I am a GTD / GTDNext newbie. What an amazing thing you have built - congratulations!
My initial impressions are that GTDNext will do most of what I need it to do.
However:
I am used to using an application - MindManager (from MindJet) - and the Web interface of GTDNext is (inevitably?) a bit clunky. e.g. dragging Actions/Projects up and down the screen often fails to move - and jumps straight back(!)
Are there any keyboard shortcuts to just whiz an item around the hierarchy? (like you can in MindManager)
Is there a video anywhere explaining how best to interface GTDNext with email (Outlook in my case)?
What about Action “notes”? They do not appear to have any formatting capability - or is there something wrong with my browser?
Also presumably there is no Android app yet… :^(
I was looking at Evernote which TheSecretWeapon.org seems to have found a way to set up to work reasonably well for GTD. Have any of you people here tried that - and if so, how does it compare with GTDNext (for GTD work) ?
Apologies for a rather rambling series of Newbie questions, but I’m trying to work out whether this is a good place to invest time. (You know how it is when trying to GTD… )
With thanks
J
P.S. EDIT: I have just discovered Nozbe - how would you say it compares with GTDNext?
I’ll voice my agreement on two of your points:
-dragging actions around does not always work well
-keyboard-only interaction with GTDNext should be improved
Hmm… interesting.
The killer for me is being web only, and therefore you are dead when you go off-line :^[
Have you tried any other GTD applications.
e.g. I see Nozbe is Michael Hyatt’s favorite task management system.
I don’t know much about Hyatt but he seems to have a bit of a following…
Welcome and Thanks! We are pretty new, as you have noticed… Some of our features our either not there yet or not as polished as we would like. On the flip side, we’ve made more progress, in a very short period of time that any other task manager around. We have very active development and listen to our users. Something that is sometimes hard to find elsewhere!
Let me comment on a few of your questions.
Yes, this will be improved, we know it’s a bit “clunky” - it works, but could be a lot smoother.
We have a lot of keyboard shortcuts (link) and we will be adding more.
Just plain text today. We will be adding links soon, and someday will add more formatting options.
Not yet!
I should probably let others answer this question… but I’ve used ALL the other solutions over the years. One thing we tried to do with GTDNext is make it much faster to do things… (not so many clicks) as other apps. Also, we offer unlimited depth of sub-projects and tasks which is pretty unique over all the other solutions.
Yes, we are working on mobile. (no dates to report yet) In the mean time, The number one thing people want to do when mobile is capture tasks. You can do that with GTDNext by emailing inbox@gtdnext.com from your mobile. Those emails go straight to your inbox for processing later.
Oh and on using Evennote for GTD? I actually wouldn’t recommend it. I actually wrote a blog post on why not. (and I really LOVE Evernote, so it’s not something against them at all!)
At the end of a long painful day of trying out your competitors I am back to say that I pretty much hate them all. With a passion!
However in fairness, I did spot MyLifeOrganised has sub-sub-tasks.
“Also, we offer unlimited depth of sub-projects and tasks which is pretty unique over all the other solutions.”
But their interface is WAY to clunky and although early adopters may accept this, the mainstream customers will hate all the menu options and complexity. They are also pretty expensive.
I love several things about what you folks have done particularly the multiple levels that change with a simple tab or shift tab. Having a Focus as well as a Next Action status editable in the list view, plus a focus filter is brilliant. These simple things put you ahead of most of your competition.
And being able to drag and drop onto other projects is excellent. However in general the mouse should be used as little as possible e.g. I suggest we should be able to move the order of actions using the up and down arrows with Shift or Control or even Alt held down.
I would definitely like to have a proper Tickler function (i.e. in effect come back to life in XXX amount of time on a drop-down list) would be good because IN ADDITION to the Schedulted (i.e. due date).
With an Android or even and nor even a Windows off-line capability I really dont think that I can bring myself to use your system yet, but keep up the good work.
P.S. Out of interest is there any way to export all one’s projects at once out of GTDNext?
I know what you mean. All apps have their own shortcomings, and I don’t think you can find anything that meets your every need or desire.
Yes. it does, but as you say, it is a clunky app. Other apps that have unlimited hierarchies are Todoist (very popular, but not my cup of tea because it has no start date and very limited listing options) and I believe Omnifocus (also very popular, but Apple only), and Workflowy (which is a general outliner app, not primarily intended for tasks.)
I think GTDNext’s Scheduled actually is quite a “proper” Tickler function in the GTD sense, i.e. a place to “hide” stuff until it is possible to consider doing something about it (process it and perhaps do it). This has nothing to do with deadlines (due dates) which GTDNext also has, or with calendar actions (“do dates”) which unfortunately no app I have ever seen has a separate feature for, distinguishable from the Ticklers.
The only “improper” part of GTDNext’s, and I believe all other apps’, Tickler functionality is the fact that as per GTD they can go anyplace on the tickler date, not necessarily to the Next list. The core GTD way is to the Inbox for processing, but IMHO that is even worse than sending everything to the Next list (but getidoneapp sends them all to the Inbox). I would personally prefer to be able to set the start date in the same way regardless of which list it will appear on (inbox for processing or Next/Waiting for somebody to do).
True, but that’s just a matter of time.
I totally agree. But more “manually minded” people do this, or even use paper or very simple list apps like GTasks, Wunderlist etc. I prefer the “heavier” type app, like GTDNext, Nirvana, Doit etc.
I just tried Todoist (very sleek, btw!) however it does not do Next Actions - nightmare! In TGD terms that makes it more or less bankrupt. I can’t use Omnifocus as I am Windows/Andiod. As you say Workflowy isn’t sufficiently task oriented. Disaster! So that just leaves MyLifeOrganised which is powerful but ugly and somewhat clunky (and a bit expensive)… Oh DEAR.
OK I’m back to thinking that GTDNext is the way forward, even though it (presumably) blows up when offline. But how (the heck) am I going to think about my projects when I am on road… ?
If I could export it as a hierarchically structured list to .CSV or even just print it all out and work from paper, maybe that would be a start??
If you go the “cog” icon in the top right you will see an “export all” menu item. It’s not CSV or even tab indented. But it does allow you to grab all your info at any time. Thx!
Welcome back Appreciate your patience as we start to get mobile off the ground!
I really like the look and feel of this application. HOWEVER what if I am offline? I work in Ethiopia (and also often travel to many other countries where internet access is very difficult). So, I need an app that primarily functions offline - and which I can sync to my other devices when I am online. Does this rule out GTD Next? Would be massively disappointed if that were the case.
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Appreciate your patience as we start to get mobile off the ground!