Let me start by syaing that I discovered Scrivener a month ago by poring over forums regarding grad school and after all the high recommendations I downloaded it and have fallen in LOVE! It has helped me stay organized not only with my personal writing but also my school related works and I cannot recommend it enough!
I am trying out the beta test on Scapple and am over the moon that you guys have written something that helps the creative process even more without the rigid āmind mapā formula!
So with two lovely programs I am sold on the fact that you guys (and the peeps that use your lovely programs) know software that works for writers and Iām hoping anyone on here can help me out.
I am looking for an app or software for my Mac that would be of the list keeping variety. My To-Do lists have To-Do lists these days and I need something that is a little less rigid than my Reminders app but still allows me to have checklists I can mark off as items are completed. There are tons available for iPad but I havenāt run across any good ones for Mac that arenāt of the GTD variety. I need something that doesnāt take ages to set up and doesnāt adhere to a āformulaā of how to accomplish things.
Since I found Scrivener and Scapple by reaching out on a forum I figure it couldnāt hurt to ask on here for any ideas on apps or pointers to use Scrivener for that purpose. I know Scapple will come in handy for free flowing ideas, but I also need something for structure as well.
I sympathise. I have tried all sorts of applications that turn out to be simply too complex, convoluted or fanciful for what I need. I have licences for OmniFocus and Things, but while each of them is perfectly adequate, somehow they donāt quite meet my requirements, in some vague unquantifiable way, so I seldom use them. Iād happily recommend either of them in certain circumstances. Theyāre both OK if Iām feeling organised ā but letās face it, if youāre feeling organised, a simple piece of paper and a pencil would be a perfectly adequate solution. And if you want a specific paper-based system, I would probably recommend the Autofocus system by Mark Forster: http://markforster.squarespace.com/autofocus-system/
Since I have decided that organisational chaos lies within me and is not something that can be resolved simply by buying yet another software application, I have resolved not to buy any more task management apps. Something I have trialled but not bought is TaskPaper, and that might match what youāre looking for. Or you might decide that you can do what you want with a simple checkbox list in any application of your choice, which is what I have opted forā¦
On the other hand, if by āstructureā you mean the structure of your work, rather than your task management, I would suggest Scrivener itself as the solution. Thatās what I use for structuring my writing, at any rate.
Iām not sure if you have looked at the plain text todotxt world, but might be of interest. I like that I can use some of the various apps, that work pretty well, but also can just use any old text editor that I happen to like.
Keep the file in Dropbox and youāre synced across all your devices.
Sadly, my experience is very similar to Astridās (although, while I have a licence for Things, I managed to hold off buying a licence for OF as well).
For simple checklists, TaskPaper does look good.
For a paper & pen checklist, I agree that itās worth investigating Autofocus (or its replacement, āSuperfocusā, which itself has now been superseded by the āFinal Versionā - which Iāve only very recently seen).
Of all the systems and apps Iāve tried since the late 80ās, the one I have found most helpful was LifeBalance by Llamagraphics. Itās certainly not a simple checklist and it took me a while to set it up ājust rightā, but once I did the time that I then used it with my Palm and Mac remains the most productive period of my life. Unfortunately, an update a few years ago that enabled it to sync directly with iCal also caused it to delete old appointments (rather than ignoring them like other apps) so I had to stop using it. Despite this, and the fact itās now looking rather dated, it remains a powerful and remarkable piece of software, it just no longer meets my needs.
If you want something a little less overwhelming than LB, then SmartDay by LeftCoast Logic might fit the bill. It offers more flexibility than iCal and Reminders, but still syncs with them as well as with an online web-access version. There is an iPad app with an iPhone version on the way (but they have a couple of other iPhone apps that will work in the interim).
Having said all that, Iām now just using Appleās iCal and Reminders. Not brilliant, but sufficient.
I would second the TaskPaper recommendation. Itās a good little program with a lot of depth if you want it, but itās surface is extremely easy to learn. The thing I like about TaskPaper is that it lets me explain what Iām doing, as well as keep track of what I need to do. I like to jot down notes whenever I do something that requires some research, so that if I ever need to do that again in the future I can just pull up my notes an benefit from that. TaskPaperās loose structure of combining free-form text with āto doā lines makes this a natural act.
I am becoming a fan of apps that are free and work on the Web.
So for basic task management I am using Wunderlist. wunderlist.com
Itās easy to set up, maintain, and launch with a bookmark.
It also runs on various phones and tablets.
And itās free. You might enjoy trying it out.
I donāt know anything about Wunderlist, and have heard of it for the first time only 10 seconds ago when reading druidās post, so this is absolutely not a comment on that application. But my husband is always saying āif itās free, youāre not the customer, youāre the product being soldā. Iām a bit wary of free stuff. No doubt you will all tell me how silly I amā¦
I downloaded a trial of Taskpaper and am going to give it a whirl for a day or two and see how that works out. I am hoping it can keep multiple lists going at a time.
I have tried Wunderlist and although there are things about it I like, it doesnāt sync very well across platforms, at least not for me. Itās free, which is groovy, but the lack of sync and having to delete/add things multiple times was a turn off. Iām lucky if I remember where my pajamas are these days, much less what I added/subtracted from my list the second I close it (grad school time management has been a beastly beast for me!)
Like I said, thanks for all the suggestions! Fingers crossed Taskpaper pans out but Iām also curious to hear more about using Scrivener as a simple set up of task lists if anyone does that or knows of anything else.
Iāve just read a review of Folding Text in MacUser UK. Seems that that can do to-do lists as well as other things. You might like to read this thread:
Might not want to post that sentiment over in the Linux section of the forum.
But, to be fair with stuff like this I would tend to agree. Large-scale projects of human collaboration like Firefox and Linux, thatās the good free stuff. Chrome on the other handāone is most certainly a product!
I wonder if youāve overlooked the possibilities of a simple spreadsheet. You may not have MS Office, but you can get LibreOffice for free, and their Calc is every bit as good.
You can set it up to suit just your needs, not someone elseās idea of what your needs might be. I have one with columns for start date, target date, actual finish date, requirement (what you want to achieve) and solution. When an item is finished I change the text to strike-through, and as I go through the list, I can change the background colour if I see that something is being forgotten. Another useful column might be for priority, of course.
