Matthew Temple

OK so not a few weeks later as I said but it's still here. A few month's ago I started to follow the Getting Things Done program using Things as my tool of choice to manage my tasks.

Well since then I've still been following the program and now find I'm getting a lot more done in a day.

Things is simple yet powerful and most importantly easy to use. The simple power of the little application is prefect for me, I put every little thing I have to do in to it ranging from full projects with hundreds of tasks to little things like post some of the drafts on the site.

However I do start to build up a lot of tasks that never seem to get done like the posting of the drafts, and every so often I set aside a day to get through as many of them as possible.

Things can help a lot with tasks and projects that have a start and due date by not showing them until you can start them and turning the check box red when over due and yellow on the day their due, making them stand out a little from the other tasks.

The iPhone is the perfect companion to the desktop version although both can stand alone they work better together with the ability to quickly add tasks on the road and mark them as done the second I do them and have it all in sync is wonderful. The only nag I have is the need to be on the same WI-FI network to sync, Cultured Code, the developer, has said an over the air sync is coming in a future release.

So is Things worth the $50 (Mac) and $10 (iPhone) yes most defiantly if you are going to be using to do lists.

For about 2 months now I've been following David Alans Getting Things Done (GTD) program, and here are my thoughts.

While writing everything down worked for a week or so, I have now slipped into a kind of inbox zero way of processing tasks, if it can be done now with no or minimal effort then do it else I add it to my lost of things to do.

Now the software I use is Things on both Mac and iPhone and it works perfectly with the way I now manage my tasks. Not only does it allow me to do scheduled but repeating tasks like sync the to clients at the end of everyday. The apps are very simple yet powerful enough to manage entire projects with hundreds of tasks each. I'll be posting a full detailed review of Things for Mac and iPhone in the coming weeks.

Does GTD give me more time and less stress? Well that's 2 questions so let's start with the latter.

I didn't have that much stress to start with but for some of my big projects I having been getting stressed as much as normal and meeting deadlines is getting less and less of a problem.

Time, yes I defiantly have more of that, much more. I've started taking on bigger projects while also having time to sit down and watch TV not sort of watch it while working on something.