Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Requirements for a GTD system

For a while, I've been occasionally updating a list of requirements for a software I would be able to comfortably use to manage my GTD system. So without further ado:
  • actions
    • actions are always in a context, and some actions are also tied to a project (my primary way to look at lists of actions is by context)
    • dates
      • start date (i.e. schedule a task to become current at a future date)
      • recurring tasks (e.g. every weekday, every Monday, every first Tuesday of the month…)
      • due date not important; making the task red once it passed the due date is useless to me; maybe another implementation could make this information useful
    • email
      • quick way to create an action from an email (otherwise I am more likely to leave emails in my inbox rather than create tasks)
      • quickly find email related to an action
      • special but important case of a start date: create action from an email that become current at a future date (i.e. "if no answer in 7 days, do this")
  • projects
    • lists of current projects
    • in each project
      • next actions for that project
      • reference material: notes (typically indented lists), files (PDF, screenshots)
    • ability to archive projects
  • access
    • desktop
      • web based or OS X app
    • mobile
      • Android support (bonus for also working on iOS)
      • fast read access to specific "list" (e.g. context, project)
      • editing lists from a mobile is not a priority (just having read-only access, while not ideal, would suffice)
      • offline on mobile (ideally with background sync so the offline version is used even when online for speed)
    • proven stability of the system's cloud-based component