Recently, I realize that Evernote, my main note taking application was able to do that as well.

What you can do is

1. Do an advanced search by trying to find specific text in title, in specific tags, in specific notebook, with to do (checkboxes) at a certain longitude and latitude. (for more info on how specific or flexible you can search, refer to this guide)
2. Review the search result to see if it is showing what you want and save the search.
3. When reviewing at your iPad, iPhone, Android Device or Desktop, Click on these saved search list to review them.

Evernote highlights a few saved search ideas:

• created:[datetime] – Search for notes by date of creation using the format YYYYMMDD. You can also search by time period (for example, day-30 will pull up all notes created in the last 30 days).
• intitle:”name” – Search within the title of the note (ie: intitle:”restaurant” will pull up a note titled “French restaurant”).
• resource:image/* – Search only for notes that contain images.

You can always use the global “find in Evernote” desktop hotkey. On Mac, the default hotkey isCtrl+Cmd+F. On Windows, the default hotkey is Win+Shift+F .

I am always a fan of task management that can be customized as close to your own workflow as possible which is why I really like Remember the milk, which is a very extensive web to do list that is available on the iPhone and Android smartphone as well.

One of the main advantage is that you can create Smart Lists based on search criteria and in this tip from a reader having a list of tasks you do at a certain location and at a certain time intensity is very good:

Having so many things to do, sometimes it’s so easy to get overwhelmed even when you’re organized with RTM! Even if those things take only a few minutes to do, they feel like mountains.

So, I find that if I can just do one or two things, then I will feel like I accomplished something. Even better, I could get the energy to do even more on my list.

I created a smartlist called “Today’s Quickies” which are any tasks that are due today and take less than 5 minutes to do. I used these parameters:

dueWithin:”1 day of today” and timeEstimate:”< 5 min”

It’s a great way to see all those little things that you can do and be done with!

What a great tip!

Interested to know more about Getting Things Done with mobile applications on the iPhone and Android? Take a look at our Getting Things Done series on step by step guides to apply GTD in everyday life.

Fear not! A free solution is here! Milpon actually syncs offline with your remember the milk account, that is if you can stand the interface. I am still wondering why the interface looks this way.

When you install the app from the app store, Milpon will ask you to log into the Remember the milk account. You will need to authorize the app to tap into your account as part of the external API authentication.

Once you did that, Milpon will start syncing the tasks. this might take a while.

The list of tasks is presented like this. Really it looks damn strange!

I am not sure if you can set recurring tasks in this app but i think you are unable to do that. You get most of the indicators except location and ability to create new Smartlists. The syncing needs alot of work as well. its pretty slow in synching but all in all its free and if you are unwilling to splash out 25 bucks a year on a Pro plan this would do ok.

This is part of a series where i talk about my GTD experience and  my setup.

Part 1 here talks about my plan and overview of my GTD system

Part 2 here talks about why i eventually chose iPod Touch 2G as my main to do list console

Part 3 here talks about why i choose Appigo ToDo for iPhone as my main task manager

Part 4 here talks about how to plan for big projects and smaller projects

Part 5 here talks about how to make use of Contexts, Tags to Execute your tasks

Part 6 here discuss about how you can review projects better using iThoughts mind mapping software

In today’s article i will share with  you guys the software to complete the iPod Touch picture which is Appigo ToDo list

Appigo ToDo

Before i got my iPod Touch, I have already decide which application to do list i would be using. This is after extensive research and comparison between Omnifocus,Things and other cheaper to do list.

Eventually these are the reasons that tilt me towards Appigo ToDo

1. Omnifocus backup and ubiquitous nature is only limited to desktop synchronization. Thats not good enough for me since my main computer is not a Mac but a Windows PC. I would much prefer that I can sync my to do list to a web application
2. Omnifocus cost 20 freaking bucks. When you look at the to do list application on the App Store it makes it hard to understand why it will cost 20 freaking bucks.
3. Things, although polished, have a big problem for me, no recurring task capability. you will always want an option where you can create a to do task that creates a “do 20 chin up for the week” task every saturday.
4. The reasons why i choose Appigo ToDo have alot to do with the Advantages listed next.

Projects and Sub-Tasks/Sub-Projects

One main difference about to do lists like these compared to outlook is that they are like mini project management applications. Most of our lives consist of small projects like

1. Enrolling your kid for the new year
2. Building your new personal computer
3. Taking over the new project
4. Secure the release of the set of documents

That’s what i normally require. Its either an Area of Responsibility or a Project to meet that area of responsibility.

Appigo ToDo allows you to have 2 levels of it. You can have Lists as your big project and Projects in your Lists as your sub projects.

Lists showing my Areas of Responsibilities

The Lists are very clear. The first one is a list showing All your tasks in all your lists. The red tag shows the overdue ones and the gray tag shows the total. You can color tag each lists so that in your task it becomes easily distinguishable if you are the sort of visual person.

Sub-Projects in your Project List

In your lists, you can denote one more level down which is your sub project. Very ideal for specifying mini projects. These sub projects are distinguishable by the tree icon.

One thing to note is that in these task view, you will only see the name of the sub project and not the tasks in your project. Some people will get annoyed by this and I can understand the technical limitation of it but i think it is a livable flaw. The grey tag shows the total number of tasks in the sub project and the red tag shows the number of sub tasks in the sub project that is due.

Note the due date listed below the task. For sub projects, you will see the most earliest due sub task’s due date. So in my “Building a iPhone app” project Sep 23 is the due date of my earliest due task.

Sub Project and its tasks

Touching your sub project will bring you to your project view where you can add, update and delete your tasks.

Flexible Tasks Specifications

Well the tasks in the to do list takes on an important role, and Appigo ToDo offers alot of flexibility.

Elongated Task View

I find that the length of the Task Description isn’t constraint, which is good. You can put alot of things in the Notes area below the Description as well (though the display will look awkward)

You can specify the Due Date as well as the Due Time. I use Due Date most of the time and not Due Time as it is too much of a micro management. You can also specify if the task is repeating (talk about this later) as well as the priority of the task.

You can choose also to specify the Context and Tags (talk about later).

More Task Actions

Clicking on the red Action button brings you to the option to Move the Task into the Project and if its in a project, out of the Project. You can also email the task or send the Task to a notebook (Appigo’s paid notebook application)

Focus List

This is a good feature. And like most good or up to standard GTD to do list it lets you focus on only tasks that is going to  take place soon.

You can really specify what goes into this filter list. Priorities, how far away the task is due and whether you want to limit to certain lists.

Online Synchronization to Toodledo and Remember The Milk

Online Synchronization Options

Now this is powerful. ToDo allows you to sync with either Toodledo or Remember The Milk. However, you can only sync to Remember the Milk if you have a Pro account. The cheap choice would be to use Toodledo, which really isn’t a bad choice since ToodleDo is rather comprehensive.

If you are a OS X user you would want to sync with iCal through Appigo’s Desktop sync which is FREE.

ToodleDo (Click to view larger image)

For disclosure i Sync with ToodleDo. But as i will explain in the rest of my other articles i don’t use the online Toodledo much. I can lived with only my iPod in my system.

Synchronization Options

There are many options to do this. For starters, which service u will sync to. You can also choose to sync at startup of ToDo. This can be abit annoying without internet connection (iPod Touch), but i assure you i would rather be annoyed and sync as much as i can (instead of triggering manual sync which you will forget) then do a lump sync and the sync goes awry. Big data sync can be quite problematic.

What i notice is that tasks that were suppose to be in sub projects came out of those sub projects. Not very desirable behaviors. You can also specify the recency of your completed tasks to keep on the iPhone.

Full Sync

At times, you would want to reset your tasks, you can do that through the advanced menu.

Conclusion

All in all, I managed to skim the surface of this great app. It should be re-iterated that my decision for my iPod would not happen if i cannot find a good task list like this.

For USD 9.99 it is an expensive application, but as it is so well design i feel every penny spent is worth it.

In the next part, we will go straight into some GTD Task and Project Planning
[GTD Series Part 4:How to plan for big projects and its sub-projects]
Do take a look at the following videos to see hands on demo of Appigo ToDo

Whats new in Appigo ToDo 2

Connecting to ToodleDo

Best iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ

For those new to this article, it is part of a series of articles where I share my GTD system.

Part 1 here talks about my plan and overview of my GTD system

Part 2 here talks about why i eventually chose iPod Touch 2G as my main to do list console

Part 3 here talks about why i choose Appigo ToDo for iPhone as my main task manager

Part 4 here talks about how to plan for big projects and smaller projects

Part 5 here talks about how to make use of Contexts, Tags to Execute your tasks

Part 6 here discuss about how you can review projects better using iThoughts mind mapping software

In this Part 2 of the series I will share about some of my past systems that i used to do organizing and planning as well as my default choice now.

My past systems

I tried quite a fair bit of systems before this since my school days years ago.

Microsoft Outlook

I have never know to use a to do list but find out Microsoft Office opens me to a software that almost every knows about in Microsoft Outlook. It was fashion as an email client, but it does provide a rather robust Calendar, Contact List and To Do list functionality.

Desktop Task Manager Outlook

Problem

I thought the first thing that i don’t like about it is how hard it is to clear off all the done tasks from the list! I never had problem with the Calendars and Contacts but that is one aspect that i cannot stand.

What got me off this system wasn’t that however. As a student then, it involves alot of moving to school and really i cannot sync my task management system when in school since during that time computer wasn’t that advance and not many schools have very fully functional computers.

PDAs – The Sony Clie and the Windows Mobile PDAs

As i approach university, i began to use my hard earned pocket money on PDAs. They were expensive then, but damn were they useful.  You can plan your time table and create reminders and read books on them.

Sony Clie SJ 33

I especially like my experience with the Palm based Sony Clie. Its very responsive and together with Agendus for palm it was enough for me then.

IPAQ 2210

O2 Mini

I subsequently sold off my palm when i decide to move over to Windows Mobile Platform. My options were to get a PDA and i promptly got a HP iPaq 2210. The windows mobile platform offers more software and functionality, but also more niggling problems such as memory leak, crashes and all. But with Pocket Informant, it turned out to be one of the best capturing and organizing platform. I got myself a second hand O2 Mini when i decide to try an integrated device.

Problem

However, it is during this period that i realise the flaws of the To-Do list. Even with a robust software like Pocket Informant, having a single layer task management system  without buckets or multiple lists just does not make sense, cause that is just so much you can put in categories until it overwhelms you.

It is also during this period that i realise i got alot of tasks note down but which one do i do first? Before GTD, I got to the point where i didn’t check on my list for some time and just got completely off the system

Web Based Remember the Milk Heaven

Learn how to use Remember the Milk to do task management (click image)

In the first years of my working life, I had a much earlier experience compared to my peers on cloud computing and one of the first software that caught my attention was Remember the Milk.

Remember the Milk is a web based To Do list software that is hosted on their private server. There are paid versions and free ones but really if you are using web based task management the free one will just suffice.

Its got to be one of the most extensive javascript application that i have ever seen. Everything occurs almost on one single page and it works because of the extensiveness of ajax scripting.

When i first saw it i was thinking why i will not use it. I wouldn’t be online most of the time, if i don’t have internet connection, does that mean i can’t plan and do stuff any more? Luckily, Remember the milk have incorporated Google Gears which allow offline viewing. (its really well done.)

I really feel this is the right system and i blog about it extensively here how i used to work with it. Do take a look at this article to find out more.

Problem

If you read my article on Remember the milk, you will find that you can use it in almost all places when you have internet or a desktop.

There-in lies the problem. In my line of work I don’t stay on my desktop all the time, I go on site and meetings quite often. When I am not on my desktop, capturing of stuff is done on pieces of paper and it syncs back to the online task management system. All well and good.

But what i find it difficult to work with  is that it primarily uses lists or Smart Lists which tends to clutter your task management system. I can set up my Smartlists pretty well, but it is always the times when i do not have assess to web, that i do not know what is my next action.

The final straw was really the short coming of a javascript heavy web application. In alot of times, with the amount of tasks i have (100++) the firefox web browser chokes up 90% of cpu usage due to the heavy processing. It works well on a duo core, the problem is, I am not using one.

Time to code one: Snowflake GTD

Snowflake GTD (click to view larger image)

The problem of not having projects and sub-projects made me have the urge to create one myself and with time on my hands i did. I decided to experiment with .Net platforms WPF foundation. And man for a lousy coder i did come up with a rather nice looking interface.

And the best part of snowflake is

1. Have an inbox and sub-projects to it
2. You can have many levels of sub-projects as you like
3. You can filter by multiple contexts
4. You can screen by tasks that is due today, tomorrow or in 1 week etc
5. Natural language inputs like remember the milk
6. Recurring Tasks is also done
7. Notification

Problem

I really like this and felt i reached somewhere. The problem of a desktop application came back to bite me. I would really have to paper sync if i am on the move. This increases the chance of me forgetting stuff and not writing them down.

The problem of not having alot of time to develop Snowflake further and improve on it leads me to find the next solution and i am glad i found the iPod Touch.

Why i choose the iPod Touch 2G

So after this long winded story we have finally reached 3 months ago, where i was reading through internet articles and saw the Android device vs the iPhone.  These 2 platforms look to me the future of mobile computing and i took a general interest in them.

I have a certain bias against the iPhone. I thought it was a glorified device used to suck people’s hard worked money into a device that is far underpowered compare to the other smartphones.

So i was leaning towards the Android platform and look at what software task manager it provides. The most promising seem to be Astrid, which then was rather clunky in the interface design (it still is now, but now it syncs with remember the milk!). So of course being an engineer, i thought about coding one myself.

I tried doing that in my free time and found that on java platform its performance for large lists lacks alot to be desired. If i have more than 20 items on the current view, it will take ions to load and ions to scroll through.

Finding Omnifocus, Appigo ToDo and Things

Things (Click to view larger image)

OmniFocus (click to view larger image)

So in my research to see which GTD mobile applications are good and how they work, I found videos on these 3 iPhone based apps. They blew me away with what they can do compare to what is on offer for both Android and Windows Mobile.

i told myself that i WILL NOT again pay 1000 SGD for a smartphone. Its just not worth it. The iPhone really appeals to me and these 3 application is the fundamental reasons to offset the flaws of the iPhone platform (which is quite a few, including big bad Apple itself).

Then i chanced upon the iPod Touch 2G. It is what i was looking for:

• Small and Elegant
• Capture stuff on the go
• Reading Reference PDF and Notes on the go
• Checking Google Calendar Offline on the go
• No Camera! (I need to go places where you can’t have that)
• Checking Contacts from Gmail Offline on the go
• Listening to Mp3 where i can (I’m quite into music @Commuting)
• Listen to educational podcast and videos (You tube learning videos while @Commuting)
• GTD Task Managing Software (Omnifocus, ToodleDo,Things and ToDo!)

All in all, i think at 330 SGD its a pretty good price to pay. I have to sell some of my old smartphone to fund this purchase. (Even though i can afford this now, but it pays to be discipline and whatever depreciating things you are using that you do not use, do liquidate them)

Conclusion

I believe i share all the platforms and tools that i have used during this short 20 plus years.

The key take away in sharing this is that:

1. You have to use them for a period of time to know if it works for you
2. What work for you now may not work as your life and job changes
3. What profession you are in and the nature of the job changes your requirement of the devices that you can use
4. Don’t go on a witch hunt for the best tools. It is an expensive and futile endeavor. Keep your eyes open and evaluate tools and methods that comes along is good enough
5. Don’t spend too much on such stuff. Go for cost effective solutions.

In the next post i will talk more about why Appigo ToDo list is head and shoulders above all that i used previously

Take a look at the video of the Archos 5 Internet tablet. Man this baby is damn thin. However, It won’t fit easy into your pocket. But armed with a 3G card, this Android platform should be a solid MID browser. Forget about those netbooks!

Positives

1. Android ( up and coming mobile os ecosystem)
2. 4.8 inch screen ( good size for viewing web pages)
3. 720p video over HDMI
4. 500GB harddisk (bombastic!)
5. Bluetooth
6. 3G (Tether over bluetooth?)
7. GPS

Negatives

1. No Phone function (not so much a negative really)
2. OMAP processor (my experience with it tells me it tends to be dissappointing)
3. Pricey (250 -440 dollars)

This would make a good life organizer really PROVIDED Android store really comes up with good life organizing apps. We already have Remember The Milk for android yesterday and Astrid. So the future for Android might not look so bad after all.

[View Videos on the Archos 5. Its really thin! >>]

The guys at Remember the Milk are really trying to become the kings of task management with their ubiquitous task management system. I blog about it before that i used to spend some time on remember the milk as my main task manager and its a pretty good application.

The good thing about it is that

• they make task collection and reviewing a ubiquitous experience. you can find it
  • on their cool web interface
  • on google gadgets
  • on gmail
  • print it out
  • iphone
  • mobile web browser

Now you can add Android to it! My experience with Android have been that many establish task management developers have not taken to this platform yet and Remember the Milk looks to be the first among them to establish a foothold on this platform.

Shortly after refining their web task input methodology, they announce that their Android platform will be available to those that are willing to pay $25 per year for the Pro Account.

Here’s taking a look at the features and announcement:

Stay in sync.

Yup, it’s got background sync. Background sync! (Sorry to make all you iPhone users jealous! Everything that you create in the app syncs back to RTM (and likewise everything from RTM syncs to your device). That’s tasks, notes, lists, Smart Lists, tags, locations… everything! You can even use the entire app offline without an Internet connection, then sync up later when you’re back online.

Get notified.

The app wants to help you stay on top of things; it will pop up your reminders in the notification bar so you’ll know instantly when tasks are due. Running around town? The app can (optionally) keep an eye on your location, and let you know when a location with tasks is nearby.

Organize your way.

Organize efficiently by list, Smart List, tag, or location and prioritize your tasks. Not sure what’s next? See at a glance how many tasks are due today, tomorrow, and this week. Don’t like the ordering? Choose to sort by priority, due date, or task name for each list.

Manage your tasks.

Add and edit tasks with ease: choose from a quick ‘Add task’ bar and a full add mode. All the fields you’ve come to know and love are supported (task name, list, priority, due date/time, repeat, time estimate, tags, location, and URL) and you can even customize the fields shown. So if you’re big on tagging, you can set that field to always display when adding tasks.

Get stuff done.

Need to complete or postpone multiple tasks? No problem, just check to select those tasks in the list. You can also long press on individual tasks in the list to perform quick actions, or alternatively head over to the task view screen and do it all from there. You’ll be adding tasks just so you can say you’ve completed them.

Add tasks the Smart way.

Use the ‘Add task’ bar to add tasks with our new Smart Add syntax (e.g., “Pick up the milk tomorrow”). Save time with add by context: tasks added to your today list will be due today, while tasks added to Smart Lists inherit their criteria. If your Smart List happens to show all your high priority tasks that are due today and located at the office, any tasks added to this Smart List will automatically inherit all these properties.

Note it.

Need to store additional info about a task? Write a note for quick reference. You can manage your existing notes too, and easily edit or delete them. Email addresses and links in your notes conveniently auto-link to the mail and browser apps. Phone numbers in notes also auto-link for handy one-touch calling.

See tasks located nearby.

This is why we love devices that can detect your location! See your nearby tasks and plan the best way to get things done. Add new locations easily by current location or street address. Remember that if you locate your tasks in the app (e.g., “pick up the milk” at the supermarket), you can view them on a map on the web.

Your own personal tasks search engine.

Not only can you search for tasks by name, you can use any of the advanced search operators. Want to find your high priority tasks located within one mile and tagged with ‘errand’? Done! Save your favourite searches as Smart Lists for quick access.

A handy widget.

No need to leave your Home screen to see what’s due today; this widget will let you know what’s due (and overdue!) so you know where to get started.

The little touches.

Want to quickly switch from the Today to the Tomorrow screen? Just swipe the screen! Prefer landscape mode? No problem, just flip your device. Anything to make managing your tasks (and life easier.

Thanks to…

A big thanks to the RTM users in the Pro Tester Program who helped us to test the app, giving us lots of feedback and reporting the occasional bug. Bob really appreciated your help with testing!

Ready to use RTM on your Android device?

Just search for “Remember The Milk” on the Android Market; you can also find a download link here. If you don’t have a Pro account yet, you’ll be able to try the app free for 15 days (login to the app to start your trial).

Today they added a few new things to their already very sophisticated web task management platform.

Smart Add

An awesome feature. They are going to let you enter the due date priority tags and location url in one single field. This is a definite improvement for power users.

^ adding due dates by invoking  ^

^ adding priorities by invoking !

^ add list and tags by invoking #

^ adding location by invoking @

^ adding repeating by invoking *

^ add time estimation by invoking =

so to summarize you get somthing like this:

Pretty neat! Thats why i fell in love with remember the milk in the first place!

Smart Add support  for Twitter, Gmail and Email

Add support for the new Smart Add syntax in different Remember The Milk interfaces. Aside from the web app, you can also use Smart Add when adding tasks in Remember The Milk for Gmail, and when adding via email and Twitter. It’s also available in the API for third-party developers.

Clicking of task cell selects and checks task

Speed Improvements!

One thing that really gets me off was the slow speed due to the freaking number of lines of javascript they use. Man i could have swear if they come up with a desktop client it will be much better.

All in all, its a great improvement for Remember the Milk fans, task management never seems so fun before!

[Remember the milk Smart Add Feature Post >>]