Using Apple's Native Notes and Reminders for GTD with Mountain Lion

August 10, 2012 3:45 PM

GTD Question for Apple users: Is anyone using the baked in notes and reminders apps successfully for their GTD workflow? I've used a lot of third party apps, but with Mountain Lion it now seems worthwhile to use the apps Apple syncs automatically. Thoughts? Links? Suggestions? Thanks.
posted by letstrythis to technology (4 answers total)

On paper it should be useful for only the first level dumping and yet my system remains unset as I've been unable to commit to choose between Things, Wunderlist, and Firetask. Reminders, then, is a nice, non-threatening space that demands little time while giving me the security of getting things down. Today I realized that order can be arranged by dragging.
posted by Mertonian at 9:36 PM on August 10, 2012

Things just added cloud syncing in an update that went out this week, so if you're more comfortable with Things than Reminders, there's no reason to change that I can see.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:14 AM on August 11, 2012

My biggest impediment to implementing GTD was remembering to use the tools, to go back and check my lists.

If you have something and you like it and you are doing this (and you paid for some of that software maybe), stick with it. Switching tools always compounded that first problem for me.

But, my second biggest was some of these things being too smart for their own good. And so, to the heart of your question: Yes, I do use the Mountain Lion default apps and successfully. I do use Reminders, Notes (limited) and flagging stuff in my good ol' email inbox - and yes, I use Mail.app for that.

What I do:

Mail is set up to access both my Gmail and my work Exchange-server based email.

Notes uses iCloud for personal notes, and I activated my Exchange account on that as well (essentially replacing the Notes feature of Outlook).

Same with Reminders: It is plugged into iCloud for personal lists (I have the default "Reminders," an "Apartment Stuff" list, other "context" oriented lists) and Exchange for work lists: the default "Tasks", and a couple other lists for specific realms of work.

I find that covers me.

My third biggest impediment was availability of this information once I had bothered to set something up and then just, you know, getting things done.

Others have noted there are other options for syncing stuff. I find that, mild issues about the skeuomorphics of the UI aside, I can get things done. For my style of work, I know I am getting things done when this fairly simple set of tools doesn't get overloaded and overburdened by a backlog of data.

I am lucky to have a Mac at home, a MacBook air to tote around, an iPhone and an iMac at my desk at the office — it made trying this out easy (and as a registered developer, I've been doing this since Mountain Lion dev betas). Not sure it would be as convenient for others without the same ubiquity (although, in theory, this would allow you to inter-operate with using Outlook in a PC environment in a GTD manner).
posted by mjb at 7:31 AM on August 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yep, I do this. I don't have any problems with it. A GTD-style list is right at home in either Reminders or Notes -- don't let anyone tell you otherwise! My main requirements are: 1) the system has to be available everywhere & work offline (so no Workflowy, etc.) 2) Syncing has to work perfectly all the time with no housekeeping. The built-in apps meet these beautifully.
posted by sudama at 2:27 PM on August 28, 2012