Software that's enjoyable ... software that's a drudgery

Posted by Ken
Feb 25, 2015 at 05:06 PM

I have thought about this questions since it posted, and the more I think about it, the more I realize how much things have changed since mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) and the “cloud” have become more commonplace. Prior to that, I would have said that Ecco and Pimlico’s DateBk were my favorite pieces of software. They were enjoyable to use, and more importantly they served me quite well. You would think that with the advent of mobile devices, that things would get better, but really it seems like they are somewhat better, and somewhat worse. Better in that I can now use apps on the web, my computer, or on the mobile device of my choice. Very convenient.

But, the rate of change for these programs/apps is a bit bewildering at times. And, the amount of data flowing through all of our devices seems to have increased radically, such that it is hard to sometimes separate the signal from the noise. There are many good task managers and outliners to help us with our data, but shoving more and more data into them does not seem to help me move forward with what I need to accomplish, despite all of their filtering/tagging features. Sometimes a piece of paper is my best friend, as it does not share its function with anything else, nor does stuff find its way onto the paper without my writing it.

I am swamped at work and at home right now, and I am sitting and staring at a long list of tasks in Asana, and I cannot help but feel that somewhere in that list is something that has been forgotten because it takes time to keep rescanning the list for what should be marked priority. I cannot really blame the software makers for the fact that many of us are running way beyond our bandwidth, but I am not certain if what they are promising is a full solution to our problems, but rather just one tool in the solution toolkit. I am tempted to dedicate one device to just handling all of my productivity needs, but the last thing that I need is to manage another electronic device. So, I still seem to keep a small piece of paper with me so I can list what is needing immediate attention. I do not fully understand why I revert to scraps of paper for small lists when I have all of the software in the world at my disposal, but I guess there is some comfort in the fact that a newer version is probably not going to be released tomorrow that will require me to learn a whole new set of commands and unlabeled icons. How I wish I could truly fall in love again with some really great software.

—Ken