Latest victim of the global economy: my to-do list

[wshaffer]

So, for a good while now, I've been using an online service called Stikkit to manage my calendar/to-do list. It's a neat little service for a variety of reasons, but the three main reasons I like it are:

1. It does a small amount of intelligent processing of what I type. So, for example, I can type, "Call John Smith on Monday," and it translates Monday to a calendar date of December 1, and, if I have a phone and address entered for John Smith in a separate entry, it hyperlinks to that.


2. It's online, so I can get to it from any internet-enabled computer.


3. It supports tagging, so if I just want to see items related to work, or items related to home, or errands I need to run, or whatever, I can do that easily.

Unfortunately, Values of n, the company that makes Stikkit, is shutting down. So, no more Stikkit after December 8. So, I need to find a replacement.

There's an online service called Remember the Milk that looks like it has most of the features that I valued in Stikkit. On the other hand, part of me is considering going back to pen and paper, on the grounds that the economy will have to get really bad before the paper mills shut down.

How do you all out there manage your to-do lists?

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Text file and Google Calendar.

[amoken.livejournal.com]

Events with assignable dates/times go into Google Calendar. Floating to-do items go into OmniFocus on my laptop.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I use Todoist, which appears to be somebody's labor of love. It occasionally goes down, but typically not for very long.

[14cyclenotes.livejournal.com]

I have used Remember the Milk, but I've always been a little unhappy with them. Nowadays I use Reqall for reminders that I want to submit by phone or IM or when I want to receive a reminder by phone or IM. Works great when I'm driving home and think of something or when I know I'll forget and need a nudge.

For regular To-Dos I'm leaning away from RTM and toward Springpad. It's not yet as mature as RTM, but it already has features that I wished RTM did, such as support for GTD and the ability to make projects with subprojects.

One nice thing about both RTM and Springpad is the ability to integrate to-dos and appointments with Google Calendar. I'm working a lot more with gCal these days and I appreciate any service that connects/syncs with my calendar.

Here's my overall system at the moment:

I carry a cheap spiral notebook and pen with me at all times. In the notebook I keep a Pocketmod that has my to-do list and a calendar on it. Whenever I think of something that I need to do, or pick up a bit of info that I want to follow up, I write in the notebook or call it in to Reqall if I'm in the car.

Once a week I sit down and review my notes and any spare bits of paper that people hand me (business cards, sale announcements, etc,) for new business. I look over my project list on Springpad and note what I need to do next for each project. I go back over my calendar and to do items for the past week and write down anything that this sparks in my head as new business. I update my "Next Actions" in Springpad (which I track by the tag "Next"). Then I put all this new business into Springpad and generate my list of tasks for the coming week.

Springpad automatically transfers my appointments to Google Calendar, and I can track them through my iGoogle page (my home page in Google). I note any reminders I will need in Reqall, and print a new Pocketmod with that week's tasks to carry around with me in my notebook. All of this takes me 30 minutes to an hour normally, but it saves me even more time and gives me enormous peace of mind knowing that I don't have to remember things. My system is set up so that all of my most important stuff is either on a piece of paper in my pocket or coming to me by text message when I need it, or both.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Springpad looks really cool - I'm definitely checking that out.

Google Calendar looks like a winner, too. Thanks!