I've struggled a long time with trying to come up with the perfect solution for tracking my Things To Do. For the last several months I've tried to use a physical notepad and small pen in my back pocket, but that's literally turning into a pain in the ass. Here are my requirements for a digital system:

  1. View and edit from any computer connected to the web in a password-protected fashion
  2. View and edit locally from my personal computer when offline
  3. View and edit from my mobile
  4. Automatically sync to one central list
  5. Private with occasional times when I might want to share
  6. Ability to arbitrarily categorize, sort, filter

That last requirement really kills any plain-text solution without some other higher-level tool/markup.

Now that I have an Android phone with a WebKit browser, requirement #3 becomes easier to fulfill.

Google Docs actually comes the closest to meeting all the above requirements were it not for one important thing:

Google Docs does not allow you to edit spreadsheets offline!

I'm sure the Google engineers are working hard on this important feature, but describing the existing application as 'available offline' is kind of stretching it at the moment.

§521 · February 16, 2009 · Google, Life, Technology · Tags: , , · [Print]

3 Comments to “Trying To Get Things Done”

  1. Peter says:

    Have you tried Evernote? I don’t think it works on all mobile phones and it doesn’t have stuff like spreadsheets, but I have been a pretty happy user for the last few months. I use it to track all my notes, for projects, posts, ideas, etc. It’s pretty convenient for that, but it’s not a real agenda or office suite.

  2. adnan. says:

    View and edit locally from my personal computer when offline

    Are you ever on your personal computer without the internet? If so, then why not use the mobile to keep track?

    I’m wondering why editing offline is important if you’re always connected?

  3. @adnan: Yes, quite often – I commute to work every day on a train without wifi. It’s true that I could use the mobile to edit my list but it’s not the most efficient means.