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How to "Get things done" with a Newton
Several of the TUAW bloggers are fans of David Allen's Getting Things Done. There are also a couple of Newton fans among our numbers (myself included), so it's inevitable that the two would come together.Eckhart Köppen took it a step further and described the evolution of his Newton GTD system, from the very start to his detailed solution. With simple applications like DateMan, Super NotePad and More Folders, Eckhart has constructed a nice solution for his Newton.Thanks for posting this, Eckhart! I'll try it myself.
To-Do lists get funky with LifeShaker
Okay, I couldn't resist posting about the new to-do list app LifeShaker from Funky Cloud, if only to comment on their clever marketing. This is the first piece of software I can remember to have a movie-style trailer (not just a screencast).LifeShaker is an interesting take on to-do organizing. It presents a 3x3 grid into which you can dump your various goals, action steps and categories. As the name suggests, you can "shake" your grid to re-arrange your goals (presumably as a kind of self-motivation). It's an unusual approach; how effective it might be I can only imagine. In my brief testing, I found the interface to be a bit annoying, requiring excessive use of on-screen buttons for data entry t(instead of just letting me double-click on blank list entries). Still it's worth a look if you're interested in a non-traditional to do list.LifeShaker is $29.00US and requires Mac OS 10.3.9 or higher. A demo is available (points off, however, for the use of an installer).[via MacMinute]
GTD with VoodooPad
Chris at Trichech.us has written up a short guide (and included a useful little AppleScript) on how to run GTD in VoodooPad, the get-it-down quick application that we love so much here at TUAW.Basically it revolves around a series of tags-- if you have a task that needs to be done in a certain context (such as home or office, or even as specific as "at the computer" or as general as "thinking"), you just tag it with @ and then whatever the tag is. When the script is run, it grabs all of the tagged lines, and combines them all on one page, so you have an at-a-glance look at what needs to be done where. And you can even date items, and see them placed on the "Actions" page as well.The big problem with me and any GTD plan is just that I tend to be so picky-- if a system doesn't work exactly the way I want it to, I tend to get lazy and start ditching it for good old pen and paper again (which causes me to fall back into the same old gaps). But Chris' system looks solid enough to use without a lot of configuration, and yet adaptable enough that I can shape it to my own mind. If you've got VoodooPad (and if you don't, why not) and you're on the hunt for a GTD system, give it a try.[ via Gus Mueller ]
iGTD 1.4.5.5 released with new Quick Add features, multiple Dock badges, more
Yep, it's that time again boys and girls: Bartlomiej Bargiel has updated iGTD with yet another unassuming point release that heralds some great new features. While you can simply run the Check for Updates command from the application menu to see the big list o' changes, here are some of the highlights for those still on the fence or stuck at work reading this on a machine other than their own. iGTD 1.4.5.5 brings: Opening the Quick Add window to easily edit tasks you've added from other apps Multiple badges in the Dock icon for Inbox, due today and flagged item statuses Flag and task mode (pending/waiting for/maybe) buttons in the Quick Add window, with keyboard shortcuts F-key trick adds Vienna RSS support to its growing list of compatible apps for creating tasks Ability to completely disable iCal synching so users don't accidentally toggle it Of course, there are a ton of other new options and tweaks, as well as a healthy dose of bug fixes. This version of iGTD amazingly still remains free, while those details on the iGTD Pro are all we know about the upcoming commercial branches of this arguable king of GTD apps.
iGTD Pro details, Inbox Widget released
Bartlomiej Bargiel has been hard at work on iGTD, his incredibly powerful task task manager based on David Allen's Getting Things Done philosophy, and has recently unleashed news on what he has in store for iGTD Pro. As a matter of fact, iGTD will be split into three versions: iGTD Basic (the one that will continue to be free), iGTD Home&Office and iGTD Pro, each offering increasing abilities to sync and share tasks between Macs on the network and, with the Pro version, around the world. iGTD Pro will also allow to access your data with a web tool, possible a sooped up version of iPhoneiGTD. Licensing and availability details on these new versions, however, are still under wraps. In other news, Bartlomiej has also released an iGTD Inbox Widget which offers yet another way to quickly enter tasks and even use the Quicksilver syntax assign them to contexts. I personally prefer the f-key Quick Add window, but widget junkies will likely appreciate this streamlined iGTD interface.
iNozbe: GTD for your iPhone
We know how much you love our Getting Things Done posts, so here's another.The Godfather of productivity - no, not Merlin Mann...David Allen - recommends that people always have an "ubiquitous capture tool" at hand. In other words, something that you can use to jot down anything at any time. Why not use your iPhone?iNozbe became available this week. I played with it briefly this afternoon, and it works pretty well. The UI is clean, readable, and perfectly sized for the iPhone. Once you sign up, you'll have to remove some "demo" items, but hey, just put it on your Next Actions list! iNobze features four subscription levels, starting with a limited free plan and capping off with their "Super!" plan, which is the most generous and costs $14.95/month (though you can save money by paying for a year at a time).Some of you have complained that we don't post about enough freebies, so this one is for you. Ta-Da List by 37signals was recently revamped for the iPhone. It's very flexible, suited for GTD and totally free. So there you go. Finally, David briefly mentioned iPhone iGTD earlier this afternoon. It's an iPhone-optimized implementation of the iGTD software, which recently added .Mac synchonization.So check them out, and remember: Now you've got absolutely NO excuse for leaving any incompletes on your "@Phone" list.
PackRat 1.2: Backpack client adds better list management and a new trial period
Going on vacation to see your just-born nephew and family will do funny things to you, like missing a handy update to a dear, dear application. Rod Schmidt's PackRat, the killer desktop client for the online PIM Backpack that we've mentioned once or twice, has been updated to v1.2 with some great new list management features. First up is yet another feature even Backpack itself doesn't have: a new 'Delete all completed items' option that appears below lists with items you've checked off. Second is another PackRat-only feature: condensing of your completed items. Instead of allowing checked items to take up more room than they should below a list, PackRat will automatically hide them and only reveal the top 5, with the option to reveal all just in case you need to double-check or recover a few.In addition, Rod has also switched to a 30 day trial period (instead of limiting to only 4 usable PackRat pages), after which PackRat will restrict access to 5 pages until the user purchases a license. At $24.95, PackRat is an easy purchase for anyone who needs a powerful, feature-packed offline and synching client for 37signal's exception Backpack service.
Jott2iGTD: Use voicemail to add tasks to iGTD
As many of you know, iGTD is a killer task management app that can't stop bringing cool features to the table. As fewer of you might know, Brett Terpstra at the Circle Six Design blog also can't seem to stop bringing awesome tools and features to the table; he's responsible for stuff like the FlickrMate bundle that provides some powerful Flickr integration with your TextMate projects, as well as the TextMate AutoTag bundle for WordPress, offering some great tagging features that integrate well with your WordPress blog. Amazingly, Brett's at it again, and this time he's allowing you to add tasks to iGTD using only the power of your voice - with a little help from Jott and Apple Mail, of course.Jott is a service that allows you to send email and text messages by calling a private phone number. Calling this number allows you to leave a message which then gets dictated and sent to a recipient, including yourself. With the power of Brett's new Jott2iGTD utility and a customized rule you created in Apple Mail, you can leave a message with Jott that is emailed to you, which Mail processes and automatically converts into an iGTD task. Jotting (ha!) down a reminder or idea probably can't get much easier than this, though some setup and file shuffling is involved to get this all running properly.As with his other goodies, Brett amazingly provides Jott2iGTD as donationware, with a PayPal link hidden at the bottom of the page (I really think you should move it above the fold, Brett!). A changelog is provided, along with instructions to get you all set up.
OmniFocus Plays Nice with iPhone
This is awesome news, even if you don't have an iPhone. The code monkeys over at The Omni Group have announced a spiffy new web interface for OmniFocus that can be brought up remotely on an iPhone (or in any other browser). The remote service will be driven by an integrated web server built into the copy of OmniFocus running on your home machine. Users will be able to manipulate their data directly, with no syncing required.
iGTD 1.4.5: Again with the landslide of new features
It's official: I am developing my own version system to keep track of iGTD updates, because this 1.x.x thing is just not right. The way I see it, this new iGTD v1.4.5 should really be called v3.5, what with yet another batch of major new features being introduced. Included in this update is F-key integration with PathFinder, Yojimbo and MacJournal (so you can send items from these apps to iGTD for task tracking), a Quick Tags feature that allows you to bind tags to shortcuts like Alt + 1 - 9 and a killer new feature that integrates with an Apple Mail rule. Once set up, this rule allows you to email yourself with a subject like "todo: @work spike the water cooler" and Mail will send it on over to iGTD automatically. For anyone who works in an office and away from their Mac at home, this is a killer way to make actual use out of all those todo emails you send yourself all day.Of course, I don't even need to tell you that there are more features in this update. By now it's become par for the course that an iGTD update brings tons of other enhancements, new tricks and bug fixes, so head on over to Bartlomiej Bargiel's announcement blog post to get the full details. To get the new version, simply start up iGTD or head up to the application menu and chose Check for Updates, or simply visit the iGTD downloads page and click the Current Release link to make sure you get the most up-to-date version.
iGTD 1.4.4 update brings, uh, way too many new features
Something tells me the crew who writes iGTD (fortunately) never really grasped how application version systems work (for the record: I say this with the warmest of intentions; iGTD is the first GTD-based app that I really 'get' and use). Typically, a company releases a 1.0, follows up with a few 1.x.x updates to fix bugs and quirks, and maybe a few 1.x releases that add a new feature or two. But as anyone who has been following the last few minor updates can tell, the new features brought with each 1.x.x release are really worthy of major 2.x and 3.x releases. This morning I woke to just such an update (v1.4.4) that brings a landslide of new and handy feature updates, including: F-key integration with Journler, endo RSS news reader, VoodooPad Pro, EagleFiler and WebnoteHappy exporting smart folders added ('To complete' tab) Don't forget! feature - use the Tasks menu option to display a sticky reminder about a task... click it to jump to the task Send to stickies feature - use the Tasks menu option to display selected tasks as Apple Sticky note E-mail feature - use the Tasks menu option to e-mail selected tasks via Apple Mail MailTags 2.0. enhancement: flagged e-mails are imported as flagged tasks MailTags 2.0. enhancement: a prefs setting to use the MT e-mail notes as a name for task in iGTD last selected smart folder is saved and restored between launches integration with Services menu (logout/login required): select a text in any app, go to app menu / Services submenu and use the 'iGTD/Put into iGTD inbox option' new mode for search panel: 'Search by project name or note' and much, much more This update also includes a large batch of bug fixes, as well as enhancements to adding new items to lists that are sorted by various methods. Amazingly, iGTD is still donationware, and this new version should be available by choosing Check for Updates from the application menu, or simply by heading over to the iGTD site.
Listz - a powerful organizer with rich media, iPod exporting and more
Getting organized is all the rage lately, what with an endless sea of GTD apps, todo Dashboard widgets and Growl alarm systems. There is certainly something to be said about making a list and checking it twice - especially when your list offers Google Maps in a mouseover popup window, a Dashboard widget, individual alarms, syncing across Macs, iPod exporting and much, much more. Listz is just such an app, and it is absolutely slammed with features. It even offers backup burning to disc, tabbed lists, extensive styling options, drag and drop support, categorizing list items, and support for printing lists if you aren't bringing your little white or black (or green, or red...) sidekick. But all this functionality comes at a price that is likely to appeal only to the power list'ers in the crowd: Listz sells for $39.95. It isn't the cheapest organization app I've ever seen, but it very well might be one of - if not the - most functional, especially with those slick rich media mouse-over popups. The only way to tell for sure, of course, is to download a demo for yourself and try it out.
Quicksilver Todoist plugin
Todoist is yet another online "task manager" / todo list that lends itself to the whole GTD craze. Now Jonathan Johnson has hacked together a Quicksilver plugin that integrates with Todoist so that you can easily add entries to your online Todoist Projects. Although it lacks a lot of the functionality of the Stikkit Quicksilver plugin we mentioned earlier (in particular it only allows you to add, not edit, entries), nonetheless it could be a handy thing for those who prefer the nicely streamlined Todoist interface.The Todoist Quicksilver plugin is a free download from NilObject.
How To: Stikkit Plugin for Quicksilver
A while back we posted on a nice AppleScript and service for the online organizational service Stikkit, usable with Quicksilver. However, according to the Stikkit blog, Merlin Mann has now talked Alcor, the author of Quicksilver, into writing an official plugin for Stikkits. This plugin not only allows you to easily add new Stikkits, but even adds your Stikkits themselves to your Quicksilver Catalog. So you can search and edit your Stikkits, right within Quicksilver. Unfortunately, like many things related to Quicksilver it's not immediately obvious how to get this set up, so I'll walk you through it briefly.
Midnight Inbox 1.1 available
We know what you're thinking, "All right, TUAW! Enough with the GTD posts already!" Hey, it's currently the "It" cottage industry, and some folks are writing some nice software.Midnight Inbox is an application meant to enable users to follow the GTD methodology easily on their Macs. All of the "steps" of the process are represented by a very nice UI. The app's main window is a bit large, but can be minimized if you don't mind a good deal of scrolling. This week version 1.1 was released. Changes include: SQL format data storage iCal synchronization for external devices Documentation in OS X's help menu A new archive feature There's more, of course, and you can get the full run-down here. Midnight Inbox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later and is universal. A single license will cost you $35US.
iGTD - yet another powerful, integrated GTD app
I know, I know - we've been blogging so many GTD apps lately that you probably needed to create a new task list just to look through them and make a decision. iGTD, however, packs one heckuva punch, so I thought it would be worth mentioning. While it includes all the typical features one probably expects from a GTD implementation these days, iGTD brings a lot of power to the table with features like Address Book integration, drag and drop task creation from files, URLs and Mail.app messages, task tagging, 'maybe' tasks, flagging, a unique 'wait for' task class, keyboard shortcuts, Quicksilver integration, phone/PDA syncing, a menubar helper, searching... and even more.With all these features, iGTD is amazingly donationware, and I highly recommend showing the developer some love after all this work.
Actiontastic going Free and Open Source
We've mentioned the "Getting Things Done" application Actiontastic several times on its road to 1.0, but today the developer announced that he has decided to make the application free and open source (instead of $29 shareware, as originally planned). To that end, he has released a new version today for free download (0.9.3), with the source code to follow "when the overhead of a new team won't crush the project under its own weight." He also notes that the forthcoming web-based GTD application Actionatr will also be open source, though a commercial version also is planned.It was my sense that the GTD space was getting a little bit crowded with Ghost Action, the forthcoming OmniFocus, and many more, so this could turn out to be a really good decision for Actiontastic, particularly if it acquires a significant team behind it. Grab Actiontastic here and see what all the GTD fuss is about.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Widget Watch: GTD widget for iCal
Yep, we found yet another GTD-inspired product, and unlike the apps we've been blogging lately, this is a widget. The GTD widget for iCal is from ConceptDraw Labs, a new software and widget house, and it seems to do a nice job of fusing the GTD paradigm with iCal in a slim widgetized package. No crazy syncing action with an iPod or iSync here - just a straight-up 'get something done' approach. One catch with this widget, however, is that it uses AppleScript to communicate with iCal, which means that it will need to start iCal to work its magic. Commenters on ComceptDraw Labs's announcement post have pointed out that changes to the way iCal works in Leopard should allow them to avoid this inconvenience, but if you don't mind simply hiding iCal in the background for now, it shouldn't be a problem.The GTD widget for iCal is apparently freeware, as I can't even find any donation links at ConceptDraw Labs' site.
What ToDo: GTD, Yet Again
I have to admit that I've never quite understood the fascination so many people seem to have with the whole Getting Things Done (GTD) meme. Nonetheless, no doubt due in large part to Merlin Mann's advocacy, the GTD thing seems to have become particularly at home on the Mac. And in fact, there are a number of GTD applications already out there or being developed. What ToDo is the latest attempt to cash in on the GTD craze. Frankly not being a devotee of the whole GTD thing I find myself ill positioned to evaluate these different applications, but I assume that everyone in this space must be wary of heavyweight Omni Group's forthcoming entry into the GTD sweepstakes, OmniFocus. So at the risk of starting something, for you GTDers out there, what is your favorite GTD application and why?What ToDo is $29 and a demo is available.[Via MacMinute]
Ghost Action GTD gets things done with iSync
As if enough GTD apps aren't already landing (or still in the oven), a new kid has just hit the block in the form of Ghost Action GTD. It takes a more basic GUI approach to getting things done, with the addition of full-featured syncing. Like Actiontastic, Ghost Action GTD syncs with iCal, but it goes one big step further by syncing with anything that plays nicely with iSync, including PDAs and even your iPod. A 14-day trial can be had from Ghost Park Software, and a license goes for $19.95.
