GTD on Windows: what I tried and where I came to

About a year ago, I realized that an array of cases and incoming information was exceeding reasonable limits, and my brain did not have time to keep everything. A little later I was pointed at the well-known book of David Allen, and it became clear that it was time to organize the incoming tasks. Since I considered the pen, labels and paper trays to be good devices, but far from ideal, the PC automatically became the main tool in organizing life. Under the cat about which programs for GTD I tried, the distinctive sides of each, and what I later focused on.

I hope this article will be useful to everyone who started reading David Allen’s book, finished reading it, and those who already use his methods with might and main.

• Note: in this article I do not consider online services and programs for Mac - this is a topic for another article. The only thing I can say - online services seemed to me, as a person who uses mostly one computer, not very convenient. Dependence on a permanent internet connection is not the best solution. Secondly, almost all of them consider the possibility of access from mobile as their advantage, and mobile Internet in the country is not yet as cheap and not as accessible as we would like.
• Note2: I know about alternative business systems - according to Forster (Autofocus), Covey and so on. But at the moment and in this article I use Getting Things Done.

GeeTeeDee ( download )

Fell in love with this program at first sight. I love the minimalistic interfaces, and here GeeTeeDee has no equal. Learning to work with the program is not necessary at all, if you have ever seen at least one program for task management, you will understand the principle of work right away. Literally with six buttons, the developers managed to assemble a simple and understandable software that may not last you for years, but it will certainly leave a good impression.

Unfortunately, GeeTeeDee does not have subtask functions (and much more), it was critical for me, so I continued to search.



 

ToDoList 6.1.6 ( download )

Completely free program for recording cases. At the first acquaintance, it becomes clear - this thing will have to be optimized for yourself, and for a long time. Honestly, for me, when choosing a program for tracking cases, one of the main selection criteria was the rule "that you manage the program, and not you." I am not ready to spend time studying the manuals for the program if there is a paid, but more convenient and understandable software nearby. In the end, I use the organizer to achieve goals, and not use the organizer for the organizer. Therefore, I did not become my choice of ToDoList. But I am sure there will be demand for it. Especially for those who are not used to paying for programs.



 

do-organizizer ( $ 99.95 )

As I recall, one word comes to mind - “monster”. “Damn, this organizer has half the functionality of the software on my computer!” I thought when I turned it on for the first time. Calendar, diary, budget control, diary, bookmarks for web links, email client, program for building lousy memory cards, storage of resources (I did not understand the database of people, books and movies watched or a catalog of goods), GTD-glider , notes and password keeper. She just doesn’t brew coffee!

In fact, I don't like this sort of program. I suspect that there are a lot of such universal “combines”, and someone even uses them, but, most often, when the functionality is huge, not a single window is brought to mind. Everything is exactly like this: the do-Organizer interface is 10 years old, the visual editor only spoils the text, you want to complain about each element, and the colors ... take a look yourself.



Sweet tune to the designer.

In general, “Do less,” as 37signals teaches.

 

Wunderlist ( download )

The triumph of simplicity and good taste. I would recommend this program to everyone who has just begun to lead a life “according to the planner”. There is nothing superfluous in the program: creating lists and tasks in them, marking the task with an asterisk, you can assign it the status of "important". That's all :-) In addition to the simple interface, a few great wallpapers to choose from seem to be a trifle, but these are the first developers who guessed to add variety to the design of boring todo-lists. Still, the mood is also very important when doing things.



Sub-tasks and projects are not supported, so it is not worth recommending Wunderlist to experienced and highly loaded users.

 

MуLife Organized ( $ 25 )

For me it has become an ideal program in every way. Most importantly, the project is still developing, and this is an important indicator of the effectiveness of the organizer. I won’t describe it for a long time, it was already perfectly written about her here , here and here . These notes are relevant and now, over the years, nothing has changed dramatically in the program.


My organization of tasks, a screenshot a year ago

For a special price for Russians and students, special thanks to the developers. The only thing depressing is a pity, the developers were late with the decision on the iPhone, for three years a lot of inexpensive and more tasty alternatives appeared in the AppStore.

 

LeaderTask ( 995 rub. )

An interesting functional program that can be compared with MLO. Unfortunately, the abundance of options made it only worse - LT is buggy, has a poor design, the mobile version leaves much to be desired (if in the case of MLO, you can use the PDA version calmly and without connecting a big brother, then everything is much worse). The abundance of color shades does not do better. In general, the program needs a long and painstaking work on usability and design.



 

Evernote ( download )

The program is not connected with organizers and gliders even once, in the course of the search I met it by accident, but the thing is hypervalued and you can’t tell about it. Evernote is essentially a large notebook that can be filled with any information: text, photos, drawings from the tablet, links, entire pages of sites. As the developers themselves call it, this is a "knowledge base", software for those who do not want to lose good ideas. You can use it for setting goals and fulfilling daily obligations, but, believe me, it is better to turn to a more specialized software for this. And in Evernote it’s convenient to just enter useful information.

UPD: while writing this article, a new version of Evernote was released for the iPhone, a hundred times more convenient than the previous one. I recommend updating.

What ended the search:

MLO, coupled with a program for Windows Mobile and Cloud-sync, worked great for a year. This is really convenient software with unrealistic possibilities for customization, and which can be partially replaced by Evernote (using folders for storing notes).

At the beginning of the year, my PDA died; in parallel, I acquired an iPod Touch. The MLO on it turned out to be a deadly gray (literally) thing, so I had to look for an alternative. It was found quickly, although curiosity took up and I bought a few more programs “just to try.” I will be happy to tell about them if this article is useful to anyone.

The conclusions that I made:

Understand why you need GTD, how many tasks you have and how actively you intend to use the system. First of all, deal with yourself. If you have few projects, but you cannot complete them, the problem is not in the system, but in motivation. Think about why you are so drawn away from duties and responsibilities, review priorities. Or just sit down and do it.

Transferring tasks to the iPod, I realized that I’m never going to do some projects marked “someday”, and all notes can be easily transferred to Evernote, and as a result I settled on a simple solution - Things. It’s easy to manage, so even syncing with the Mac version is optional.

Additionally, to increase efficiency:

Workrave ( download ) - if you sometimes look at your watch in horror and don’t understand how you could spend half a day surfing the Internet, this little program will help. Set a timer, and after a certain period of time, it will block the computer so that you can relax and warm up.

Focus Booster ( download ) - rings every 25 minutes to remind you that you need to rest for 5 minutes. I like this program less - it’s easier to turn it off :-)

PS The first time I am writing an article of this size here, so sorry if something is wrong with the design.
I am pleased to read your feedback on the described programs.

PPS If someone is interested in small posts (not suitable for the Habr format) about motivation and GTD, subscribe to a personal blog .