What personal GTD / To-Do services lack
I think many would agree that the main problem with most personal GTD / To-Do services is their inconvenience. In pursuit of the maximum functionality that would suit everyone, the developers hang many functions. But, starting from a certain point, each new function does not lead to simplification of work, but to complication, since the loss of time for actions begins to exceed the benefit from the use of services.
About a year ago I tried several services, and then stopped at Workflowy. Three months later, I almost gave up Workflowy and thought about going back to the paper record. The reason was trivial: understanding that this service, from the point of view of implementation, is closest to a simple paper record, I could not organize the system in such a way that the complication problem did not arise. And here I was confronted with what many beginners had probably encountered: it is incredibly difficult to find a description of an adequate experience in using services. It is experience; success stories with details.
The problem of the lack of "experience stories" and dedicated post under habrakatom. If I get an invite, in the next post I will describe the experience of using Workflowy, why I wanted to leave, and what I came to now.
Imagine that you bought a Swiss knife and do not know how to use it. With its help, you need to periodically open canned goods, cut bread, open bottles of soda and fend off wild hedgehogs. Suppose that the tasks are not so linear, various options are possible in their convenience, they cannot be solved by simple enumeration, and there is no unique right solution for each of the tasks. This is the analogy with a newcomer embarking on the development of GTD and asking the main question: “How exactly can this task solve my problems and organize myself?”
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It would seem that help is everywhere: both developers and users are ready to provide it. It's a shame that in most cases their efforts are not aimed at newcomers.
What the knife developer usually writes about:
What users usually write about:
Does this solve newbie questions? Does not solve. Even if he knows how to open a knife, he still does not understand how to cut bread. For now he will understand, he will be bitten by wild hedgehogs several times. Much more informative will be 5 user stories describing their approaches to cutting bread. Let 3 of 5 stories be crooked, the fourth will be about chopping boards, and the fifth method will not please the user. Familiarization with this experience in any case reduces the time spent on development. And developers get a unique monitoring tool, how the functions invented by them are used.
I am by no means against the help that users and developers are creating now. On the contrary, it is mostly useful; but, unfortunately, it is often just not enough to get used to GTD.
Another important thesis for me. I believe that there are similar descriptions of online experience. But at the same time they are drowning in the issuance of the first pages of search engines, filled with "ordinary" articles of developers and users. Probably there is no better solution than centrally collecting similar stories directly on the developer’s website.
PS In the text GTD is used as the designation of the class of programs. This is not entirely correct, but, in my opinion, corresponds to common practice.
PPS I always plead for not chewing, but giving, as Zhvanetsky said, an extract. Who needs it, he will come home and dilute (he will look for additional information). The post is not about the need to write detailed instructions. On the contrary, it is normal for a person to specify only the direction and restrict himself to basic principles.
About a year ago I tried several services, and then stopped at Workflowy. Three months later, I almost gave up Workflowy and thought about going back to the paper record. The reason was trivial: understanding that this service, from the point of view of implementation, is closest to a simple paper record, I could not organize the system in such a way that the complication problem did not arise. And here I was confronted with what many beginners had probably encountered: it is incredibly difficult to find a description of an adequate experience in using services. It is experience; success stories with details.
The problem of the lack of "experience stories" and dedicated post under habrakatom. If I get an invite, in the next post I will describe the experience of using Workflowy, why I wanted to leave, and what I came to now.
Imagine that you bought a Swiss knife and do not know how to use it. With its help, you need to periodically open canned goods, cut bread, open bottles of soda and fend off wild hedgehogs. Suppose that the tasks are not so linear, various options are possible in their convenience, they cannot be solved by simple enumeration, and there is no unique right solution for each of the tasks. This is the analogy with a newcomer embarking on the development of GTD and asking the main question: “How exactly can this task solve my problems and organize myself?”
')
It would seem that help is everywhere: both developers and users are ready to provide it. It's a shame that in most cases their efforts are not aimed at newcomers.
What the knife developer usually writes about:
- "Hooray! We are releasing a new knife model. It is twice as good as the previous model, and we also eliminated the bug with opening the second longest blade. ”
- “We have added a plug to the case. How to get it, see the video. ”
What users usually write about:
- "There are seven different knives, here are their descriptions and screenshots." Slightly better: “I tried seven knives. The fifth knife has a blue case, and the sixth does not open in rainy weather. ” Even better : “The second knife showed itself perfectly when opening the fruithouse. This is most important to me, so I settled on it. ”
- “Since I bought this knife, I have twice progressed at work. I love you developers! ”
- "The knife of the First Knife Factory integrates perfectly into the backpack from the First Backpack Factory"
Does this solve newbie questions? Does not solve. Even if he knows how to open a knife, he still does not understand how to cut bread. For now he will understand, he will be bitten by wild hedgehogs several times. Much more informative will be 5 user stories describing their approaches to cutting bread. Let 3 of 5 stories be crooked, the fourth will be about chopping boards, and the fifth method will not please the user. Familiarization with this experience in any case reduces the time spent on development. And developers get a unique monitoring tool, how the functions invented by them are used.
I am by no means against the help that users and developers are creating now. On the contrary, it is mostly useful; but, unfortunately, it is often just not enough to get used to GTD.
Another important thesis for me. I believe that there are similar descriptions of online experience. But at the same time they are drowning in the issuance of the first pages of search engines, filled with "ordinary" articles of developers and users. Probably there is no better solution than centrally collecting similar stories directly on the developer’s website.
PS In the text GTD is used as the designation of the class of programs. This is not entirely correct, but, in my opinion, corresponds to common practice.
PPS I always plead for not chewing, but giving, as Zhvanetsky said, an extract. Who needs it, he will come home and dilute (he will look for additional information). The post is not about the need to write detailed instructions. On the contrary, it is normal for a person to specify only the direction and restrict himself to basic principles.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/201218/
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