December 4, 2012
For the last four or five weeks in this blog and in my newsletters I have a put a lot of attention on the new Windows tablet releases, and their big impact on the MYN/1MTD systems—and I’ve focused on their impact on mobile productivity strategies in general. I hope those articles have been helpful.
As a result, though, I received a number of comments asking me why I was not putting as much attention on the Macintosh or iOS devices.
Well, in the past I have covered those devices, especially as new products came out that impacted usage of the MYN/1MTD system in a big way.
But the release of the new Windows tablets is a major game changer—this is the very first product of its kind. And since it’s still a fluid and rapidly changing market, and since many of you are thinking about buying them now, the immediate focus on this one platform seems justified.
Windows, Apple, Which is Best?
Many readers may be new to my material, so you may be wondering what is my stance on the various hardware platforms. For example, do I favor PCs over Macs for MYN/1MTD? What are the best mobile devices for MYN/1MTD?
Well, the answer is simple: MYN/1MTD works on all platforms. PCs, Macs, Androids, iPhones, iPads, Blackberry—everything.
But I have to admit MYN/1MTD works better on some than on others. Why? Because key to success with MYN/1MTD is integrating your e-mail with a powerful task system, and to that end, the best hardware/software solutions have e-mail and tasks built together. That allows you to move action e-mails directly into your task system, and it allows you to see your e-mail and tasks together. And, right now, Windows Outlook is best at that.
ToodleDo for Mac and More
But the non-Windows-Outlook MYN/1MTD solutions are also very good, and they all revolve around an excellent task software called ToodleDo. Not only is ToodleDo great at managing tasks on all platforms including the Mac, but it also works with any e-mail software: Outlook for Mac or PC, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail—any mail client on any platform. So ToodleDo is our task software of choice if you are not using Windows Outlook for tasks, and in some ways it is even better than Windows Outlook.
In fact, for a year I stopped using Outlook for tasks and switched completely over to ToodleDo, even though I continued to use Outlook for e-mail. I am now back to Outlook for tasks by the way, but I still see them as equals. And because ToodleDo works so well on so many platforms, to this day I continue to use ToodleDo on some of my mobile devices (I sync it with my Outlook tasks). By the way, if you are moving to Gmail or Google Apps for Business, an MYN solution with ToodleDo will have you well covered.
Nearly all of this is explained fully in all my books and classes, so just dive in anywhere and you’ll get the complete story; the free One Minute To-Do List book is a good place to start.
So, Apple fans, don’t worry, I am not neglecting you in these blogs! In fact, soon I will be reviewing a new iPhone and iPad solution that might work well with MYN/1MTD (will let you know!).
Michael
Thanks for your post, Michael. You mentioned that you sync your Outlook tasks with ToodleDo. How do you do that?
Hi Paul
I use gSyncit, and it works great. I’ll be writing up a post with some details in the weeks ahead.
Michael
Looking forward to reading more about this iPhone/iPad solution you mentioned at the end of the post 🙂
Rick you may want to check out the TaskPaper app. It’s a natural tool for using the MYN methodology, especially if you like to print out a paper list and carry it around. There is also an app called Cheddar that is very fast for breaking down via hash tagging. You can type your to do and add #CriticalNow #OpportunityNow etc and quickly bring up the list section you want to concentrate on by clicking on the hashtag as if you were doing a search in Twitter. If you like a hybrid GTD setup and want to add contexts, just type #Errands etc.
I too am very interested in the Mac, iPad & iPhone solution.
Thanks all for great comments! Here are some current Mac, iPhone, and iPad solutions. Will write up some more soon:
If you have Exchange, TaskTask is the best MYN/1MTD solution for iPhone and iPad.
If you do not have Exchange, ToodleDo is the best, and links are in article above.
Of course, Outlook 2011 Mac supports MYN/1MTD, though not great. How to use it is described in my Outlook book.
I took a look at the new Touchdown for iOS. Touchdown works great on Android for MYN/1MTD, but the tasks section is not yet there on iOS, so that part of it is not yet recommended. Hope they will improve it later. But the e-mail client is pretty good, and you can assign categories in it (and of course file to folders). The categories filing alone is worth the price I think.
Will be going over more products more in future. Hope this helps a bit now.
Michael
Michael-
I love your stuff. Check out Pocket Informant for ipad and iPhone. It is as close to the desktop calendar and task experience as I ha e found. Like many of your readers, I suspect, I am on exchange server and PC at my desk, but all iOS on the go. By using the iCloud reminders sync and outlook, I have perfect task sync on all devices. The only thing I cannot easily do on the go is to copy and create task from email.
Henry G.
Interesting how Windows 8 is receiving more importance when clearly tablet sales are outperforming pc sales by far… and where the iPad has 62% market share and over 50% market share for the iPhone in the US.
And then you have all the Samsung Android devices… so where the market share is bigger one should give more importance on what devices people have most of… and windows 8 should come secondary…. anyway that’s just my 2 cents…
Keep up the great work Michael
Morgan, thanks for your comment! Yeah, it’s only because the Win 8 Surface just came out. I did the same when the iPad first came out, and a bunch when Android tablets first came out too. So that’s why all the focus on Win 8 tablets right now. If you scan my old blog articles you’ll see tons of iOS and Android articles.
That said, for tablets going forward I’ll probably focus mostly on iPads and Win 8 tablets. Reason: most of my clients/readers are in the corporate world, and Android phones and tablets barely exist there. iPads and iOS are big in the corporate world and Win 8 will roll out in a big way there too. Plus, Windows has 90%+ of the desktop market, so a tablet that extends that is big news.
But I will still cover Androids for my non-corporate readers. And continue to cover iOS.
Thanks again!
Michael
“But the non-Windows-Outlook MYN/1MTD solutions are also very good, and they all revolve around an excellent task software called ToodleDo. ”
yeah i Know this product is great…. but for now i only choose windows