Tested and Approved Productivity Apps #2: Remember the Milk

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At 247meeting, we are always looking for new ways of improving our processes to spend more time on what’s worth it and less time on small chores. We also need to keep track of all the ideas that cross our busy minds.
We don’t think we are the only ones in this situation, that’s why we decided to share our tests of Productivity Apps with you. We hope it will help you find the tool that best answers your needs.

Every time, one of our team members will have at least one month to try an app before sharing his honest feedback, explaining why the app meet or don’t meet his requirements.

Today, Gavan Doherty, our CEO, shares his favourite to-do list with us: Remember the Milk.

Can you tell us a little bit about your workflow and the kinds of tasks that you need to track?

As CEO of 247meeting, the tasks can vary hugely. From the administrative ones (like authorising payments) to urgent ones (anything a customer requests!) to important-but-not-urgent ones (plan next year’s Marketing) there’s a huge variety of Tasks to track. I migrated from Outlook in one go and spent very little time going back to Outlook.

What were your first impressions of this Productivity App?

Very easy to use, particularly with the keyboard shortcuts. Very jovial/friendly style (support is handled by “Bob T. Monkey”), but hopefully reliably built.

Did those first impressions change as you used the app?

Not significantly, thankfully. While Bob T. Monkey seems to be available all the time I haven’t needed much support. As I use it more I’m finding out more and more features that I can use (eg Tags, different lists, advanced searches, etc). I’ve yet to connect RTM up to Siri on my iPhone but I’ve seen it done (“Hey Siri, remember to call John about the project tomorrow”).

What were the app’s strengths?

Lots of keyboard shortcuts. Like many people, I’m largely in front of a PC during the day in the office. Being able to edit and move Tasks around with a single key is really useful. My favourite (I hate to admit it!) is ‘Postpone’ with the letter P. There are plenty of days and Tasks which I don’t want to think about/schedule straight away but I don’t want to spend time deciding when to address them. Like a giant sweeping brush, I can just use the letter ‘P’ to brush them all under tomorrow’s carpet!

I also like the customisable view. I order by Tasks by due date – if I put a time on a Task (eg drop into a shop to get something) it only shows when that time comes round.

What were the app’s weaknesses?

Can’t it create more hours in the day? I do sometimes wish it could ‘archive’ Tasks automatically the more I postpone them. What I mean is that if I create a Task in my Personal list to say ‘review household insurance cover’ it’s a good thing to do but probably won’t get done until I’ve a lot of time (or my house goes on fire). It’ll come up in the ‘Today’ list and I’ll keep on hitting ‘P’ to postpone it. After a few months, it might make sense for RTM to auto-archive or somehow hide that Task? Maybe the app’s weaknesses are PICNIC (Problem in Chair, not in Computer)…

Is the app similar or dissimilar to other Productivity apps you have tried (if any) for the same purpose? Is there anything that makes it stand out?

I reviewed several other Productivity Apps when moving from Outlook and I found simple things like changing a date to be very cumbersome on several of them. Many of them looked glossy with cool date/time pickers like on an iPhone but if you have to click 3 or 4 different fields to change a single Task’s date that adds up to a lot of wasted time. I read on one of them about a Project Manager who spent 3-4 HOURS a week organising Tasks…. hmmm. So the standout for me is the keyboard shortcut ‘P’ for postpone.

Would you recommend this app to a colleague?

Yes.

Will you be using the app going forward?