It’s January again, and the new year’s resolution season is upon us. So, let’s resolve to get tasks and email under control.

It’s good to tackle both tasks and email together since, in many businesses, up to 90% of new tasks arrive by email. Tackling tasks, if done right, will get email under control.

It Simply Takes 4 Steps to Move this Forward

1. Commitment: make a commitment to reach that control. Without that, the next 3 steps won’t happen.

2. Technology: make a small commitment in new technology—you might need a new task management app or email management tool. On a Mac I recommend the Things app for tasks; you can use any email system with Things. On a Windows PC, Microsoft Outlook is great. Todoist is a good app for both.

But an app is useless without the next point.

3. Methodology: this is key, you must understand that having the right task and email methodology in place is what makes this work. I am biased of course, but I’ve never found a methodology that works better than the MYN, 1MTD, and Outlook Ninja methodologies.

See this short video that explains how my methodologies are different, and which you should use.

4. A Little Training: the above steps can’t be achieved by simply loading a new app on your smartphone. Too many of us try that easy way out but fail. Rather, it takes at least a little training to put the methodology in place, and to learn how to apply that methodology to technology (we show which apps and software to use). Of course, that’s my specialty: self-study video training to do just that.

See my store page for a list of those video courses. They are easy to use and will get you going quickly.

Resolve to do this today!

I received this notification from Andrew Boswell, the UK developer of the Task Angel Online app that supports MYN so well. Recall I wrote about this app back in January. This looks like a nice update! See discussion below. Michael.

From Andrew Boswell
November 22, 2022

I am pleased to say a new version of TaskAngel is now available. This is a big update, version 2.0, aimed at making TaskAngel even easier to use. Just browse to app.taskangel.com as usual.

Here are the main changes.

You Don’t Need Another App
By Charles Olsen

I follow some of the message boards on Reddit, including the Subreddit for the Things app from Cultured Code. I recently saw a message from someone asking for recommendations for an alternative to Things.

They were using Things to keep track of the tasks they had to do, and tasks that they would like to do. They admitted that they were getting stressed because they had to keep reading through the whole Today list to pick out the tasks that had to be done.

I’ve been doing computer support for over 20 years, for both hardware and software. While most of the requests were about problems that needed to be solved, many were asking for recommendations for hardware or software. Like the question above, a lot of people have asked me to recommend software to solve their problems.

If you are struggling with some part of your work or personal life, you may think that finding the right tool will solve a problem. Now that we all carry powerful computers in our pockets, it might seem like all you need for a particular problem is to find the right app. Apple built an advertising campaign around that idea, and even has a trademark on their slogan, “There’s an app for that.”

Microsoft in May released a beta preview of their upcoming new Windows Desktop Outlook, and it contains good news for MYN users. Microsoft has not abandoned the original Tasks module—it’s still in there!

That’s important because the original Tasks module is needed to use MYN in Outlook. So we now know that MYN users can continue implementing the MYN system in the newest version of Windows Desktop Outlook.

I’ve recently been collaborating with a software developer to help create a new tasks app, one that implements nearly all MYN principles in a simple way. The developer is an avid MYN user and was eager to do it.

An early release of that app is now available. It’s the new Online version of TaskAngel. Go to https://www.taskangel.com/online to get it (note it’s not in the iPhone App Store or Google Play but it still works on mobile devices as I discuss below).

Older versions of TaskAngel have been out a while, including Windows and smartphone app versions, but only TaskAngel Online is currently enabled for MYN—so be sure to select only that.

How the MYN-Enabled TaskAngel Online Looks

Here’s how TaskAngel Online looks. It presents a very clean list and it’s optimized well for MYN.

Here it is, the new year, and I bet you will soon list a bunch of goals and to-dos for 2022. Not a bad idea!

But this year, I encourage you to get realistic about how you set their priorities. There are right ways and wrong ways to prioritize to-dos. Do it wrong, and the list won’t get done—it will just be another bust on your new year’s resolutions.

Your success will be significantly higher if you use MYN and 1MTD principles to prioritize that list.

One of my favorite features for any to-do list app is drag and drop prioritizing. By that I mean the ability to drag an app in the task list up or down to reposition it—thus changing its relative priority. Many apps have it, others don’t, but it’s a real time-saving advantage if they do.

Whenever I write an article or create a video about a new MYN or 1MTD enabled app, I immediately get a slew of emails asking if I recommend one app above all others.

Well, here’s my answer: No, there is not one app that is best for everyone.

While I might occasionally add a new app to the MYN or 1MTD list, and maybe get a bit excited about what it offers, I almost never abandon an older app. Rather each app has its plusses and minuses, ones that may or may not make it right for you. So study each of my recommended apps; try them out and see how they fit your needs. Only then can you decide what’s right for you. That said, here are some general recommendations to get you started.

I have general recommendations for which apps you should use for 1MTD and MYN at this link. But for MYN, there are a lot of key features that can make a difference to you. So here is a table that points out those differences.

New owners and developers are in place for Toodledo as of a few months ago, and I recently had a long phone conversation with them. I am encouraged.

As you may know, Toodledo is the other non-Microsoft task management software I recommend for use with my advanced MYN task management system (along with Todoist). Toodledo is probably the most feature-rich task software available, and like Todoist, it works on all platforms. It’s not as simple as Todoist, and not (yet) kept as up-to-date, but for raw power, nothing beats it.

New Owners Already Turning it Around

However, about three years ago, Toodledo was bought by a new company that ultimately stopped supporting the product. Many users complained that help requests were going completely unanswered. Well, the new owners who came on a few months ago tell me they’ve turned that around. They say they’ve caught up on all help requests and are now working on new software releases again.

So if you were a Toodledo user who lost faith in their support, give them a try again. Of course, only time will tell if they are in it for the long haul, but so far they are moving in the right direction.

Why Toodledo?

Again, Toodledo is the other non-Microsoft task management software I recommend for use with my advanced MYN task management system (along with Todoist). Toodledo is probably the most feature-rich task software available, and it’s very customizable. It’s the only one that has a true start date field, which is critical. I highly recommend it for power users who use MYN. I have a video course on using Toodledo with MYN at the link below.

Go to MYN-Toodledo Video Course