Tools for task management and GTD other than TiddlyWiki

Café
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#1

I’m interested in what tools other than TiddlyWiki are you using for task management, including Getting Things Done (GTD) technique. I’m in the middle of reorganizing my task management and trying to implement GTD.

TiddlyWiki

TiddlyWiki has certainly a lot to say here, with all the available plugins and editions, but there are these key reasons why I haven’t attempted to use it for task management:

  • (–) Lack of mobile notifications/reminders.
  • (–) No (easy) integration with calendars – I may be wrong here, I haven’ researched it thorough.
  • (–) Problematic quick input (capturing) on mobile devices – lack of good mobile layout in TW, having to pay attention to saving process.

Creating this thread made me thinking: maybe it will be worth to tolerate these issues (handle all notifications in calendar, capture in external tool) and use TW after all.

Here are my observations about the task management software I have tried so far.

Trello

Over the years I have found myself coming back to Trello after trying other tools.

  • (+) Kanban view. Overview of multiple lists at the same time.
  • (+) Free one way integration with calendars (.ics calendar of dates in Trello can be viewed by any calendar software that can import .ics data, e.g. Google Calendar, Apple Calendar).
  • (+) Automation with triggers and custom buttons. Nothing TW could’t do, but a lot more than other task management software. Thing is, I find myself mostly using it for fixing inconveniences of Trello compared to its alternatives.
  • (+) Easy sharing and collaboration when needed.
  • (–) Cluttered view and difficult navigation with many list in a borad and many cards in a list.
  • (–) Lacking adaptation for personal use (e.g. you need to “watch” ot “be assigned to” a card to receive notifications for its due date), but this can be overcome with automation to some extent.

Google Tasks

  • (+) Very good integration with Google Calendar.
  • (–) Mediocre mobile app and terrible web version. There are third party web apps and browser extensions that make it a little better.

Microsoft To Do

  • (–) No calendar integration beyond MS Outlook calendar afaik.
  • (–) Not a very good desktop web UI.

Todoist

  • (+) Two way integration with Google Calendar.
  • (+) Seems to be good prepared for GTD.
  • (+) Relatively cheap premium subsription.
  • (–) Not very useful in the free version.

Todoist seems like the best solution to switch to, but I wasn’t so sure that I would want to invest time and money into it yet.

I’m eager to hear your experiences with these and other task management tools. What are you using? Why are you not using TW for task management, or how did you overcome its limitations with integration/ mobile use?

#2

I’m still figuring all this out; in practice, I find it difficult to get up and stay running with the complex GTD apps. This is partly because there are intervals in my life where don’t feel the urgency for all of the tracking, and of course some tasks have associated data or files that I don’t want to lock into a GTD app… and so I end up sliding back toward a simpler system of TiddlyWiki (for long-term “ticklers” like license-renewal, as well as tiddlers that keep all kinds of reference info) plus my trusty paper agenda for the basics.

One mobile-device feature not mentioned in your overview, but which is certainly not easily integrated in TiddlyWiki, is geofence-based reminders. (Remind when I’m next at pharmacy, to check for xyz; remind me, whenever I’m at the lake, to take a photo…)

Here’s an overview that includes Todoist plus two apps (which you don’t mention) which I have worked with over the years, with more or less success:

https://thesweetsetup.com/articles/comparison-best-gtd-apps-things-todoist-omnifocus/

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#3

I only use reminders very rarely in my gtd setup. Mostly either location based or if I need to go to a store before it closes and stuff like that. Things that have to happen on a particular day I’ll put in the calendar directly. For all the other tasks i keep a list that I review quickly daily and more thoroughly weekly in a review. In the weekly review I review all projects and write down the tasks I want to work on over the coming week and then I block time daily for specific tasks. That setup is fairly tool independent. I recently switched to tiddly wiki from logseq and use apple calendar and reminders because I got a mac at work. Before I was using Evolution and Ms todo.

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#4

I prefer a low maintenance system and find Master your Now (MYN) makes good sense. The idea isn’t really groundbreaking or anything, but you’re looking at tasks from a time horizon perspective. There are three main tiers of focus - Critical Now, Opportunity Now and Over the horizon. I find this to be simple enough to use in tiddlywiki and helps me get the most pressing and important tasks done first.

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#5

Just out of curiosity - what made you decide to switch from Logseq to TiddlyWiki?

#6

For my needs I felt like the project is going in the wrong direction. Too much focus on features I don’t want and too little focus on making the basics great. So far tiddly wiki seems like what I was looking for in the first place. Well established basics, more flexible and steady improvement.

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#7

That makes sense. I’ve tried some other software, including LogSeq, and I always come back to TW. It takes some time investment to make it exactly what you want, but I love that flexibility.

#8

I was in that boat not so long ago. Task management with TiddlyWiki is a breeze if you use Todolist to manage priority and the order of execution. And Stickies for a todo list peppered as part of my tiddlers. It is extremely non linear and automatically records the date and time of completion which is one step further. This is now.

But to rewind and answer your question:
The best time management app I ever laid my hands on is Superproductivity. As a veteran of the procrastination by distraction war, this happened to be the most useful weapon to me. You get your day, your tasks which you can group into projects with a pomodoro timer(optional). Once you finish your day, you get a detailed breakdown of what you manage to complete and how much time has gone into it.

A couple of months with this and you’ll see how it helps productivity. To me it was very helpful to learn a lesson on how to stay focused.

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#9

With the Notebook theme the layout is pretty great IMO, and Projectify gives a very nice structure for task management.

The project I’m announcing right now is a solution to the saving process, and it might eventually get a notifications capability :slight_smile:

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