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Lifehack Presents: The Doit.im Mini User Guide
Mar 10th
There are a host of free task and project management applications on the web as well as for Android and iOS. But, Doit.im is a fully cross-platform application (Windows, Mac, Web, iOS, Android, and mobile web) that seems to fly under everyone’s radar even with its new interface and awesome features.
Here is a Mini Guide to using Doit.im to get things done.
Adding tasks
Getting your tasks into Doit.im is pretty easy, mostly becausethere are interfaces for both web and iOS/Android. That means you can add tasks quickly from anywhere.
On the web
To add a task simply tap the Add task icon at the top left of the screen. The Add Task dialogue will appear. From here you can fill in your task details like it’s name, a brief description, whether it’s a next action, a deadline, a project, context, flag, tag, repeats, reminders, and even delegation to a contact.
Of course, when collecting you may want to just do the infamous, “brain dump”, and then add these details later. You can do that by clicking on the Inbox selection on the left under the Collect heading. There, you can add tasks quickly by typing in the text box and hitting enter to add it to the list. You can also us the Smart Add Shortcuts for adding tags, projects, contexts, due dates, etc.
On your mobile device
You can simply tap the big ol’ plus button at the bottom of the screen and enter your task information.
You can fill in all of the task details if you want, but if you don’t, the task will go to your inbox for later processing.
Process tasks
Next, you need to process your tasks that you added to the inbox. You can make your tasks into projects, give them due dates, assign them contexts and tags, and even schedule them for next actions, someday/maybe, or waiting for. Before you do that we need to setup some contexts.
On the web
To add a new context click on the ‘+’ button on the bottom of the left sidebar and choose New Context. A dialogue will popup and you can add a new context like Online, Mac, PC, Phone, Office, etc. After you have added contexts, you can process your inbox by dragging them to the left sidebar on the appropriate context that they need to be completed in.
You can also drag your inbox items to a different “focus”, like Today, Next, Tomorrow, Scheduled (which is actually done when you give them a due date), Someday, and Waiting. Once you drag your tasks from your Inbox to a new Focus, they will reside on that list and not be in your Inbox anymore.
On your mobile device
Processing tasks on your iPhone or Android is a little less intuitive, but you can still have a go of it when you are on the go.
To process a task that is in your Inbox go to the Inbox from the home screen, tap the task you want to process. You can easily move the task to a different Focus by tapping the Move To button at the top right of the screen and choosing a focus. If you want to change any of the details of the task like contexts, tags, project, etc., tap the Edit Task button at the bottom of the View Task screen.
The only way to add new Contexts on your mobile is to create a next task, scroll down to the context option, tap it, scroll to the bottom of your contexts and tap the New Context button. Once you do that for one task though, the context will be available for all tasks.
Dealing with projects
One of the best features of Doit.im is the way what it supports grouping tasks by projects.
On the web
To add a new project, click on the ‘+’ button at the bottom of the left sidebar and choose New Project…. From there you can fill in the project details and even give it a default context. After you have created your new project you will see it in the left sidebar under the Projects menu.
To view a project, simply click on the project’s name in the Projects menu on the left sidebar. Here you will see all of the tasks that are related to the project, the ones that are marked as next, scheduled, someday, waiting, and even the completed and archived ones. To add a new task to the project you can drag the task from the inbox (or any other list) to the project in the left sidebar, or you can add a task with the Smart Add box at the top of the Project view screen (the same way you can add them to the inbox).
Another way to add a project is to use the handy Convert to project button at the top of the Inbox. Simply highlight a task in your inbox and click the Convert to project button. The project will be added to the Projects list and you will be taken to the new project’s view.
On your mobile device
To create new projects on your mobile, on the Home screen tap Projects and then tap the ‘+’ button at the top right. From there you can enter the important details of the project.
To view a project you can go to the Projects list and tap the project whose information you want to view. You can see all of the info that you can see on the web version, like you next actions, waiting fors, scheduled tasks etc. To add a new task, simply tap the huge “+” at the bottom of the screen to add a task directly to the current project’s next actions.
Filters and Grouping
Another nice touch to Doit.im is the new Filters feature where you can filter your tasks and create other views (think Toodledo’s search feature and/or OmniFocus’s perspectives). Also, you can group your tasks in any way you see fit on almost any list. As of now Filters are not supported on the native iOS and Android clients.
Filters on the web
To add a new filter, click the Advanced link next to the search box in the header. At the filter dialogue you can put in information like the status of the task, priority, a deadline, the context or project. You can even sort and group the tasks buy a number of attributes. After you have set your properties of the filter you can give it a name and save it. The new filter will show up in the left sidebar under the Filters section.
These filters are very powerful. For example, you can view tasks that are related to only work projects, require a phone and a computer, are due in 2 days, and sort them by due date. You are only limited by what you can think up. To bad we can’t add these to our mobile devices yet.
Grouping
You can easily group tasks in any list by clicking the Group by link at the top of the list and choose which attribute your want to group by. Couldn’t be easier.
A seriously, deep application
I’ve been watching Doit.im for a little over two years now and I have to say that it is finally starting to come into its own. With it’s excellent project handling, easy task input, grouping and filtering, Doit.im seems to be a seriously underrated task management application.
Doit.im does have some issues, sometimes slow syncing and app responsiveness as well as lack of continuity in design and features, but overall, Doit.im is one of the best free GTD/task/project management apps available today.
With the help of this Lifehack mini guide, start using Doit.im to get some stuff done on any platform.
10 Apps That Help You Stay on Time and Remember Things
Mar 6th
By being a knowledge worker, you are bombarded with due dates, things to remember, special events coming up, and projects that you need to spend time on to complete. Even the best of the best productivity gurus out there struggle with keeping track of time and dates.
If you are one of these people that struggle, here are 10 apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android that can help you stay on time and make sure that you don’t forget a due date again.
Due (iOS)
Due for iOS is my go to reminder/timing app. You can setup reminders for specific times that repeat, multiple timers that can run at the same time, and also access to a handy Logbook where all of your checked-off reminders are stored.
Due also has a bunch of settings allowing you to customize your alarms and sounds as well as the ability to backup and sync your reminder/timer data.
Repeat Timer (iOS)
Repeat Timer is a simple and beautiful timer app that only supports three different timers. The timers can have a set interval so you can practice your Pomodoro technique with ease. You can also setup how many times you want the timer to repeat with its interval.
Repeat Timer has some great sounds to it as well as an awesome design, look, and feel. If you want a simple way to stay on time with your iPhone, this is the app.
Alarmed (iOS)
Alarmed reminds me a lot of Due but with some extra functionality like wake-up and sleep timers (which you can even assign playlists to for the duration of your sleepy time). The app is quite impressive, but can feel like setting overload, especially if you are looking for just a simple way to stay on time.
But, if you are looking for an app that does alarms, repeats, and alarms all in one, Alarmed is a good bet.
COL Reminder (Android)
More of a reminder application than timer, COL Reminder for Android allows the user to setup multiple reminders with notes, due dates and times, repeats, as well as a priority system. There are also a bunch of settings for customizing now the alarm sounds and notifications react to reminders, ability to change the minutes you can choose from in the dropdown list, etc.
One of the coolest features is a built in parking timer that you can set to be placed in your notification bar when you activate it.
Timer (Android)
Timer is a simple way to run multiple countdown timers at the same time. The timers can wake your phone from sleep when finished, you can pause/continue them, and many of them can be saved and used later.
My favorite part of Timer is the way that you use a “knob” to set the timers, kind of like using an iPod click-wheel.
RemindMe (Android)
RemindMe is a very simple timer/reminder application for setting quick reminders. Basically, you create a new reminder, set the countdown timer or specific time of day you wanted reminded, put in a brief description, and set the reminder.
Nice Timer (OS X)
Pretty much the simplest of simple when it comes to timers on OS X, nice timer is a great choice if you are just needing a countdown timer or stopwatch. It’s small, elegant, and gets the job done on your Mac.
Nag (OS X)
Nag is mostly interesting because of it’s interface that allows you to easily adjust your alarm by pressing buttons that add or subtract hours, minutes, and seconds to your reminder. You can also set a bit of text for the reminder and be “nagged” by the app until you click the stop button.
TimeLeft (Windows)
Although it may not be the prettiest of apps, TimeLeft is a super powerful way to drag due times and remind you of when things are happening. With TimeLeft you can set reminders with complex rules, set countdown timers, use a stopwatch, or even replce the Windows system clock with the TimeLeft clock.
The app is fully skinnable, so you can try to make it match your cuttent Windows look and feel.
Free Countdown Timer (Windows)
Countdown Timer is great way to track numerous countdowns and be reminded of certain events with music and notification messages. The interface is simple and easy to use, yet there are many powerful features like being able to wake your computer from sleep mode at a specific time or due date.
Spentable: Track Your Expenses Quickly and Easily [Giveaway]
Feb 27th
You buy a cup of coffee every morning, and you probably think it doesn’t amount to much. How much does it really add up to during the course of a month? Then you make a bunch of impulse buys. It really adds up and those coffees and impulse buys may have tipped you over the edge of your monthly budget…but it’s too late! You only notice the cost is significant afterwards!
It’s usually the reason we don’t have much money left towards the end of the month and when “tax season” is approaching we ask ourselves, “Where did my money go?“
Enter Spentable.
Let’s take a look to see how Spentable can help us to track expenses. It’s available on Android and iOS. The basic version is free and there is a pro version that provides many more features.
How to use Spentable to track your expenses
Spentable has some pre-created categories for your spending. The default categories are food, transport social and retail. To record what you have spent, simply select the category and type in the amount. This makes it simple to segregate your spending into different areas. It shows you how much you have spent and how much you have left in your monthly budget. Before you make a purchase, add it into the app and you can see if you will go over budget.
Customize and adjust your budget
Do you have extra categories that you want to add or want to adjust the amount of your monthly budget? Press the “cog” in the top right corner and from there you can create new categories and set the budget. You can even export the data to a file and send it by email to use elsewhere. (Note: These options are only available in the pro version.)
Track your history
To see an overview of your spending, press the button on the top left and it switches to a list view, detailing everything that you have spent. Made a mistake in one of your entries? You can delete it by swiping across the incorrect entry and you will be given a delete button to remove it. At the bottom, your total spending for that month is displayed. You can scroll through the months to look back at your spending habits.
Spentable is a convenient, in-your-pocket app that helps you to track your expenses and make purchasing decisions. Spentable helps you to see how your spending is distributed so that you can rebalance if necessary. And because it’s an app, it can always be in your pocket — making it easy to form a habit to track your spending.
Free offer for 30 Lifehack readers
We’re giving out free copies of the pro versions of Spentable for Android and iPhone to the first 30 people who register using the following form:
Click here to register for Spentable
And if you miss out on the pro version, give the free one a try. It very well could be the app that saves you time — and money.
Hoi Wan is a mobilist who blogs about smartphone trends and analytics. He is also an avid home cook and sports enthusiast. Hoi has lived and worked in the UK, Japan, Hong Kong and USA and holds a BA in Sport and Recreation and an MBA. You can see his profile on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.
11 Alternatives to OmniFocus You Can Use To Get Things Done
Feb 21st
Sick and tired of the lack of “cross-platform-goodness” of OmniFocus but too afraid to switch to something that isn’t as “powerful”? And what about that little change in the new iPhone icon? Wait, that may be just me.
Anyways, these 11 alternatives to OmniFocus give you the power to get things done no matter what platform or operating system you use.
Asana
Asana is the new kid on the block and we here at Lifehack have really grown fond of it (especially Mr. Vardy). You can use Asana as a personal productivity system just like you can OmniFocus, but you can also use it for team and group based projects.
Asana is fast, has keyboard shortcuts, an iPhone and mobile app (although lacking at the moment), and is easy use.
Toodledo
Toodledo has been one of my favorite todo/GTD/project/task apps for many years. Jake at Toodledo has done a great job of making TD flexible, powerful, and ubiquitous (mostly because of TD’s awesome iOS apps and great API).
Toodledo doesn’t necesarrily support “projects” right out of the box, but you can set up folders, tags, or even use the subtasks function that is offered in the Pro version. If you want a decent workflow, you can check out my forum post explaining my GTD setup.
Remember The Milk
Remember The Milk (RTM) is a very powerful and “light” feeling task manager. Once again, RTM doesn’t support projects right out of the box, but you can do some pretty unique things with tags, saved searches, and locations to make it work in that light.
RTM is free, fast, and has dedicated iOS and Android apps. If you are looking for a dead simple task app to get into, RTM is the one to choose.
Todo
Appigo Todo has shown some real growth in the task management space with iOS, web, and Mac apps that all sync together using their over-the-air-sync. Todo supports projects and checklists, multiple task alerts, contexts, and much more.
You can use Todo’s OTA-sync service free for 14 days and then you have to pay $19.99 a year for continued access. The web interface is not as good as some of the other’s on our list, but for a simple GTD system it works well.
Custom spreadsheets
If you are afraid of keeping your data in the cloud and you want to customize your system anyway you want, then go for making a custom spreadsheet. You could use Excel, OpenOffice, or Numbers to whip one up. And if you are real macro-head and VBA junky, you can do some pretty neat stuff by programming your own methods and functions for grouping and handling projects, doing weekly reviews, and much more.
Orchestra
Orchestra is more about team and group task management, but you can use it for personal projects as well. You can tell that the creators of Orchestra like well designed things because the app is beautiful. It’s also intuitive and easy to use with its counterpart iOS app.
We at Lifehack tried it out for team based projects, but decided to stick with Asana instead. Not because Orchestra isn’t good; it’s just not as polished or fully-featured as other team based managers out there. Orchestra lets you create grouped lists, has tag support, due dates, and the ability to assign tasks to memebers of your team or group. It is actively developed, so new additions are being added as we speak.
Todo.txt
If you are a geek and like plain text files, then look no further than the system developed by the much loved “Lifehacker” herself, Gina Trapani. Todo.txt now runs on Android, iOS, and any operating system that can open a text file. On Linux and Unix boxes you can use the todo.sh script to interface with your todo.txt file with some command-line goodness.
Todo.txt supports priorities, contexts, and projects. The nicest part is that with the help of Dropbox, your todo.txt file can be seen by your main OS as well as your Android or your iOS devices to provide you your todos wherever you go.
Astrid
When I was an Android kind of guy one of my favorite apps for interfacing with Remember The Milk was Astrid. Since then, Astrid has grown to not only be an Android app, but is now supported on iOS and features an entire webapp experience that you can sync with.
Astrid supports multiple task lists, repeats, due dates, priority (importance), notes, and sharing with others. It’s a pretty little app too, not to mention it has a cute mascot.
Evernote
Evernote can be used for anything. Yes, even a GTD system. I never was one to believe that you could use Evernote that way, even after some of the “implementations” I found online over the years. That was until I came across The Secret Weapon tutorial series. This tutorial shows you how to setup a GTD system with Evernote. It’s very creative and looks like it could work for many people, especially the ones that use Evernote like crazy.
The implementation supports projects, priorities, contexts, and even agendas. What is really nice is how you can use Evernote’s email plugin with Outlook to move all of your emails over to Evernote and to act on them there, allowing you to empty your inbox.
Doit.im
I’ve been watching Doit.im for a couple of years now. It has gone through a bunch of design changes and I think its latest is by far the best. Doit.im is free and can be used on the web, Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Android. You can setup projects, next actions, tags, due dates, notes, etc. and it all syncs using doit.im servers.
Producteev
Producteev is another team based webapp for getting things done. It uses the idea of workspaces (sort of like Asana) and gives the user some great ways to view their data. One of my favorite parts of Producteev is that they now have Windows, Mac, iOS, and even Android clients.
Producteev supports labels, smart tagging, due dates, and has some of the best email and IM integration I have found for any todo application.
Conclusion
Although OmniFocus is one of the best GTD tools I have ever touched in my life, there are definitely some great alternatives out there for every platform. Are there any other alternatives to OmniFocus that you have been using? Let us know in the comments.
Love Hack: How to Show Your Gadgets Some Valentine’s Day Love
Feb 14th
You know, just because our laptops, desktops, tablets, and phones are inanimate objects, doesn’t mean we can’t show them some love this Valentine’s Day. Rather than do too much for your human beloved, spend some quality time with the gadgets that you hold dear.
Maintenance
Devices now-a-days are pretty darn robust. Even ones that use Windows (holds for laughter). Regardless, you can show your devices and OS’s some love by doing some maintenance to them.
For desktops/laptops check to see if the items that are running at startup are needed as too many of them could potentially slow you down.
- For Windows click Start > type msconfig and hit enter > click on the Startup tab > uncheck stuff you don’t want and restart.
- For Mac click on System Preferences > click Users and Groups > under your user profile click Login Items > adjust them there.
You can also defragment your hard drive with tools like Defraggler (the same company that makes the awesome cleanup app CCleaner) for Windows and iDefrag for Mac. You don’t really need to defragment a Mac as Apple has created routines in the background of OS X to take care of this, but every so often won’t hurt.
Phones and tablets don’t require as much maintenance, but it can’t hurt to offload some pictures and videos, remove unneeded and unwanted apps, restart your OS every few days, and even give a good cleaning to those nasty touch screens.
Treat yourself – I mean, your gadgets – to some new apps
After you have deleted some of those apps from you device, how about get some more that you really like? I mean, you love your device enough don’t you? We talk a lot about tools around here and there are some great ones for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and others. Here are some of the best that work on almost all platforms:
- Evernote – I think we have told you enough. Just go get it.
- Toodledo – Great web, iOS, and mobile app for getting things done.
- Remember The Milk – Another favorite that has a great iOS and Android counterpart to the web app.
- AwayFind- This could easily help keep you out of your inbox, essentially giving your devices a much needed email break.
- Dropbox syncing text editing app – There are some good ones including, Elements (iOS), Notesey (iOS), Epistle (Android), Notational Velocity (Mac), WriteMonkey (Windows), MyNotes (Android).
- Mindmapping – MindManager (Mac, Windows), iThoughts (iOS), MindNode (Mac), Mindjet (Android, iPhone, iPad).
Organize and tidy up
There is nothing worse than a device that is lacking organization of files and programs. Of course, there are a host of new ways to not have to worry about organizing your devices files because of smarter and faster search utilities (like LaunchBar for Mac or SkyLight for Windows), but it’s always good to have some method to your madness.
One good role of thumb is to have a folder in your ‘Documents’ folder for each Area of Focus in your life. One for personal, professional, side projects and businesses, your blog, etc. Inside of these folders you can take the focus even deeper, like finances, receipts (for bills and such), articles, TPS reports, etc.
Also, try to treat your desktop like a real desktop. Keep things that you are actively working on or need reminded of on your desktop and use efficient folder hierarchies and search for everything else.
When it comes to your tablet and phone types of devices you are somewhat limited to the organization of files and placement of things on the desktop (that is of course if you are not on Android). Try to organize your apps in a natural way that you use them, like all of the important ones “docked” to the bottom of the screen (Android and iOS both support this). Then you could even organize your apps in folders like Entertainment, Games, Productivity, Photography, etc. Just remember to try to give everything its own place.
Accessorize
I’m a bit of a “all natural” kind of guy, not having too much excess added to my devices like cases and contraptions. But, there are some great additions that can be added to your beloved like new bluetooth keyboards, a pair of quality headphones (I can’t recommend Sennheiser HD 280 Pros or Klipsch Image S4 enough), or even a nice new bag for your laptop and gear.
A cheap way to show your devices some love is to purchase chargers for home, the car, and, your bag, and the office so you don’t get close to running out of juice throughout the day.
Conclusion
It isn’t hard to show your lovely gadgets true love this Valentine’s Day. But, keep in mind; you should follow our other Love Hacks before treating your gadget better than your significant others.
(Photo credit: Smartphone and love hearts via Shutterstock)
Lifehack Presents: The Path Mini User Guide
Feb 3rd
Sick of the massiveness and lack of intimacy on the larger social networks (ie Facebook, Google+, and Twitter)? Looking for a way to share with who you want and not have your entire life story in the lime-light?
This is where the “newish” social network Path comes in.
The premise
Path is a “smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love”. It’s based on the concept of Professor Robin Dunbar’s research regarding the number of trusted relationships that one can maintain which is believed to be 150. That means you can only have 150 friends on Path making it feel way more intimate and “exclusive” than other networks. Something else that adds to this feeling is that Path is only available for iPhone and Android.
Sign up and interface
Signing up for Path is as easy as any other service. Download the iPhone or Android app and then create an account with your email and password.
The Path’s “Home” presents you with a timeline of your friends, a small avatar of yourself that will take you to your own timeline, a “Customize” block behind your avatar where you can choose your own photo, the “Chooser” that you can use to post your photos, videos, location, etc., and buttons to get to your left and right menus (you can also swipe left or right to get to your settings or friend menus).
Adding friends
To add new friends swipe left and tap the “Add Friends” option. Once there, you can add friends by inviting from your contact list, searching Facebook, inviting them via email, or even choose some of the “Suggestions”. Suggestions are friends of friends.
You can also search Path for people via the search box at the top of the “Add Friends” screen.
Settings
To get to Path’s settings, swipe right from “Home” and choose “Settings”.
You can choose whether you want the “Neighborhood” setting on which updates your Path automatically when you change location. You can set all of your identification as well as you bio picture and home “Cover”. Also, you can control your notifications of Path events by tapping and highlighting either the phone or email symbol to control where you see your notifications.
Sharing
Sharing on Path is easy and probably one of the biggest reasons people love it. You share by tapping the “Chooser” button on the bottom left and then choosing one of the pop-out options below.
Pictures and videos
In the picture sharing screen you can choose what type of photo “lens” you want to use by tapping “Lens” and then scrolling through the different effects. Also, you can tap the blur button to the bottom left to create a circular or line blur in your picture. With the blur option on, you can drag the center of it around as well as re-size it with pinching and zooming.
There are other standard camera controls like auto or manual flash, flipping the camera from front to rear, touch focus, a select video or photo button at the bottom left, and the video and camera toggle at the bottom right.
People
Choosing the people option gives you a list of your friends and contacts. You can then choose one or more and hit the next button at the top right. At the “Post” screen, you can fill in a note and even your location (location details are below).
You will also notice at the bottom right you have some social network toggles for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare. To sign into these services simply click on the service you want to post to and then connect your account. For sharing on Foursquare you will need to pick a location first.
You will also notice at the bottom of the “Post” screen a small padlock. This allows you to make your post private meaning that only you will have access to it.
Places
Tapping on places will give you a map with all the nearby places (at least the ones that have been shared or are register with Google Maps). You then simply pick a place and you will be forwarded to the Post screen.
A nice touch to the “Places” option is that if you are somewhere that isn’t listed automatically you can use the search box and then click the “Not Found?” option to create it. If you don’t see the options just scroll all the way to the bottom of the list to find it.
Music
One of my favorites. Choose “Music” and then search for whatever you are listening to. You can even tap the small play button on the album cover of the search results to hear the song. After choosing the song you are directed to the Post screen to finish up.
Thought
Type in whatever you are thinking or want to say. After that you can do the usual Post screen behavior and then post by tapping “Save”.
Sleep/Wake
Another nice touch. Tapping the small moon button gives you two choices; “Go to Sleep” and “I’m Awake”. Tap on the sleep button and you are given a nice moon screen that displays how long you slept for. Tapping on the I’m Awake button posts to your Path how long you slept for and a sometimes squirrelly little message.
Commenting
After you start creating some moments on Path and see other moment from your friends, you will want to comment. Commenting is easy. Tap the small smiley face next to the moment you want to comment on. You can then pick a smiley and leave a comment by tapping the Comment box. You’ll notice that if many people saw this moment that you can scroll through their avatars to see them all.
Locals
When someone posts their location you can tap on it. You will then be taken to the “Locals” screen which will tell you the number of people on Path that are in your general vicinity as well as show you the list of your friends that are there too. This is a cool way to see who in your “trusted Path network” is around you.
Conclusion
The beauty of Path is that it is easy and intuitive to use as well as beautiful. Also, because of features like making certain posts private you can use Path for more than just sharing things with your close friends and loved ones; you can keep things that only you want to have access to. Hopefully this short guide can get you started with one of the newest and freshest social networks around.
Why and How I Went on an App Diet
Sep 2nd
If you are a smartphone user, particularly and iOS or Android user, you are faced with the choice of hundreds of thousands of applications. Most of these apps promise that they are the best at something, or the easiest to use, or the most beloved, or whatever. But what I have tend to find is that most apps are junk and a waste of your time.
Yep, that’s right. There are many more applications that are pure junk than are golden and even more that are a total waste of your limited, use-to-be productive time. So, under this premise there are only a few applications that you both need and are worth a damn.
I remember getting my first phone with apps several years ago and downloading and trying everything that I could. It was fun at first, but then got in my way of being productive and became a real nuisance. This may not be the case for everyone, but I found that going “minimal” in my app selection is a must and since taking this step I have been much more productive and less “finicky” during my day.
Here is how you too can go on an app diet and start using your phone instead of it using you:
Find out exactly what you need your device for
This is the primary step in trying to figure out what apps you need and what apps you don’t. What do you need your phone for in the first place? Just making calls, email, calendaring, and messaging? Then why do you have every variant of Angry Birds taking up space and time on your device?
This is where you decide exactly what your device should and shouldn’t be used for.
Identify awesome apps that fill the needs of your device
Now that you know what your devce is and what it isn’t you have to find apps that bring that idea to reality. At Lifehack we have featured some of the best productivity apps for iOS and going through lists like those here and elsewhere can really help you narrow down your choices.
The best way to find the apps that suit your needs is to search the web for them, see what many people suggest and use, and then give them a try to see if they fit.
Awesome apps cost money, so pay the piper
I know. Shocking, right? Great apps are made by great developers and tend to cost money. If you are a “I only download free apps” kind of guy or gal (which tend to be Android users more often than iOS users) then you probably can settle for apps that really are sub-par to their paid counterparts.
In my experience and many others, there aren’t too many free apps that are better or even equivalent in form and function than their paid counterparts.
Personal apps defined
So, what I have done is limited myself to a small selection of applications. Mostly to keep my phone out of my hair and allow it to be used for productive means.
Like I said above, many people don’t have a problem with having tons of games and such on their phones, but trust me, I have seen many people at work and school doing more Facebooking than pure work. That is why, on my iPhone games had to go.
I’ve limited myself to 15 apps plus the stock iOS apps that came with my iPhone. This is a pretty tough exercise to do, but here are my picks:
- Reeder
- TuneIn Radio Pro
- Mog
- OmniFocus
- Instapaper
- Kindle
- Outliner
- Notesy
- IMDB (fastest way to shut down a co-worker on some movie related trivias)
- You Need a Budget
- Dropbox
- 1Password
- Wikipanion
- Tweetbot
- Runkeeper
I know, I know. You may be saying, “I thought that you were all about being productive and cutting out things like Twitter, Mr. Minimal App Diet Man.” Well, yes that is true sort of, but I use Twitter to keep abreast of things in my industry and of course to share things myself. I consider it a guilty pleasure on my device and feel that it hasn’t interrupted my work flow like games or crappy apps have in the past. So it will stay for now.
Challenge yourself
So here is the deal. If you are feeling bogged down by your personal device because of the crazy 100 apps you have installed, take the time and identify what this device is actually for and better yet, what it isn’t for. This can help you narrow down your app selections so your device can stay out of the way of you being productive.
And hey, why don’t you list the 15 apps (other than stock apps that shipped with your phone) that you absolutely without any doubt must have to get your work and life done below?
Web App Review: Doit.im Brings a Cross-Platform GTD Experience To The Masses
May 9th
I try very hard to not stray down the path of GTD web apps as it usually leads to me thinking that some other app is better for some other reason and I change my whole entire system over to find that it really has nothing to do with the system in the first place. But, there has been one GTD application that has caught my eye for at least the past year because of its ubiquity and general adherence to GTD principles.
Doit.im is available on the web, on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, and with a Mac client coming soon and is a full-featured GTD task management app.
I’m not all about making a system into a GTD system; I’d rather have a system that was built with GTD in mind and that is why we will be taking a look at doit.im and how it stands as a full project and action management solution.
First Impressions
Like I said before, I have been watching doit.im for about a year or so now and have seen new features and tweaks added to the app as the time has past. The app definitely tries to take the idea of GTD and automate it. You will find the normal “Inbox”, “Someday/Maybe”, and “Waiting For” categories as well as the use of the “Context” and “Project” terminologies. The app’s layout is clean and there are two different versions. The older version takes a “wired notebook” type of look, that in my opinion is annoying. The newer beta version has a sleeker and more clean look and is the one that I have used more. I will say that neither are completely appealing to me.
One thing that I noticed right off the bat was that the app seemed very slow when accessing online. I tried Safari, Firefox, and Chrome with none of them being noticeably faster. It looks like the developers need to work on the speed of the web app. I found that the beta version was much slower than the “older” version of the app.
Where Doit.im lacks in speed and looks the app makes up for it in organization and work flow. Actions and projects are easily added to your lists and applying context and projects to tasks is easy as well. Scheduling tasks for a specific due date works well and adding repeats and reminders is just a click away.
The one thing that I can’t wrap my head around is how the inbox is handled. My idea was once you added a context or a project to a task that the task should be removed from the inbox and be considered “processed”. This isn’t the case. It appears that you have to either schedule or move the task to Someday or Waiting for to get it out of the inbox. Not necessarily the most intuitive thing, but once you get the workflow down, it shouldn’t be that big of a problem.
Features
Doit.im is absolutely full featured and I would consider it to have almost everything that a GTD practitioner would want in a system including:
- Cross platform goodness (available on the web, Windows (Mac coming soon), iOS, and Android
- Creating tasks with context, due date, repeats, reminders, and project criteria
- Allows for totally separate projects to sort by
- A nice calendar view to see when stuff is due
- Ability to create custom tags and contexts
- Full sync with web, Windows, Android and iOS clients
The only real feature that Doit.im is missing for this GTD geek is the start date field. I have confessed my love for start dates before, and without them my system starts to feel weak. For some this may not matter at all though.
Mobile Apps
The mobile interface for Doit.im has vastly improved for both iOS and Android since the last time I have looked at it. The design is clean and unique and gives the user access to the most use features of any GTD app; the inbox, context lists, projects, due and scheduled items, waiting for, etc. The app also has a cool new way to add tasks with the “Quick-add” feature which gives the user a task entry bar with the task attributes in button form below the entry box. It’s a super fast way to add new actions to your trusted system.
The app syncs very quickly and gives the user the option to sync after a certain amount of time or even a “Real-time Data Uploading” feature. This pushes the updates directly to the server as you make them on the device. The developers of Doit.im have made a compelling UI and experience for the mobile apps. In fact, I prefer the mobile apps over the web app.
Wrap-up
Like a said before, searching for better GTD apps can turn into an unhealthy obsession. Us GTD geeks like to look for new shiny tools more than we like to use them. I have drawn my line in the ground with OmniFocus, mostly because if I could I would change my tool every week. But, if you are a GTD practitioner or a new GTD wannabe and are in need of a cross platform, full featured, task and project management app, Doit.im is extremely compelling. Plus the app is free online and in the respective app stores. Try it out and see for yourself. While you are at it, let us know what you think in the comments section.
App Review: Wunderlist is a Cross Platform, Easy-To-Use Task Manager
Mar 23rd
If I’ve learned anything in my quest to become a productive person over the years by using technology tools it is the following two points.
1. Love the tools you use.
If you find something wrong with your productivity tool within the first 5 minutes of using it, chances are it won’t stick. There are a ton of list making and action tracking apps out there. Find one that has the features you want and is fun to use.
2. Your tools have to be everywhere you are.
The GTD guru, Mr. Allen speaks of making sure that you have a “ubiquitous capture tool” wherever you may go. I tend to take that one step further: you should have a ubiquitous set of tools wherever you go. This holds especially true with how much mobile computing has exploded in use and popularity over the past few years. We are all mostly connected via our smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.; we should have our productivity systems with us.
Like I said before, there are a ton of “GTD” apps out there that promise you how productive you will be and how easy they are to use. While there is no “best GTD app” out there for everyone, there are some that come close and can be highly recommended. The new kid on the block is Wunderlist (by 6Wunderkinder), a cross-platform “easy-to-use task manager” that is available for Windows, OS X, iOS (iPad and iPhone), Android, and the browser that includes over the air syncing across all apps. It sounds pretty awesome, huh?
Today we are going to look at how Wunderlist stacks up as a productivity tool.
Simplified task manager
The thing that I like the most about Wunderlist is that it is dead simple. There are some task management apps out there that have folders, tags, contexts, priority, locations, subtasks, etc. Wunderlist isn’t like this; it gives the user the choice to create a bunch of list groupings (think contexts in GTD) and under each of those grouping a list of tasks. It appears you can have as many contexts as you want and as many tasks in each context as you want.
Your tasks can have a due date, reminder, a note, or a star. They also can be dragged to any list grouping that you want (Windows, OS X, and web versions) or the list can be changed in the details of the task (iOS, Android). There is also a set of filters at the bottom of the desktop and web apps where you can see all tasks, starred, completed, and tasks due today, tomorrow, next 7 days, later, and without a date. One thing that bothers me about these filters is that when you press any option you get a blob of tasks with no indication of what list grouping they are in.
Cloud syncing
You can also set up a Wunderlist account and have all your data sync with the Wunderlist cloud which allows you to keep all of your devices synced up. In general this works well and is faster than any sync I have experience on a desktop task-managment app (I’m looking at you OmniFocus). I have an installation on every platform that is available and the sync seems fairly reliable. What I mean is that sometimes when deleting tasks or marking them complete, the mobile versions on Android and iOS have trouble updating list counts. This can be remedied by exiting and starting the app again but it does happen more often than not.
Other features
Other features include being able to print your current task lists from the desktop and web versions, publish your list “to the cloud” where you are given a “secret” URL to share with friends or colleagues, or email your tasks. And of course, what would Wunderlist be without its beautiful choices of background images? As far as I can tell you can’t add any background or your own without doing some “tweaking” of JavaScript which brings me to the last killer feature; Wunderlist is open source and therefore just begging to be added on to. It is made of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS and can be accessed via github to have your geeky way with.
Cross platform goodness
One of the other best things about this application is that it is truly cross-platform and for someone like me who is using Android, iOS, OS X, Windows, and Linux this is a major feature. All the versions of the apps seem to be similar in features and look-and-feel, and I have to say that 6Wunderkinder did a good job of porting this app to all platforms without totally changing the user experience. The mobile apps are great, but there is still some room for improvement of the UI and possibly utilizing location by providing location based contexts or tasks. But, for a first start that has only been available for a couple of months, Wunderlist hits the major features needed for a good GTD application on all platforms.
Pros and Cons
To wrap up let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Wunderlist:
Pros
- Cross-platform support: Windows, OS X, web, Android, iOS
- Fast “cloud sync”
- open source
- Beautiful backgrounds
- Easy task management including due dates, reminders, star, and list groups (contexts)
- Search
- Email, print, and “cloud sharing” options for tasks lists
- Free!
Cons
- Sync can be unreliable on mobile devices at times
- No options for subtasks or subcontexts
- No start date or repeat options for tasks
- No utilization of location on mobile apps
Time and Procrastination: Using Technology To Become Efficient With Your Time
Mar 22nd
alancleaver_2000 Flikr http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/
Ever since I started school I have had to battle my procrastination. Sometimes it almost feels like a disease; one that is treatable at times, but just seems to never go away. Because of my bad procrastination, I adopted systems like GTD, a calendar and scheduled and time-blocked everything, reminders of important tasks and due dates “dinging” from everywhere. What I found is that unless I am on top of my game and choosing to “be productive”, I easily fall back into the pit of procrastination, where time is never “of the essence”.
Objective and subjective time
I’ve read quite a few books and essays on the psychological effects and reasons of procrastination. Something interesting that has stuck with me is in the book Procrastination by Jane B. Burka (not an affiliate link) having to do with the way that “procrastinators” perceive and interact with time. According to Burka there are two ways that we deal with and understand time: objectively and subjectively. Objective time is “measured by clock and calendar” and is predictable where as subjective time is measured by our own personal understanding and is outside of clock time.
As you can see, if your personal subjective time isn’t lining up with the world’s objective time you can have some serious issues, especially since your boss, your professors, and your spouse tend to base everything off of objective time.
I have this problem with objective time and after reading through Procrastination I decided to break myself of it by employing some different techniques when it came to my “time management skills” or lack thereof.
Track, track, track
Some bright person once said, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” and that holds completely true with managing your time. The first thing that I had to do to understand how I use my time was track almost everything. For instance, I found myself being late in the mornings for work and always blamed it on something external; like the winter weather, traffic, how long it took to get gas in the morning etc. It wasn’t until I started tracking how long it actually took me to take a shower and get out of the house did I understand that I needed to get up about 20 minutes earlier. It sounds stupid, I know, but to someone who thinks they understand time and where it goes, it takes the detail of tracking the real world to understand it.
You can track your time many different ways but some of the best apps that I have found for Android and iPhone are great when you are on the run and need to get a quick statistic to use for planning. There are a ton of options on both platforms but in the free category I would go with Eternity Time Lite and aTimeLogger for iPhone and Time Recording – Timesheet App and Track Task Time for Android. All of these offer the user the ability to track multiple activities, create their own categories, and gives them reports and statistics they can use to help understand just where there time goes.
You can also track your time use on your PC or Mac with RescueTime. RescueTime basically tracks what applications you are spending your time with and can give you a realistic view of where your computer time is going.
Starting now and time blocking
One of the most elusive ways that procrastinators abuse time and do not sync their subjective time with objective time is underestimating how long a task will take to complete. I’ve been told my many former and current software project managers that when they ask a software developer how long it will take to get something done they usually multiply their answer by two or three to set realistic expectations. Many of us are confident (sometimes overconfident) and do not set realistic time constants on ourselves.
This is where starting a task or project immediately and then time blocking the rest of it is a great way to balance time. The idea is simple, when given a task or project to complete, jump in and start working on it for at least 25 minutes. This allows you to understand how big the task or project is which allows you to make realistic predictions of how long it will take to complete. This is syncing your subjective time with objective time. After this you can time block the project.
Time blocking, the idea of blocking out a certain amount of time on your calendar for a task or project, has been around forever and works well if you have a realistic view of how long something will take to complete. After starting your task or project, take out your favorite calendar app and start “blocking” out time in your schedule to complete the task. Usually, if I think something is going to take 2 hours to complete, I block out about 2.5 total hours. This gives me some starting and stopping leeway. I also suggest only blocking out 50 minutes at a time to prevent burning yourself out. It seems that 50 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest/play when you are in a working period is ideal.
When it comes to generic timers for PC or Mac I highly recommend FocusBooster. It’s an Adobe Air application that lends itself to the Pomodoro technique of task timing, but you can use it for setting your working time on a task or project. For calendaring, I have to admit that I solely use Google Calendar for all my calendaring needs as it is everywhere I go and I can sync it to just about any device I want to. That isn’t to say there aren’t a bunch of good calendaring options out there, it’s just that Google Calendar has met all of my needs thus far.
Conclusion
Having an understanding of how to sync your subjective time and the world’s objective time can save you a ton of pain in your personal and professional life. But, if you are anything like me you will need a some help along the way to understand where the objective time goes. Hopefully if you understand the difference between your “inner clock” and the real world, track how long it takes you to accomplish tasks, and think more realistically about how long it take to accomplish something and schedule accordingly, you can say goodbye to procrastinating your time away.