The Productive Organizer

Shuffle is a task management to-do list build upon the Getting Things Done methodology that came up by David Allen

I am still having problems finding quality To Do List application that follows the GTD concept on the Android, while on the iOS platform, we have tons of competitive quality to do list softwares.

Shuffle initially look like a good software for GTD and I hope that it measures up so that it makes my switching over to Android a lot less easier.

Lets take a look how it performs.

Download it here

Pros

1. If you like a task manager that adds to your Google Calendar, this is a good one
2. Great UI
3. Can be Simple
4. Fulfills basic GTD
5. Able to switch perspectives from menu at almost all screens.
6. Shows number of un-completed tasks in the context
7. Very nice contexts

Cons

1. No notification sited.
2. Only 1 level project hierarchy
3. No synchronization to desktop or web (such as Remember the Milk or Toodledo)

Cost

Shuffle is FREE. You can download it from the Android Market.

Version Reviewed

The version reviewed is 1.6.3

Appearance

The UI looks more like a copy of the Sense UI rather than the stock Android UI, which is a complement to Shuffle because I think it generally looks very good.

All text boxes and labels are spaced out well. The color theme is done very nicely.

Projects Hierarchy

In terms of Projects Hierarchy, Shuffle only allows you to have one level. This to me is something negative.

I would prefer one which at least have 2 levels like most on the iOS such as Appigo ToDo or 2Do which have 2 levels.

It would seem that most people use GTD base on this concept

Areas of Focus (AOF) 1

—- Project A

—- Project B

AOF 2

—– Project C

—– Project D

With Shuffle, the best way is really to see projects as the lowest level group of actionable tasks you need to do

—- Project A

—- Project B

—– Project C

—– Project D

Creating a Project

Creating a task is pretty standard.  However you can assign a project to a context. This might afford you to cheat and let your context be your Area of Focus.

Another interesting thing is that you can specify if the Actions is to be completed in sequence or in parallel. Whats the difference? To be honest I can’t really tell since they are all list out in the project view, but it is highly probable that in your other views (Inbox, Contexts, Due) they will only appear after the first one is completed and hide the rest that is not suppose to be done now.

This is a good feature as if its suppose to be completed sequentially, it blocks out the tasks that you cannot do first from the user. However, there could possibly be a lot of projects where tasks are in sequence and others where they are not.

Setting up Contexts

Contexts setup is easy. There is a pre-define set of contexts created that you can use for starters. Those are locational based contexts, so you might want to add your own people based, or time based contexts.

What’s nice about Shuffle is that the user makes creating contexts fun by adding color themes that is similar to that of Google’s Gmail color tags.

You can also assign icons to your context should you be a more visual person.

Good thing i s that you can find icons for

• Leisure
• Internet
• Work or Review
• Computer
• Urgent or Next Actions
• @Home
• @Commuting
• @Boss
• Reading or review

Creating Actions

Right we are down to creating what it matters: Tasks. Or in the case of Shuffle its called Action, which is more or less what David Allen describes them as.

You can add actions in a lot of places and you can specify which project or context it belongs to.

You have the option to use scheduling. This is a concept I am not accustom to as I normally only use due date. Here you can specify start date and due date and their time.

An examination of the check box below probably shows how this is geared up to be. You have the option of adding this task to your google calendar.

Essentially, some people uses the calendar more than a task list, so they might like this.

But for me, there are tasks that takes place as soon as possible ( like the constraint in Microsoft Project and I wouldn’t want to set the start date. I only set the due date to know when this milestone have to be done.

Review and Doing: Switching Perspectives

When it comes to reviewing, Shuffle makes use of a Perspective button in the Android Menu. There it allows you to have a quick access to other perspective views. This is a good feature.

Projects Perspective

Projects perspective shows your projects and its task in a expanded view. It depends on how  you feel but I feel this is good as it shortens the time for review.

Another style common to Smartphone to do list is to bring you to a task list once you click on the project. I feel sometimes that is very crumble some.

Due Actions Perspective

Due actions are split into Today, Next Week and Next Month. Abit limited but I think for a free application I am not asking for much.

Contexts Perspective

If you are doing work, you will spend most of your time at the Contexts Perpective. The good thing is that it is very presentable and you can easily see how much actions in each contexts you have not carried out.

Inbox Perspective

Conclusion

Overall, a very competent Task Manager for a smartphone. Would it make my switch to Android easier? I think if I do not have a choice, I can live with this, but comparing this against the to do list I am using now which is 2Do on the iPod Touch 3G I think its still very far.

The biggest knock back have been the Projects Hierarchy and the form of date entry used. I would prefer something like what some to do list such as Appigo To Do implemented which is a full calendar for selection:

Now this is an unique application. Ever wanted a central application where you can create, track and review your Dreams and create Goals to fulfill them? Getting Dreams Done is such an application for the iPhone.

If you are an avid follower of David Allen’s getting things done you would know that dreams and goals are considered higher level planning and the thing about today’s todo list is that they take care of those 20,000 and 10,000 feet but when it comes to strategic things there ain’t an app for that.

I think this is where they aim to fill the vague things in life.

The interface is like how most new applications lay out. It enables the user to see at one glance what they can do with this application This is a good interface for application with numerous functionality.

You go about by defining your dreams. These are things that you wish to attain, whether its possible or not.

Now you go on and define them further into goals that you set to complete within a few weeks or a few years.

Getting Things Done is a beautiful design application. If you look beyond the aesthetics and functionality it is another task management application. You can use a secondary todo list if you, like me have many of them to draft out and ensure you track your goals and dreams.

Firstly thank you Charles for being kind enough to extend a beta copy of Action Lists for me to do this review.

So far i have the chance to investigate 2 Task Management Software:

1. Appigo ToDo [Review Here >>]
2. eToDo [Review Here >>]

For sure, these are not the only lists around and the fact that the competition is so hot means there is only one winner here, which is you the consumer!

Action Lists is brought to you by Daze End Software, you may have come across another of its software which is ListMaker and this one is working on the same formula as List Maker.In fact you can say that action Lists is building on the same formula as List Maker.

Action Lists, like most task management applications on iPhone enables you to follow the GTD Workflow by David Allen but for me, it can be much more than that.

How much does it cost?

There is a free version for you to try that is FREE. However, it only enables you to create a limited number of tasks and projects.

The paid application cost USD9.99, which is the same cost as Appigo Todo and Things.

When you cost that much, you gotta be as competitive as them. Here we will see if it measures up.

How does it work?

Action Lists does task management according to the GTD workflow, but you have the flexibility to do it in alot of ways.

Typically you start off by doing a sweep to collect any thing that you can think of. Any thoughts that translates to actionable tasks will go into the Inbox.

Task entry is similar to Appigo ToDo in that you can use a Quick Add button to add a task without detail specifications. But most would prefer to use the detail entry screen.

Here you can enter the

1. description of your task
2. start date of the task
3. end date of the task
4. notes for the task
5. context/categories of the task and
6. which project it belongs to
7. set task to repeating

whatever a good todo list have, Action Lists have it for you. You can specify your own contexts and later you can filter by them.

The repeating task is abit special. You can set them to continous repeat, and the tasks will be generated either when the day have been reached, or when the task have been completed.

I find this to necessary in the past to have the task recur on its own when the day comes but i realise that doing this, you can very likely litter your todo list should you fall off the to do list bandwagon and attempt to hop back on.

The preferred method will be to recur when you have complete the task. Either way, once you marked a task completed, a new recur task is added to the Inbox

This is abit different but its Action Lists way to make sure that all new task is handled at Inbox level. some people will like this, some will not.

Nested Projects

When you are organizing your tasks in your inbox, if the task needs more than 1-2 steps to be handled, you will create a Project to group them together.

This is where Action Lists differs from all task list on the market. Action Lists enables you to have unlimited projects within projects and there will alot of folks who appreciate this as you can really group your tasks by:

1. Personal and Work
2. Strategic Goals
3. Area of Responsibilities
4. Project Milestones
5. Small Projects

I used to want this nested feature alot as i think it makes alot of sense. Even the Desktop ToDoList that i have created based on Nested Tree List. People that are in software development would have use Microsoft Project and it enables you to have nested task. If you look at your life as one big project then having nested list will really help.

Not having it is not end of the world. In fact most people will just make do with 2 levels: the first level being your Area of Responsibilities be it Project A, Being a good family man and the second level being your Project milestones to achieve that area of responsibility.

Task Status and Doing the Task via Context

How you perform the “Do It” after “Organzing it” will be based on 2 things: the Status of the task and the Context.

When defining the task you can select the status.

Setting the Task to Waiting will cost the task to pop up at the Waiting Tab (notice the increase in number badge indicating the number of waiting task) for me this is good as it really provides a clear seperation of tasks that are currently waiting. Currently with Appigo ToDo, i have it as one of my Tags and while i have said Appigo toDo main problem is that you need to go into the tags to see how many unfinish task you have. With Action Lists you don’t have this problem.

The Same goes with Someday. Once you decide to do a Someday task, just switch the status to Active or Next Action

As i have said, you hop on over to Action Lists Tab to go through your context to see your next action.

You will note that there aren’t alot of task queued here. Why is that? This is because only task set to Next Action Status will appear here!

Its a novel way of filtering away all the freaking task and only show what you have to do next.

There is abit of a problem here. So lets say you completed a task, what you need to do next is go to the Projects tab and go to that particular project and set the next task status to Next Action from Active.

what happens when your task is so deeply nested inside?

This is where Task Queue comes in. Touch the blue arrow next to each project folder and you will see the option “Queue Next Actions“.

Toggle it on and after you finish one next action, it will immediately set the next earliest due task to Next action from Active. This may not work well if you have tasks that have dependency not based on time of completion. the jury is still out if this performs well enough

Synchronize and backup to ToodleDo

Action Lists enables you to back up your tasks and folders to Toodledo. I have not tested how well this works since my ToodleDo syncs with Appigo ToDo but i have a feeling it will be another case that ToodleDo will act as a backup rather than allow you to use it both online and on your iPhone.

Do tell me your experience with syncing.

Where to improve upon

This App have alot of potential i feel.However here are some things that they need to iron out.

Full Calendar selection – We cannot rely on the roller to select the date! As we are setting dates, we want to see clearly which day of the week or which weekday we set upon. Using a roller selector is not good for this.

More Description details – from the picture below you will see that its very difficult to tell at one glance what you need to do. you will have to go into the task itself. I feel this needs to be expanded

Conclusion

On the whole a very good to do list i feel. Does everything the competition has and a very niche and competitive feature in Nested Projects. Fix the problems that i mention and its well worthed the price.

For one that have program a todo list, i can truely appreciate this product and its difficulties. We hope that the next 1 month users will give ample feedbacks to increase the stability of the software. Appigo Todo have this problem for all versions, due to the complexity of to do lists in general.

so do contribute and highlight the issues to make this a good todo list!

I am happy with my purchase of iThoughts over Mindjet. Throughout these few months, the developers have proved that they are willing to build upon a good product and come up with improvements

1. Relationships
2. Auto Organize Map
3. iMindMap support
4. Many bug fixes

The update post is here for all who would like to know what iThoughts is able to do [Link Here >>]

No doubt we can expect the developers to build on top of this for the new iPad platform. Can’t wait to see what kind of stuff they can come up with.

I came across this Windows desktop application that aim to follow the Getting Things Done to organize the information you come across in your daily lives.

I didn’t manage to give it a try but it does look very sophisticated, on the level of Mind Manager by Mindjet.

How much it cost?

its not free and the price might turn off a few people. it cost like USD197.

Who is it for?

Probably for people who have a windows desktop or laptop as their main GTD planning and collection center. Definitely not for me since i seldom have access to my personal computer.

What are its main functionality?

You would have to check out a very very detail walkthrough at Information Management Tool’s website. There it will show you how to Collect, Process, Organize and Review using their software

• flexible structure helps you to merge individual to-do lists, projects, articles into a strategic plan
• use the program for online research, journaling, to-do lists, note taking, document archiving, GTD and more.
• break down large projects into smaller parts using as many tree-levels as you need to keep everything in one place and under control
• use Wiki-hyperlinks to tasks, web pages, notes, to-do lists etc.
• capture web pages directly from the integrated Gecko Web Browser by Mozilla
• drag-and-drop notes, hyperlinks, files in appropriate place in the free-form database, reorganize your projects and tasks at any time
• reorganize your projects, to-do lists, ideas and tasks at any time you want
• find what you need when you need it using fast search
• create your own structure of GTD Trusted System, capture, organize and manage all your projects and tasks in the free-form central database
• real-time immediate save of all added information to the database
• fully customizable interface: more than 300 icons, custom colors and font formats to help you focus on what is most important
• capture any ideas, notes and edit them using full-featured Rich Text Editor
• recall items quickly with tagging
• align your time, effort and energy with your highest priorities so you can focus on what really matters most to you
• browse local files and forlders using integrated Folder Explorer
• work with multiple projects without feeling overwhelmed
• save any web pages in HTML, edit them in the integrated HTML Editor and preview them
• integrated tools needed to create your own structure of a logical and trusted system outside of your head
• display only the tasks, notes, to-do lists etc. you want to see at the moment by expanding them

Final Thoughts

It does look more polish than alot of the free desktop apps that i see, but its steep at USD 197 and i wonder with the coming of the mobile internet you should be paying that much for a standalone desktop app.

[Take a look @ Information Management Tool >>]

So far most of the To do List applications that i have been talking about seems to be revolving around the iPhone platform. Don’t worry i am not a fanboy, just that i used this device more than alot of others that i have come across with.

I actually started off using a to do list with Remember the Milk some time ago, so i do know abit on web task management.

This week i was given the opportunity to try out a Web To-Do application called GTD Agenda. GTD Agenda, as its name sounds is a task management application that attempts to be close to what David Allen have envisioned to help a person manages his task.

Pricing

Like ToodleDo or Remember The Milk, GTD Agenda is those web app that have different tier pricing. The free package gives you just about enough to try, but if you are going to run it as your main to do dashboard then i think its not gonna be enough.

You should be thinking about the Basic and the Premium

Using GTD Agenda

Most of the web apps nowadays would have an element that makes them compatible with GTD (or Stephen Covey) for the matter. The only web app that blatantly does not is Remember the Milk.

GTD Agenda’s strength is that it is constructed out with GTD in mind. For those that are new to this term you can check out this series of articles on what Getting Things Done is About.

What i like about the presentation of the interface is that it is more clean compare to apps like ToodleDo which is very cluttered. A clean interface enables the user to focus on what he should be occupied with at this moment.

The user can go about setting his 20000 feet to 50000 feet goals and visions under the goal tab

Notice that all the goals would need to below to a certain category.

After all these are defined you can get down to planning your projects. Projects can be linked to a particular goal. So that during review you are able to list out the projects that you will undertake to meet that goal.

With the goals and projects defined we have set up the basic infrastructure of our todo list. Whats left is to explore how we use it daily.

Suppose that a thought enters you head that you have an actionable task to perform or you are doing your daily mindsweep, you can enter the task one at a time through its easy to use interface.

By doing this, you will not bother about the Categories/Contexts and due dates, notes. A key difference between GTD Agenda and many of the other todo list applications is the absence of an Inbox when you work on tasks that have not been processed yet.

At times i would need to skim though all my tasks to identify those that i have not organized.

The task details is important and gives you a good idea how you can filter in your review and do it phase. The Context enables you to freely define whether you want it to be based on Location, Person or Something else. You can set 5 levels of priority and you have a check box to mark this as next action.

The repeating option is great. But most other todo list have this and they do provide for more flexibility like repeating on Thur,Sat and  Sun. Repeating is important to me and certainly is a good initiative here.

Reviewing

A good feature for GTD agenda is the ability to set Daily and Weekly Schedule. Before you go about doing your task you gotta plan what you want to do for that day. That would mean breaking your days down into chunks. This will give you a good marker what is planned out for that day so that you attempt to use each day to the fullest.

When it comes to actually making use of the task list to do work, you will always want to use a Next Action and GTD Agenda does provide that.

Else when you switch to another location or with a person that you might have things for you can make use of the contexts to bring up tasks related to the person.

If you would like to have a one stop shop where you can view key milestones or important events there is a calendar section for it too.

Mobile GTD Agenda

In this age and time, if a web application is not ubiquitous then its not really going to be useful. I try out the mobile version of it and i have to say its very good.

I am using an iPod Touch trying it out on the Safari browser. You can bascially review and add new task on your phone or pda now. The flaw is that you cannot use this offline on your mobile device.

Conclusion

Its a good package i feel and it certainly helps that if you are going to do GTD you might as well go for one that matches the work flow as close as it can. However, i think there could be some challenges for GTD Agenda as the free Web apps around are getting close to this capability. They would need to up their game if they really want to start differentiating themselves  from them.

Do give GTD Agenda a try by using the image url below

Here is a good article i found on The Mind Mapping Software Blog on how to get started and follow through on planning using mind maps. A very thorough and yet concise explanation. I will try to use this in my next planning exercise on my iPod Touch using iThoughts but here are his main points:

1. Get started.
2. Do a brain dump
3. Organize what you’ve brainstormed
4. Review for completeness
5. Create a place for uncategorized items
6. Add links to supporting information
7. Add project tasks and assignments to your map
8. Add group key milestones and deadlines into a timeline
9. Group tasks and information visually
10. Manage the progress of your project

[10 steps to a killer project mind maps >>]

nuno here illustrates a good example of how he made use of the software The Hit List as his main electronic GTD application for planning

The Hit List is a great way of implement GTD on a Mac if, for you, GTD is much more than just to-do lists and projects.

With this system I’m basically implementing my runway and 10,000 feet levels. I’ll study the possibility of including the Areas of Focus in here also, but right now I prefer to use Circus Ponies NoteBook for that as it requires a bit more planning and sketching

There are lots of other features in THL which I didn’t cover here (time-tracking, iCal and Mail integration, iPod sync, etc etc). Do check the website to watch some nice screenshots and read about its features. You can also try it for free and register it later. 5 stars

[Read the review here @ his web log >>]

I came across this very good article at CrackBerry on the hierachy of Smartphone Needs. Basically the author tries to order and prioritize the needs and benchmarks a smartphone should achieve where every smartphone should expect to be at the top of the pyramid.

I thought this is a really good way of illustrating what we expect out of a smartphone. Too long we say that i want this i want that in my smartphone. My phone can do this my phone can’t do that without realizing which level a phone pass or fails at:

At the top of this article is my take on the Hierarchy of Smartphone needs. Let’s take a quick walk through it starting from the bottom and working our way to the top.

1. connectivity, compatibility and security: Without this, your smartphone is no longer a phone nor a data-enhanced device. Having adequate coverage from your carrier, where you live, work, play, go to school, travel, etc. is critical to a smartphone user. There is nothing more frustrating than being in the middle of an important call and having it drop, or not being able to secure a data connection when you really need your GPS to be working so you can figure out where the heck you are. WiFi is part of connectivity these days too – to many people, a phone without WiFi is a phone they will not purchase. Likewise, compatibility is critical when selecting a smartphone. The device you purchase needs to work with the systems you use on a regular basis. You’re a Mac user? Then you want a smartphone that plays nicely with Macs. Want to use your smartphone for your work life as well as your personal life? Then you may need to ensure your device features Microsoft Exchange support. Security is also critical. These days I think a lot of consumers simply assume security is present (enterprise is a different story – they need to see the proof) in the device they choose. It’s one of those things that you don’t see when it’s there and things are running smooth, but are catastrophic the second it goes away and hell breaks loose. If you knew a device wasn’t secure, you’d never entertain the thought of buying it.

2. daily usability and performance: When you choose to adopt the smartphone way of life, you very quickly become dependent on it. It’s like electricity – once you have it, there’s no living without it. That said, the smartphone you choose needs to be there for you when you need it (a smartphone with a dead battery is just a paperweight) and integrate with your daily life. Some items in this category fall under the more is better clause, such as speed and reliability. The faster the device the better. The more reliable it is, the better. The longer the battery life, the better. Other aspects are left more to personal preference. Do you need a device that you can use one-handed on the go? Are you willing sacrifice the convenience and speed of use offered by a front-facing physical keyboard in order to make room for a larger and more app/media friendly display? Considering the amount of time individuals spend on smartphones, often totaling several hours per day, it’s important that you be comfortable with the smartphone you choose. It should feel good in your hand and comfortable against your ear. For something that gets used as often as a smartphone does, you should enjoy using the device. These days a smartphone is as much of a statement as it is a gadget. For example, A person who uses a BlackBerry projects a certain image to those around about who they are. Does the smartphone you have possess the identity you want to project to those around you? Depending on where your priorities and values lay, a phone that falls flat on any of these particular factors that matter to you will be a phone you won’t want to use each and every day.

3. communication and productivity: Prior to the era of the smartphone, you had regular cell phones (feature phones) and PDAs (personal digital assistants). The core feature of a cell phone is of course communication – you want people to be able to get a hold of you while you’re on the go. The core function of the PDA was organizing your life. Our resident smartphone guru Dieter Bohn in the past has summed these up as the four pillars of PIM and COM, the four pillars of personal information management being: calendar, contacts, memos and todo, while the pillars of communication are: push email, SMS/MMS, web browsing and telephony. Communication gets pushed further these days with things like BlackBerry Messenger for the CrackBerry addicts out there and communicating via social networks (facebook, twitter, instant messaging services) while mobile is now the norm. But while the smartphone was born out of the cell phone and PDA, these days what it is doing more and more is becoming a computer. The smartphone is beginning to allow individuals to leave their laptops behind be productive from everywhere. But it comes to smartphone platforms, not all are created equal. Is the email push? Can I run multiple apps at once? Can I open and edit attachments? How’s the voice quality? Does it have a good speakerphone? How good is the web browser? All of these sorts of questions fall into this category, and the answers to them for some individuals will help determine whether a particular phone is right or wrong for their needs. Some may be critical. Others may be less important.

4. features for everyday life: These are the features that make your smartphone an indespensible, never leave home without it device. Some of these features are hardware related, while others are software, but all of them help to elliminate your need to carry around other “stuff” because your smartphone does it all. Think about all of the things the smartphone has killed the need for… you no longer keep a map in the glovebox of your car because you have one on your phone. Your calculator is your smartphone. You no longer have an alarm clock because your smartphone sits in a charging pod beside your bed displaying a clock. Your smartphone is your portable music player. Unless you’re a photo junky who carries an SLR around everywhere, your smartphone is your camera and video recorder. Password keeper, voicenotes recorder… the list goes on. Every smartphone from every manufacturer is very feature-rich these days, though between the platforms and particular devices there are differences that jump out. Some are better at certain things than others. And ocassionally, you find gaps (it took three iterations for Apple to put video recording on the iPhone). I also reckon there are still more features for smartphone manufacturers to build into their devices (front facing cameras for video conferencing on smartphones in North America, mini-projectors for video, etc.).

5. an app for everything: Heard of the arms race? Well what were living in now is the apps race. Smartphone apps have been around for a while, but it was Apple and their app store that fired the starter’s pistol and really brought the consumer attention towards mobile apps, putting them at the top of the hierarchy of smartphone needs. This position actually jives rather well with Maslow’s self-actualization sitting at the top, as that’s really what apps are all about. It’s not about installing 100,000 apps onto your phone or everybody using the same apps. It’s about each person finding those apps, be it five, ten, 20 or 50 of them, that are uniquely beneficial to the user. They enhance your life. They may be productivity focused or entertainment focused or they may be useless time killers, which is fine too. Every smartphone platform either has or is rolling out their app store, and it’s an area that every stakeholder is paying close attention to. Apple set the standard for apps and jumped out to an early need, and now it’s up to the rest to play catch up and find ways to differentiate.

[Read the full article here >>]

I have blogged about this iPhone Mindmapping software that is really good and how you can use it to incorporate into your GTD system.

Their Version 2.2 is currently in the approval stage and what i like about them is that they don’t rest on their laurels but are coming up with more and more ways to make this mind mapping software as functional as the desktop applications.

Here is a video showing how you can map relationships between related nodes.

What i really hope to is that they can come up with Tagging and Tag filtering of nodes. That will be awesome

Also check out:

GTD Series Part 6:Project Review through iThoughts Mind Mapping Software

Mind Mapping Software for iPhone:iThoughts Review