iGTD on par with KGTD

[Luhmann]

I have high hopes for OmniFocus when it comes out, but those desperate for something as good as KGTD, even a little better, that works now might wish to try iGTD (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24288). As of the latest release it is the first real alternative to KGTD I've seen for Mac OS X. It is a solid and well thought out program which includes iApp integration and a QuickSilver plugin, and all the GTD goodness you'd want. I can easily imagine how something like OmniFocus could be even better (especially on the GUI front), but at least there is no need to wait indefinitely to start getting things done.

[mspong]

I have high hopes for OmniFocus when it comes out, but those desperate for something as good as KGTD, even a little better, that works now might wish to try iGTD (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24288). As of the latest release it is the first real alternative to KGTD I've seen for Mac OS X. It is a solid and well thought out program which includes iApp integration and a QuickSilver plugin, and all the GTD goodness you'd want. I can easily imagine how something like OmniFocus could be even better (especially on the GUI front), but at least there is no need to wait indefinitely to start getting things done.

I tried iGTD recently, and at first I was greatly impressed... it is a very nice program - but it is missing one essential feature that makes it completely unusable for implementing GTD. It sorts all tasks within projects alphabetically, and gives you NO WAY to reorder the tasks! This has been discussed on the iGTD forums, and the author plans to implement this, but until then it's useless. Projects don't proceed in alphabetical order! The "next action" is not necessarily the next in the alphabet.

[wharper]

It sorts all tasks within projects alphabetically, and gives you NO WAY to reorder the tasks!

It seems to me that in iGTD, tasks within projects can be sorted by either their name, their context, or their priority. It's just a matter of clicking on the whichever column heading you want to sort by, as is common in the Finder 'list' view and in iTunes.

I figure that you can use the priority feature to determine which actions should be next, and take it from there.

This guy is updating this app like crazy - the one big thing that I've been tripping up on has been the inability to re-size the lefthand column, preventing me from seeing the whole line of text for the project description (a big drawback from me, as I've been trying to get better at defining a project by describing it's ideal successful outcome, an often overlooked aspect of GTD, imho).

He's told me that a fix for that is in the works as well, so if you don't see something you like in a current build, check back in a week and it might be fixed.

I'm still very curious about OmniFocus, but having abandoned kGTD a few months ago for a paper-based system, I'm currently inching towards iGTD simply because it seems promising enough to give it a whirl.

[Bob Nahasapeemapetilon]

As of the latest release it is the first real alternative to KGTD I've seen for Mac OS X. It is a solid and well thought out program which includes iApp integration and a QuickSilver plugin, and all the GTD goodness you'd want...

I’ve read this type of comment about many GTD apps, and typically they’re missing basic GTD features. :)

Last time I tried this it was missing Delegate/Waiting For functionality. The author mentioned that future releases would have these features, but I have no idea whether they’re already implemented or not.
And a critical factor for me is trustworthiness. For GTD purposes I don’t really trust an application that gets updated so frequently.

I may give it another try once it’s version 1.5 or 2.0. The author is very responsive and I wish him the best with his program.
For now, it’s back to ThinkingRock. And version 2 will probably see the light of day this week! For me TR has set the standard.

[ueila]

A lot of people have been waiting for TR2.0 for months and meanwhile iGTD is catching up fast. I had another look at iGTD over the weekend and found using it so easy that I setup all my TR tasks and projects in under an hour.

I'm eager to see what happens with OmniFocus and hope it's both simple and a killer application but for now it's iGTD and as others have said the pace of development and response of its creator is astounding.

:)

[Luhmann]

Last time I tried this it was missing Delegate/Waiting For functionality. The author mentioned that future releases would have these features, but I have no idea whether they’re already implemented or not.

Waiting for has been implemented. And it seems new features are implemented every day, if not twice in a day. Just today MailTags support was integrated, I've yet to try it out!

If you tried it a few weeks ago, I strongly suggest giving it another try before commenting, as development is moving fast.

It is interesting to see the difference between how he works and how the Omni Group works. He is all about getting something out there and responding to customers to constantly make it better, while the Omni Group seems to be more about trying to get things perfect before releasing it. Both approaches have their merits, but I'm definitely happy to have something I can use now which has all the features and more of KGTD. Syncing works much better for me than it ever did in KGTD, and the smart folders are really nice.

[Bob Nahasapeemapetilon]

If you tried it a few weeks ago, I strongly suggest giving it another try before commenting, as development is moving fast.


I did preface my comment by saying “Last time I tried this...” :)

iGTD is definitely not something I would use for GTD purposes right now. As you mentioned, development is moving fast. Once it’s more developed I may try it. Even with OmniFocus I’m not that interested in testing the early betas. I did give my feedback to the author. He’s the one who told me that he was going to implement the features I mentioned. :) I’m surprised that Waiting For is (somewhat) implemented, but Delegate is still missing. Apparently that’s planned for 1.4.x., along with printing. The author is very friendly and responsive, as well as appreciative of all the feedback he’s been receiving.

I do hope that it becomes a great GTD application, but for me it’s not that useful in it’s current state. (At the moment) I don’t want to be working for a GTD program. I want the program to work for me and help me in Getting Things Done.

As much as I often enjoy beta testing, right now for GTD I would prefer something more evolved, or in the words of David Allen a trustworthy system.

[Bob Nahasapeemapetilon]

A lot of people have been waiting for TR2.0 for months and meanwhile iGTD is catching up fast.

The Mac version is already out :)
It’s still preliminary, but I imagine that it will evolve quickly in the next couple of weeks. TR already worked for me better than all of the alternatives I tried. TR 2 adds many useful features.
I won’t post a thorough review yet, since this is the first release, intended to get user feedback. I would not use it yet for GTD purposes. :)

[Luhmann]

Interesting discussion on 43Folders about iGTD:

http://www.43folders.com/2007/04/08/igtd-quicksilver/

My favorite quote: "this ongoing Newton user has finally shifted the task management out of the Newton back to a laptop. iGTD is fabulous"

While it is a beta product and in development, it already has a decent backup system in place. I have to admit I'm really liking it, but I'll give TR 2 a look.

[Bob Nahasapeemapetilon]

The best thing is that we have choices :)

If you want to read a bit about the preliminary Thinking Rock 2, check out the following:
http://www.zzamboni.org/brt/2007/04/12/ooooh-shiny-thinking-rock-20/

Right now users are reporting bugs and offering comments and suggestions. I can’t wait for their official release.

[BwanaZulia]

Hey OmniGroup... time to release the hounds.

iGTD has caught up and is about to start to eat into your profits. Get OmniFocus out there or hire the guy doing iGTD and fast.

BZ

[Terry]

I'm using iGTD now, was using kGTD. I like iGTD a great deal, I post on the forum, make recommedations, even made a donation. But despite all that, I still prefer the outline UI of OO and the tremendous flexibility of the outline paradigm.

From what I've gathered from the limited OMNI releases about Focus, the UI will be very similar to OO. But then again, iGTD has Smart Folders, and it syncs very well.

Basically I've bought iGTS already, but I'm still really looking forward to the OmniFocus release.

Isn't competition great?

[BwanaZulia]

The one thing keeping me on the OF wait list (and not jumping into the iGTD) is that Omni has promised a kGTD import which with me and my 80+ projects and hundreds of tasks is VERY important.

I will wait for the great Omni a bit more (May-ish).

BZ

[Terry]

OK, iGTD has been out for awhile and everyone and their grandmother is using it, it seems, me included.

However, as the feature requests are becoming more refined, due to people actually using iGTD for some time, I'm seeing a pattern develope. It could just be me and my wishful thinking, however.

I keep seeing requests for the type of features that already exist in kGTD. Such as manual sorting, start times, easy upgrading/downgrading of tasks to and from projects.

Now I'm sure it's me, but the user interface issue of iGTD still bothers me, probably because I started with OmniOutliner and kGTD. I really like the basic outline view and the great flexibility of OO. I don't see this ever happening in iGTD.

It's just a different viewing preference, and I'm sure a great deal of people prefer the iGTD view.

As it stands right now, I will continue using iGTD because kGTD is slow and clunky feeling. The more I use iGTD, the more I'm looking forward to OmniFocus, if I understand correctly that the UI will similar to that of OO.

[Terry]

Another thing I just realized in my wishful thinking moment as I was opening iCal and iGTD.

I was thinking that it's too bad that GTD isn't already possible in OSX. That's when it dawned on me that OSX does include the basic building block for GTD.

What does everyone seem to do with their data in a GTD app? They sync it with iCal. Why? OK, no hopping over the fence to view this from the other side, the stuff we have in iCal is in GTD, which really means GTD is a glorified, additional interface for iCal. In otherwords, a To-Do sorter.

I hate how To-Do's are implemented in iCal. Events are nicely sorted into a regular calendar view of some type with some basic graphics for viewing. To-Do's is nothing but this big long list all bunched together in a single column.

As far as I can tell, the only thing that prevents a bunch of To-Do's in iCal/GTD from being viewed in the much more organized and prettier view like events are is the fact that To-Do's don't have a time stamp on them.

On the iGTD forum I think I remember reading a request for flowchart type view. Like the OmniPlan view.

So what's the point of syncing stuff with iCal? When the syncing is done, it's just all crammed into a single column list and looks terrible, well, to me anyway.

Related to this is the GTD Context, or doing stuff based on where we are at the moment. What determines where we're going to be? More than likely some Event (the pretty view in iCal) that makes us be some place at a set time. Not always, but this is how it is for me.

So in reality, it's an event, or maybe the lack of some event, that controls where we are, we just refer to GTD when we find ourselves there.

Sorry for rambling, just expressing my thoughts that probably don't mean a darn thing in the end.

[Bob Nahasapeemapetilon]

...I was thinking that it's too bad that GTD isn't already possible in OSX. That's when it dawned on me that OSX does include the basic building block for GTD.

Ready-Set-Do! for is not tied to a particular application for GTD purposes, but it does rely on the OS IIRC.

What does everyone seem to do with their data in a GTD app? They sync it with iCal.

I don’t. I prefer not to use iCal or Address Book. Unfortunately they are becoming the ‘standard’ so any application I do use better have synchronization capabilities with iCal and Address Book.

...Related to this is the GTD Context, or doing stuff based on where we are at the moment. What determines where we're going to be? More than likely some Event (the pretty view in iCal) that makes us be some place at a set time. Not always, but this is how it is for me.

For me a context is not merely a physical place. I can be at my desk and use the context @Phone, @Email, @Computer, etc. Same place, different contexts.

[pvonk]

Now I'm sure it's me, but the user interface issue of iGTD still bothers me, probably because I started with OmniOutliner and kGTD. I really like the basic outline view and the great flexibility of OO. I don't see this ever happening in iGTD.

It's just a different viewing preference, and I'm sure a great deal of people prefer the iGTD view.
.

Yes, I agree...

For me it's the other way around. I've had OmniOutliner for quite some time and did use kGTD. The one thing I always felt about the two was that I *didn't* want an outline view for a GTD app. I always felt the OO view was a kluge for a GTD app and have been hoping Omni does not stick with this paradigm in OmniFocus. After trying out most other GTD apps and using a few in succession, I finally settled on iGTD. There's a feel about it that works for me - call it the workflow. Whatever.

- Pierre

[vocaro]

What does everyone seem to do with their data in a GTD app? They sync it with iCal. Why?

I sync with iCal so that my next actions will propagate to all my other devices via Sync Services. In other words, as soon as the GTD app syncs with iCal, BOOM! The data is everywhere: On my iPod, my Treo, my other Macs...

[pvonk]

I sync with iCal so that my next actions will propagate to all my other devices via Sync Services. In other words, as soon as the GTD app syncs with iCal, BOOM! The data is everywhere: On my iPod, my Treo, my other Macs...

I agree - iGTD is now my front end and editing platform for my tasks and projects. Oh, I will add some to iCal when needed or my Palm, but it then gets synced back to iGTD. Why iCal? I've added things to it like mailtags and Mail Act-On which greatly add to iCal's GTD capabilities. Then there's the syncing to my Palm. I also use Quicksilver for quick insertions into iGTD. In all, I like the package I've put together; iCal is an integral part of it.

[gcmartin]

Has anyone tried Jumsoft's Process2?
http://jumsoft.com/process/

It's $39 for single user license, I downloaded the trial version and it looks pretty slick. I seem to recall that it has 2-way iCal synconiziation, is a true outliner, and to my surprise imports/exports OmnisOutliner and OPML files. It also has a resource area for documents and websites which seems useful.

[TommyW]

Speaks volumes about the level of built up interest here.

[dude]

Speaks volumes about the level of built up interest here.

If that doesn't push out the beta release, I don't know what will.

[pomares]

Tried iGTD and while the UI looks sleek, I feel that actiontastic in its more elementary ways provides more flexibility than iGTD. But the feature I like the best is the inbox processing mode. Not quite as good as Inbox's, but then, that's all that was good about Inbox.

I'm not sure if I'm a GTD purist, but it seems that no programme out there helps you implement GTP principles more closely as kGTD does, but it is so damn slow. I have so much stuff going on, I started to really dislike having to wait 3 minutes every time I changed anything and sync'ed. So, for now, I am with actiontastic.

Can't wait to see how OmniFocus does as a pure GTD app.

Seems that development is very active on the iGTD side but I am not convinced yet that adding more features is taking it any closer to GTD

[pvonk]

I'm not sure if I'm a GTD purist

Nor am I - I find that my workflow and my work do not lend themselves well to the GTD as professed by David Allen. For example, his suggestions for "context" don't fit my situation due to my lifestyle, occupation, and specific needs.

iGTD fits me the best, so far. It's clear reading countless forums for other products that there are many different views as to which form of GTD is best for an individual. That's why we have so many emerging GTD apps.

Oh my - just came across yet another GTD app: Frictionless.

[pvonk]

Version 1.4 of iGTD is out and as always, is free. This version adds a whole lot of features. Sorting can be manual or auto. GUI is improved; there's printing. Also has start date as well as the old end date.

OmniFocus will have to prove itself!

[JKT]

Version 1.4 of iGTD is out and as always, is free. This version adds a whole lot of features. Sorting can be manual or auto. GUI is improved; there's printing. Also has start date as well as the old end date.

OmniFocus will have to prove itself!
True, but if iGTD is going to appeal to someone like me (a complete GTD novice), its UI is going to have to improve significantly. I just downloaded it, launched it and tried it out. Haven't got a clue how to make it work. I can enter the name of a task but not the project. I clicked something that made a purple pane appear on the left but clicking it again doesn't get rid of it. I can't input text into the Projects window anywhere (bug?)... I'm very underwhelmed for the second time (I downloaded an earlier version as well and it was even more difficult to comprehend then).

Perhaps I'll experience the same with OmniFocus, but iGTD is not at all intuitive.

[pvonk]

Just goes to show you: different strokes...

True, but if iGTD is going to appeal to someone like me (a complete GTD novice), its UI is going to have to improve significantly. I just downloaded it, launched it and tried it out. Haven't got a clue how to make it work.

For me it's so absolutely intuitive and easy... First you need to define some contexts. Then start defining some projects. When done, you just add tasks as you need them. For each task, assign it to a context and a project. I suggest reading the GTD book by Allen if you haven't done so. The one warning I generally give about the book is that it is "paper based" and readers should understand that they may need to consider variations of the process, since not everyone falls into the daily "work style" of the author.

I can enter the name of a task but not the project. I clicked something that made a purple pane appear on the left but clicking it again doesn't get rid of it. I can't input text into the Projects window anywhere (bug?)...

You need to be looking at a context or a project in order to add a task. Or you can add a new task to the inbox (which is a context), then define a new project if one isn't already defined. The purple pane is always there, except for the "Completed" mode, which you'd rarely look at.

As for text, just add a new task and then add text in the text area ("Task Notes"). Of course, there are the advanced features. In Mail (assuming you have MailTags installed - and this is one great addition to Mail that greatly helps GTD-like work) just press F5 and the email appears in the Inbox. You can later define a context and project. Or you can designate a task as delegated, to wait for, or a "maybe". It has quite a lot under the hood, like tags and links.

[JKT]

For me it's so absolutely intuitive and easy... First you need to define some contexts. Then start defining some projects.
i can create contexts and tasks no problem, but the projects view doesn't let me add anything (at all - can't type anything anywhere, clicking the + button does nothing). However, what is unintuitive to me is that I can input a task, but when I click the Project menu, I can't simply add a new project there and then.
When done, you just add tasks as you need them. For each task, assign it to a context and a project. I suggest reading the GTD book by Allen if you haven't done so. The one warning I generally give about the book is that it is "paper based" and readers should understand that they may need to consider variations of the process, since not everyone falls into the daily "work style" of the author.
I'd prefer not to at this stage - I want to test how easy it is to use OmniFocus without any foreknowledge. My work is entirely based on getting things done at particular times and in particular order anyway, so I probably already work to a rudimentary GTD method. I want to see if OmniFocus can handle the way I do things my way before I learn how to do things some other person's way.
You need to be looking at a context or a project in order to add a task. Or you can add a new task to the inbox (which is a context), then define a new project if one isn't already defined. The purple pane is always there, except for the "Completed" mode, which you'd rarely look at.
See above - I can add tasks without trouble. My point about the pane is that the button I clicked to make it appear did not toggle back to the other view when I clicked it again. Now I see why from your explanation but without foreknowledge that felt very un-Mac-like to me. FWIW, iGTD opened for the first time in the Completed mode (edit: perhaps I left it like that the last time I tried the app... actually it is... I deleted preferences and support and started afresh and the default view is the inbox - my bad).

[pvonk]

Your comment:

"i can create contexts and tasks no problem, but the projects view doesn't let me add anything (at all - can't type anything anywhere, clicking the + button does nothing)."

Something is wrong with your setup. In projects view, I can click the "+" in the purple panel and add a new project; I can click the sideways "T" button and add a subproject to whatever project is in focus. In the main panel, I can press the "+" and a new task comes up - I just fill in the blanks (context, project, start and due dates).

Oh well, the workflow doesn't seem to work for you - that's why there are so many GTD apps coming out. You try on a suit and pick the one that fits you best!

[soundsgoodtome]

I clicked something that made a purple pane appear on the left but clicking it again doesn't get rid of it.

I'm not an iGTD expert, but I've been keeping an eye on it. I, too, hate the purple pane (a new feature, as of v1.4), but the color is customizable.

Hating the purple, I opened preferences, and there it was -- right on the first page: "Background color for sidebars." My guess is Bartlomiej changed the color merely to point out the new custom-color feature. Unfortunatey, he chose an ugly color.

So I changed it to the same light-blue that alternates with white in the middle pane. I did so by using the magnifying glass to capture the color. It took 5 seconds!

I strongly recommend always browsing every app's (a) menus and (b) preferences. It's amazing how much you can learn and how many features you can discover by doing so.