Eric Mack On-Line

GTD + Blackberry + Lotus Notes

Monday, October 16th, 2006

Here's a useful application for Blackberry users: S4BB recently released Next Action!, a replacement task application for the BlackBerry that claims to make it more GTD friendly.

The web site indicates that this new task application will maintain compatibility with existing desktop applications, such as Outlook and Lotus Notes. I've not had the opportunity to verify this yet, but this sounds like a promising solution for BlackBerry users that use Lotus Notes (with or without the eProductivity Template).

Presently, many of my clients use Lotus Notes and a Palm-based device (e.g. Treo 650/700p) for their task management due to its simple interface and categories that make it easy to implement GTD.

While I am not personally a BlackBerry user I understand that managing GTD-style categories with the BB can be a challenge. I'm curious to see if this product delivers on its promise.

If anyone has first hand experience with this product, please post a comment.

via: Michael Sampson

Posted at 21:05:32, PST in eProductivity Getting Things Done Lotus Notes

Discussion/Comments (13):

GTD + Blackberry + Lotus Notes

I would love applications to be more GTD friendly, I can use imagine all the things I can create. As of now I'm stuck with doing things the old way in Blackberry Freeware.

{ Link }

Posted at 10/16/2006 23:45:32 by James Smithson

GTD + Blackberry + Lotus Notes

You may want to check out Kelly Forrister's blog (from DavidCo [but I'm sure you knew that]). She had a post about using the Bb and GTD with four comments on Oct. 10th.

{ Link }

Randy

erandycox.blogspot.com

Posted at 10/17/2006 6:48:14 by Randy

GTD + Blackberry + Lotus Notes

I just got switched from a Treo to a Blackberry due to a change in ownership at my company. I carried a Treo for 2 years and loved the simplicity of it, and how well it worked with the GTD system.

I was not happen when I got the Blackberry and found out that the BB developers completely shorted the Task application. For those who've used the blackberry, you probably know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I went on the hunt for a third-party app and found NextAction!. I quickly purchased it b/c it didn't give a trial of any kind, however; they do offer a 30 day money back guarantee.

The guys at NextAction! are on to something, but they are not quite there yet. It does improve on the built-in task manager (you can view all your contexts with a click of a button), but has shortcomings of its own.

First, as of this writing (10/30/06) you can only enter text into the subject of the task when creating a new one or editing an existing task. I very often use the notes field for detailed information. So, I have to fumble my way back to the built in task program to put text into the notes field of a given task. Not a good use of anyone's time.

Second, you can't hide completed tasks. These two things caused me to back out of the product all together and ask for my money back. The developer said they would soon have the ability to hide completed tasks, but I chose to get my money back anyway. At $40, I want a mature product that I can gain benefit from right away.

My 2 cents...

Posted at 10/30/2006 9:58:44 by Chance Evans

GTD + Blackberry + Lotus Notes

Well, I'm here to say that Blackberry and GTD is a great combination Next-Action is coming up with their latest release Falcon this coming week and its got great project management and task ala GTD you're welcome to read my review over at my blog { Link }

Posted at 08/05/2007 18:35:48 by Jorge Ledesma DDS

re: GTD + Blackberry + Lotus Notes

Thanks, Jorge, I'll have a look!

Posted at 08/07/2007 8:13:49 by Eric Mack

GTD + Blackberry + Lotus Notes

Dear Eric

I represent DYSANT Software Ltd, that is a producer of development and administration tools for Lotus Domino, WebShere and BlackBerry.

We have developed DYSANT Mobile Connector - the tool that allows to easilly integrate any Lotus Domino application with BlackBerry terminal.

DYSANT Mobile Connector is some kind of configuration tool that allows to convert any Lotus Domino application into format served by BlackBerry terminal, in minutes, without J2ME programming.

Below you can find a link do download DYSANT Mobile Connector PDF flyer.

{ Link }

Posted at 11/05/2007 17:17:57 by Michal Swietek

A Free & Easy Blackberry GTD Solution

Personally I find the Blackberry Task manager perfect for GTD if you know how to implement it.

{ Link }

Posted at 01/02/2008 1:55:29 by Isaac Bowman

A good Blackberry GTD app

Just like Chance Evans further up I bought NextAction but was disappointed. It just wasn't a mature and useful application. Honestly I didn't find it a whole lot better than the native BlackBerry Task application, and that one is not very useful at all.

Isaac Bowman's free way of doing GTD (one post up) is a decent one, but somewhat inconvenient because it takes too much typing at times. I like things to be easy and one of my berries is a Pearl so I don't like to type more than I need to.

There is a pretty good BlackBerry GTD software app from { Link } called Vera. It does a great job with all the key components of GTD like projects and contexts, and it also has the ability to create day tasks and manage to-do lists by day just like David Allen talks about.

I have been using Vera for the last little while and find it very easy to use and well worth the $29 I spent on it. My 2 cents anyways...

Posted at 09/02/2008 12:48:22 by George K

re: A good Blackberry GTD app

Thanks, George, for the link. I was previously unfamiliar with this product.

I seriously doubt that the folks at DavidCo will approve of this company's use of the GTD trademark in a product name, but it looks like a useful product nonetheless.

I've added it to my list of tools to look into. I have also posted it to the 'Productivity on the go' forum

http://forum.eProductivity.com

Thanks

Posted at 09/02/2008 13:47:23 by Eric Mack

re: A good Blackberry GTD app

Hummm, I think the name of the product is just Vera, at least that's what it says on my BlackBerry. But you do raise a good point. Let me fire an email to the Vera people and see what they say about this.

Posted at 09/03/2008 20:57:19 by George k

re: Vera

Hi Eric and George,

This is a developer from Karta Mobile, the makers of Vera. Just to clarify, the name of our product is simply 'Vera' (without anything else in it).

Vera is a new BlackBerry productivity application and we are eager to get the feedback of the community out there: BlackBerry users, GTD enthusiasts and especially of respected productivity gurus like yourself, Eric.

This is why we offer a free trial of Vera - so people can try it out and decide for themselves if it is worth it. You can get the free trial from { Link }

So give it a try when you get the chance and let us know what you think.

PS. Thanks, George, for the positive words!

Posted at 09/05/2008 10:44:04 by chris

re: re: Vera

Thanks for the clarification. It looks like you have a nice solution to offer to BB users. I posted about your product on the eProductivity Productivity & Mobility forum. I'm curious to see what people think. 50% of our customer base uses a BlackBerry of one model or another. I am constantly asked to recommend a suitable application for on-device use that will work with eProductivity. It would be a small task for a third-party vendor like KartaMobile to make their product support the eProductivity features. //www.eProductivity.com.

Posted at 09/07/2008 16:35:41 by Eric Mack

GTD + Blackberry + Lotus Notes

Are you still searching for the best BlackBerry application to apply Getting Things Done? And what about its embedded Task, Calendar and Notes apps synchronized with Microsoft Outlook? Visit

{ Link }

and find Fast, Easy & Free BlackBerry & / or Outlook GTD implementation.

Posted at 03/31/2010 10:51:07 by Peter Drozda

Discussion for this entry is now closed.