TODO: GTD
Three things I dislike intensely are clutter, complexity, and repetition. Even more so when they’re present in software.
One of the hardest aspects of developing software (or any product for that matter), is to keep the product simple and to focus on a core set of goals. It sounds easy, but in practice it’s very, very difficult.
Up until recently, one category of applications which I found myself increasingly frustrated with was GTD (or “get(ting) things done”) apps. I’ve lost count of the number of products and services which I’ve tried - all with the promise that they’d simplify note-taking, task-management, and generally make my life happy and shiny.
In reality, I found the majority of them confusing, awkward-to-use, and a hinderance to my daily productivity (says he, blogging when he should be working).
Luckily for me, my sanity, and that of those around me, a group of intrepid Open-Sorcerers came together to conjure up Notational Velocity.
To quote the tagline on their site:
NOTATIONAL VELOCITY is an application that stores and retrieves notes.
That’s it. Simples.
I can now jot down ideas, store snippets of text, or draft up blog posts with minimal effort. There’s no save button, no File dialog - just a simple search & type interface. It also syncs with DropBox. For iOS compatibility, NV also syncs with SimpleNote*. Win.
So, that was half of my dilemma solved. The second half, scheduling & task management, nagged at me until the recent release of Flexibits’ Fantastical.
I should mention at this stage that I schedule everything using iCal and have all of my devices synced via MobileMe. iCal and the iOS Calendar apps are fine and work “well enough”, but I find that entering events and scheduling alerts to be a chore. With Fantastical, I can simply enter events as-needed using plain English. An added bonus is that it remembers my default notification/alert settings, as well as providing a sweet quick-view UI in the Mac menu bar. Now all I need is an iOS client and life will be complete.
Both solutions are simple, yet effective. I have the constant nag of iOS Calendar notifications keeping me on-task and free from distraction (*glances accusingly at Twitter*) and I also have the ability to take notes efficiently, with syncing across all devices.
*ping*
Right, I’d better get back to work…
* Tip o’ the hat to @marramgrass for that one
