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  • Getting Things Done, 2.0

    Posted on March 21st, 2009 (8)

    Things Screenshot

    GTD with Things

    If only there where more hours in a day right? Well, maybe not. If you’re playing your days in the office off the cuff, you might find it a refreshing change to plan your agile approach. Sounds crazy right?

    Our office is plastered with post-its, mostly for effect and motivation. The less postits we see, the more we’re getting done. But there’s method to our madness. We’re a bunch of mac heads, with a love for planning. Especially Matt, he loves to see to-do lists being thrown his way, the guys a planning junky. Damn good at it too.

    My personal weapon of choice, when it comes to getting things done, is the appropriately named ‘Things‘. A mac based GTD app for those that love the agile approach. With it’s ‘Quick add’ feature, you’re piling up your plan in no time. Break your life into projects, areas of focus and time scales. The only downside to most downloadable, native applications is the fact that collaboration is a no go. Or at least I haven’t come across any. Though I think it’s definitely the next step, with service like MobileMe enabling syncing between machines, in near real-time.

    So, if you’re on a mac, have a spare few quid and want to get yourself in order, then a GTD app is for you. Whether it’s ‘Things’ is entirely up to you. But I’ve just ticked this blog article off my to-do list. What do you use for project planning, tracking and general organization?

    One Response to "Getting Things Done, 2.0"

    Ryan

    Basecamp. Basecamp, and then a little more Basecamp. http://www.basecamphq.com. Things looks spot on for a one man band, but the lack of collaboration is a little bit of a turn off for a team.

    March 21st, 2009

    Neil

    It is suprising how much a good todo tool can improve the workflow of your team, I use http://www.toodledo.com and it has a number of benefits. It allows me to share my todo list wih my friends and fellow geeks, so when my DBA has something on hhis todo list that I can take care of I can simply move it from his todo list to mine. The second unexpected benefit is it allows me to record just how long it takes todo certain tasks, and has improved my time estimating now end. toodledo is a web 2.0 app that works across all browser platforms. What is everyone else using?

    March 21st, 2009

    Nick Bell

    Got to give a shout out to my friends at Huddle. Armin is a fan of GTD as mentioned above but it is not a collaborative tool, which is so important in the fast pace of a startup.

    We are looking to integrate Huddle into our workflow at Quick.tv asap.

    They can be found at http://www.huddle.net

    March 21st, 2009

    Michael

    Hah, I came from my RSS feed just to say “Basecamp! Basecamp!” and now notice that Ryan has already posted the URL. (Yes, I had the URL ready to paste…so, here it is again http://www.basecamphq.com)

    So, +1 for Basecamp from 37Signals. And, +1 for postits too. I have no less than 40 post-its on my desk/whiteboards right now.

    - Michael

    P.S. I’ve tried some GTD software and have read David Allen’s stuff quite a bit. I keep a “Process-Organize-Flow” chart next to me on the wall. Everything that comes in goes somewhere immediately, or is dealt with right away (if it takes less than 2 minutes).

    March 21st, 2009

    Alexander Horré

    In a team environment, collaborative tools is a must. Huddle is spot on. However, I find Evernote a brilliant note-taking asset. Evernote integrates itself into your computer with such proficiency, you have a handful of ways to naturally make notes. I use this of course for blog topic ideas. So Evernote is a personal note taking tool. It’d be nice to have an alert setting though.

    I think one program can’t do everything. You should have an arsenal.

    March 21st, 2009

    Nathan

    I’ve found basecamp sometimes feels a bit over blown, I like the simplicity of Things, and also love the fact that I can sync it to my iphone app and have a portable todo list available offline.

    If you want to expand on using Things in a more collaborative and open manner I would maybe look at syncing with iCal (which Things suports), and then try sync your iCal with google calendars. Nice thing about google calendars is that it can easily provide free access to shared calendars, and if your used to using OS X’s iCal app it can fit quite nicely into your work flow. Wouldn’t give you the full collaborative project management like basecamp but still might be useful.

    If you are looking at using a project management tool like basecamp, or huddle, its good to remember that while these tools can be useful and helpful in aiding communication, they are no substitute for good communication itself.

    March 21st, 2009

    Matt Moran

    I’m a fan of Huddle. Also for me it’s all about Moleskine when you’re in a meeting or out and about. Currently exploring Evernote – must say I’m impressed.

    March 21st, 2009

    quicktv

    Latest blog post: “Getting Things Done, 2.0″ – http://bit.ly/385N ^AT

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    March 21st, 2009

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