GTD Wannabe

Tudumo: Another Great GTD Tool

I recently introduced you to TodoPaper, a light-weight task/next action manager.  What I didn’t tell you was that the reason I was initially charmed by TodoPaper was that it reminded me of Tudumo, kind of like its little brother.

I first used Tudumo about eight or so months ago.  It’s a strong application that fits very naturally with the Getting Things Done philosophy.  The main reason I stopped using it was that I wanted to keep my next actions and my calendar together, which for me, meant moving back to Outlook.  But if you told me that I had to stop using Outlook tomorrow, I would switch back to Tudumo for my next actions. 

What do I like about Tudumo?

• I like the look.  See the screenshot above.  It’s nice and clean, and the icons in the left column indicate what kind of action you’re looking at.
• There is explicit support for the concept of action, next action (for those that insist that there should be only one *next* action for a project), waiting for, someday/maybe, etc.  Plus, there’s a “hold” status, for things that you can’t deal with yet.
• Unlike TodoPaper (or many other GTD apps I’ve tried), it provides date support.  In other words, I can put in tasks that have deferred start dates (making them “hold” actions), and have them show up when they need to be seen.  You can filter to see the next three or seven days, or see all actions.
• It’s easy to search for actions, e.g., @computer and @home (shift-click), @computer or @home (ctrl-click).
• There is support for projects, as well as notes on individual tasks. 
• You can have as many tags as you like on an action.  Plus, you’re not confined to tags that start with @.  (On the other hand, TodoPaper recognizes @xxx as a tag automatically; with Tudumo, you have to enter tags in a separate field.)
• There is an easy entry window; you can add multiple new actions at once.  They show up at the top of your list and you can organize them (including assigning tags and dates) later.
• Although the data is not in a pure text file, it is in xml format, and you can retrieve your information later if necessary.  The developer of Tudumo is a firm believer in the fact that you own your data.  I love that.
• Tudumo keeps count of actions in your list.  That lets you know how far behind you are ;)
• It’s feature rich: backups, keyboard shortcuts, ability to print, automatic archiving of done actions to a separate file, etc. etc.

I think one of the greatest things about Tudumo is its developer, Richard.  When I was initially testing out Tudumo, I found him to be very receptive to my suggestions.  And you know how much I love good service. 

Although I neglected Tudumo for a few months (and shame on me for not blogging about it earlier!), I’m glad to see it’s still going strong.  The application just keeps getting better and better.

If you’re looking for something a bit more feature-filled than TodoPaper, but not quite overkill like Outlook, consider giving Tudumo a shot.  There’s a how-to video and a 60 day trial to get your feet wet.  The app costs $29.95, which is eminently reasonable for keeping you organized.