A Community Contribution from Jason Verly

For anyone who uses a Mac and utilizes the GTD method, you may eventually look into what software you can use to help manage your project and next action lists. Currently on the Mac, the leading apps to help manage your lists are OmniFocus and Things. Each app covers four of the five steps of the GTD workflow: Collect, Process, Organize, and Review. (Sorry, but you still have to do ‘Do’ on you own.)   Here is a comparison of how each application handles these four steps.

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Editors Note: Many of you know we are partners with OmniGroup. We wanted to provide this article to our GTD Times readers, as Jason has done a great job comparing these two popular applications.  It should give you some great information from a fellow GTDer, when choosing which one is best for you.

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• Are there any tools already in place that you plan/need to still use? Like a corporate calendar?
• Where is your email?  Not required, but certainly helps to have your email and lists near each other.
• Who else needs to see your data?   Does it need to be on a shared server or would local be fine if you go digital?
• What do you tend to be drawn to–paper or digital?
• Is security a concern?
• How would you back it up, if needed?
• What are you willing to carry around?
• What tools are you already familiar with?
• Would you trust putting almost anything into it?
• Is it scale-able?
• Can you easily learn how to use it?
• What are you willing to pay for it?
• What does it need to sync to?

Is there a perfect GTD system out there? Sure, it’s the one you trust and use so your mind is free.

• Where do you keep your lists? Your calendar?
• Do you sync to a handheld? If so, what is that?
• Your favorite collection tools?
• Killer desk supplies?
• Project planning, brainstorming and creative mapping tools?
• What else??

[Small request:   If you are commenting about an app, please disclose if you are the developer and/or involved with it in some way. Thanks.]

Before we get started, I should identify the basic function of the software.  MyCaption allows the user to create and annotate Tasks, Appointments, Memos, Email, SMS messages, at the touch of a button.  The process is such that after the software captures the user’s vocal recording, that data is sent to the company’s servers, where it is delivered to the BlackBerry device as one of the above formats.

So how can it work for GTD?First, as a Collection Tool.  Let’s say I’m out and about and I have a thought that I want to remember to watch David Allen’s latest Webinar on GTD Connect.  I would push the side button on my BlackBerry (which I’ve specifically mapped to the Task function) and a recording interface pops up.  I can then speak for up to 3 minutes, offering whatever information I might need (“watch David’s Webinar on Priorities”).  What I then receive back within 5 minutes is a notice that MyCaption has created a new Task, and I’m given the option to go to Tasks.

Notice however, that I identify this function as Collection.  That’s because I cannot yet place that Task within a Category, neither can I create a new Category if I wanted to.  In speaking with the developers of MyCaption, this is a function that they are currently investigating, but for now it’s unavailable.  So after creating this new uncategorized Task, I’ve essentially captured “stuff” that needs to be processed.  What I will do then is to sync my BlackBerry at some later point in time, and the Task shows up in my Outlook Tasks uncategorized (at the top of my view) and I now can Process this new input as I would any other new piece of collection: by asking “what is it?” “is it actionable”, etc.  Using my previous example, I would open the Task and categorize it as something to do “@Online”.  The inability to categorize while you speak is clearly a limitation, however the MyCaption solution is much more streamlined than paper collection as far as I’m concerned.

While that describes my primary use of the software, there are other features that many of you may find very valuable.  I can speak a reply (or replay all) to an email.  I can do the same with SMS text.  I can create an appointment through speech, you can annotate a Task so that my speech shows up as text in the “Notes” section of the Task.  My lifestyle is not so mobile that I find all these features useful, but as I hear of more and more BlackBerry users giving up their laptops on the road, these features may end up being mission-critical life-savers.

I should note that there can be a delay to receiving input (Tasks, etc.) from the MyCaption servers, and that can prove sticky if you’re trying to cleanly shift your thinking from one area to another, only to have the first area come back at you, but to me that’s a minor distraction, and the functionality of MyCaption well-compensates this downside.

There’s also the requirement that for email, recipients need to be either identified as MyCaption recipients on the BlackBerry, or your Contacts need to be loaded on the MyCaption servers, also a minor downside.

All in all, I find MyCaption to be one of the better GTD tools around for the BlackBerry.

Wayne Pepper is a senior presenter and coach with the David Allen Company.  While this review is based on his personal and objective opinion as a GTD expert and BlackBerry user, he received a free copy of this software to do this review.  Please note that this is not an official endorsement from the David Allen Company. We are not affiliated with MyCaption.  But they have a cool tool that works well, and we think you might like it too.

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Right before the podcast, I Tweeted that I’d be speaking with him and I asked Dean some of the questions some of you sent to me (such as getting tech support, Office 10 release, how it interfaces with Toodledo and more.)

Ken Case: The big thing that we tried to do as we were designing the application is really think about the parts of the GTD workflow that we could address, and automate those, and then maybe not try to touch the parts that didn’t make as much sense. For example, we don’t do calendaring; we leave that to whatever calendaring system you already have. I use the calendar app that’s built-in to the iPhone, but you can use a paper calendar or whatever works for you for that part of the system. We do focus on the GTD collecting and processing–capturing stuff out of your head and getting it into your inbox. We tried to make that really easy with a keystroke…

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Grab a list of all of the OmniFocus speed keys.

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For those of you on Mac, you have a similar function through QuickSilver.  If you want to reach Buzz about ActiveWords or any of the other products he mentions, you can reach him at buzz@activewords.com.

In our recent podcast  on The Perfect GTD List Manager, we shared that one of the most common questions we get is, “Which tool should I use for my GTD lists?”  Specifically, you want to know which tools David Allen uses!  While the GTD approach is tool-agnostic, we have our personal favorites, as we know many of you do as well.  eProductivity for IBM Lotus Notes is one of those, and is the tool David (and most of the staff at DavidCo) use to help manage our workflow.  Even if you are not a Lotus Notes user, we think you’ll find value in hearing from Eric about what he learned would make the ultimate tool for David Allen to use.

In this podcast, Eric Mack (@EricMack) shares with Coach Kelly Forrister (@GTDCoachKelly) on some of the design philosophy and underlying features and principles that make eProductivity a tool David recommends.  (Note: There’s a free trial and on the podcast Eric also offers a $100 off to the first 50 people that contact him by June 15.)  Some of the features discussed on the podcast will make more sense if you check out some screenshots.    LISTEN NOW