Dashboard

A colleague once told me, “People will forgive ugly. They won’t forgive broke.” Logging in was easy and underwhelming. When you do you’ll see why I quoted my colleague.

Goals, Projects, and Tasks

GTDagenda has a hierarchy of goals, projects, and tasks. Set a goal (Create web app); Create projects (design site, marketing campaign, etc.); Add tasks (brainstorm, wireframe, storyboard, etc.). This is standard GTD stuff.

 

Next Actions, Contexts, and Priorities

If you use Todo applications then you’re familiar with these features. Next actions are those that are starred and thus considered to be a “next action.” Contexts simply tell how or where a task is to be completed (@home or @work). Priorities allow you to place emphasis to a task using a scale of 1 to 5.

 

Calendars and Checklists

It’s a calendar, with dates, that you can subscribe to. And checklists, are tasks that you want to repeat each week. Most recently, checklists were updated and can be linked to a context or project. Currently the feature only supports weekly-based checklists. Eh.

 

Integration

The first thing I did when I logged in was connect my Twitter and Evernote accounts. With Twitter you can import @replies with your username, GTDAgenda, or both. This would be quite useful if you asked people to send you project info via Twitter, but it’s not as useful because there’s nothing to filter out the noise. Evernote integration is pretty tight. You can add notes via GTDagenda or vice versa. The only hiccup I ran into was the inability to change the default Evernote notebook. When I did I either got a code error or was forced to select two notebooks. GTDagenda does have a built-in e-mail account for each user, and you can import your personal inboxes into GTDagenda. Unfortunately, and similar to the Twitter dilemma, there aren’t any filters in place to prevent your entire inbox from being dumped into GTDagenda.

 

Mobile Access

If you’re not at your desk, you can access GTDagenda from your mobile device via their mobile site, or using their iPhone ($3.99 | iTunes link) or Android (free | Android Market link | review) apps. All three sync with the website, but the mobile site is ugly, the iPhone app is functional, but costs $4 when you’re already paying at least $9/mos, and the Android app won’t let you GTD unless you have a paid subscription to GTDagenda.com. Double eh.

Cost

This is the part that’s hard to stomach. I’m currently using the basic plan (thanks Dan!). It has one user account and limits everything else. Rarely do I work on personal or business projects alone. In order to include others I’d have to jump straight to business silver because adding one user to the mix will not let me get anything done.

I guess you could offset the cost by using the affiliate program and advertising the service on your site with the hopes that people will sign up and you get referral checks. But, that’s unlikely.

 

Pros

• Includes core GTD features
• Integrates with Evernote and Twitter
• Mobile access

Cons

• No HTTPS
• Unpleasant design
• Mobile site is ugly; iPhone app costs $4, and Android is worthless without a paid subscription.
• $9/mos gets you 1 user account. 2 costs $18/mos. And 10 will run you $50/mos.
• No time tracking

Verdict

If you’ve never used a project management tool you should, at least, consider GTDagenda. Comparatively, it’s cheaper than most services and it does have the nuts and bolts needed to keep a project running smoothly. For me, my company pays for Basecamp, and I don’t see the need to abandon my personal GTD approach of  gCal + Todo. Not for the inconvenience of switching, not for the cost, and not for the ugly. When GTD gets things looking better aesthetically and creates a more user-friendly interface I would consider jumping to their side of the fence. Until then, I’ll stick with what I have because it works. And if it ain’t broke…

 

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If you’d like to learn more about my take on GTDagenda leave a comment below or send me an e-mail at TiTy@y2kemo.com. If you want to learn more about GTDagenda check out their news page or e-mail Dan at dan@gtdagenda.com.