On Fri, 2010-01-08 at 14:45 +0000, Chris G wrote:
Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-)
I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it.
Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries?
I have recently been reading the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. One of his recommendations is that one only uses a calendar or diary for things that must been done at exactly the time concerned (which is usually because you are meeting someone else to do it).
For things that must be done by a certain date, or which can be started any time after a certain date he recommends a "To Do" list where the items are organised both by project and by context, where context is such things as location and the availability of equipment like a phone or PC which enables you to do the task. The idea here is to maximise the use of an opportunity so, for example, if you live in the county and have tagged all those tasks that need to be done in town, whenever you go into town you can view just those tasks and see how many you can complete on that visit.
There are on-line "to do list" managers some of which support this methodology to varying degrees and some of which sync with various other things.
I am currently using "Remember The Milk" http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ which enables items to be put onto one of a number of lists and tagged with a due date, a location, a time estimate, a priority, a URL and various user defined tags. Notes can also be attached to a task to give supporting information.
By default tasks can be viewed by due date or by which list they appear on though there is a search facility and it is possible to save a set of search criteria into a virtual list so one can see, for example, all tasks tagged as "next action" (not waiting for anything else), all tasks of a certain priority, due on or before a specific date or need a phone or the internet etc.
There is a mobile-optimised version of the web interface (I haven't tried it) and there are some dedicated client programs for some smart phones (includes iPhone, Android, Blackberry Windows Mobile) as well as some integration options (including Gmail and Google Calendar).
Another similar service is ToodleDo (http://www.toodledo.com/) which looks promising but I am not currently using because of the lack of a good Android application for it.
I suppose a project planning utility might be what I'm after but they often seem a bit too much oriented towards large multi-person projects. I will go and do some looking on this front though as it isn't a way I've thought of going before.
David came to the same conclusion - that formal project planning packages are usually to formalised and complicated for managing one's own personal projects.
HTH, Steve.