If you’re not a huge GTD fan, or just want to try something different, how about managing tasks with mind maps? Freemind is an open source mind mapping application that lets you put down your thoughts quickly and easily.

Basic task management

Using the application is very easy, create a new sibling by pressing enter, and create a new child node by pressing insert. That’s really all you need to create a huge mind map, but let me show you what you can do to create a task management solution for yourself.

You can use the mind map in much the same way as you would use a list to create a line of tasks, grouped according to any context you wish. Since this is a mindmap your mind will be wandering all over the place which is not a problem, feel free to include any info you wish. Simply format all action items any way you like, I have given them a bubble format with an orange background. You can achieve this by selecting multiple nodes using the shift key, and right clicking to go to format and clicking on bubble (instead of fork) and selecting node color and background color.

You can easily track your tasks as you see I’ve done in the screenshot. Freemind has some handy icons on the left which you can choose from, and insert multiple ones for any task. This is great for tracking multiple occurrences tied to an item, let me explain. For example, my task labeled “finalize other theme” was completed, hence the first tick. I then sent an email about this to the client, and his reaction was positive, no further work is needed, hence the other arrow. For the code a day post, I am still waiting for a response, indicated by the icon.

Creating a management system

This might sound a bit far fetched, but with the right planning you can use this to create a highly productive management environment. The first step is to create a basic set of mind maps which you always use. My recommendation is to create a daily, weekly, a monthly and maybe a yearly mindmap. Ideally the longer the time frame, the less the mindmap should change, so you should determine yearly and monthly goals in advance. If you have all these open, you can right click anywhere in Freemind and simply choose the map to jump to, a very productive navigation method.

The key to making this a productivity system and not just a list you use is to be very consistent. Not in the actual things you write, but in the way you use your maps, especially regarding management of weekly tasks, the division into daily tasks and so on.

The great thing about this system is that mindmaps are one of the most flexible ways of storing information in a natural way, while still maintaining clarity. You can store task related ideas, thoughts, notes, reminders easily by just creating child nodes and so on.

Going commercial

While I love Freemind, I still find it a bit limited and simple. I actually haven’t bought any commercial software, but a few years ago I did get a free code to ConceptDraw’s Mindmap. What I love about this software (I actually use this, not Freemind) is that it has a planner function, which enables you to create a mindmap by writing a list. This is much more intuitive for the creation part for me and all the info is automatically transferred to a cool mindmap. There are also many advanced editing and reporting options, and I find the note addition much better implemented. There are many other great pieces of software out there, take a look at the recommended products, but if you don’t need bells and whistles Freemind should do nicely as well.

I received an interesting letter the other day, letting me know about a productivity software. I noticed it because although it was product promotion email, it was at least addressed to me, and it very specifically said “productivity” tool. I answered and got an email back the same day from the founder, so I decided that this customer care alone was worth me taking the time to check out the product.

FruitfulTime is a task management application for Windows, which can be downloaded with a free E-book on procrastination. I don’t really want to go into detail on the book, I had a quick read of the near 40 pages and it seems solid material. It won’t revolutionize how we think about procrastination, but it may open some eyes, and has some useful tips on productivity and organization everyone can use. Compared to the price (free) it isn’t a bad book at all, so I can safely recommend it.

Now on to the software itself. This is the type of software I think some people will swear upon, but others will hate. Simple GTD can be shown as an example here, it’s a perfectly solid

GTD application, but is very bare bones. Some people hate it because you can’t upload files, geotag and send your list via hyperspace to the nearest quadrant, but hen again, some people like it exactly because of this. Fruitful time is just like this, it offers simple task management in a simple interface, allowing you to actually concentrate on stuff

Handling and initial thoughts

The application is under 1 Megs, very lightweight, easy on disk space, and memory usage. It looks very simple to use, and indeed is, with minimal graphics, but what is in there looks good, at least appeals to my taste. I found the tips appearing when I clicked on something new very annoying, but there are only 3-4 of these so you’ll be over it quickly. Everything is pretty self explanatory, if you have any questions, the tooltips will surely answer them for you.

Tasks Management

The default view enables you to create a main task in the top pane, and create subtasks of it in the bottom. You can set priority, status, start/due dates, completion for all tasks, but notes can only be created for the main task, since this is on a separate tab.

Two great features I love are the references and contacts. References allow you to attach either reference files, or reference links to a tasks, although again, you can only tie these to main tasks, not sub tasks. I like the contacts section because contrary to about 98% of the software out there, you do not need to send an invitation or an email to assigned contacts. This finally enables me to assign people to tasks without actually inviting the into the program.

One thing that might help you in productivity is the actually quite “inflexible” nature of FruitfulTime. Since it doesn’t allow you to assign subtasks to subtasks to subtasks, and contacts to subtasks of subtasks and so on, it will actually get you focusing on completing them as opposed to organizing them. I know I have this problem for example, I enjoy new organizational methods so much I spend way too much of my energy on it, instead of completing my tasks.

Searching and filtering

Searching and filtering is a really important factor in productivity applications, and FruitfulTasks gives you sort of enough options. You can filter by tasks by tag and by date, and this is enough for most people, unless you have millions of tasks. A huge shortcoming is that it doesn’t have a proper text search option.

What’s missing

So far I have said many positive things, but there are many, if not more, negative ones, and features missing. While I regard simplicity highly, I can only go so far. People who want serious control over their tasks will be disappointed, if you’re looking for Gmail type search power you will find the program comes short, and if you are trying to batch handle tasks you will find that it’s just not possible properly. There are many other smaller things missing, I really hope they get these in soon.

Overview

In its current state I would actually not recommend this to everyone. If you need a simple desktop application it works, but there are many free alternatives that offer many, many more features. I would recommend this product for about $5 but it is currently priced at “29.99 only until the end of March”. I seriously hope that after March it will either cost less, or have more features because if it continues like this, the future is grim for FruitfulTime.

When talking about task management and productivity on the web, I can only think of one to do list to rule them all. Remember The Milk has tons of features, it is fun to use and offers real collaborative power.

The heart of Remember The Milk is a structure that allows you to add a huge amount of data to each task. You can choose a location on a map, then group by locations, shown on the map, you can add dates, invite users, add tags, etc., etc.

The reason I find it very useful and flexible is the relaxed approach it takes. Don’t know what date your task is due? Simply type: “tomorrow”. Elegant, and simple. You can also input “the day after tomorrow” and “next Wednesday” for example.

You can apparently create unlimited lists, and easily copy items, copy lists, mark items done, and when an invited user marks an item done, it will show up done for you as well.

I just love this service, if you really need more and can’t decide, just look at the logo. How cute can you get?

Remember The Milk (found by myself)