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Post by markgraham on Feb 15, 2018 7:17:08 GMT
Hello, The subject pretty much explains the question I have. I'd like to hear of anyone's experience with Nirvana and what led them to stick with Toodledo. As a bit of background I've found myself struggling with the number of projects (folders) presented to me at any one time so I've started to look for alternatives. I love the power of Toodledo but have found no way to group folders and tasks into areas of focus so that I can view only the information I need to be focused on at the moment. Perhaps this is oversharing but I've found this overwhelm to be a symptom of ADHD. I have realized I must find a way to cull everything on my plate so that I'm not seeing "too much" at any one time. Nirvana's "Areas" feature seems to fit the bill as an Area can be assigned to a folder and would allow me to quickly see just the Area of Focus I need to be reviewing. Were Toodledo's folders a bit smarter and allowed to be assigned to a goal I'd be able to create a search and get a similar view of just my intended Area of Focus. I'm hesitant to switch only because Toodledo is such a powerhouse and I very much like the developer behind the product. I also enjoy using Pocket and Desktop Informant as my view into the list on Mac and iOS though that is less of a compelling reason to continue with Toodledo. Any insight into the situation is appreciated as are reasons folks have come back from Nirvana. thanks more details: Software Explainer Video |
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Post by elurven on Feb 15, 2018 14:54:28 GMT
The lack of sub-folders and sub-projects (the same goes for tags/contexts) is a problem for me as well. I have tried creating project structures by using a combination of the tricks below:
- Prefix - Project Name
- _____________________ (as the name of a project and as a visual divider)
- M O R E S P A C E I N P R O J E C T N A M E
But none of the solutions are perfect and it still gets overwhelming. The areas are good but not enough in terms of granularity. I have voiced these concernes to the Nirvana team many times in the past without much luck.
But since you mentioned that you are using Mac and iOS, have you heard that the Omni Group is creating a web companion app to OmniFocus 3 later this year? If Nirvana does not start innovating soon, I suspect that I will jump ship and go to OmniFocus instead.
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Post by ship69 on Feb 15, 2018 15:20:28 GMT
I have tried most of the big names. TBH, _all_ of the software out there frustrates the heck out of me.
I only tried Toodledo briefly a couple of years ago. I didn't like only having one Context per task. I didn't like not having Projects. I didn't like not being able to have sub-sub tasks unless you got the Pro version (and I don't think I paid the money to do so...)
Have you tried MLO? I both love it and hate it, and it Hoovers up your time dangerously. It has a painful learning curve but it is massively configurable. Many people end up there having tried everything else.
I also like GTDNext - also well worth a try! It is vastly easier to set up the MLO, with a MUCH more sensible interface - not unlike Nirvana. It also allows unlimited hierarchies. But development on GTDNext has slowed to a crawl and that plus lack of configurability has finally driven me back to MLO.
Last time I checked (a few months ago) Nirvana had very nearly stopped all new developments. Their lack of hierchical abilities was a deal-breaker for me.
If you try the above I'd love to hear how they compare.
J
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Post by elurven on Feb 16, 2018 13:07:52 GMT
I've tried Toodledoo, a short stint with Remember the Milk, GTD Next, MLO, Things, OmniFocus, Asana, Trello, Todoist, Thinking Rock, The Hit List etc. All of the apps that I've tried, have been tested with the caveat that I want them to conform to the GTD system. So apps that cause too much friction in terms of not adhering to GTD, are apps that are probably not going to appeal to me.
Have you tried Todoist (https://en.todoist.com/) by the way? It has custom views and hierarchical projects, tags, reminders etc and I believe that it can run on any platform (including web). Some of the features require a premium subscription (€31.99/year (€2.8/month)) but there is a 30-day trial.
On what platforms do you need access to your tasks by the way? If you don't need web access, then my recommendation would definitely be Things (https://culturedcode.com/things/) or OmniFocus (https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus). But until there is web access for Things or OmniFocus, I can't use them at work where I'm required to use a Windows PC.
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Post by ship69 on Feb 16, 2018 13:41:38 GMT
I am Windows only, so irritatingly both OmniFocus and Things are out.
Yes, I tried Todoist. I didn't like how hard it was to add things using just the keyboard. Also it was irritating not to have any Area of Life field.
What didn't you like about GTDNext?
Fwiw, having done GTD for a couple of years now I find it rather an irritating system. In my experience, it is all too easy to end up good at staying busy and executing lots of tasks... but (IME) _terrible_ at keeping you eye on the big picture!
Yes, David Allen pays lips service to thinking at different levels of flight (blah-blah) but it feels like an after-thought. And overall I find the GTD method both hard to execute correctly and overall rather time-consuming and like I say, I find myself repeated losing sight of the Big Picture.
What I like about MLO and GTDNext is that it's easy to enter un-digested stuff in at high speed without worrying if its a project or standalone task or what.
Btw, one good way to keep a good overview is to use mind maps and the other thing I tried was MindManager. However as well as being extremely expensive,MindManager has diabolical filtering and becomes extremely unweldy with larger quantities of tasks.
Fwiw, I tried MindManger with a plugin called ResultsManager (from Olymipic). It was so nearly brilliant too... but in the end I wanted better control of the sort order that ResultsManager produces. So near yet so far. :^[
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Post by elurven on Feb 19, 2018 10:04:01 GMT
I'm very picky about the visuals of an application and for me, GTDNext never clicked for me visually. I'm sure the app is quite alright in other respects but if it's not pretty enough, it's a no-starter for me. As for the GTD methodology, I believe that the system lends itself to busy-work so one has to be mindful not to end up working on the system as opposed to working on the tasks in the system, just like you said. But for me, it seems to work rather well after all. The alternative (how I was working before) is worse. I'm an avid user of mindmaps as well. MindNode ( mindnode.com/) is my mindmap application of choice on Mac and iOS. But iThoughts ( www.toketaware.com/) is rather good as well (it's a better looking application than the home page would have you believe), and it has the added benefit of being available on both macOS, iOS and Windows. |
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Post by ship69 on Feb 19, 2018 12:12:19 GMT
A few points:
- Are you aware that GTDNext had a complete visual makeover a few months ago?
- MindNode is Apple only, so no use to me.
- iThoughts looks v interesting. I shall investigate when I have more time. Have you tried MindManager - if so how does it compare to iThoughts?
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Post by elurven on Feb 20, 2018 15:09:53 GMT
- Yes I saw that there was an update to GTDNext in terms of visuals. Even though the new look is better, is not quite there for me anyway.
- I have not tried MindManager for two reasons: 1. The price is too high for me to be able to justify a purchase. 2. I like the UI of iThoughts a lot more.
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Post by ship69 on Feb 20, 2018 15:53:02 GMT
Yes MindManager is stupidly over-priced. They got my money when I was desperate! There are however subtleties to how it works that are nice. (e.g. It lays itself out sensibly when you collapse and expand branches. Also it snaps to a grid in a fairly sensible way.
Yes, the UI of MindManager has an extremely steep learning curve. However I didn't much like the default styles that iToughts seemed to offer... but when I have time I shall investigate it further as it does seem to have a lot of potential.
Fwiw, one thing that MLO has is a massive degree of configuration. In particular, I very much like being able to put Contexts into hotkeys - something which is impossible with most task managers including GTDNext. The problem is that if something like adding a context isn't dead easy, frankly in a busy day it simply isn't going to happen... and then the whole GTD system starts to break down! MLO also has simultanous editing/moving of multiple tasks which is sometimes exceedingly useful.
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