I’d be loathe to go through my emails of late, as the document management system we use at work is labourous when saving emails and it can sometimes be difficult to know when a particular conversation is completed and the thread can be saved.  But yesterday I was sick of seeing so many emails in my inbox and not knowing what I had yet to do so I just worked my way through.

I now have no emails in my inbox; 7 in my ‘to be done’ folder and about 12 in my ‘waiting on’ folder.

Now feeling very pleased with myself.

What I now use:

• Toodledo - the current staple of my system, it manages my work and personal tasks and allows me to track by context, goal or time I have available.  I especially like the ‘schedule’ option which asks me my context and how much time I have, and allocates a task for me based on the priority I have assigned.
• Outlook – I just can’t escape it.  My email account at work is delivered to my Outlook inbox and most of my work tasks arrive there.  Add to that, I have a WinMo phone and it backs up to Outlook on a periodic basis.  Outlook isn’t my email client of choice for home, but it still has to be accounted for.
• Franklin Covey Planner: I have a beautiful Franklin Covey planner that I use at home for notes, task lists and other reference material.  I don’t store my current task list in the planner, but use it more for notes and reference materials.  I also don’t currently use my planner at work, it is purely personal.
• WinMo Phone: This is the lynch pin of the entire system.  My personal email is delivered to my phone as well as muy gmail account, and it goes with me everywhere.  At the moment I can’t keep up with my Toodledo task list on my phone, as the Toodledo mobile site doesn’t work that well with my phone, but I have everything else at hand.

Things I’d like to add/use:

• Evernote.  I have played with Evernote in the past, but just can’t get the hang of it.  I’d really like to though.
• Remember the Milk: I have a RTM account that I use for some lists, but due to a rather painful input UI, I just don’t use it as much as I should.  Which is why I moved to Toodledo.
• Delicious.  Like Evernote, I’ve never really managed to get the hang of Delicious.  One day perhaps.

At this stage, my system is still far from perfect.  I think I still have too many variables where something can go wrong and things can get lost in the system, but I’m slowly minimalising everything down to a few trusted collection buckets.

Want to read it too?  Grab it from Amazon, or Fishpond if you are in Australia.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d take a good hard look at what I’m using to make sure it is the most efficient for me.

The Story So Far…

I currently have a Vista-based PC, a WinMo 6 smartphone and a number of paper-based notebooks and online task and calendaring accounts.  I use Outlook on the PC (only for syncing with the Smartphone) and Pocket Informant on the WinMo phone for handling calendar appointments, contacts and tasks.

Some of my tasks are in the phone.  Some are in my Remember the Milk account (mostly shared task lists for shopping and housework) and some are floating around in a less than helpful fashion in my head.

So what do I want…?

The ideal task system:

• Online so I can access it from anywhere – I want to be able to see my contexts and tasks from either home or work.
• Import/Export Capabilities – for dragging my current tasks in and out (less of an issue if I get my next wish).
• Syncing/Mobile Access – My phone is my primary device so it must have at least a mobile webpage for access.  Ideally a Winmo client.  Double-bonus-points for a syncing client that integrates with Pocket Informant on my device.
• Sharing – I share task lists with other people.  I want to be able to keep doing this.
• Intuitive/Easy to use/Pretty/Easy – yadda.  All the things everyone else wants.
• Functionality -  I’d love to be able to set up larger projects containing multiple tasks and have tasks unable to start until another task is completed.  If nothing else, then reminders, the ability to set due dates and priorities and a percentage complete/status are a must have.
• Cost – I’m not against paying (although I really enjoy free) however a trial period is essential for paid services.  Cost should be reasonable and double-bonus points for multiple currency payments.  I don’t operate in US Dollars much and at the moment the exchange rate makes everything twice the price.

So what am I prepared to do?

Test.  Trial.  Experiment.  Review.

I intend to trial a number of online task lists over the next few weeks to find the one I really like.  I have a list of task list applications I have found already and will be expanding it as time goes along.  I’m really hopefully that I’ll be able to find an application that will fulfill at least most of my requirements while keeping the downsides to a minimum.

I’ll report back on my results and provide some feedback and scoring based on my wish list above.

The list (in no particular order)…

• Vitalist (I’m beginning here as I reviewed this application quite some time ago and felt it needed another look)
• Task2Gather
• Goals on Track (Thanks for the rec, Harry)
• Remember the Milk
• Toodledoo
• Todoist
• Doris
• GTDagenda
• Doitdoitdone
• Wipee List

I expect to expand this list as I find more but if you have an application you love that isn’t on the list, let me know and I’ll put it into the mix.