Disclaimer: By GTD I’m referring to the methodology as coined by David Allen. This article is about finding the perfect app to go with that methodology. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s probably pretty boring.
Being a very happy Things user, here’s the wish list I set off with:
Like I said, I tried many apps and was disappointed in all of them.
With some messing around, it’s very well possible to recreate a GTD-like environment with Todoist. Both projects and tasks can be nested. A ‘next’ list can be created with filters (e.g. all tasks without a scheduled date). However in the end I completely lost control over my tasks because of all the options. The most important thing I want is a simple list with all my ‘next’ tasks and a way to quickly mark them to be done today. Todoist just isn’t GTD-focused enough to achieve that.
Nirvana is often named as the cross-platform Things alternative. Although it’s very similar and I’ve been using it on-and-off for years, it never really stuck. For one thing, it doesn’t seem to be actively developed anymore (the Android app was last updated in 2017). Also the lack of reminders is a deal-breaker for me, forcing me to use separate reminder-apps alongside Nirvana.
For those who are close followers of the GTD-method, FacileThings is often recommended. Unlike other apps, FacileThings has the entire method (including all the review-steps) implemented. That’s nice, but it also makes it lack ‘snappiness’. Most of the time, I just want to quickly add a few steps to a project rather than walking through every step of the GTD-methodology. Also, I’m more than capable of doing those reviews myself.
The most unorthodox of all todo-apps turns out to work pretty well for GTD. Google Keep is just made for GTD’s inbox-principle. From there, it’s easy to create projects (task lists) or archive your information. It has apps for every platform and great reminder-options. The biggest deal breaker is the lack of ways to split projects into tasks and plan those tasks separately.
Then there was Microsoft To Do. First hated for killing off Wunderlist. Then loved for becoming even better.
MTD used to be a pretty basic app. There were lists, tasks (with subtasks) and reminders and that was about it. From very early on however, there was the ‘My Day’ section, which allowed adding tasks from all different lists to one list meant for working on that day. Also, from very early on the app was developed to work on many different platforms. Combined with a clean UI and reminders, that already ticked four of my boxes, so naturally I tried it out.
It quickly turned out to be too limited. Lists alone are too limited for GTD. There was no way of organizing or archiving them, leaving only the option of deleting when you’ve finished them. It tried using tasks as projects and subtasks as tasks, but that gave me the same limit as Google Keep: no way to separately schedule or collect them. So off I was again.
Until last christmas. In the same month Wunderlist announced they would definitively (be) shut down, Microsoft released a huge update for To Do, bringing a slick new look and, finally, list groups. This allowed me to not only group lists (projects) by area of responsibility, but also archive them by moving them to a group called ‘Archive’.
So how do I go about my daily and weekly reviews? And where do I put stuff like the inbox and ‘next’ tasks?
Newly created tasks automatically go to the list ‘tasks’ in MTD, so naturally that’s the most suitable candidate for the inbox. By using the list for inbox only, it’s easy to empty it daily and move tasks to the right list.
Projects are just lists grouped by area of responsibility. As said, when a project is finished, I simply move it to the ‘Archive’ group.
The nice thing about MTD is that it actually allows for a little more freedom than the strict interpretation of Things. I can now easily create special lists like errands or things to do in my free time without having to list them as projects or areas of responsibility. Using colors and emoji, visual planning becomes even easier than it is with Things.
One of the biggest challenges was the ‘next actions’ list. Things has a very easy way of collecting all pending tasks (i.e. those not in scheduled or someday) from all projects in one list. MTD doesn’t have something similar, however I managed to recreate a very similar functionality using MTD’s important tasks. By ‘starring’ each next action as important, they can all be listed easily. Those not marked as important are either scheduled or meant to do someday. Works like a charm.
MTD can mark tasks as due for a certain date (also repeated) and can separately add reminders at certain times. This is all I need from a GTD app, though it can be a little limited if you’re a big fan of using a tickler file.
Except for a list for ‘spare time’, I’m not a big fan of using contexts. The context is pretty much always ‘at the computer’ and when it’s not, I’ll set a reminder.
If you want to use contexts or other kinds of tags however, MTD makes it very easy to gather tasks and subjects from different lists by simply typing #hashtags.
Every week I simply go through all open projects to check if they have pending actions and to see if new tasks should be ‘starred’ to be added to the ‘next’ list. For my daily review I only have to review the ‘next’ list to see which tasks I want to mark to be done today. It won’t get much easier than that.
Microsoft To Do has become seriously useful for those following the GTD method. By using lists as projects and marking next actions as ‘important’, there’s little separating it from the greatness of Things. Add great cross platform support and colored lists and you’ve got an almost perfect GTD app.
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