Most exciting thing I've done all month -- even with stiff competition from Access classes and the first sunny, spring-weather hiking this year. What is it? Things v.3 task management software. I started using Things 2 earlier this year and liked it OK. Just upgraded to 3. Clean interface, combined calendar & task view, checklists, and everything I've been asking for and a few things I didn't realize I'd love. I'm euphoric in the first minutes. Perhaps the pheromones will wear off with familiarity but for now it's better than chocolate.
5 comments:
Evan is confused.
What tasks do you use it to manage?
I am curious. Sounds like something I might find useful.
Have you heard of Getting Things Done? A book and approach to efficient task management. Tom's been urging me to try for years. Super high level, it's a way to minimize and organize open loops (nagging undone stuff). Something comes in -- if it takes two minutes or less, do it now. If more, record it as a to do item and organize them (e.g. next, someday, waiting) so they pop up when due or are easy to review and choose when you have time. Then you can dump them out of your brain and free up that mental energy.
Things is not a pure implementation of GTD but it works for me. I've installed it on both my phone and computer. Whenever I have a thought about something -- out for a walk and "oh, I'd like to call that person', I add that to Things, then don't have to remember it until I get home. Or email arrives with a link to a video I'd like to watch someday. There's a keyboard shortcut that creates a Things task with a link to that email. I can archive the email so I'm not re-evaluating it every time I look at my inbox. I can tag it and, when I have time to watch something, have Things show me all the video tagged items and then choose one from the list. If it's time sensitive, I can add a start or due date and it will show in my daily list on that day. Tasks can be organized into projects which is a great way to track all the items related to a trip or the house repairs I'd like to hire someone for.
So less mental clutter, less inbox clutter, less calendar clutter (no longer put daily to dos on the calendar), fewer Notes and envelope lists, etc. With the calendar link in Things 3, I can see my & Tom's schedules and my tasks for the day at a glance. Everything's in one place, not scattered all about, and I can choose to look at only the subset of items that are relevant now.
I read Getting Things Done several years ago, and have been frustrated by the lack of adherence by software systems that seem to be well aware of it. I don't see what's stopping them from implementing it.
I use Org-mode in my favorite text editor at work, and it does many of the things I need. It doesn't integrate with my Google Calendar, but it has its own calendar view. It doesn't have seamless support for next actions, though, so I have to either mark things as TODO one at a time, or live with a large number visible. My TODO items also tend to get bogged down with all the notes I keep, which are sometimes useful when I'm coming back to something after not thinking about it for a while, but more often a distraction from progress.
Keep us posted on how Things 3 is working for you!
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