Searching for a new GTD application: My list of priorities & requirements

[John . Smith]

Hello

I know I'll probably take some heat for this(!) but I'm on the hunt for better GTD task management software.

I am trying hard to compromise, but here is my current list of priorities:

(I have numbered them for ease of subsequent discussion)

A) MUST HAVES: 

Tech: Must work on web (or Windows10) - No, I do not have Apple!

Architecture:

1. Area of Life (==> ability to filter everything else by Area of life. Then new stuff is automatically added into that Area.)

2. Goals (that can be assigned to Projects)

3. Context-tags (must have MORE THAN ONE Context per Action [EDIT: OR have multiple Tags possible per Action]. )

4. List field (needs a dedicated database field. GTD-friendly list names: Inbox, Next(Do ASAP), Scheduled, Someday, Waiting... or similar).

5. Today Focus / stars (easy way to select what to do today, and this list MUST be manually sort-able)

Views:

6. Easy conversion between a Project and a standalone Task... and back.

7. a Next Action per project view (i.e. a view somewhere showing just 1 [2 or 3] actions per project)

Functionality:

8. VERY easy addition of Contexts/tags to stuff (e.gl parsing of task titles and/or using either hotkeys[??] to add Context-tags)

9. VERY easy moving either a task (or an entire project) between GTD Lists.

10. Ability to "bang tasks in" fast using just my keyboard.

11. Sophisticated use of colour (e.g. allocate a different colour to different Contexts-tags)

12. Lots of hotkeys

B) NICE TO HAVES:

Architecture:

13. Sub-projects (projects within projects, and sub-sub-projects ==> ideally have unlimited/nested layers of hierarchy)

14. Sub-tasks (tasks within tasks, and sub-sub-task ==> ideally have unlimited/nested layers of hierarchy)

15. Additional List(s) possible (e.g. add a "Soon" or "Later" list - not true GTD but v useful!)

16. a Start Date as well as actual Due Date (==> easy way of Scheduling thing for future)

16b. Ability for one Project to count towards more than one Goal

Views:

17. More than one Next Action per project is possible (e.g. using "Forced Next" or a view that shows 2 or 3 Next Actions)

18. "In-line editing" (==> very easy/ very fast editing of task/project titles themselves)

19. Ability to define all own colours v precisely, rather than being forced to use basic colour palette.

Functionality:

20. Multi-line selections (e.g. move 3 tasks at once into a project - VERY important - nearly a must have!)

21. User-defined hotkeys (e.g. for adding contexts)

22. When adding tasks, they inherit a) the current Area of Life b) any current Context/Tag selected

23. Recurring tasks (ability to make routine tasks reappear at specified intervals)

C) MINOR BONUSES:

Tech: Not critical but it would be nice to have an Android app. (And ability to work off-line.)

Also:

24. Estimated Time required field (==> useful for extracting tiddlers)

25. Estimated Energy required (==> useful when energy is low)

26. Serial or Parallel projects (this affects how tasks appear on Next Actions view)

27. Manual markup of title (Bold, highlight with background colour - useful to flag critical stuff which you dont want to start just yet)

28. Advanced reporting that I can customise with my own exact logic / complex filters

29. Advanced automatic formatting (e.g. certain type of content get marked up with different colours automatically)

30. Context tags to filter by always stay visible on the 'dashboard' (e.g. along top of screen?)

31. Keyboard shortcuts work from anywhere (i.e. they involve modifier keys like shift/control/alt. ==> will work even text entry mode)

32. Keyboard shortcuts can be created & changed by the user

BACKGROUND

Of the software I have used:

- MLO (Windows) is jaw-droppingly configurable, however it fails both "1." (has no Areas) and "2." (has no Goals)

- Nirvana (web) fails "2." (has no Goals). Fwiw, it also currently fails "13." and "14." although future releases may change this. Pretty good at the rest.

- GTDNext fails "2." (has no Goals). Fwiw, it also fails "15." (additional "Soon/Later" GTD list) and fails "20." (Multi-line selections). Also pretty good at the rest despite ugly/dated interface

I have dabbled with:

- Toodledo looks amazingly powerful, however it doesn't have the concept of a Project (a "Project" is something you need to get done that takes more than one step, and is a core concept of GTD). And I'm not sure if it's possible to create anything functionally equivalent to a Project that shows a limited number of Next Action(s) across my all projects. (To me, if not, there seems little value in doing anything beyond paper and pen!)

- SmartyTask seems to have no way of moving Projects between GTD action status list (Waiting, Someday etc)

- Doit.im - Semi-fails "6." i.e. you can't turn a Project back into a task. Also fails "20." (no multi-line selections). Also fails "16b." as a Project can only be in one Goal at a time. has no Area (of life / of focus), and only one Context per task which is irritating.

UPDATE

Since so few GTD task managers seem to have Area ("of life" or "of focus") as a separate field I am now having slight 2nd thoughts about actually requiring them.

Possibly one could do the same thing with Context-tags, it's just that this would really constitute a workaround and likely to be messy. i.e. When I am in Work mode that is ALL that I want see on all views and all new stuff I add needs to default into that Area/tag.

SUMMARY

Given that I have (for now) abandoned the requirement to have sub-goals and sub-projects I now more choices. 

Any suggestions?

J

[kewanna.hayward]

John this is a very detailed list of requirements which is amazing! Do you have a google plus account there are some thriving productivity communities on there they could assist.

Let me marinate over  your list and I'll try post some suggestions this weekend

Thanks

[kewanna.hayward]

GTD Nirvana comes to mind 

On Monday, August 22, 2016 at 6:20:36 PM UTC-4, John . Smith wrote:

[Raymond Sidney-Smith]

Hi, John,

Have you looked at http://www.priacta.com/Articles/Comparison_of_GTD_Software.php? It’s an interactive GTD software comparison tool. You can possibly see if any such GTD apps exist that do what you want by filtering through and then analyzing what’s left to your specifications.

Best,

Ray Sidney-Smith

Evernote Certified Consultant

Google Small Business Advisor (Productivity, 2016)

Productivity | Technology | Management

     Coach | Trainer | Consultant | Speaker | Author

r...@rsidneysmith.com | http://rsidneysmith.com

On Monday, August 22, 2016 at 6:20:36 PM UTC-4, John . Smith wrote: