Vitalist – Another GTD Web App
I received an email the other day from Robert of Vitalist Solutions suggesting that I have look at Vitalist. Vitalist is another web application aimed at helping folks “Get Things Done” the GTD way. After playing with it for just a couple hours, I think Vitalist is definitely on the right track.
The origins sound familiar:
Vitalist was born in early 2005 when we could not find any adequate web-based software that worked well with the “Getting Things Done” system of personal organization. After searching the web, we found many people who felt the same way we did. Most solutions we read about involved keeping track of several word documents or setting up an intricate folder system in an email application. We wanted a more elegant solution, so we decided to build Vitalist.
The result seems to nail it too. I’m actually impressed enough to ponder the idea of migrating from my Tracks install. Ponder… not commit…yet… I’m at the point where switching GTD apps is getting to be a major pain. I’ve been with Tracks for quite a few months now; there’d be a lot of data to move! (hey, we need a GTD data interchange format [XML of course!])
Interesting tidbit: It supports recurring actions. For instance, I can set an action for work to service pack all my dev servers on a monthly recurring schedule. Neater yet, it supports iCal, so getting stuff like this into a calendar is a breeze. Cooler? SMS alerts are also an option.
GTD with Nozbe
Nozbe appears to be the latest web app in the Getting Things Done space. It is currently in beta, but they are taking signups so you can have a look and play around with it.
To that end, I played with it briefly this evening and found some great potential, but I’m not quite ready to switch away from Tracks just yet. It is a “young” app and there appears to be some interesting ideas for it so I plan to check back in the future and see how things are coming along.
From the site:
Nozbe is a web-based application that will help you get things done. It’s simple, easy and free. We have been inspired by many concepts presented by David Allen in his best-selling book:
“Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”
Using your Nozbe Account you will be able to manage your projects, organize your tasks, add notes and set next actions – using a simple web-based interface. No downloads, no fuss, pure web 2.0 style.
Beefs:
Currently, contexts are defined for you and I don’t see a way to change that. They have a nice variety of ‘em (with nifty identifying icons) but I have a few “custom” contexts that I like to use. The 5 project max thing was a bit of a deal-breaker for me as well. And since I’m whining, I’d sure like to see a way to move a task from one project to another.
On the plus side, any GTD fan will intuitively feel at home with it. Very simple to use, very approachable and easy to understand.
I see some of my beefs have been raised in the forums with positive response so, like I said, I do look forward to having another look soon.
[via What's the Next Action]
My Digital Dashboard
A lot of folks use Netvibes as a feed reader and as such it does a decent job — to a point. Personally, after a certain number of subscriptions I find it a bit unwieldy and I don’t see leaving Google Reader any time soon.
So why do I still have Netvibes set as my start page on every machine and browser that I use? I find it makes a darned fine “dashboard”. I’ve organized it to notify me of email, track my important links and other useful information. No more fretting about keeping browsers and machines in sync.
What follows is a look at how I’ve arranged things.
Daily Browser Destinations
I spend a lot of time looking at various web sites and web based applications and generally like what I see. The true test, however, is which ones “stick” and have me coming back weeks or months later. That’s a lot smaller list than what you might surmise from reading the last year or so of this blog.
Lately I find myself using more computers than typical and, as a result, more and varied browsers. At the day job, our focus is largely on IE so I try to spend most of day there for development and testing as well. As a result, I’ve become weary of constantly setting new bookmarks up on every browser’s toolbar. Netvibes and their “Bookmarks” and “del.icio.us” modules solve that problem nicely.
Additionally, Netvibes also does a great job of monitoring more than one Gmail account at a time. Speaking of daily browser destinations, Gmail is one. Both directly and via Google for Your Domain.
In a sense, Netvibes is my online dashboard. It either shows me what I want to see, or has links to it.
Since I’ve mentioned Google, another daily stop on the web trail would be my feed reader of choice: Google Reader. I’ve tried a lot of readers, there are some really nice clients out there. I have to have a web based one though and right now GReader is my favorite. I also like to stop by my “custom” Megite page once or twice a day and see what bubbles up.
For task tracking I’m still using Tracks for the less detailed task list and project tracking. [side note: I'm back to paper for the in-depth detailed tracking. It's quicker, easier and more portable. Future article topic...] It gets a bit dodgy in IE, so I have to keep that in mind. Works in a pinch though.
All my instant messaging is done via Meebo. Often via my own Meebo Desktop application, but that’s still web based. 
There you have it. My daily/oft-used web apps. There are many many more that I use, don’t get me wrong. But these are the ones that I’m at daily, multiple times (if not constantly).
Digg / Meebo / Toodledo
I got my first “Digg” today. Oh sure, it has all of two diggs (the second from me *cough*) but still, how fun is that? It was for my Meebo Desktop post announcing the new application.
Speaking of Meebo Desktop… I’m having a heck of a time figuring out how best to determine when something’s happened if minimized to the tray. Using VB.NET 2005, I’m sure there’s probably an easier way than what I’ve found so far. Actually, I wonder if I’m using the wrong search terms. Anyway, my hope is to pop a message or change/blink the icon when something happens while minimized.; That’s about the main thing I know it needs (if it needs other stuff, leave a comment on that post. I’m already pondering the portable aspect too).
If you (or someone you know) has any experience with capturing .NET WebBrowser object events, give me a shout. I’m all ears! In the meantime, I’ll keep searching in hopes that someone, somewhere, wrote up a spiffy little tutorial that I can adapt.
Toodledo is a slick little task manager I revisited a bit today. I’m still quite enamored with Tracks (recent post), but seriously thought about converting for a brief moment. Tracks wins out with one key factor: Notes for Projects. Toodledo does everything Tracks does, and in some respects quicker/easier, but doesn’t offer the ability to associate notes with a project. You can have a note with a task, but no general notes. Well worth a glance if you’re shopping for a task manager. It groks GTD too.
If only my Tracks install ran a bit faster… that might be a factor of my hosting though. Might be time to setup my own LAMP server again for side projects such as this. Or find a good Ruby on Rails on a Stick and carry it around with me. Hmm…
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