Working away from my Mac
 

I spend significant amounts of my working life in a Windows-only environment, and have still not figured out a really sweet solution for keeping my task lists up to date while working away from my Mac. I was wondering if anyone had any brilliant ideas.

So far I have tried:

OF -> iCal -> iPod - this works well for making sure all my errands etc get done, but doesn't support easy creation of new actions and projects, and is a pain for very long lists of tasks as I can sort by context but not filter on it.

OF -> iCal -> Phone -> Outlook/Exchange -> Phone -> iCal -> OF - kinda works, I can add new tasks really easily, but new projects is not a go-er, and serious changes sometimes get srcewed up on the way back to OF (in particular repeating actions). Also my (Nokia) phone interface to tasks is not as sweet as my iPod's so it's not so pretty for ticking things off away from any computers.

Email -> OF - allows me to do a certain amount of planning, but not to change or update existing projects or to tick things off.

OF -> iCal -> .Mac - I can publish my actions to a web page, which is easier to check from a Windows machine than checking a long list on my iPod. I can't tick anything off, change or add anything.

Things I can't use:

iPhones aren't released for New Zealand yet

OF's web interface, I'd have to leave my laptop on at home which is not very realistic.

So, what has anyone else tried and enjoyed?

Anita

P.S. It's been the 8th here for 10 hours, I want a staggered release :)

I'm in the same boat, but I had to narrow my system a bit, unfortunately.

OF is managing my [I]everything else[/I] stuff (home, side-businesses, etc.), while my Windows work laptop has it's own GTD system for that work.

It would be nice to access OF from anywhere, but currently I have to settle on carrying around a notebook or e-mailing the tasks to be imported into OF.

That's fine for brain dumps, task entry, etc., for later classification, but not good for project management and other adjustments for tasks already created.

I've gotten into the habit of printing off a task list of things I could tick off while at work. I just have to remember to sync that back up with OF when I'm back home.

Here's hoping the iPhone SDK will fix all of this (of course, it would help for me to have an iPhone).

I use Plaxo which works for calendaring, but I notice it does not work for tasks.

Outlook at work - plaxo connector in outlook - plaxo web
Leopard Laptop with OF - plaxo connector for mac - plaxo web

Regards,
Rick

I'm sure hoping for iPod touch capability. (I too work in a pc-only environment.) For now I keep a cheap little notebook that fits in my pocket and periodically will print out a list for a particular context. I do actually find that some time away from my master to-do list is a good thing.

I was thinking about trying OF -> iCal -> Chandler Hub via CalDAV. I think that it works on CalDAV.

I discovered that Chandler Hub, at least, does not work well.

I use an Automator alarm in iCal to automatically mail me several work specific contexts every morning, since I also have to use Windows at work. Throughout the day I use a either very lowtech method of note collecting (a steno pad) or will email myself reminders that a rule will put into OF.

Obviously at the end of the day I have to update everything.

For my calendar its much easier, thanks to Plaxo.

I'm working on something pretty exciting for this exact problem since I just got an iPhone.

The ruby webapp won't work for me, because my primary machine is a laptop, and its often asleep when I'm out.

While I'm excited to see what comes of Omni and the iPhone SDK, I'm not thrilled about a cable based sync and more sync service flukiness

The HTML data bookmark export doesn't let you add tasks on the go.

I think I've found a solution that fits the bill about 87% (at least for me)

I'm hoping I can get a rough draft of it done tomorrow - but its a pretty chunky project and I have to fit it in with all my other things I have to "Get Done".

Sorry to be so mysterious, I want to make sure this works as I think it will before laying it all out.

-P

Any updates here?
 

Anybody work anything else out here? Still waiting for the mystery mentioned in the last post.

My situation is that I have a mac mini at home, and a mac laptop for work. And I really need a way to have all my OF data accessible.

Personally, I have had good luck (unlike a previous poster) getting Leopard iCal to use CalDav with Chandler Hub. So free, instantaneous calendar syncing between my macs is a reality.

I think with that, and the Mail.app plugin, that could be a solution that is fairly robust and totally portable. I can add actions via Mail, and see my remaining items and mark things done in iCal.

The _GOTCHA_ here is that OF won't sync to CalDav calendars. Huge bummer. So all my dreams are shot. I'm in desperate need of a good solution here. Anybody got anything?

[QUOTE=lbodrozic;31048]Anybody work anything else out here? Still waiting for the mystery mentioned in the last post.[/QUOTE]

I think ptone is referring to the announcement described in this [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=6726"]thread[/URL].