The Search for the Great GTD App...

This article form Lifehack.Org talks about the search for that great GTD app - which I would say is becoming more and more important in these harried days (and particularly in my new job).

I’ve yet to find the system that works best for me, although there are plenty of slick apps that look promising until I actually get down to working with them. After a few days of excitement, I find myself coming up against barriers to productivity — some of them because of poor design, some because of differences in philosophy between myself and the programmers, most because I’m simply not the target client — and find myself spending time looking for workarounds to make the system work rather than actually getting stuff done.

I can commiserate with the author's experience.  I once downloaded PlanPlus for Outlook (it was supposedly created by experts from Franklin Covey of the Stephen Covey fame; see www.franklincovey.com for more information).  And for awhile I found it to be a great tool.  However, it's got problems syncing with my Windows Mobile powered phone.

I gave up on it after one year of lugging my heavy laptop around.

I would say, however, that the new Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 comes close.  I am rather new to Office 2007 and coming from Office 2003, the leap to Office 2007 for Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint was rather disconcerting at first.  But on day-1 of my personal migration to Outlook 2007, it was rather easy.  And each day, I find more and more tools to make my life a little easier.

I specially like the "drag-and-drop" feature of Outlook 2007.  Say, someone sent me an email that I would like to follow-up on three days after.  I'd just highlight it and drag it to my to-do list or to my calendar - and voila!  Three days after, I would remember and in fact follow it up.

I also like the idea of creating calendars in Outlook 2007.  (OK, I am not entirely sure if this is a new feature and if this feature was available in Outlook 2003.)  But that was exactly what I did today - I now have two calendars on my Outlook:  One for my day to day stuff, and the other one for my professional milestones.  I am sure that this will come in hand as I venture into more and more projects.

It's not perfect - but I really think that it is getting there.

(And Google Calendars?  It's screwing up my schedules - for some reason, it keeps on moving my recurring appointments one hour later!  I think I'll stick to my Outlook for now.)

One wish though:  I would love to be able to sync my Outlook Calendar (at least one of them) with my Live.Com calendar.  That way I don't have to log in to check my Monday appointments every Sunday evening.