Comments on: What I want in a task management system

By: mickey

mickey — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:59:17 +0000

I just played with it again, and it’s certainly improving. Their sharing feature is still quite wonky, but it’s getting there.

At this point, I still prefer Nozbe. The problem for a product like GQueues is that matching the Nozbe features wouldn’t be good enough. It’s a pain to switch products, and they’d need to exceed Nozbe for me to make the switch; otherwise, why waste my time moving?

Thanks for pinging me about the updates. Please let me know if they make any other good changes.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:31:17 +0000

Hi Mickey,

Have you re-reviewed GQueues? I see your notes,

“Poor recurring event setup, weak sharing, no real “next actions” page (though “smart queues” are close). This one is actually quite close, as it has all of the right features – they just need to be tweaked.”

I find that GQueues isn’t quite perfect, and the sharing is buggy, but I do see those three features in it. Maybe they weren’t there at the time of your post.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Mon, 31 May 2010 13:37:08 +0000

Love that you really went through all of these apps. I too have been worked through a similar quest and recently wondered whether Gmail alone could solve this. See my blog post here: http://kennyschiff.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/of-gmail-gtd-and-list-managers-can-gmail-reliably-be-your-trusted-system/

My issue with all of these 3rd party apps is they assume that one dashboards one’s activities from their center. I find that the transactional center of my world as become Google Apps (Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Docs, etc…), and there is a significant trail of key history and context there that needs to marry to whatever “tasking” framework I use. As mentioned in my blog post the best approximation for me was the Netcentrics GTD Outlook add-in; however, having abandoned Outlook, that’s no longer an option (also Outlook plugins always somehow get broken, or break other things in Outlook).

By: Cameron

Cameron — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:26:42 +0000

This is a great list and gQueues is pretty tempting. Do any of these have a reject/accept prompt upon assignment of a task for acknowledgement/audit etc…?

By: Ren

Ren — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:36:22 +0000

Have you looked at the Chandler project?

http://chandlerproject.org/Projects/ProductTour

It has many of the features that you would like, although the mobile apps aren’t quite there yet.

By: Daria

Daria — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:10:33 +0000

Mick,
Thanks for your feedback on Wrike. It’s actually a bit surprising to find out you find the software complex, as we constantly get lots of excited comments about the simplicity of Wrike’s UI. I guess, it all depends on what you are trying to use the tool for. If you need a simple to-do app, than probably Wrike is just not for you. Wrike is built for multi-project use. That is, you can build different views, share those views with people and still have a complete picture. A simpler tool, like say Nozbe, might be a better choice when you run one project or you are just trying to organize your personal to-dos. A lot of users turn to us from simpler tools, when their businesses evolve or they try to institute a PM tool on a wider scale. So we hope to see you back someday in the future.

By: Adrian Try

Adrian Try — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:18:31 +0000

I just visited Gqueues again this morning, and discovered lots of updates, including changes to the way they handle recurring tasks. This app continues to impress me, and right now I’m finding it very tempting.

By: mickey

mickey — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:51:14 +0000

Amy,

Those are good links, and I agree with “easy” being a key component. A task management system should allow you add items quickly, and not spend too much time on the meta stuff so you can spend more time getting work done.

After reading through those links, I still think RTM needs work. Those workarounds go completely against the “easy” idea, and you still don’t have a product as good as Nozbe, Thymer and some others. Still, it’s getting there. Thanks for the input!

By: Amy Gordon Stokes

Amy Gordon Stokes — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:29:37 +0000

Mickey, I’m searching as well. Perhaps these tips for Remember the Milk may address the insufficient overview problem. These workarounds may be best suited for DBA and SEO types, instead of everyday users. If you should should try these, please advise. I understand your 7 criteria, but let me add my own: easy. Appreciate you for sharing your research.

http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2008/05/guest-post-advanced-gtd-with-remember-the-milk/
http://sheenonline.biz/2008/06/super-charge-remember-the-milk-with-smart-lists-and-tags/

By: Harold Zimmer

Harold Zimmer — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:33:29 +0000

I use the GTD addin for Outlook with great success. How I’ve mastered the issuses you mentioned is simple. First I use one calender to keep all my appointments balanced. How I do this is through the use of my google calendar I sync this with Outlook when I return to my office and on my iPhone I use the program called informant. Informant sync’s all my GTD folders and when I create a new task or appointment ican assign whatever category that is appropriate. Now in order to sync through iPhone I did install a program called toodledo, this program is what brings it all together. If you’d like to discuss this inmore detail, send me your number. Believe me I too an relate to you fustration. There is at last a solution…