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Posted by Ken
Apr 1, 2021 at 02:33 PM
Cyganet wrote:
Yes indeed, it is expensive. So it depends on the user if it’s worth it
>for them. I find it a worthwhile investment to manage my working life.
I understand. If a product is that important and helpful, I can see spending a premium on it. But right now, most of the task programs that I use do not meet that threshold. The free version of Clickup has been serving me well, but I cannot say that it is indispensable.
—Ken
Posted by Cyganet
Apr 1, 2021 at 10:19 PM
What threshold would a task manager have to meet for you? Asking out of interest, because I tried many that I found to be overly complex list-makers that didn’t add value.
Posted by Ken
Apr 2, 2021 at 01:11 AM
Cyganet wrote:
What threshold would a task manager have to meet for you? Asking out of
>interest, because I tried many that I found to be overly complex
>list-makers that didn’t add value.
That is a great question, albeit a bit of a loaded question on this forum. ;)
But I’ll try to be brief in my answer.
I have need of a program at work and at home. At work, I manage a number of projects that run for months to years, and work can ebb and flow. I also administer some programs and that has its own set of responsibilities. So, I need a task manager that can keep track of many tasks and related information. And, I want to be able to prioritize tasks and/or subtasks so I can view everything by project, program or priority. I’ll skip the many programs that have tried and used after having to give up ECCO Pro a number of years ago, but of late the programs that have come closest to what I want are My Life Organized and Clickup, the latter of which I am currently using. Clickup is quite powerful and I have not finished setting optimizing its setup, but it does contain a lot of detailed information. As a temporary aid, and an electronic version of a scratch[ad, I also use Kanbanflow. I can quickly add items to it, and can set my priorities. Yes, it duplicates a bit with Clickup, but until I finish getting it tweaked, the pair serve me quite well. I am sure you could substitute another kanban board for Kanbanflow, but it is dead simple to use and I like that it is fast, has colors and you can quickly delete items.
I was trying to use Kanbanflow for home use, but have actually got Clickup set up quite nicely. It took a bit of time to set it up the way I wanted, but the more I have worked with it, the more impressed I am, especially with its flexibility. I used to use a variety of programs here as well, like Todoist and Trello, but Clickup is now set up in a way that is encouraging me to use it, and that is a good sign.
I am sure there are other programs out there that I might find functional, useful or fun to use, but for now, things seem to be working, and I am able to use free versions of both programs. I would be fine with paying a nominal yearly fee or flat rate for either, but when things start getting up there, I need to be able to justify the expense. I paid for the full version of Todoist, but I will probably cancel it as I am no longer using it. My needs may change when I am no longer working at home after COVID-19 is under control, but for now, I am happy.
And, I forgot to mention that paper and pen is also in the mix as needed.
Hope this helps.
—Ken
Posted by Cyganet
Apr 2, 2021 at 09:22 AM
Hi Ken, thanks for sharing the details! I understand where you’re coming from - your need is for a project management solution, not a simple task list. If I break it down into requirements there’s:
1. manage programs, projects, tasks, subtasks
2. separate home and work
3. store information related to tasks (i.e. metadata)
4. prioritise tasks and subtasks
5. view by project/program/priority
6. Kanban board
7. quickly add items and set priorities
Not to persuade you to change what you’re using, but here’s how some of the programs that I use stack up:
If I look at Amazing Marvin, it has categories, projects, tasks and subtasks (#1,2), but subtasks are not separate from tasks (#4). It doesn’t have a Kanban board (#6), and metadata is limited to fixed fields or user-defined tags(#3), so it’s not extensive enough for your needs. You can create custom views via smart lists (#5) and data entry with priority goes via super-speedy text processing of the input field (#7)
Another program that I use for simple project management is Quire. Its main benefit for me is collaboration - I use it to share home maintenance planning with my partner. Its benefit over AM is separate subtasks (#4) and Kanban (#6) but metadata is limited to user-defined tags (#3). You can separate projects, but then you cannot view data across projects in one go (#5).
A third program that I use is InfoQube. Its strength is creating unlimited fields of metadata and attaching more information (#3), and creating user-defined views of all tasks provided they are in the same database (#5). It has a built-in Gantt chart, but no Kanban, although Kanban can be simulated.
Putting these here in case anyone is interested in the comparison.
Regards,
Cyganet
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Apr 2, 2021 at 10:55 AM
Like Ken, I have been using ClickUp for specific work projects. It is almost Notion-like in its flexibility, but if Notion were equipped with ready made templates. ClickUp has so many assets that that is sometimes a deficit. That is, I can get lost in the weeds of features, which is why it isn’t my everyday task manager. I’ve been using Dynalist for that purpose, but I’m giving Amazing Marvin a try (thanks for the recommendation, Cyganet).
But back to ClickUp. You can use it for everything from a simple todo list, to a KanBan board and timelines, now. A feature they don’t seem to talk about much is that you can associate Notion-like documents to projects. Notion-like because you can put almost any information into them. So, for instance, I am managing our exhibit at a virtual conference and I’ve got the instructional PDFs in one of the documents for this project, along with clipped email information. You build these documents very similarly to Notion pages by selecting elements to add to the document with the slash key.
Each task you create in ClickUp can be loaded with information, including fully formatted notes, attachments, sub-tasks, all kinds of meta data, commentary (because ClickUp is first and foremost built for collaboration—which I don’t need).
ClickUp also has a ton of video tutorials to help you figure out how to use it. It is impressive.
Steve