Introduction

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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