Monthly Archives: March 2009

Action Tracker – GTD App on FileMaker Pro Review

Action Tracker is a simple yet effective take on the productivity model advocated by David Allen in his “Getting Things Done” system.

The program is based on the FileMaker Pro software and uses this basis to create a clean, functional and fairly minimalist design for users to sort and manage their tasks through.

The official home of Action Tracker is at Macproductive.com but it appears that the site is no longer registered or the company has let is lapse out of error. The application can be still downloaded from various Mac Download sites for free.

Action Tracker

Visuals with Action Tracker are fairly average but ultimately succeed in the essential goal of encouraging easy navigation and access to the extensive feature set provided by the platform.

Those already acquainted with FileMaker Pro should find a certain level of familiarity in the aesthetics presented here. Action Tracker possesses the same level of Mac sheen that most of the OS’ first-party programs host — a factor which ultimately works to make it into a clear and graphically sound choice for a productivity software foundation.

Action Tracker’s strongest suit is undoubtedly the number of features made available by the program. The aforementioned FileMaker Pro platform has enabled Action Tracker’s designers to offer a wide variety of options and customization for users to take advantage of.

All of the GTD staples devotees have come to expect in software (to-do lists with contexts, reminders, status and so forth) are in place with Action Tracker. Each element of sorting and organizing has been paid good attention as well and the detail provided in sorting is fantastic.

Users are able to micro-manage each item through the attachment of external documents (including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word file extensions aside the support for photo, video and PDF formats) while also enjoying the ability to link work with web and email addresses through a simple, clickable interface.

List items can also be linked together for easy reference across the system, a touch which aids in ensuring smooth navigation and speedy movement from project to project.

Action Tracker could have benefited from the inclusion of mobile application support but it’s clear that Denny Henke, designer of the system, is working on a limited budget so far.

The system makes up for this shortcoming with the presence of a feature which prepares selected lists for note card printing, a low-tech but ultimately effective method of addressing portability for serious, regular users.

If there is a major flaw in the Action Tracker system it can be attributed to the previously mentioned strengths in feature creation. Although the FileMaker Pro foundation allows for a fantastic level of customization and depth to the software, the uninitiated may have a fairly difficult time figuring out how to get started with their work.

The program isn’t overly complicated but learning its intricacies is somewhat daunting for those who are being exposed to FileMaker Pro for the first time via Action Tracker.

A greater level of community involvement could have gone a long way toward addressing the issues with Action Tracker’s learning curve. While users are still able to seek out guides, tutorials and forums through external sources, the main project homepage lacks in any real aid for those just taking the system for a spin.

The creation of a hosted message board or tutorial would go a long way toward helping out novices with getting the most from the system and will hopefully see an appearance in the future.

Ultimately Action Tracker is a solid choice for GTD adherents who are enticed (rather than put off) by the idea of a productivity platform which requires a good amount of invested time to warrant proper results.

Their may be an issue with the ongoing support and development for the application as it would appear that the domain is no longer being used by the team behind Action Tracker.

The fairly no-nonsense approach to Action Tracker’s core features combine with the depth and customization possible within them to create a difficult but rewarding productivity system.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 8th March 2009

Had a great day yesterday at ThinkVisibility which was a one day social media, SEO, and blogging conference that was held in my home town of Leeds. Great speakers and I left the day feeling inspired!

Here are a collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a great post on GTDTimes from David Pierce explaining why the Web Works for GTD. David is a reader of this blog and regular commenter and it is great to see him turn his hand to writing, well done and great post!
  • My second link is a link to a post that reviews Things for the iPhone. I briefly tried Things but I am still firmly routed to my GTD App of choice, OmniFocus.
  • My third link is a link to a Helpful Guide on how to Reduce Stress. Nice little post where the author identifies Procrastination as the largest issue. Worth a read or listen as they have the facility to play the blog post via a podcast.
  • My fourth link is a nice list of Top iPhone Apps from the Molanphy Blog. I am posting this link as I read the short review of Ambience and then went ahead and bought it.
  • My fifth and last link for this week is a link to a competition on the Nozbe Blog to win a free pass to the GTD Summit in San Francisco. This is a free gift with a $2295 value and if you are around the bay area a great prize to win! You have to comment on the post at the Nozbe blog in order to stand a chance of winning.

Wishing you all a productive week, as always!

Andrew..

Share your Spotify Playlists at ShareMyPlaylists.com

Spotify
A few weeks ago I blogged about Spotify and I released a Motivational Songs Spotify playlist.

Well, Kieron from UK Offer Media has taken a collection of Spotify Playlists and created a site where users can share them.

My Motivational Songs Spotify playlist is on the site and has been receiving great rankings.

So, if you use Spotify take a look at the ShareMyPlaylist.com site and if you are note yet a Spotify user, now is the time to check it out!

MIndManager GTD Mind Mapping Webinar

MindJet Mind Manager
Michael Deutch is the Chief Evangelist for Mindjet and a fellow and also a fellow follower of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) Methodology.

Michael is running a Webinar on March the 24th from 1000 to 1100 PDT that is going to show you how Michael has incorporated Mind Mapping into his GTD system using MindManager from MindJet.

Michael writes for the MindJet Blog and has done some great posts covering GTD and productivity.

Information for the free webinar can be found here. I am going to try to be on it live but if not will definitely catch it after the event.

Sounds like a great event from a great guy and a great company! Be sure to check it out..

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 1st March 2009

The main event of this week was the arrival of my new shiny 17″ MacBook Pro.

To mark this event I thought I would take a break from the usual and provide five great links that help you when you come to upgrade your Mac and o not want to use the migration assistant.

Apologies in advance to Windows and Linux users as this is obviously a Mac specific post.

Even if you are not buying a new Mac, the bloated way Apple handles media may mean that you have to move your iTunes or iPhoto library to an external disk so these links contain gems of information.

Here are a collection of five links that I have found useful this week when migrating from my old MacBook Pro to my new MacBook Pro.

  • My first link for this week is the Apple Page covering the Migration Assistant. This is an amazing tool that I have used before that allows you to copy all of your settings from your Old Mac to your New Mac over a Firewire cable. Makes upgrading a dream if you are happy with the build of your old machine.
  • My second link is a link to a post from eHow about how to Migrate your Mac Email. The post shows you how to move your email as well as preserve your settings such as Smart Mailboxes and Mailbox Rules.
  • My third link is a link to an olf post from Merlin Mann that covers Some Handy Mail.app Smart Mailboxes. I used this post to recreate these mailboxes that fit in with Merlin’s Inbox Zero methodology.
  • My fourth link is a thread on the Apple Forums about how to move your iPhoto library. I copied the whole of my library to my new MacBook Pro and everything was preserved, just how it should be.
  • My fifth and last link for this week is a post from the iLounge about how to move your ITunes library. My iTunes library is 40GB and I have it on my new MacBook Pro but I am thinking of moving it to an external storage device so I can share it through the house and also conserve space on my MacBook HDD.

Wishing you all a productive week, as always!

Andrew..