Comments on: Productivity Tools

By: j1mc

j1mc — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:40:18 +0000

Jorge, I know you’ve been looking at productivity systems for a while now… I checked out Tracks after you suggested it, but it didn’t stack up when compared to RTM. The key thing for me with RTM is the keyboard shortcuts and how intuitive it is to enter due dates.

Check out the list of keyboard shortcuts: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/answers/basics/keyboard.rtm

pretty awesome. It’s like using vim.

Not only that, but when I enter a due date, I can enter (d) [for the date] and then just enter, “next friday at 3:00pm”, and it will convert that text entry to the proper format. I don’t need to know what next friday’s date is – it figures it out for me.

I don’t closely adhere to any GTD style of task management, but there are some pages out there that describe how to use RTM with GTD. Best of luck to you.

By: dan

dan — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:49:48 +0000

I’m not a big fan of systems. I’ve found the best way to ensure you’re getting things done is to add tasks to your calendar. I mean, if you can take the few seconds to determine that email A needs to be in the @home context, you can schedule it for a time you’re gonna be at home.

I dunno…it works for me. The only thing it presumes is that you have full time access to your calendar. Since I previously carried a treo, and currently carry a g1, this has never been a problem. Gmail has a ‘add task’ option that makes adding emails as tasks easy.

dan

By: ethana2

ethana2 — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:04:07 +0000

ethan@home:~$ install tracks
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
E: Couldn’t find package tracks

Erm.
Where’s the .deb?

By: Craig Maloney

Craig Maloney — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:38:59 +0000

I use Tracks as well, and also use Google Calendar. There are some services that host Tracks (http://tracks.tra.in/login is one). I used to use Evolution and Jpilot (http://decafbad.net/gtd) but have since decided to use Tracks for the day-to-day. My advice is to find something and stick with it as much as you can stand. Too often one can get stuck in the “but this tool does…” trap of productivity pr0n. If you can honestly say that a tool isn’t working for you, then it’s time to change, but it’s all too easy to spend your time entering new information into a new tool (lord knows I did it with LifeBalance and hundreds of other productivity gems on the Palm).

Best of luck, no matter what you decide to use.

By: Philipp

Philipp — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:35:18 +0000

Hi Jorge,
After I tried several gtd tools I’m now very happy with the org-mode in emacs. This is – of course – only adequate if you are into coding/using emacs.
http://orgmode.org/ make sure you look at the tutorials http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.php

By: Christer Edwards

Christer Edwards — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:10:35 +0000

I use Hiveminder, when I remember. Generally I just keep things in my head or primarily use the contents of my inbox as my todo list.

By: Edwin

Edwin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:04:27 +0000

I <3 Remember the Milk – simple, great website and I KNOW YOU HAVE AN IPHONE! Good app on the phone too…

By: Michael Ramm

Michael Ramm — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:51:27 +0000

Hey Jorge,
You should check out two of my productivity ventures if you are really into it. Black Belt Productivity[1] is my productivity blog (Heavy GTD, but that is changing in 2009) and then Work.Life. Creativity[2] is a forum/blog that me and some friends started for some great productivity conversations.

[1] http://blog.blackbeltproductivity.net/
[2] http://forum.worklifecreativity.net/

By: Mackenzie

Mackenzie — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:42:53 +0000

I just use Evolution. I installed Tasque, and I really like that it integrates with e-d-s, but I have Evo open all the time anyway. Also, yay, as of Intrepid, the Clock Applet uses the right colors for Tasks and Memos (matches inside of Evo).