Another GTD Contender - Openloopz

There was a slight setback in my GTD life this week. NirvanaHQ have decided to pull the pin on their current Android app direction. They will be looking at developing a new Android app from scratch and it may be a couple of months before we see anything. That means I am left with a second version of the beta. It is functional but as you would expect, buggy.

That means that the 2nd place prize winner is back in my focus once again. I haven't written about Openloopz but I have to say, this little app is quite the cracker!

OpenLoopz, IMHO tick's just about all of the boxes, and the ones it doesn't are being developed.

1. Firstly, it is a very pure implementation of GTD, complete with what I consider to be the Holy Grail on an Android platform, auto next action.
2. Secondly, it is a smooth, bug free, fast light app. It is a pleasure to use. Seriously, you should check it out. If only the majority of Android apps were both as smooth and aesthetically pleasing.
3. OpenLoopz also has a handy little geo location dimension to it. If you tag geographical contexts (like @Home and @Work as opposed to @Computer etc) your list of active tasks will be based upon your location. Very very handy, certainly for someone like me.

The reason why it doesn't have a five star rating from me (and indeed the reason I am still hobbling along with Nirvana HQ instead of OpenLoopz) is that:

1. The big drawback is that it is a hack to make work across multiple devices. There is a backup function, but there is no simple cloud sync option just yet. The developer is working on this as we speak and I look forward to seeing what it will look like.
2. Another smaller pet peeve of mine is the ability to look at a list of tasks by context. I have not been able to figure out how to do this just yet. What I mean is the ability to flick to @Agenda-Team Meeting and get a list of all the tasks I have added to that context quickly. (This was the reason why MLO is in third place, see my previous posts for more info on that handy little app.)

So in my mind, it is a race. NirvanaHQ are working on their Android app to supplement their first class web based GTD system, whilst OpenLoopz has a brilliant Android app but are now working on the back end. A race to the middle. Good luck to the both of them.

Watch this space.

Apps - Cloudmagic

I work in a mixed environment. Android, Windows and Mac. Our organisation has a BYOD policy too.

In such an environment, even thought we use Dropbox as a team, various staff members use a range of different cloud based solutions for file storage.

I would often find myself spending a little bit of time trying to figure out of that shared file we were working on was emailed to me, in Dropbox, in Evernote etc.

Enter this little life saver of an app. Cloudmagic connects to a whole bunch of cloud based storage services and will search across them for you helping you quickly find the file in question. I probably use it once a week but I reckon it saves about 15 minutes each time I do. Give it a crack and let me know what you reckon.

Music to help you concentrate

I have a long train trip to and from work. Just under an hour each way. Each morning I get my inbox to zero and then make a significant start on my to do list.

On the way home, I move all my notes into respective emails or tasks to get stuff done.

One of the biggest hindrances in being productive on the train is intrusive noise. I have found that listening to music that has no lyrics (or lyrics in a language other than English) with a slightly mellow feel with a small degree of tension helps me concentrate well and get stuff done.

I have been slowly compiling this playlist on Spotify and I share it with you here for your listening (and productive) pleasure! Playlist - Train Trance

Manage labels in Gmail Android app to keep you focused.

If you take a close look at my notification area down the bottom right hand corner of my ASUS Transformer Infinity, you will see two GMail icons. This is a little trick that I picked up a while ago.

If you are involved in several areas of work, or if you like to split your work and personal email, you can actually create separate notifications for GMail labels.

I have a general inbox. In addition there is a mailing list that I am part of and I need to be on top of that one as well. So I set the label (from within the GMail app itself) so that when GMail sorts my inbox and transfers incoming mail from my inbox to the folder containing email from this mailing list, I get a separate notification.

Helps me focus. Hope you find this little tip helpful.

Boost productivity on Android. Use a mouse! (Oh, and I'm done transferring my Tumblr posts to Blogger!)

Done! I have transferred all my posts manually from Tumblr to Blogger.

Remember how I said that I was tempted to use my PC? Well I remembered at the last minute (before I gave way to temptation) that you can plug just about any kind of USB mouse into the Transformer series and off you go.

I did so with my Transformer Infinity and the copy/paste process was speeded up by about a factor of three! Keep this in mind if you have a Transformer and you want to be that little bit more productive.

Best office app on Android? My vote goes to Polaris Office.

When I bought my ASUS Transformer TF101, it came with an unassuming app called Polaris Office. I have not realised just how much I have come to appreciate this elegant, well designed and very sturdy piece of software.

I upgraded my TF101 to the Prime (TF201) and it also came with Polarise Office as a part of the stock software.

I recently upgraded phones and was looking through the app store for Polaris. I found it but I was not able to install it on any of my devices. Got the old “not valid in your country” rubbish! I guess I will have to wait before the company feels confident enough to go public on Android with it.

Better go write my letter to Santa!

The new beastie! Motorola RAZR HD

It’s been a while since I posted last. It’s been a very busy time of year. In addition I’ve been promoted to a new role which includes some management responsibilities.

This means I need to be even more productive.

All of this activity coincides with my old mobile phone contract reaching its conclusion. And you know what that means!

That’s right! New phone!

After doing some little research, I decided on the new Nexus 4. Problem was ever since it’s release, the Australian site had constantly been sold out.

So I researched both the Samsung S3 and the Motorola RAZR HD.

In the end I decided on the Motorola. The deciding factors in the end were (a) exceptional battery life of almost 2 days in standby mode, (b) kevlar chassis (I bang and drop stuff) and most importantly, ever since Google bought Motorola, (c) the Android updates are becoming more and more vanilla like, with less an less bloatware.

I’m about a week in with the new phone and am really liking the simple things like Smart Actions. The improvement in Google voice actions is also pretty impressive. My experience is that Google Voice Actions is simpler, faster and more effective for productivity than Siri on my partners new iPhone 5 (we got new phones at the same time).

Hopefully with my transition to my new role almost complete and with a new phone, regular updates will be the norm.