In my professional life as the “IT Guy” I have road tested many useful iPhone and Windows Apps which help you remember tasks and prioritize them. Some were good, some were deleted within minutes and some were almost perfect but just lacked that additional piece of coding you need to “get things done”. That piece of coding is hardwired into our brains and its called “Distributed Cognition”. It’s that last bit of planning where you get all the impending tasks out of your head and spread them out in front of you and then BOOM, things are clearer and you see a picture of how your next 2 hours/2 Days/2 Weeks will be spent.
“The great thing about external brainstorming is that in addition to capturing your original ideas, it can help generate many new ones that might not have occurred to you if you didn’t have a mechanism to hold your thoughts and continually reflect them back to you. It’s as if your mind were to say, “Look, I’m only going to give you as many ideas as you feel you can effectively use. If you’re not collecting them in some trusted way, I won’t give you that many. But if you’re actually doing something with the ideas—even if it’s just recording them for later evaluation—then here, have a bunch! And, oh wow! That reminds me of another one, and another,” etc.”
“Getting Things Done” by David Allen
In essence, we all need certain tools to allow us to remember, prioritize and implement daily tasks and larger projects and the use of apps and natural age old methods side by side may well be the best way to accomplish this. I have finally settled on the following along with the age old Pencil and Pad to keep things out of my head but still in close reach.
Here’s 4 Amazing tools that will help you get things done …
1. Wunderlist – Work (Sync across Mobile device and Desktop)
2. Clear – Personal (Mobile only)
3. MindMeister – External Brainstorming (On all platforms, 1 account)
3. ToDo Homepage – Planning 2 hours of work (Desktop only)
Stay posted to Technology Ireland for the complete 4 part series on all 4 apps, starting with Wunderlist this coming weekend….
Happy St. Patrick’s Day….
Paul.
paulgilbride.com 