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So Many Apps, So Little Time

August 12, 2010 By 4 Comments

As I’ve been working on getting the Pomodoro Technique down—The Pomodoro Technique: Well Darn It I Like It—I’ve also been attacking the every present problem of getting and staying organized. Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment, since I’ve tried and failed at various organizational tools for years and years. Well, one of the “keys” it seems to being organized now is having not only some kind of “system” but also software to help you with this task.

I’ve tried so many organizational apps in the past, I don’t think I can count them all. Today I thought that maybe I should dust off The Hit List (again) and use that to keep to dos and projects in some semblance of order. Turns out that although I got the app through MacHeist a long while ago, the developer seems to all but abandoned it. This would be okay if it weren’t for the fact that it’s on a time-expiring beta. Some how the idea of working at getting something set up, working, and a habitual part of my life only to have it potentially die in about two weeks isn’t a comforting thought.

I have heard lots of great things about Things (including its companion iPad app), so I thought I’d give it a shot for a bit. Yes, it’s on a 15 day trial, but at least if I do like it, I can buy it and if I don’t, I can export. All of which led me to realize:

I have too many freakin’ apps that do similar things!

I have MS Office (Mac and Windows versions) and iWork. I also have licenses for MarrinerWrite and probably a couple other apps too. I have journalling apps. I have Yojimbo for notes, I could use Evernote too. I have three browsers installed. I have two plain-text editors, a CSS editor, and a code editor. I have Blogo and Ecto for blog posts. I write my books in Scrivener … but could use Word or Pages.

Oh and I even have Notational Velocity to sync notes between my iPad and my desktop.

Let’s not even get into the apps I have for tweaking and tuning things.

Am I nuts?

Really, is Things that great that I should spend another $80 ($60 for the app for my laptop and $20 for the iPad app, cause I know I’ll have to have it)? I have to ask myself is it that I like collecting apps like shoes, that I’m always looking for the “next best thing” or just … fickle?

For a moment I thought “I wish I could have one app that would do a done of different things…” then I realized that’s how apps get giant, bloated, and slow. So specialized apps are a good thing. Oh and don’t think I don’t go and clean house every so often. I do.

The frugal side of me thinks, really, another $80 on an app? Are you really going to use it?

The other side of me says: Remember finding Ulysses and Scrivener?

Right.

So the question of the evening is: how do you decide what software to buy and use? With the bonus extension: Do you feel guilty if you don’t keep using it?


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  • http://twitter.com/jstrocel Jon Strocel

    I’m of two minds about it. If you can get an app that will actually help your productivity, by all means. If it’s just productivity porn, then it just gets in the way. I go back and forth. I’ll get list apps and use them religiously, then they’ll fall out of favour and I’ll go back to making one sticky note every day with three things, and only three things on it. It’s kinda hard to keep a bunch of projects organized on one sticky note, but sometimes (and probably most times), the clarity is what is required to do the actual work. After all, isn’t the actual work the important part?

    Love the Pomodoro Technique as well.

  • http://twitter.com/EatsShootsEdits Steven

    I think since the pc began and even more so since the iphone we are developing a new form of hoarding, digital hoarding. I to have 3 different twitter apps on my android , that is just nuts, and now with the new folders in i-phone it is getting even crazier. But Apple and others are loving it for the $. They have created a whole new consumer / status culture and it is after the development costs are paid for almost pure profit.

  • http://www.robertdall.com Robert Dall

    Tris Did you know you can sync your ical to do list with your things. So lets say you found something in mail you want to make note of? Well you can add it to your to do list and it will sync it to your things as well.

    This is a powerful feature I have been using quite effectly recently. The most important thing about this is, find a system that works for you and stick with it!

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