarifying what exactly needs to be done is one of the prime concerns revolving around the GTD method. By using nTask, you can conveniently divide all your big projects into smaller, actionable tasks and subtasks to get a clear picture of what lies ahead.
The tasks which need to be done in the future can be easily scheduled in your calendar, and you can even delegate tasks to respective team members by using the assign tasks feature.
Organize
The next step in the GTD method is organizing all the tasks according to their category and priority level. With nTask is action, with just a few clicks, you can set priority levels according to the need and urgency of tasks, and can even set reminders for the due ones to stay updated with the tasks in line. Through useful task filters, find and view the tasks that you need in front of you and work on them.
As for the categorization of actions into specific lists, you can create distinct projects catering to each type of category and then associate relevant tasks pertaining to the level of urgency. nTask provides a platform to systematically organize the things that need to be done without getting into the frustration of having too much to do.
Reflect
You can only achieve true productivity through constant review and feedback. Reflect back on your actions throughout the project and make amendments where needed. nTask makes reviewing the project performance easy through the built-in feature of Gantt charts. Apart from these charts, you can timely review your calendar to see where you stand at the moment and what can be your next to-do action with respect to the distinct projects.
Engage
If you follow the first four steps of the GTD method properly, the last step will be as easy as pie. When you have everything in front of you, systematically organized and categorized, the final execution will demand no additional effort from you and your tasks’ ship will be all set to sail smoothly.
Pricing
- Free and Pro plan. Pro plan starting at $1 per user/month.
Looking for a perfect GTD tool?
nTask is free and lets you create unlimited tasks, checklists, meetings and more.
2. HubSpot CRM
When it comes to sales and marketing, HubSpot’s free-forever CRM has plenty of useful features to help you get things done:
- Manage deals and projects in pipelines, where you can set your own custom steps
- Add notes to each project/deal
- Set reminders/tasks
- Record emails with important contacts
HubSpot CRM also comes natively integrated with other free features that are essential for managing projects and tasks: email marketing (up to 2000 emails/month), meetings scheduler, forms, email tracking, live chat, chatbot builder, reporting dashboard, contacts, and pipeline management.
Pricing
- 100% Free Forever, an unlimited number of contacts
3. FacileThings
Second, on our list of the best GTD apps is FacileThings. A productivity tool specifically designed to implement getting things done philosophy, FacileThings allow you to organize and manage your tasks by keeping in view all the essential components of the GTD structure.
It’s a GTD app which is meant for people who strictly follow the GTD methodology. The tool caters individually to each and every component of the method in a way that you have all the options to follow through the steps one by one or fill in details in a random pattern, all pertaining to your needs.
With an aesthetically pleasing design and easy to understand interface, FacileThings tries to fit every GTD component into one workflow to make getting things done easily for you. Easily capture ideas like a simple notepad, clarify and organize according to their course of action, and finally review them on a weekly basis to monitor performance.
Pricing
- 30 Days free trial and paid monthly plans. Paid plans start at $12 per month.
4. Todoist
In complete contrast with FacileThings, Todoist takes a rather simplistic approach on the GTD method and works on quick brain-dump of ideas by creating to-do lists, organizing and prioritizing tasks, creating subtasks and dependencies as well as creating projects and subprojects.
With due dates and recurring tasks reminders, you can easily organize all your tasks according to their frequency of occurrence and check off the tasks that have been done. In this way, you can get a clear picture of all the tasks currently in progress and the ones which need to be done in the future.
Furthermore, through Todoist, you can also review your project’s performance via visually appealing charts and graphs which help in understanding the current progress and future actions for goals achievement.
Pricing
- Free for Basic and Premium ($29 per year) plans.
5. Nirvana
Our fourth recommendation for the best GTD apps is Nirvana.
Nirvana is a cloud-based task manager which is specifically built for the implementation of the GTD method. The application comes with built-in features of how much time and energy a task will need to complete, along with an option to set due dates to stay on track with the upcoming projects.
The application also comes pre-loaded with lists labeled as next, waiting, scheduled, and someday which make clarifying and organizing step of implementing GTD method extremely convenient to implement.
There are tags available to put your tasks into the professional and personal division for easy access. There are multiple other task preferences too which make the application highly customized and user-friendly.
Pricing
- Free (basic features) and paid plans. Paid plans begin at $5 per month.
6. OmniFocus
A GTD application dedicated to Mac and iOS users, OmniFocus is a beautiful solution to get things done. It wouldn’t be a stretch if we say that it can be considered as one of the top to-do list applications. The tool is designed specifically to implement the methodology in the most effective way possible.
Easily add actions and don’t miss anything. To make things easy for you, this can be done using Siri too, so you don’t have to manually write anything. Convert your actions into projects and categorize them according to your requirements.
You can add perspectives to your projects to give them context and understand them better. OmniFocus comes with a high degree of structure which lets you manage your projects easily through a myriad of features. Which is why it can come off as over-whelming for first-time users, but the application has got some pretty strong features to smartly deal with your tasks.
Pricing
- Pro ($99.99), Standard ($49.99) plans
See also:
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7. Evernote
Moving on to the next best GTD app – Evernote. A popular note-taking application that comes equipped with an intelligent toolset for managing your to-dos. The application provides tons of built-in features for you to organize your thoughts comprehensively.
If you’re prone to losing useful information that you found online, you don’t have to anymore. With the web clipping feature, bookmark any links you find online and access them later at any time you want.
Not only this, if typing is one of your pet peeves, conveniently save ideas in Evernote through voice commands by using Google or Siri as your assistant. You can then organize them into notes, set reminders, and use tags to give them context.
Pricing
- Free
- Premium at $7.99/month
- Business at $14.99 per user/month
8. 2Do
#7 on this compile up of best GTD apps is 2Do. Free on Android and reasonably priced for Mac and iOS users, 2Do comes with a feature set that makes GTD implementation seamless for you. Create task lists and add tags as context to quickly find them.
Organize your task lists by categorizing them under specific color codes. This also helps in distinguishing categories from one another and quickly accessing them whenever required.
The quick add feature of the application enables you to instantly capture your ideas before they slip your mind. The application also has built in fields for adding specific details to your tasks. Individual tasks come with reminders at a set time to allow you to execute them without any lags.
You can also batch multiple tasks together and simply drag and drop on the calendar to create a work schedule quickly.
Pricing
- 2Do for Android – Free
- iOS App – $14.99
- Mac client – $49.99
9. Notion
Notion is a sophisticated note-taking application that comes with multiple task management features. The application allows you to successfully write down your to-dos in the form of notes or a checklist, and execute them smartly.
This lightweight GTD app enables you to convert your to-dos into respective projects and tasks and check their progress through Kanban boards. The tool also comes with a knowledge base that acts as a central place for storing all the important information.
Additionally, create team dashboards and invite team members to collaborate on key performance indicators.
Pricing
- Free, Personal ($4 per month)
- Team ($8 per member/month)
- Enterprise ($16 per member/month) plans
10. Things
As the name suggests, Things is a GTD app that transforms your thoughts into easy to-do lists and gives you clarity. With a simple user interface and easy drag and drop options, organizing lists in Things is easier than ever.
You can add more details to your tasks and give context to them through tags, start dates, and deadlines. Use Siri to give voice commands for creating reminder alerts. The tool also provides multiple reports for monitoring your project performance, like pie charts.
The customizable animation toolkit allows you to have fun while getting things done. Moreover, the sidebar can be easily collapsed on the iPad to focus only on the current list.
The only disadvantage of Things is that it’s only Mac and iOS supported.
Pricing
- $9.99 for iPhone
- $19.99 for iPad
- $49.99 for Mac
11. Firetask
Firetask is strictly for Mac and iOS users; the company wanted to release something to help make GTD oriented projects easier for managers. Right now, the Mac App store is oozing with over 100 different applications. All of these apps are centered around task management, managerial aspects, and vice versa.
However, those applications that actually focus on the ‘Getting Things Done’ criterion are pretty much hard to come by – and that too, if you are looking for long term reliability factor. Due to such reasons, we believe that the actual “kicker” comes in the form of a very smooth learning curve.
Firetask has a very simple and unique design. By default, you get the two-pane design in the same window. One of the panes is dedicated to task groupings. The secondary pane at the side appends the current “Foci” that you have clicked on. For instance, you can select a grouping or a single task in the left pane. The right pane will further show all kinds of details in the information palette inside the second pane.
In short, it’s concise, clear and comes with an abundance of clutter-free salient data sets.
Pricing
- Firetask Basic Version: FREE for Mac OS
- Firetask Pro Version: $19.99 Per/M for Mac OS
12. Focuster
As the name suggests, Focuster is all about helping professionals “Focus” on a bunch of work-related activities for their entire team. It is a complete visual overhaul of your typical day-to-day activities alongside flawless integration with Google Calendar for efficient appendage of those tasks.
Professional activities sort out all your appointments throughout the week. It is like having a secretary, but with a more visually appealing approach. The windowpane is divided into 3 different columns by default. On the extreme left side, Focuster shows a To-Do List. Then there are active tasks in the middle panel, while the right panel shows a date wise categorization of the entire schedule.
You can find out more details at the official Focuster website.
Pricing
- Basic Version: $7.99 per month
- Pro Version: $14.99 per month
13. Nozbe
Nozbe comes as a concise business-oriented solution for managers and professionals on the move. Compared to Firetask and Focuster, Nozbe is not restricted to one particular operating system; they have a wider audience reach over Windows, Linux, and even cellphones if you are away from your desktop.
Since Nozbe is loaded with all kinds of integrations with Evernote, Google and DropBox to name a few, the learning curve of this application is a little steep. But, once you get the hang of it, you will truly realize its potential in terms of literally ‘Getting Things Done’ without any apparent setbacks.
From a cursory point of view, Nozbe offers different task panes. At the back end, they are synchronized with Google Calendar and Evernote. Once you have a task in progress, you can drag and drop different subtasks and team members to stay on the same page.
There is also a litter of options to categorize and further sort these activities as per their priority. The most important tasks are pushed forward, while the secondary nature work gets appended further down your “today’s To Do list” pane.
The best thing about Nozbe is all the templates, which are created after the program “learns” about your activity planning. If you repeatedly do the same kind of tasks on daily basis, the program suggests a template that can be used generally for all activities. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?
Pricing
- Basic Version: $10 per month
- Small Business Edition: $23 per month
- Business & Enterprise Edition: $99 per month
14. Todo by Appigo
‘Appigo’ is a US-based software company; they have developed a lot of products for professionals coming from different market sectors. If you haven’t heard of Appigo, you should explore their featured programs for reporting, gamification and overall team collaboration purpose – long before even considering Todo.
Anyhow, Todo comes as a fully-fledged GTD app after the company performed a couple of detailed market analysis. They wanted to create something that even working professionals could use as a family, while on vacations or deployed at off-site facilities.
Todo has a widespread following over Mac OS, Windows, Mobile and Linux. The program allows the user to create virtual milestones within dedicated projects. You can further assign team members and categorize their roles as per their tasks. On top of that, there is a very clear clutter-free interface in Todo; it was to maintain the attention span of new users at first sight.
The only caveat of Todo is that it does not automatically synchronize with your other devices.
Pricing
- Basic Version: Free
- Cloud Version: $19.99 per month
- Business Version with Cloud Features: $39.99 per year
15. TickTick
Besides a fancy name after our own heart, it comes as a strong GTD app for those who want a personalized solution. The application carries a very simple to-the-point interface for managing weeks’ long schedule and all the activities that follow afterward.
TickTick is versatile, but it leans heavily on the “personal” to-do list management instead of business-oriented focus. Now that doesn’t mean that teams cannot use this program, it’s just that you would do better if you are using this software at a small-to-medium scale.
The program color codes different tasks as per their priority. Primarily you get a calendar like a window with the addition of different tags support for setting up checkpoints. Once a task is complete, you can omit the check-box with a simple tap!
Pricing
- Basic Version: Free!
- Premium Version: $2.99 per month or $27.99 Annually.
16. Zendone
With Zendone, you can create unlimited actions to get more done. You can get a free mobile app, get things done tutorial, unlimited projects, secure SSL, and GTD funnel. Zendone is a powerful app when it comes to getting things done. The app includes the tickler folder where you can organize all your items for the day, like booking a ticket, paying the bills, email to clients, etc.
In the Zendone app, you can easily create your daily tasks, edit and review them. Also, you can include the time estimates, add tags and find out how much effort you will need to put it to get the particular task done. It offers several integrations to help you manage your projects. You can integrate it with Evernote, Google Calendar for seamless task management. Zendone application is supported on web, iOS, and MacOS.
Pricing:
- Monthly plan: $9/month
- Yearly plan: $5/month
17. HiTask
HiTask offers plenty of task management and getting things done (GTD) features. The main features of HiTask include creating a calendar, tasks, subtasks, grouping, document storage and sharing, and time tracking. It can help you get organized and become productive with simple to use the tool. You can get free storage for up to 100 MB with a free account.
It helps you nail your projects by getting things done on time. It has more features than usual GTD apps have. HiTask removes complexity from your work and get your more control. This platform is equipped with Chrome extension, Android and iOS HiTask apps.
Pricing:
- Free plan for up to 5 users
- Business plan starts at $5/month per user.
- Enterprise plan starts at $20/month per user.
Do you have a suggestion for a free project management softwarethat follows the GTD approach? Feel free to comment below with your suggestions.
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5 Time Management Apps For Productivity Improvement
When I started this review process back in September 2011, eager to find the perfect GTD app for myself. I was looking forward to whizzing through the reviews, to find a winning app that would meet my needs set out in the opening post. I was writing the reviews, at times, twice a week. Then babies, work and disillusionment set in. The latter came about as it slowly dawned on me that there wouldn’t be a clear winner, a perfect GTD for me (and others).
The conclusions I’m about to draw, as I choose my ‘perfect’ GTD system, will be a story of compromise. Will the app be, not perfect, but just good enough? Will missing features be made in the future? Many a “it would be perfect if …”.
Recap
The full story is in the opening post. To find the perfect app, I came up with some basic criteria the app had to meet in order to be considered, this got the list down from over a hundred to a manageable 9 (10 originally, until I realised Get It Done didn’t have a Mac app).
- Multi Device – Mac, Android and Windows
- Quick
- Available Off-line with Cloud Syncing
- Beautiful/Great User Experience (UX)
The following 9 shortlisted apps then got an in depth review:
… and now here we are, about to find out which I think is best and which will become my trusted system?
Comparison Chart
If you’re after a quick comparison, here’s how their features compared. The criteria is taken from my thoughts on what makes a great GTD app, outlined in the introduction post. I’ve included some ‘nice to have’ features that I discovered which I enjoyed and/or were useful.
Feature | TODO | Due Today | Toodledo | Doit.im | Wunderlist |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quick add | Yes, into an inbox | Yes. Into an inbox if on home screen or into the list that you currently happen to be in. | Yes. But there’s no inbox | Yes. Into inbox or you can change when adding. | Yes. Into any list incl an Inbox. |
Projects/Sub-tasks | Lists and sub tasks | Yes. Projects, Sub projects and sub tasks. | Yes. Folders and sub-tasks. Sub-tasks in Pro. | Yes, projects. | Yes. Lists. |
Contexts/tags | Yes, both | Yes, both. | Yes, both. | Yes, both. | No |
Order tasks | Yes. But order is not synced with Toodledo | No | No | No | Yes |
Notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Highlight/star | Yes | Yes. In paid version. | Yes | Yes. Starred tasks go into special ‘Today’ folder | Yes |
Search | Yes | Yes. In paid version. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Deadline | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Reminder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (Yes – on Android) |
Recurring tasks | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Sync with Google Calendar | Yes. via Toodledo | Yes. via Toodledo. | Yes | Yes | No |
User Experience | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 0/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 |
Notable extras | |||||
GTD Specific | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Hotkey | Yes | n/a | n/a | Yes | No |
Badge | Yes | n/a | n/a | No | Yes |
Import/Export | n/a | n/a | Yes | No | No |
Widget | n/a | Yes | n/a | Yes | Yes |
Attach files | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Assign tasks | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Price | £10.49 | Free/£1.85 | Free/$14.85 p/yr | Free | Free |
Feature | Astrid | Producteev | Nozbe | Conqu |
---|---|---|---|---|
Quick add | Yes. But it has no inbox | Yes. There’s an inbox but I think tasks that people assign to you land in here. | No | No |
Projects/Sub-tasks | Yes, lists. | Yes, labels | Yes, projects. | Yes, projects |
Contexts/tags | No | No | Context, with icons | Both context and tags |
Order tasks | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Notes | Yes | Yes, multiple notes | Yes, as multiple comments | Yes |
Highlight/star | Yes. Importance stars 1-5 | Yes, importance stars 1-5 | Yes, for marking tasks as next action | Yes, 3 coloured flags |
Search | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Deadline | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Reminder | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, scheduled date |
Recurring tasks | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Sync with Google Calendar | Kind of. You can add a calendar entry that is connected to the task | Yes | Yes | No |
User Experience | 4/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 |
Notable extras | ||||
GTD Specific | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Hotkey | n/a | Yes | No | No |
Badge | n/a | No | Yes | Yes |
Import/Export | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Widget | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Attach files | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Assign tasks | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Price | Free | Free | 9.95 eur p/mo | $53 p/yr |
Honourable mentions
Windows Gtd App
These apps didn’t get reviewed because they lacked some feature/s that made them unsuitable. I liked how they looked and their features, they show great promise:
- Nirvana - Well thought out, great looking GTD web app.
- Assana - Good looking, collaborative task manager.
- Smarty Task - Great looking GTD app with some smart filters.
- Things & Omnifocus - Users of these had great things to say about them but sadly Mac only.
- Wunderkit - Wunderlists big brother, fantastic UI for collaborative task management.
- Any.DO - Slick Android app with intriguing gestures.
The Runners Up
It was really hard to choose my apps to make up my trusted system. There wasn’t a single one that looked like a clear winner. All of them had at least one thing wrong or missing. So it’s not that the runners up are bad apps, it’s just that the others were better, sometimes marginally.
Wunderlist
I love Wunderlists simplicity and looks but the lack of tags or appearing in more than one list, means no contexts. Based on that alone it loses out. Although there might be reprieve for this, as I’ve been using it for a while for my work tasks for Life Tuned and Pik Pak, in a kind of personal Kanban. With its drag ‘n’ drop task ordering (something surprisingly missing on most), it makes easy just-in-time ordering of the next tasks to do in a project, so it might remain as part of the system.
This is for you, if you after an app that has great looks, fantastic simple UX, same experience across multiple platforms and are happy with basic task organisation.
Conqu
The odd UI and it’s clunky-ness is just something that would grate on me after a time, it bewildered me in the short time I used it. Plus missing features, like task recurrences (essential for doing stuff like monthly accounts) and Google calendar sync puts this one out of the running.
This is for you, if you after an app that looks good, supports many platforms (Playbook and Nook included), don’t mind Adobe Air and are not too bothered that it doesn’t look/work like anything you’ve used before.
Nozbe
For the high price it has to be the best and I don’t think it is (yet). The brownish UI for Mac just doesn’t work, I can’t quite put my finger on it, is it because the colour palette looks like something off a toddlers app? I’m not sure. My biggest turn-off was their New Android app. With a small number of tasks it was slow. What would it be like with many more? It also looks like I’m not the only one having problems, it gets a right panning in the reviews on the Google Play store which worries me more. To be fair they’ve only just released their new Mac and Android apps, so perhaps one to keep an eye on for the future.
This is for you, if you after an app that is GTD all over, simple to understand, you use Dropbox and/or Evernote, your patient (as they get out of beta quality), rich and your favourite colour is brown.
Best Free Gtd App For Os X 8
TODO for Mac, Due Today & Toodledoo
These apps come in as a threesome, working together to provide one trusted system. TODO for my Mac, Due Today for my Android phone and Toodledo for access anywhere (it’s Web) and providing the core service/glue that the other 2 sync with. One of the advantages of Toodledo is the many of 3rd party apps, so if I find that I don’t like Due Today, I can swap it out for one of the other many apps that sync with Toodledo. One particular app that caught my eye was 2Do.
Some people love Toodledo but I can’t get over its poor user experience. I don’t come away feeling happy, I just feel frustrated. It’s not alone, TODO for Macs task editing is jarring and the overall experience is mundane. They’re great at being functional, they just don’t delight. Due Today has it’s own foibles, chipping in with Floating Tasks!?
The other main problem, was the inconsistent experience. Not a fault of any individual app but nevertheless a problem as a whole. Take projects for example; TODO calls them lists, Due Today calls them projects and Toodledo calls them folders. They also have different special lists. Due Today has one called Future, TODO has one called Focus. The split boxes work differently too, TODO shows in gray the total number of tasks and in red the number that are overdue. Whereas Due Today shows in grey the number of tasks not overdue and in red those that are overdue. So for 4 tasks, 2 of which are overdue. TODO would be 2:4 and Due Today 2:2. TODO orders tasks but then this order isn’t the same on the other 2.
This is for you, if you are a power user and are after an app/s that is extremely customisable, has tons of features, has multiple clients to choose from and you can live with fugly UIs. Mac os x el capitan iso for virtualbox.
Doit.im
Doit.im has the best GTD implementation I’ve seen. It’s designed specifically for GTD and I think it aligns itself with GTD perfectly. For example when tasks are created, they’re in the inbox (which is not a special folder but more a classification or focus). When you process the inbox the task, it can then can be reclassified as Today, Next, Scheduled, Someday and Waiting. On top of this, independently you can then add to projects and contexts (plus tags for good measure).
Unfortunately Doit.im’s Mac app, is unusable. It’s a cut down version of Doit.im (WebAndroid) and feel abandoned. Simple things like putting something into ‘Next Action’ means it will never be seen again in the app and there’s no projects for you to browse either. Sadly that just leaves the Web app for managing tasks on the Mac. It’s good and matches the Android app but I did experience slowness at times and it’s not so good off-line or with a slow Internet connection.
They also just announced premium pricing of 20USD, which I think it’s great. It provides some re-assurance that they have a way to make money and stick around. Something I was concerned about previously, having been around a long time without making money and not publicly announcing how they would. Best antivirus for os x.
This is for you, if you’re after a complete GTD style trusted system in one - for Android, iOS and Web.
Astrid & Producteev - The Winners!
It was a close call but I think these pair just edge it. There’s a great desktop app for the Mac (Producteev) and the best task app I’ve seen for Android (Astrid). They’ve got a host of features and even missing the odd one but I think the User Experience won it over for me. Both make me smile and that’s important. It compels me too look at them, collect on them, organise on them, review on them.
I’ve had Astrid on my phone for a while (as an inbox to collect stuff on the go) and it’s fun to use. I’ve seen it get better and better with each update, which occur frequently. It’s feels good knowing that it’s fantastic now and it’s being actively being developed, getting better all the time. I love its humour too, with it’s reminders, some of them persistent, “snooze time is up! Complete ….”, “Feel good about yourself! Let’s go!”, “No more postponing! Complete …”. I even love their Web app, I really wanted a desktop client for speed and offline access but this is really nice. It’s got a simple bright clean interface, it’s like Producteev but on the Web. If they made a Mac one (hint hint) then I’d be in heaven.
Producteevs Mac app is brilliant. It looks beautiful. It’s both easy to add tasks and manage them. Their Android app is just OK, it’s new and has a long way to go to catch up with Astrid but they’ve shown that they can create great apps with their Mac one. If that gets the love the Mac one does, it’s another option.
Since the reviews for these 2, there’s been some updates too.
Producteev
- A UI make over (I thought it was great as it was)
- Sub tasks (although they don’t sync with Astrids)
- An Android app
Astrid
- Sub tasks (although they don’t sync with Producteevs or Astrid.com)
- A lovely new UI, that fits in with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
- More customisations
- A web clipper
- Some ordering on the Android app but don’t sync to Producteev or Astrid.com
- Lots of little things which I keep noticing after updates that has me thinking “that’s cool”. For example; prompts me on missed calls to add a task to call them back or do something else.
This is how they look now
Ultimate Gtd App
It’s not all roses, there’s some workarounds/concerns:
- Lack of contexts/tags mean using lists for projects and contexts (tasks can belong to more than one list). Not ideal but do-able. So lists like @home, @phone for contexts would keep them at the top and the ‘@’ signify it’s a context, not a project list. Producteev only showing the first 5 lists is a pain.
- A few people complaining that syncing with Producteev sometimes doesn’t work. I didn’t test it long enough to really know, so this a concern.
So there your have it. Producteev and Astrid take the winners medal. I’m going to start using these 2 in anger which will be the real proof. If it all goes horribly wrong I’ll report back!
Hope you enjoyed the series, I certainly didn’t ;) I never foresaw the amount of time and effort it would take. Next time I’ll just look at some apps and pick one. Agree? Which is your fave?
Over and finally out.
The perfect GTD system does not exist.