With all of the media noise around unified platforms, applications synchronizing between desktops, mobile and cloud environments and the need for all of us to “get things done” quickly, efficiently and, it seems, more importantly, on the go, there are more and more applications vying for our eyes, our download bandwidth and our private data.
Google, through the mobile advertising platform Android, Apple through its closed wall iOS gatekeeper and to a lesser extent Microsoft with its desire to get us all subscribing to Office365 seem to be the obvious places to look.
My personal technology choices have usually taken me to places outside of the mainstream. Sometimes foolishly, mostly, well deserved. Which is why I am still a fan of my BlackBerry Playbook, still have my Jolla as my main mobile ‘phone and use Ubuntu as my only desktop.
Mixing all of this into one “productivity tool” is quite a feat. However, I have been using one particular application for some years, with, I must admit, a little hiatus in the past. However, I have recently rediscovered ToodleDo, which, for a long time, was the main stay on my Playbook.
ToodleDo has a very good third-party application, toodleTasks, from ProdiSoft, which works perfectly.
The web-based service from ToodleDo, is clean, simple and, for the free service, exceptionally detailed. ToodleTasks supports this in a very clean, clear and simple three panel interface. The excellent BlackBerry Playbook keyboard makes inputting data exceptionally easy. A win-win.
There are a number of Linux desktop programmes available, however, I have not yet felt the need to try these out. If I am on my desktop I use the web interface, if I am using the BlackBerry, I use toodleTasks.
Being a Project Manager, I do enjoy making, tracking and updating lists, tasks and plans. Sometimes a full-blown Gantt chart is little excessive, especially if one is sharing with non Project Managers who may not appreciate the joy of a plan that has been rolled forwards and backwards to find the perfect critical path. Is there an imperfect critical path ?
Mark Daniels 