After the failed Franklin Covey experiment, I basically gave up on the idea of organizers--or organizing the information that would go into one. So that would be, let's see . . . about six years ago. So you can well imagine just how many Post-it notes with little bits and pieces of information I have stored up, in desperate need of being organized in some way.
Six weeks ago, when I started researching the current organizer options available, I jotted down my criteria for a new system based on my previous experience, which in turn became the basis of my Lessons Learned posts.
The Criteria:
- Am I comfortable using the technology or writing in the organizer?
- Can I afford to maintain the system I choose?
- Is the system sufficiently expandable for my needs?
- How confident am I that the company that offers the product or service is not a fly-by-night venture?
- Do I like the look-and-feel of the product enough to enjoy using it?
- If considering an electronic option, is sufficient support available?
- Is there a quick, easy way to archive information?
- If considering a paper organizer, is it sufficiently big enough for me to write in? If electronic, is the screen big enough for my taste?
- If I choose an electronic option, will my data be safe?
- Is the product inherently annoying in some way that I just can't deal with?
New Technology, New Choices
ToDoMatrix, For Use With The Blackberry
I first turned to what many consider the new gold standard in technology: the Blackberry. It only took a few minutes to find what appears to be the organizing software to end all organizing software: ToDoMatrix Professional, from RexWireless. Along with standard calendar/task/and contact management, ToDoMatrix offers what they call "injection" (similar, alas, to EccoPro's "shooter" but I won't wax nostalgic) that enables a user to "inject" an email, for instance, into a ToDoMatrix task entry. There are 15 ways to sort entries, including by status, priority, due date, and creation date. And for an annual fee, RexWireless offers an "Always Safe" backup, in which they'll restore your data on a new device if your Blackberry is lost, damaged, or stolen.
It all sounds good, but I couldn't get over the relentlessly ugly interface that made little use of the color screen. Then there is the question of pricing: ToDoMatrix is only available for use with the Blackberry. Currently I have a pay-as-you go cell, which costs me all of a hundred bucks a year and I still don't use up my allotted minutes. I am just not a cell phone kind of girl. Researching the monthly cost of a Blackberry proved to be an exercise in frustration: I could get a plan for "just" $39.99 a month. No, wait! Really more like $59.99. Okay, $79.99 if you want to be realistic and not get caught paying an exorbitant amount should you miscalculate your expected usage. Not counting tax and fees, of course.
Considering that I didn't even like the look-and-feel of the product (Criteria #5), the initial and on-going fees it would require (Criteria #2) seemed steep indeed. I gave it a pass.
Online Organizing Options
In researching ToDoMatrix, I came across technology I hadn't even been aware of: online organizing options. There are any number of websites such as rememberthemilk.com, nozbe, and Toodledo that some recommend. (For more online organizing options, scroll down to "Online Tools" on the "Massive GTD Resource List" posted on zenhabits.net) I half-heartedly signed up for nozbe, but it seemed pretty low-tech for a high-tech option, with a rather limited search function, and no address book/task integration. I also discovered the "catch": although advertised as a free service, one can only manage a handful of "projects" for free. This is more disingenuous than it may appear, since it is heavily aligned with David Allen's Getting Things Done, which subscribes to the idea that even the smallest task must be written down. In other words, if you followed GTD's system, for which nozbe was created, you would use up your free allotment in, oh, seven seconds.
The biggest concern I had, though, and this goes for all of the online options, was one of data safety (Criteria #9) and company longevity (Criteria #4). Think I'm being paranoid? Remember: of the 10 products reviewed in the last two posts, Visor, Ecco, and Geodex all went under in a relatively short period of time.
Maybe I didn't give the online options a fair chance; I am just too leery of them to invest the time.
Tomorrow: Old Options are Revisited, in the Search for the Perfect Organizer
