ForumsGetting Things Done®Well, moving to something else.
Well, moving to something else.
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jeremiah.moss |
Well, moving to something else. IQTELL, Apple's own reminder app, and Evernote.
There are several reasons for this: - My list had become long, and I wasn't really good at cleaning it. It wasn't organized well, and maintaining it was a chore. I needed a new approach. Toodledo's approach wasn't working. - Assigning items to locations didn't work as well as the iPhone's own app. You can only assign reminders when entering an area, not leaving it. Apple also seems to have a better "geofencing" algorithm. I'm likely to continue to use Apple's own app for location-specific reminders until something better comes along. - I want to seriously try Covey's Time Management Matrix (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, page 151). I'm hoping IQTELL will eventually be flexible enough to implement such a system inside it. Toodledo is very unlikely to ever do so. - IQTELL has forms, workflows, and custom fields. They're pretty rudimentary so far, but show a lot of promise. This is something I liked in SharePoint, which I've used at some places I've worked at. Workflows can be an extremely powerful feature, allowing fields to be connected to each other (and in SharePoint, also allowing for automation). - Toodledo's development process is quite slow. I don't know if the code has become an unmaintainable mess or what, but slight changes every year or so isn't exactly the cadence I was hoping for in a product that still needs a lot of work. - Toodledo has adopted basically a "we don't say anything about stuff in development" philosophy. Granted, IQTELL isn't much better in this area, but it's still something I fundamentally disagree with, as a developer myself. - IQTELL has integration with email and Evernote. This is really what put it over the top for me. I can set an email as an actionable item right then and there. No need to send a separate email with a strange syntax to a separate email address. - Evernote just works better for notes. Sorry, it just does. They do their job very well. So - sorry, I will not be renewing my subscription this year. |
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Salgud |
Posted by jeremiah.moss:
Well, moving to something else. IQTELL, Apple's own reminder app, and Evernote. Interesting. I've been playing with IQTELL on the side for a while now, trying to find the time to get it up and running enough to make the jump. And I agree with many of your reasons for doing so. There are several reasons for this: - Assigning items to locations didn't work as well as the iPhone's own app. You can only assign reminders when entering an area, not leaving it. Apple also seems to have a better "geofencing" algorithm. I'm likely to continue to use Apple's own app for location-specific reminders until something better comes along. I use TD's Location feature for an entirely different purpose, so the geofencing is not important to me. But since I can add any field I like in IQ, I can have Locations to use the same way I now use them in TD. - I want to seriously try Covey's Time Management Matrix (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, page 151). I'm hoping IQTELL will eventually be flexible enough to implement such a system inside it. Toodledo is very unlikely to ever do so. I played with this in TD at one time, but it was a bit kludgy (using the 4 priority levels to represent Covey's 4 quadrants) and didn't give me quite what I needed anyway. But my job responsibilities have changed considerably since then, so perhaps I should give it another try. - IQTELL has forms, workflows, and custom fields. They're pretty rudimentary so far, but show a lot of promise. This is something I liked in SharePoint, which I've used at some places I've worked at. Workflows can be an extremely powerful feature, allowing fields to be connected to each other (and in SharePoint, also allowing for automation). These are some of the features that appeal to me too, but they are also part of the reason it has taken me so long to get IQ fully functional. With even greater flexibility than TD, it has an even steeper learning curve. - Toodledo's development process is quite slow. I don't know if the code has become an un-maintainable mess or what, but slight changes every year or so isn't exactly the cadence I was hoping for in a product that still needs a lot of work. This is my main issue with TD. I don't know the general condition of the code, but I believe they have spread the team thin with the addition of several new features and a new platform in the past year or so. They added Outlines and Lists, both of which were minimal and not incorporated with the Tasks, and have spent a great deal of developer time bringing them together with the task management part and fleshing them out to be at least comparable to other similar software. This leaves very little time for enhancing the task management features. In the past year or so, there have been 2 enhancements to task management, de-star on completion (very little coding I would think), and save sort order with view (fair amount of coding, to move this feature down a level). I would have liked to have seen at least 5 features like this in a year. - Toodledo has adopted basically a "we don't say anything about stuff in development" philosophy. Granted, IQTELL isn't much better in this area, but it's still something I fundamentally disagree with, as a developer myself. I have no issue with their concerns about tipping off the competition; this seems like common sense to me. - IQTELL has integration with email and Evernote. This is really what put it over the top for me. I can set an email as an actionable item right then and there. No need to send a separate email with a strange syntax to a separate email address. Also nice features, if you can use them. I keep only personal information in EN, so connecting it to my work task manager has no value. Being able to incorporate Gmail is great, but I work for the state and my work Gmail account is locked down for security (HIPAA) reasons, though I don't send or receive any such emails. So I can't take advantage of this great feature. A couple of other things IQ has include the ability to create new "Objects", dependencies, unlimited subask levels, and a simple "macro" capability. The ability to create objects is very useful to me. For example, much of the work I do is for various groups I'm involved in. In TD, I've had to create Folders for each group alongside folders for the various levels of the organization that I do tasks for (I've already used Tags for other things), which is a bit kludgy. In IQ, I can just create a new object called "Groups", and create links from them to projects, tasks, subtasks, etc. Dependencies is a feature I've wanted it TD from the start, but very much doubt I'll see them any time soon in TD, if ever. The "macro" capability is very limited, so much so that I wouldn't have called it "macro". Nonetheless, it does give one the ability to have an Action triggered by certain other actions, something I used extensively in a task manager I had years ago. And I imagine they will add to it eventually, but it looks useful as is. So - sorry, I will not be renewing my subscription this year. You didn't mention the interface, which I find much more modern and pleasant than TD's. It's not that important to me, like it is to others, but it's a little icing on the cake. My silver subscription expires in Aug., but I don't know if I'll have IQ ready by then. Maybe your post will get me off my a** and getting it done! This message was edited Apr 28, 2014. |
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ykphuah |
Posted by jeremiah.moss:
- Toodledo has adopted basically a "we don't say anything about stuff in development" philosophy. Granted, IQTELL isn't much better in this area, but it's still something I fundamentally disagree with, as a developer myself. This is my main gripe. Dreaming one day where the devs will use something like this: https://glympse.zendesk.com/forums/21175206-Vote-for-New-Glympse-Features |
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jeremiah.moss |
I played with this in TD at one time, but it was a bit kludgy (using the 4 priority levels to represent Covey's 4 quadrants) and didn't give me quite what I needed anyway. The real issue IMO opinion is that it has to be done automatically, rather than manually. Adding or removing a star should swap between "important" and "not important," and adding or removing a due date should swap between "urgent" and "not urgent." That, plus there should be a way to group/sort based on the quadrants in a way that makes sense. IMO, the sort order should ideally be: Important/Urgent, Important/Not Urgent, Not Important/Urgent, Not Important/Not Urgent. Without both the automatic categorization and the sort order, I don't think the system will work. I have no issue with their concerns about tipping off the competition; this seems like common sense to me. Things aren't so simple: World of Warcraft, the most popular MMO, does in fact announce its features ahead of time. We also often know what's coming to Windows in the months before release. Many successful businesses have are wildly successful when announcing features ahead of time. Done properly, announcing features ahead of time builds anticipation, and while the competition may scramble to add the features, it becomes a game of catch-up for the competition, rather than staying ahead. |
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Salgud |
It seems to me this depends mostly on what your relative market position is. I know nothing of games, so can't speak to the "World of Slaughtering off most of the World's Population", but it's clear that M$ has a pure monopoly on Office apps, and can do whatever they please, including publishing all their plans for the forseeable future without concern. Not so for TD.
This message was edited May 13, 2014. |
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M_ichel |
Posted by ykphuah:
Posted by jeremiah.moss: - Toodledo has adopted basically a "we don't say anything about stuff in development" philosophy. Granted, IQTELL isn't much better in this area, but it's still something I fundamentally disagree with, as a developer myself. This is my main gripe. Dreaming one day where the devs will use something like this: https://glympse.zendesk.com/forums/21175206-Vote-for-New-Glympse-Features You may want to look at Wunderlist! They publish the list of "wished-for features" and you can vote on them and add your comments! Here: http://wunderlist.uservoice.com/forums/136230-wunderlist-feature-requests/filters/top |
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Martys To Do |
I tried IQTELL for a few weeks.
I ran a couple of projects on the software. I really liked the attempt to combine all my inboxes. I attached Evernote to the IQTELL site. However, it is very buggy, I lost tasks on my list -- some I put on their web site were partly blank on the iPhone and when I tried to edit it on the iPhone, it vanished. Also, I was able to accidentally delete an Evernote note -- which they said was not possible -- it is easy to confuse deleting an Evernote link and an actual note due to the design. Now their update to their iPhone app is critically flawed and they sent an email not to upgrade. In a few weeks, I lost more info on their site than in years on Toodledo. I do like their design aesthetic and concept, but loss of data is simply not acceptable to me. I appreciate Toodledo more after this experience. |
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