Filed under Computers
I have been using GTD since the “first” book by David Allen.
There are numerous web based and desktop systems to implement GTD. I have used the following personally.
Desktop (Windows)
Tudumo – Simple, but almost too simple. Useful and very fast if tracking a small number of tasks.
MyLifeOrganized – Complex, takes too much time to set up. Great for active project management.
Web-Based
Remember the Milk – I stuck with this the longest and found it most useful. However, it was also too complex. I was spending more time in the system than doing stuff. Someone else has your data!
Nozbe – Pretty good and links well with other services. I found it too complex for my needs. Someone else has your data!
Enter Tracks
I had used Tracks earlier (v1.7.2) running it on InstantRails on my Windows Vista laptop. However I tried unsuccessfully to run v2.0 on my Win7 (64 bit) machine. Although, Bitnami provided a desktop stack to run Tracks 2.0 on Windows, it involved a resource heavy installation.
The simplicity and responsiveness of the Tracks interface appeals to me. I can also make the system as complex/simple as I want it to be.
Although you can find hosted versions of Tracks, I am a was a bit reticent to have my data hosted online without any control.
Running Tracks in the cloud
The solution I use now is a Bitnami Tracks stack running on AWS as a micro-instance. Cost effective (about $10/month), secure and accessible from anywhere – including mobile browsers.
Configuration is simple and AWS offers ample help to get your instance up and running and getting your domain pointing to it. One gotcha is that you have to open the http port in your instance firewall before you can browse to it. Took me 10 minutes to figure this one out!
Viewing your tasks on the desktop
You can subscribe to the Tracks iCal feed in Windows calendar. However, a simpler method is to view it in the Sidebar gadgets on the desktop.
The Windows Live Calendar gadget (still in beta, but works well for me) will show the iCal feed on dated and tickler actions.
The RSS feed gadget (installed by default in Windows) will show any RSS feed from Tracks that you subscribe to in IE.
a4209322-80c8-4e3d-9d9f-ad09a0666dc3|0|.0