martinjy.com — Martin Young’s blog

Things might be the GTD app for me

Since January’s iPod Touch software update I’ve been consistently using the the Notes app to manage my GTD. It works really well for me, with one slightly frustrating exception, which I’ll explain below.

Here’s how my process works:

1. I have four constant notes open in the Notes app: Today, Soon, Someday and Work. Occasionally I’ll also have other notes, like if I’m planning a trip I’ll open a new note just for the trip, but I never have less than those four. Notes uses the first line of your note as the note’s title, which works nicely on the Notes “homepage”.
2. In the morning, usually when I’m commuting to work, I’ll review all my notes, moving items between notes if necessary (and that’s the frustrating thing - no Copy-Paste on the Touch means I have to retype if I want to move).
3. I try really hard to knock over all the items on Today. Sometimes it doesn’t happen :-)
4. When I have brainwaves, or more often when my wife reminds me of something I’ve forgotten, I key the new item into whichever note is most appropriate.

That’s pretty much it. Sure, it’s a bastardisation of the Notes app, there’s no Mail integration (although there could be), no iCal integration, it’s not a real GTD app, etc etc, but I’ve been using it for almost 6 months, so I can certainly call it successful. It doesn’t feel forced, it doesn’t put me under pressure, isn’t a hassle, and I get stuff done. And isn’t that the point of GTD? Whatever works for you, geekboy.

Part II of the story. Today I read that web designer Elliot Jay Stocks was trialling an alpha software Mac OS X app called Things, so I decided I’d give it a 5 minute look, but not with any real enthusiasm. I want my GTD app on the device I carry around (almost) 24/7 - my iPod Touch, not on my laptop.

But after 2 minutes of trialling it I realised that Things works the way that my personal GTD process works, which was a big plus over the other GTD apps I’ve looked at and tried. And then I noticed this at the bottom of the Things homepage:

Things for iPhone is a full-featured task manager, that can be used on its own or as the perfect companion for your desktop version. It will be available for purchase from the iTunes AppStore.

Which is very likely to be in two days time.

I’m not sure how the AppStore is going to work - presumably it’ll be like the iTunes Store - but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there’ll be some way of trialling any apps that aren’t free. I’ll also be hoping that Things works just as nicely and looks just as good on the iPhone/Touch as it does on my laptop.

Check it out at http://culturedcode.com/things/.