Hipster PDA Outcome
At the end of the spring semester last year, I wrote about my ‘Minimal Hipster PDA’ technique that I planned to use for the following summer session and fall classes. I mentioned that my highfalutin’ task management systems, while usually fairly well thought out, generally get abandoned almost immediately.
I hoped my Minimal Hipster PDA would be able to escape this fate. Sadly, this was not the case.
The difficulty (for me) in designing a practical task-management system is that it needs to operate in a set of environments from which no single system can easily be accessed, while still being simple enough that it doesn’t cause more work than it saves.
I don’t like taking my computer to class. I remember information better when I take notes by hand, and the computer provides too tempting a distraction. The rest of the time, at work and at home, I’m at a computer whenever I’m doing any work. I use different machines throughout the day at work, in school labs, and at home, so any system that relies on files being stored on a particular computer is also out.
I’m also a little obsessive-compulsive about not maintaining duplicate documents, so anything that causes me to have to enter tasks more than once (forcing me to later figure out which is the most recent version) is out.
The problem with the Hipster PDA was that it created a third place that information needed to be stored. When I’m in class taking notes, I didn’t want to be trying to write down assignments on separate note cards rather than just writing them in my notebook. At work and at home, I didn’t want to be switching from typing on the computer back to writing longhand, and having to type-in everything to a to-do list and then also update the hard copy seemed like unnecessary complexity.
So, the saving grace was that Google GMail Tasks came out recently. It was actually released very shortly after my original Hipster PDA post. This was a great boon to me, and is what essentially put my Minimal Hipster PDA idea out of business. It’s not perfect, but the GMail Tasks gadget was a pretty good fit for me, because I already use GMail for my personal mail. My school e-mail and e-mail for my band are also forwarded to my GMail account, so I only have one place to check (also, this allows me to run my school mail through GMail’s spam filter, which is much more competent than my school’s Exchange server).
I’ve also taken to using Google Calendar for my scheduling, so everything interacts pretty nicely. Since I use multiple machines throughout the day, having everything stored in the cloud ensures that I only need one version of everything, and it’s always updated everywhere whenever I change anything.
Essentially, my process is this:
- When receiving an assignment in class, write it down in the top margin for that day in my notebook (I have separate notebooks for each class).
- Next time I find myself at a computer, I enter the first step of any new assignments as Google Tasks from my homepage. This ensures that I’m confronted with my list of to-do homework whenever I open a web browser.
- Any the first step of work “action items” are also entered as Google Tasks
- Exams and work events, as well as band practices and shows, are added to Google Calendar
- Upon completing a task, I check it complete and enter the next step of the assignment (be it for class or for my job).
I don’t intend for this to be a big ad for Google applications (lord knows they don’t need any help from me), but I thought it might be worthwhile to post an update in regards to my Getting Things Done experiences. This system seems to be sticking fairly well. I’ve been following this method for about six months now and I feel like it’s helping me stay organized and Get Things Done.
It sounds pretty neat. Is there a way you could get a GMail task set up via a text message? It seems like this would work even better if you could get rid of the “write in the top margin” part of the process.
I want to use a Hipster PDA but I’m running out of pockets and I just don’t feel like it’s organized enough for me to use consistently. My last attempt used the Pomodoro technique, and I liked it, but I’ll have to blog about why it ultimately failed.
I don’t think you can submit a task via text message. That would be excellent, however. I actually submitted that as a feature request when I first started using Google Tasks.
Also, they don’t expose it very well, but there is a way to view the Google Tasks interface by itself without GMail: https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas
Owen, if you have a phone that can send SMS, couldn’t you use a web browser to access google tasks from it? It works on iPhone, Android and I’m sure Palm Pre, so depending on how fancy your phone is you could avoid the “paper” part of the process.
And going back to the stated goal of “a practical task-management system is that it needs to operate in a set of environments from which no single system can easily be accessed, while still being simple enough that it doesn’t cause more work than it saves.”.
If you had an iPod touch or an iPhone you could also view/create your Google Tasks from any environment with the help of an app that I wrote for this purpose – GeeTasks. Does not require permanent network connection, it can sync the changes both ways whenever you get online later. I know you’d rather stick with paper, but since we started discussing SMS I figured this might be on topic.
If I forget to check back here you can always find me in the forums on http://geetasks.com
Cheers.
Well, I don’t have a data plan for my phone, and I don’t plan on getting one. I have unlimited text messages, but getting a data plan would double the cost of my bill.
Also, I’ve yet to see any practical need for an iPhone or any other smartphone, they’re just gadget-envy devices whose only real feature is showing off how much disposable income the owner has.
When I’m at home or at work, I can use a computer to check my e-mail / access the internet / whatever. I don’t need to be checking my e-mail and looking at the internet when I’m not at home. Personally, I enjoy the ability to step away from the machine and leave e-mail answering and other internet tasks for when I’m not busy living my life.
So if Google Tasks (or some other online task system) allowed me to submit tasks via text message, it would be perfect, as I could easily text “Write outline for research paper” (or whatever) during class when it was assigned, but I don’t want to pay sixty bucks extra every month to be able to do it from my phone.
Plus, that just re-invites the “surfing the web during class” problem that I discussed as the reason I don’t just take my laptop to class with me.
The web interface for Google Tasks sucks unless you have an iPhone or Android. I have neither, I get to wander the app ghetto of the Blackberry. NO ONE supports Blackberry.
It would be easier and quicker for me to send a quick SMS text to a number to set up a task. Remember The Milk has similar functionality; if I send a message like “Calculus study group at Library 5 PM tomorrow” it sets up a task as you would expect. Done in one step. Here’s how I just did the same thing on my phone with the web interface to Google Tasks:
1) Start the browser.
2) Enter address, push enter.
3) Scroll to a blank part of the “add tasks” interface and click on it.
4) Type the message. Crud, can’t scroll out of it now that I’ve clicked. I wonder what pressing Enter does? Ugh. It just submitted the task without letting me control which list it shows up in.
5) Oh, smart, instead of seeing “5 PM tomorrow” as a time, it just included it as part of the text. I’ll just edit it.
6) Oh wait. I forgot, I’m too poor for Google to care about me. You can only edit tasks on Android or iPhone. I can mark it complete, and that’s it.
7) So later, I get home and log in to my computer, fix the task, and set up a calendar reminder for it. Easy!
No dice. That’s *harder* than the notebook-oriented task tracking that Brad’s using. It’s a shame that choosing a Blackberry to dodge my Sprint termination fee has made me a 2nd-class citizen in the smartphone market.