Hello. I need some help from more experienced users.
I’m a big GTD fan and have been using GTD for Outlook for a decade. Since it’s ending, I am in search of a new solution and have tried many. Some are too complex for the result. Others are thinly disguised task lists.
With about 150 open projects at any given time, I need a system I can trust.
I really like this app, specifically it’s simplicity and ability to quickly add, sort, and report.
However, without a worthwhile mobile solution it is quite limited. I’m in the field about 25% of the time.
Question 1: Is there meaningful mobile development underway? Any dates for first rev (iphone)? The most recent post I can find is from February 2015 (though I may have missed others)
Question 2: In the absence of a mobile-specific version, how are users handling mobile?
Thanks in advance for any help, guidance or suggestions.
-Some users have commented that the web-version works well enough for now on a tablet
-The developers have been pretty consistent in declining to give a timeline for an app release. As I understand it, since they are a small team they are wary setting expectations that they might not be able to meet.
-I am also a refuge from another GTD application (mGTD) which I used for many years. Since then I have made brief attempts to migrate to other software. As a user looking for software that will allow me to implement the GTD system “by-the-book”, I have been using GTDNext for the past year or so, because in my opinion they currently have a fairly good system that is consistently moving in the right direction. Basically, I’m happier with this than the frustration and disappointment I have experienced with several alternatives. Maybe consider picking up a premium subscription - enough of these might help move development along.
Thanks for the informative reply. I understand the challenges of a small team. Not having a mobile solution is a huge impediment.
Agree with your by the book GTD processes. Waivering from them, which is a natural inclination, is the road to ruin for me (and many others)
As for a premium subscription, I’m happy to do so. At the same time I will continue to look for a long term solution (if GTDnext cannot eventually go mobile).
Oh my goodness! Yes, I can very much confirm we are actively developing the mobile apps. We are using the ionic framework and while it is very cool, it does have a significant learning curve, but we make progress every day.
I really appreciate you asking as it obviously tells us there is a lot of demand for the mobile versions! Apologies this has taken so long but we are certainly making regular progress.
My test period ran out for viira and didnt manage to test it properly. And there is very little info available on the net about the app, but from the little I tested it, it looked to process emails quite smoothly. I will probably end up buy a subscription and try it out better.
Clearcontext is strong in handling emails within outlook and turning them into test, deferring them to a later date, or follow up if not answered.
However the weekly review, and organizing part is quite weak, almost useless. You see all actions all the time, both the next one and all the rest, even if they only have starting date way in the future. Quite confusing. But for quickly emptying your inbox and all within outlook, it is quite great.
Clearcontext rely on outlooks native folder system for organising whereas viira operate independently.
I have found it very difficult to find Outlook GTD solutions that provide what I would consider the basic mandatory GTD functions.
Including:
Projects. Almost no outlook GTD solution does a good job with projects. They often try to use categories for projects, which is very clunky.
Next Actions: I haven’t seen an outlook GTD solution that is capable of showing your one and only next action for a project. It shows ALL your next actions. Even if it did, would it automatically show your next action? Or would you need to flag it manually? Try that with over 150 projects! Of course, this makes it difficult to call it a GTD methodology app.
Outlines: I haven’t seen any outlook task managers that are capable of using an outline methodology.
Don’t get me wrong. I love outlook. I use it every day. I just don’t use it for tasks. I have “quick steps” setup that allow me to quickly forward emails to GTDNext to make them into tasks. I find this very efficient and a much better process than to try and make outlook do what it wasn’t built for and that is GTD task managment. Hope that helps!
My issue it that many of my tasks consist of “replying to email such and such in outlook”. The outlook add-ins, (currenltly I am unsing clearcontext) allows me to have that email I need to reply to immediately at hand. On the contrary if I create a task in an external system then I have so far been spending too much time locating the email in outlook that I actually had to respond to. Not efficient. That is one of the main reasons for why I love to have an add-in that handles it.
But 100% agree, in terms of managing GTD workflows they are not the best at all.
If you have found a good solution for above problem then would be curious to hear it.
I’ve dabbled with Linker once in a while with mixed success. The idea is that you use Linker to create a link that you paste into GTDNext, etc. When you click the link, it opens the Outlook item.
Yes, I get that and understand. What I’ve found is that by adding a flag it is easy to find. I add a flag and then archive it. I use a search folder to easily find all flagged message.
I used to move things to a “respond” folder. But with search folders even that isn’t necessary. I normally don’t have more than 10 or so of those emails waiting for me. However, you may have way more and I do see how that could be difficult.
I accomplish all three of these things at one time with a “quick step” action I made in outlook. 1) It forwards the email to my inbox. 2) It flags the email and 3) It archives the email.
Lurk5’s idea is pretty interesting. I’ve looked for something like that and if that was easy and works well I think it would be pretty slick way to implement this idea.
The other idea is to use Office365 and then I think finding the email link online would be easier.
Is should be SO freaking easy to link to Office 365 but it’s not without some dev on the Office365 API.
@James, I think you should take a serious look at the MVP for connecting with Office365 on their API - you could get a quick and easy email integration with attachments intact, that would be fried-gold frankly!
In the last month I’ve gone from using outlook on PC to entirely in the browser, IDK why but it’s happened and I like it, if GTDNext integrated I will sing your praises from the roof-tops and you’d have the first working GTD for Outlook product…
Yes, that would be very cool. As an O365 user myself I can see how cool that would be. Our plate if pretty full right now with the redesign and then picking mobile and new features back up. But I’ll certainly keep this on my “someday/maybe” list.
Somebody must be out there creating an easier way to get a link to an email out of O365. Right? I took a look at Linker and it’s not ideal. Anyone find something easier?