Hello all. I just want to point you to a guest post I did over at the Cranking Widgets blog. There, I introduce FileHamster, a version control system for the rest of us. Enjoy.

There’s another meme going around, this one originated by the host of the Getting Things Done blog (who also organizes the Ultimate GTD Index).

I’m not going to *really* participate in this meme, because, as you know, I’m in the process of reconfiguring my Killer GTD Setup. But, I can give you a very brief glimpse at the bones of the system that I see rising from the ashes.

Hard Landscape

My favourite calendar is Remind, a Unixy-type application that I’m accessing through Cygwin. It enables me to see my calendar on my desktop, plus gives me easy access to adding events and deadlines. This last feature is due to the fact that the calendar is kept in text files, and I can make use of SlickRun to quickly input data. In addition, I can upload my calendars to Google Calendar, and then use CompanionLink (I finally got it working; more on that later!) or GooSync to sync them to my Palm.

Capturing Device

Since I’m not using my hand-rolled Perl script and text file for my Next Actions anymore, I now need a ubiquitous capture device. When at the computer, my tool of choice is a textual scratch file, again, which I access through SlickRun.

Organizing/Processing/Reviewing

This is the part of the killer setup that still has to rise from the ashes. I’ve just finished working my way through a hockey-sock full of online apps. I’ve got one right now (shhh, it’s a secret) that I’m giving an extra workout to. This app may or may not last through my testing of offline apps.

Reference

I’ve got the requisite filing cabinets and labeller at home. On my computer, my personal database/information manager/magic program of choice is EverNote. So far, I’ve got over 7000 notes of information organized there: passwords, tips clipped from the web, research thoughts, screenshots from test cases, code snippets, recipes to try, important emails, etc. etc. There’s not much that I don’t stick into EN.

Miscellaneous Tools

Of course, there are other tools that I now find indispensable. I’ve already mentioned SlickRun. I also use Launchy to start programs and navigate to file folders. Ultramon and MaxiVista for handling my three-monitor setup. AutoHotkey for all of my shortcut text-replacement tasks, including a whole set of shortcuts that let me type the date automatically for this Friday, whatever date is exactly 2, 3, 4 weeks from now, etc. Google Reader is now my preferred feed reader, so I can take my feeds with me. Plus, I’ve got other stuff, but it’s not so tied to my productivity system.

Anyway, I’ve just said more than I originally planned to, but sorry, you’re not getting any screenshots. If you’re interested, you can look at other entries that I’ve got related to GTD, Outlook, EverNote, OneNote, etc.

Finally, if you want to see who else has been participating in the meme, check out the Killer list of Killer GTD Setups.

This post is part of a series evaluating online GTD applications. See here for the ground rules of my evaluation. You can also see a list of apps that just didn’t get evaluated.

Today, I’m going to talk about MyTicklerFile, which “allows you to manage projects, track your time and monitor your activities as you get things done”. I created a little spreadsheet to help me evaluate these applications, and here you can see the results for this application:

As you might expect, green is good, yellow is iffy, and red is bad. The grey shading means that I stopped evaluating this application based on my “deal breaker” requirements and didn’t bother moving further down the list.

Lest you think that I truly dislike the application - it’s not that. It has the potential to be a great tickler file for GTD, hence the name. However, I don’t need a tickler file; I need an application to handle my next actions and projects.

Dislikes

Some of the things I didn’t like about the application:

• There are three service plans: free, basic, and power. However, even on the power plan, you are limited to 30 projects (!) and that’s at a cost of $19/month. Way too steep for such a tiny limit. I’m not even employed yet, and I have more than 30 projects.
• There is no specific concept of context, although you could bastardize tags for this.
• You can attach a date to a tickler, but it’s really meant as a tickler system, not a deferred next action. I really need to be able to have next actions with deferred start dates, and possibly with due dates.

Likes

Things that I liked:

• It has a nice calendar interface, so if you were just looking for a calendar, or tickler, then this could be for you.
• It does offer search. So few applications that I’ve looked at online do.
• I particularly like the long view, so you can see at a glance where you have ticklers in the system.

Conclusion

Based on the fact that MyTicklerFile failed on three of my “deal breakers”, it’s not a contender for me.

This post is part of a series evaluating online GTD applications. See here for the ground rules of my evaluation. You can also see a list of apps that just didn’t get evaluated.

I started off with the list of applications on the Ultimate GTD Index Page, then added some that I received via email or comment, plus added some that I found accidentally. Throughout all of this, I managed to collect a few apps that I didn’t evaluate, for several reasons.

I’m Not Installing That

One of my early requirements was that the application had to be easy to install. This means I don’t have to figure out MySQL or PHP or anything like that. Here are the applications that I just didn’t play with because they demanded too much of me:

• Nexty is said to be an “easy to use GTD tool”, but it’s created in PHP and needs to be installed on a server. I’m not looking at it, but geekier people out there might find it useful.
• Task Freak! is another GTD compliant tool, with “easy setup with MySQL or SQLite (PHP4 and PHP5 compatible)”.

No Longer Exists

Some links for applications led nowhere. Either the page no longer existed, or emails requesting logins disappeared into black holes, etc:

• GravityGTD just doesn’t exist online anymore. If you check out the wayback machine, you can see what it used to do.
• gtd-php originally gave me an error page. Today, it shows me a little something something that looks like it might be good for GTD, but the left frame is full of links to porn. So not interested, thank you very much. Something’s gone weird and wacky over there.

Doesn’t Exist Yet

Some applications tout themselves as being GTD-friendly, but I just can’t tell, because they don’t actually exist in the wild yet:

• Actionatr has the tagline “Simple productivity. Everywhere”. Then the page requests your email address for a one-time release announcement. No estimated date of arrival.
• Propel’r touts itself as a “web based application built from the ground up with David Allen’s GTD methodology in mind”. There is no estimated start date, but the graphics on the web page encouraged me to sign up for the release, whenever that may be.

Next, we’ll get into the online apps that I was actually able to play with…

For the past few weeks, I’ve been testing out various online GTD-friendly applications. As you may remember, I decided that I wanted something prettier than my hand-coded system. I laid out a list of requirements here, and for the most part, it’s been very useful.

There are a few caveats that you should bear in mind when reading my opinions on these apps:

1. My requirements are very subjective, and suited specifically to me, so some of the applications that I don’t want to use may be perfect for somebody else. I have a very specific way of implementing GTD, which has evolved over the past couple of years. Given that I’m very happy with my work process, and am just looking to augment it with the right tool, we end up with the situation that the software must bend to my whim, not the other way around.
2. Beauty is most definitely in the eye of the beholder. When I say that I don’t like the look of an application, that’s just me. There may be nothing aesthetically wrong with an application’s face, but if it doesn’t appeal to me, then it doesn’t.
3. I have gone through a relatively comprehensive list of online applications. I’ve even incorporated suggestions from readers, via email or comments. That said, I know I haven’t covered every possible GTD-friendly application.
4. Finally, Not all reviews are equally comprehensive. Some applications I enjoyed playing with more, and pushed a bit further. Some I knew pretty early on that I wouldn’t be using, so I stopped evaluation. If you’re on the lookout for a new GTD (or even just a plain task management) application, don’t hesitate to look at the ones that I’ve neglected to cover fully.

Caveats in mind, we can begin going through my take on the online GTD-friendly applications. In the interests of keeping these posts down to a reasonable length, I’m going to be breaking down the reviews into a few categories.

• Never Rans. These are apps that for various reasons didn’t get tested at all.
• Contenders. Apps that I was able to play with, and get an opinion about. Each app will get its own post.
• Tracks. There are a few Tracks applications that I’m going to lump together.

Okay, now that all the admin is out of the way…On with the Show!