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Task managers
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Posted by Boris Yankov
Apr 21, 2007 at 08:09 AM
Hi guys. I am the author of FusionDesk, one of the task management apps that Graham considers.
I want to reassure you that new versions with fixes and features will be regularly released, and the few problems FusionDesk has is just because it still haven’t matured enough - it was released in the very beginning of this year.
Another thing: FusionDesk comes in free and paid version, so you can benefit from it even if you are not too inclined on paying for such app.
Here is a link for you:
http://www.fusiondesk.com/
Posted by Graham Rhind
Apr 21, 2007 at 08:18 AM
Progress report!
I should have mentioned in my specs that the program needs to run on Windows, and really I am looking for simplicity (hence “task manager” rather than “PIM” or “project manager”).
I tried PlanPlus, but it demanded that IE be made my default browser - a sacrifice I wasn’t willing to make. It is slick software, but far too complex for my daily needs. And not cheap!
MasterList - this one didn’t last long on my PC either. When I put a task in for today, it invariably rescheduled it for tomorrow. This may be a bug, or it may be that the program is controlling my tasks according to its sets of algorithms, like MLO, which doesn’t fit my way of working.
Support: no reply from TaskPilot Pro or ITSD about my feedback. More response than you can shake a stick at from Priorganizer! John Wood responded to all my e-mails and resolved the bugs reported immediately, even though he was on the road. However, Priorganizer handles recurring tasks in the same way as UR, and that’s a bit of a deal breaker for me at the moment.
AchievePlanner is still to be tested, though I think it will prove too complex and project-orientated for my needs.
I downloaded Ecco Pro out of curiosity to see what the fuss is about. I don’t think it will suit me, but I am curious about why nobody has picked up its development or made a carbon copy of it if it is so good.
I continue to waver, but at the moment the options look like having to have recurring tasks in Outlook; long term and customer-based tasks in UR; and short term, spur of the moment bits and pieces in ITSD, because I can so easily drag bits of text to its collector.
Doubtless the situation will change!
Graham
Posted by Thomas
Apr 21, 2007 at 09:04 PM
Graham Rhind wrote:
>I downloaded
>Ecco Pro out of curiosity to see what the fuss is about. I don’t think it will suit me, but
>I am curious about why nobody has picked up its development or made a carbon copy of it if
>it is so good.
I believe some time ago I have read that the company behind Ecco Pro asked too much for it. It was some ludicrous number compared to the extent of the market that I believe to exist for such an application today.
As for the carbon copy, one can only guess, small one man development companies are busy following their own ideas (and this even might be too complex for them), big companies follow business sense and don’t want to fight on an overcrowded PIM market.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
May 1, 2007 at 06:02 PM
Graham Rhind wrote:
>I continue to waver, but at the moment the options look like having to
>have recurring tasks in Outlook; long term and customer-based tasks in UR; and short
>term, spur of the moment bits and pieces in ITSD, because I can so easily drag bits of
>text to its collector.
My 2c:
My own experience with task management is similar to Jack’s, i.e. I’ve realised that it’s more to do with my own overall attitude and self-discipline than software tools. As such, there’s a couple of books that I would suggest (I think they’ve been mentioned here in the past): Neil Fiore’s The Now Habit and Mark Forster’s Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play and, more recently, Do It Tomorrow. David Allen’s Getting Things Done is of course another must read, but I’m sure most will be already familiar with it.
I mention these books because there’s a couple of principles that they all abide to, more or less, and one might want to consider before selecting a tool to implement task management. These are, rather simplified:
- Only put into your calendar previously committed time, i.e. meetings, deadlines etc. Do not schedule tasks.
- Do not use to do lists, i.e. collections of irrelevant tasks. Use check lists that group related tasks together so that you maintain the context.
- Separate planning time from action time; when in planning time, organise tasks by priority and context; when in action time, just follow your checklists as context permits (time, place, tasks before/after)
The good thing, in software terms, of such approaches, is that one can indeed use a variety of tools depending on their strengths, because integration isn’t so important.
My own set up includes:
- Outlook’s calendar; actually, its only advantage for me over a paper version is that it can act as a platform for exchanging information among various programs and show various time views (I also suggest installing the freeware Datelens plug-in)
- UltraRecall: for all my project information (but nothing time-related) so that I have instant in-context access to it when I’m working.
- ListPro ( http://www.iliumsoft.com/ ): it has been mentioned here in the past; it’s a Pocket PC / Palm program with a desktop version it can sync to. It’s a very powerful outliner with a strong column capability.
alx
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
May 7, 2007 at 11:36 AM
ListPro (mentioned above) will be on discount at Bits du Jour tomorrow Tuesday, May 8.
alx