Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

The best note taking app for a Getting Things Done workflow is rarely the one with the longest feature list. It is the one you can open in under three seconds on a train platform, dump a thought into, and then empty cleanly into your next actions list on Sunday afternoon. That is a much narrower job than “notes”, and it is the only job this guide scores apps on. Below are seven picks, each with a defined role, an honest cost line, and the point at which it lets you down.

What Makes the Best Note Taking App for Getting Things Done

The five jobs a notes app must do

• Capture in under three seconds from a locked phone, without choosing a folder first.
• Sync everywhere you work, including offline, without you thinking about it.
• Search reliably, ideally inside PDFs and photos of whiteboards.
• Export cleanly to plain text, Markdown, HTML or PDF.
• Hand tasks off to your action list, whether that is OmniFocus, Todoist or a paper page.

Miss any one of those and the app becomes a place where information goes to die.

Capture speed beats feature count

A genuine ubiquitous capture device is one you reach for reflexively. In practice that means a home screen widget, a share sheet extension, a global keyboard shortcut on the desktop, a browser clipper, and voice capture that works while you are driving or walking. If capture takes six taps, you will use your messaging app instead, and your ideas will scatter.

Why lock-in and export matter more than pretty formatting

Notes outlive apps. Before you commit, export ten notes and open the file elsewhere. If what comes out is a proprietary blob, that is a strike against it no matter how nice the typography looks. The best note taking app is one you could leave next year with a morning’s work.

The one rule that stops your notes app becoming a graveyard

Notes are reference. Actions live elsewhere. The moment your app holds both, you have two competing lists and you will trust neither. Capture freely into the notes inbox, then during processing turn anything actionable into a next action in your task manager and leave the supporting material behind as reference.

How We Tested and Scored Each Note Taking App

Each app was used as the single capture tool for a normal working fortnight: notes from a phone lock screen, a desktop while on a call, a browser while researching, and forwarded email. Every note was then processed into a next actions list during a weekly review.

• Sync lag: how long before a note typed on a phone appeared on a laptop.
• Search accuracy: including text inside scanned PDFs and photographs.
• Offline behaviour: whether capture worked with no signal, and whether it merged cleanly afterwards.
• Export format: what you actually get out.
• Cost in pounds: free tiers, device limits and upload caps, checked at the time of writing.

Deliberately ignored: AI summary gimmicks, template galleries, and anything that only helps once you already have a thousand notes you have never reread.

The 7 Best Note Taking Apps, Ranked by Job

1. Microsoft OneNote: best all-rounder and best free tier

Free with a Microsoft account, with sync through OneDrive and no artificial note limits, OneNote is the strongest genuinely free option and often the best note taking app for people who already have Microsoft 365 through work. Handwriting, audio, tables and file attachments all live in the same page. Where it fails: the notebook, section and page hierarchy encourages over-organising, search is good but not excellent, and export is page by page rather than elegant.

2. Google Keep: best for fast ubiquitous capture on iPhone and Android

Free, instant, and the closest thing to a sticky note on your lock screen. The widget drops you straight into a blank note or a voice memo, which is exactly what a ubiquitous capture device should do. Where it fails: it is a capture layer, not an archive. No real hierarchy, thin formatting, and long reference notes become unmanageable.

3. Drafts: fastest capture on Apple devices

Drafts opens with the cursor already blinking in an empty note, then lets you send that text onward to a task manager, email or file. Free tier covers capture; the Pro subscription (a few pounds a month, billed through the App Store) adds actions and themes. Where it fails: Apple only, and it is a staging area rather than somewhere to keep things.

4. Evernote: best reference archive for scans, receipts and web clippings

For finding a hotel receipt from 2019 by typing three words, Evernote’s search inside images and PDFs is still the benchmark, and the web clipper remains the best in class. The free plan is now heavily restricted and paid tiers sit at the expensive end of the market, so treat it as a paid archive rather than a free scratchpad. Our longer Evernote note taking application review covers how it holds up as a reference store. Where it fails: price, and years of accumulated clutter if you never process the inbox.

5. Obsidian: best for structured thinking, outlining and linked notes

Plain Markdown files in a folder on your own disk, with links, backlinks and outlining on top. Free for personal use; official sync is a paid add-on billed in US dollars, or you can use iCloud, OneDrive or Dropbox instead. Where it fails: mobile capture is slower than Keep or Drafts, and the plugin rabbit hole can eat the time you meant to spend working.

6. Notion: best for meeting notes and shared team knowledge

Databases, shared pages and comments make Notion strong for project wikis and recurring meeting notes several people need to read. There is a usable free personal plan; team workspaces are priced per user per month. Where it fails: it is slow to open, weak offline, and tempting to turn into a task manager it is not very good at being.

7. Apple Notes: best Apple-only option

Free, fast, on every Apple device, with lock screen and Control Centre capture, handwriting on iPad, decent scanning and surprisingly good search. For many Mac and iPhone users this is quietly the best note taking app available, because it is always there. Where it fails: no proper Windows or Android app, and export is awkward beyond a handful of notes.

Which Note Taking App Suits Your GTD System Setup

If you run OmniFocus or Todoist

Keep the task in the task manager and the material in the notes app, joined by a link in both directions. Paste the note’s share link into the project’s notes field, and put the project name in the note title. If you are already deep into custom views, our guide to tricking out your OmniFocus perspectives pairs well with a lean reference archive sitting behind it.

If you live in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

Use what you already pay for. OneNote or Google Keep plus Docs will cost you nothing extra, sync with the accounts your IT team already supports, and sidestep the data questions that come with adding another vendor to a work laptop.

If you are building a GTD system setup from scratch

One inbox, one archive, one task manager. That is a complete gtd system setup. Add nothing else for a month. Most people fail not because they picked the wrong app but because they picked four.

Migration checklist

1. Move active project material and anything from the last twelve months.
2. Export everything else to a single dated archive folder and leave it out of the new app.
3. Rebuild your folder structure by hand rather than importing old notebooks.
4. Reconnect capture routes (widget, clipper, email address) before you move a single note.

Paper vs Digital GTD System: When a Notebook Still Wins

Handwriting is slower, and that is the point. Writing by hand supports better recall and comprehension than typing, and research on handwriting and brain connectivity suggests the act itself engages more of the brain than keyboard entry. For thinking a problem through, planning a week or drafting an agenda, paper usually beats any app.

The hybrid that works: a pocket notebook as your primary ubiquitous capture device during the day, then a five minute pass at the end of the day where actionable items go to your task list and anything worth keeping is photographed into the app. Most scanning tools now read handwriting well enough for search to find your keywords, provided you write titles in capitals.

Signs the digital side is costing you more than it saves: you reorganise folders more often than you reread notes, you cannot remember which of three apps a note is in, or you spend the weekly review tidying instead of deciding.

Setting Up the Best Note Taking App So It Actually Sticks

A minimal structure

Five folders, no more: Inbox, Projects, Reference, Someday, Archive. Everything captured lands in Inbox. Nothing stays there past the weekly review.

Naming and tagging that survives search

Put the words you will actually search for in the title: client name, project name, date in YYYY-MM-DD form. Use tags sparingly, for context rather than topic, and never as a substitute for a title.

Wiring capture into the day

Set up the home screen widget, a desktop shortcut, the email-to-notes address, and one voice capture route. Test each once. Any capture path you have not tested will not be there when you need it, and the best note taking app in the world cannot catch what never reaches it.

Processing the notes inbox in under fifteen minutes

During your weekly review, work top to bottom and give each note one of four fates: turn it into a next action and archive the note, file it as reference, move it to Someday, or delete it. No editing, no polishing. If you need a refresher on the wider habit, the GTD search tool is a quick way to find guidance across the productivity blogs.

Costs, Limits and Common Mistakes to Avoid

Google Keep, Apple Notes and OneNote are free, and genuinely usable for years. Obsidian is free with paid optional sync. Notion and Drafts have workable free tiers with paid upgrades in the low single-digit pounds per month for individuals. Evernote is the one where you should expect to pay properly if you want it as your archive.

Watch for the limits that catch people out: device caps on free plans, monthly upload allowances if you scan a lot, note count ceilings, and attachment size limits that quietly reject a large PDF. Run a full export today and store it somewhere outside the app, then repeat quarterly, because backups you have never tested are not backups.

Three habits that break any app: capturing into two places at once, using notes as a to-do list, and skipping the weekly review. Fix those and almost any of these seven becomes the best note taking app for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best note taking app for a GTD workflow?

For most people it is OneNote or Apple Notes for the archive, paired with a fast capture tool such as Google Keep or Drafts. The deciding factor is not features but whether capture is fast enough that you never fall back on scribbling in a messaging app.

Which is the best free note taking app?

OneNote is the strongest free option overall because there are no note limits and sync is included with a Microsoft account. Google Keep and Apple Notes are also fully free and better for pure speed of capture.

Is the best note taking app the same as a task manager?

No, and it should not try to be. Notes hold reference material and thinking; a task manager holds commitments with contexts and dates. Keeping them separate is what stops your notes app turning into a second inbox you never process.

What is the best note taking app for iPhone and Mac?

Apple Notes covers most needs at no cost and is always available on both. Add Drafts if you want the absolute fastest capture, or Obsidian if you want plain-text files you control and heavy linking between notes.

Should my note taking app hold my next actions list?

Only if you have no separate task manager at all. Notes apps lack reliable due dates, contexts and review prompts, so actions buried in notes tend to be forgotten. Capture in notes, then move the action across during processing.

Is paper better than a digital note taking app?

Paper is better for thinking, planning and remembering, and it is the fastest capture tool ever made. Digital is better for search, sync and archiving. A hybrid, paper in, app for the archive, gets you both.

How do I move my notes to a new note taking app without losing anything?

Export everything from the old app first and keep that export as a cold archive. Then move only active project material and the last year of reference by hand, rebuild your folder structure fresh, and set up your capture routes before you migrate anything else.

Most roundups of mac productivity apps hand you fifty options and no system. This one does the opposite. It groups the tools by the job they do in a Getting Things Done workflow (capture, clarify, organise, reflect, engage, plus focus and email), names one strong pick and one cheaper or Apple-built alternative for each, and finishes with a rollout plan you can complete in an afternoon. Fewer apps, wired together properly, beat a beautiful shelf of software you never open.

How to Choose Mac Productivity Apps That You Will Still Use in Six Months

The three tests every app must pass: fast capture, trusted review, no daily admin tax

Before you buy anything, apply three tests. First, can you get a thought in within two seconds using a keyboard shortcut, without deciding where it belongs? Second, can you see everything you have committed to in one review, without opening four apps? Third, does it charge you a daily admin tax in tags, statuses and tidying? Any app that fails the third test will be abandoned by the second month, however good the screenshots look.

Subscription versus one-off purchase, and what Setapp changes for Mac users

Pricing models matter more than headline features. OmniFocus and Things are sold as one-off licences, usually per platform, with paid upgrades between major versions. Todoist, Notion, Craft and most email clients run on annual subscriptions. Setapp bundles well over two hundred Mac utilities for a single monthly fee, which is excellent value for window managers, clipboard tools, timers and time trackers, but it does not include the big three task managers. Check the developer’s own site for current figures before you commit, as prices and tiers change.

Why fewer apps beats more: one inbox, one list system, one notes store

The single rule that keeps a GTD system setup alive is this: one place for actions, one place for reference, one calendar for hard commitments. Capture can happen anywhere, but it must funnel into that one inbox. Every extra list system you add doubles the cost of your weekly review and halves your trust in it.

Sync reality check: iCloud, Dropbox and cross-device use with iPhone and iPad

Almost all serious mac productivity apps sync across Apple devices, but the mechanisms differ. Apple Reminders and Notes use iCloud, silently and reliably. OmniFocus and Things run their own encrypted sync services. Obsidian syncs via iCloud Drive, Dropbox or its own paid service. If you work across a Mac and a Windows PC, or share lists with colleagues, Todoist and Notion are the safer bets.

Capture: Mac Productivity Apps for Getting Things Out of Your Head

Global hotkey quick entry as the single most valuable feature to configure

If you configure only one thing today, make it the global quick entry hotkey in your task manager. OmniFocus, Things and Todoist all offer one, and it works from any app, including full-screen video calls. Type the thought, hit return, carry on. This is the feature that turns software into a trusted system.

Apple Reminders and Notes as a zero-cost ubiquitous capture device

Do not underestimate the free Apple stack. Reminders now supports tags, smart lists, subtasks and natural language dates, and Siri capture on a Mac, iPhone, Watch or HomePod all lands in the same inbox. For many people this is a complete capture layer at zero cost.

Drafts, Obsidian and Bear compared for fast text capture on Mac

For text-first thinkers, Drafts opens to a blank page every time and then sends the text onwards to a task manager, note or email, which suits meeting notes that need splitting later. Bear is the calmest Markdown notes app on the Mac with tidy tagging and a modest subscription. Obsidian keeps plain Markdown files in a local folder, is free for personal use, and rewards anyone who wants linked reference material they will still be able to read in ten years.

Email-to-task and share-sheet routes so nothing gets stranded in an inbox

Set up the paths that stop items being stranded. Todoist and OmniFocus give you a private email address for forwarding messages into your inbox. On macOS, the Share menu and Services let you push a Safari page or PDF straight into your list or notes app. If mobile capture is your weak point, our guide to the best iPhone apps for productivity covers the pocket half of the same system.

Task Managers: OmniFocus, Things and Todoist Head to Head

OmniFocus for depth: projects, tags, defer dates and custom perspectives

OmniFocus is the most faithful GTD implementation on the Mac. Sequential and parallel projects, defer dates that hide work until it is actionable, review intervals per project and saved custom perspectives all map directly onto the method. It is the heaviest of the three to learn, and the reward is a genuinely trustworthy weekly review. If you go this way, spend an hour on building your own OmniFocus perspectives, because that is where the payoff sits.

Things 3 for calm one-off pricing; Todoist for cross-platform and team sharing

Things 3 is the quietest option: a beautiful Today view, an Anytime and Someday split that matches GTD, headings inside projects, and a one-off purchase per platform rather than a subscription. Todoist wins if you are not fully in the Apple ecosystem or need shared projects with colleagues, with strong natural language entry and the widest integration list of the three.

Reminders and Shortcuts as the free baseline, and its honest limits

Reminders plus Shortcuts genuinely works for GTD if your commitments run to tens rather than hundreds of open actions. Its limits are honest ones: no defer dates that truly hide items, weak project review tooling, and no saved multi-criteria views. Start free, and upgrade only when you can name the specific thing Reminders will not do.

Cost table: one-off licences, annual subscriptions and family sharing

• One-off licence, per platform: OmniFocus (Pro upgrade optional), Things 3, MailMate, Hazel, Alfred Powerpack.
• Subscription: Todoist, Notion, Craft, Bear, Obsidian Sync, Mimestream, Spark Premium, Setapp.
• Free with your Mac: Reminders, Notes, Mail, Calendar, Shortcuts, Focus modes, Screen Time.
• Family Sharing: supported on many App Store purchases and Apple One, rarely on direct-sale licences, so check before buying twice.

Best Note Taking App for Mac Reference Material and Project Support

Separating action from reference so your next actions list stays clean

The commonest failure in a GTD system setup is dumping reference material into the task manager. Keep next actions in the task app and everything you might need to read in the notes app, with a link between them. Your next actions list should be scannable in under a minute.

Apple Notes, Obsidian, Craft and Notion compared on search, linking and export

Apple Notes is the default answer for most people: fast search, scanning, handwriting, tags, shared notes and no cost. Obsidian is the best note taking app for anyone who wants durable plain-text files, backlinks and local search. Craft is the most pleasant to write in on a Mac and exports cleanly to Markdown. Notion is the strongest for structured databases and team wikis, but it is slower to open and weaker offline. If the deciding factor is longevity, choose the one with the easiest export.

Evernote today: what changed, whether existing users should move, and where to migrate

Evernote still exists, now under new ownership, but the free tier has been tightly restricted and paid pricing has risen. It is no longer the obvious default it was a decade ago. Existing users with large archives should export their notes and move to Apple Notes for simplicity, Obsidian for permanence or Craft for writing, then keep the export as an archive.

Scanning, PDFs and web clipping without creating a digital junk drawer

Clip less than you think. Scan paper with the Notes camera or Continuity Camera, file PDFs into a small number of folders, and give every clipping a one-line note on why you kept it. Reference material you cannot describe is material you will never find.

Focus and Time: Mac Productivity Apps That Protect Deep Work

Built-in Focus modes and Screen Time before you buy anything

Set up a Work Focus that silences everything except two people, and a Deep Work Focus that silences everything. Both sync across your devices. Screen Time’s app limits and downtime cover a surprising amount of what paid blockers do. Interruption research consistently shows that recovering attention after a break costs real time, which is why the American Psychological Association’s summary of multitasking research is worth five minutes of your day.

Site and app blockers, timers and menu-bar Pomodoro tools worth the money

If Focus modes are not enough, Freedom blocks sites and apps across devices on a subscription, Cold Turkey Blocker sells a stubborn one-off Mac version, and Session or Flow give you a menu-bar Pomodoro timer with a blocklist attached. Pick one. Two blockers is procrastination with a receipt.

Time tracking to find out where the hours really go

Timing records automatically in the background and is ideal for a diagnostic fortnight. Toggl Track suits freelancers who need billable timers and client reports. Track for two weeks, act on what you learn, then stop if it is not earning its keep.

Window management, launchers and clipboard tools that remove friction

These are the unglamorous mac productivity apps that save minutes every hour: Rectangle (free) or Moom for window snapping, Raycast (free) or Alfred as a launcher and clipboard history, and Paste for a searchable clipboard archive. macOS Stage Manager and Mission Control cover the basics if you would rather buy nothing.

Best Mac Email Client Options Now That Sparrow Is Gone

Sparrow was discontinued years ago after its acquisition, so do not chase it

Sparrow was the best-loved Mac mail client of its era, was acquired by Google in 2012, and was shut down soon afterwards. It is not available, not maintained and not safe to run against modern mail servers. Our old Sparrow Mac mail app review stays online as history rather than a recommendation.

Apple Mail with rules and Shortcuts, Mimestream for Gmail, Spark and Mailmate compared

Apple Mail is free, fast, supports rules and now integrates with Shortcuts, and is enough for most people. Mimestream is a native Mac client built specifically on the Gmail API, so labels, filters and search behave exactly as Gmail does. Spark suits teams who want shared drafts and comments on messages. MailMate is the power user’s choice for multiple IMAP accounts, Markdown composition and ruthless keyboard control.

Turning email into next actions without letting the inbox become the task list

Process email in batches: reply if it takes two minutes, forward it into your task inbox if it needs real work, archive everything else. The message stays in the archive; the commitment lives in your task manager. An inbox used as a task list has no project structure and no review.

Search, snooze and send-later features that actually save time

Saved searches replace folders. Snooze pulls a message back when you can act on it, which is the email equivalent of a defer date. Send later protects colleagues from your 11pm working habits. Apple Mail now offers scheduled send and undo send, so you may not need to pay for any of this.

Wiring Your Mac Productivity Apps Into One GTD System Setup

A worked example stack: capture app, task manager, notes app, calendar, blocker

A dependable stack looks like this: Drafts or Reminders for capture, Things or OmniFocus for actions, Apple Notes or Obsidian as your best note taking app for reference, Apple Calendar for hard commitments only, and Focus modes or Freedom to protect the work. Five slots, one app each. Free version: Reminders, Notes, Calendar, Focus, Shortcuts.

Setting up a weekly review checklist and recurring reminder

Create a repeating Friday project called Weekly Review with the checklist inside it: empty every inbox, review the calendar two weeks back and four weeks forward, check every project for a next action, scan someday and maybe, and empty the desktop and Downloads folder. Half an hour, same slot each week. If you want more reading on the habit, the site’s GTD search engine is a quick way to find method-specific advice.

Automation with Shortcuts, Hazel and Raycast to cut repetitive steps

Shortcuts is free, syncs across devices and can create tasks, file notes or start a Focus session from a single hotkey; Apple’s Shortcuts User Guide for Mac is the fastest way in. Hazel watches folders and files documents by rule. Raycast script commands let you trigger any of it from the keyboard. Automate only the steps you have already done manually ten times.

A one-afternoon rollout plan, plus what to uninstall and when to stop tinkering

1. Choose your five slots and install nothing else.
2. Set the global capture hotkey and test it from three different apps.
3. Do one full brain dump into the inbox, unsorted.
4. Clarify it into projects and next actions, moving reference into your notes app.
5. Create the repeating weekly review with its checklist.
6. Delete the trial apps you did not choose, and stop reading reviews for ninety days.

The best set of mac productivity apps is the smallest set you will still trust in six months. Ship the system, then use it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Mac productivity apps do I actually need to start with?

Four: a capture tool with a global hotkey, one task manager, one notes app for reference, and your calendar. Everything else, including blockers, time trackers and launchers, is optional refinement you can add once the core habit sticks.

Are free Mac productivity apps like Reminders and Notes good enough for GTD?

For most people, yes. Reminders handles projects, tags, subtasks and smart lists, Notes handles reference, and Shortcuts glues them together. You will outgrow them only if you need defer dates that hide future work or per-project review intervals.

What is the best Mac productivity app for GTD: OmniFocus, Things or Todoist?

OmniFocus for the most complete GTD implementation and custom perspectives, Things 3 for a calm interface and one-off pricing, Todoist if you work across Windows or Android or share lists with a team. All three are good; the wrong choice is running two of them.

Is Sparrow still available as a Mac mail app?

No. Sparrow was acquired by Google in 2012 and discontinued shortly after, and it should not be used today. Apple Mail, Mimestream for Gmail users, Spark for teams and MailMate for power users are the current alternatives.

What is the best note taking app for a Mac?

Apple Notes for most people, because it is free, fast and syncs everywhere. Obsidian is the best note taking app if you want plain-text files and backlinks you own outright, Craft if writing quality matters most, and Notion if you need structured databases and team wikis.

Do Mac productivity apps sync properly with iPhone and iPad?

The Apple-ecosystem apps do, whether via iCloud or their own sync services, and capture on the iPhone typically appears on the Mac within seconds. Check before buying if you also use Windows or Android, since OmniFocus and Things are Apple-only.

Is a Setapp subscription cheaper than buying Mac productivity apps outright?

It depends on how many bundled utilities you would genuinely use. Setapp is good value if you want several window, clipboard, timer and time-tracking tools, but it does not include OmniFocus, Things or Todoist, so budget for your task manager separately.

I have been using The Sparrow Mail App for quite a while now and it has taken me away from the inbuilt Mail.app. I will be covering some cool workflow and integration I have done with Sparrow in the coming months but for now, check out the intro video.

Well, I have been super busy and super productive so trying my best to share some of the great links I have been collecting over the past few weeks.

It seems like every week a new GTD or Productivity app is coming out either Web based, Client based or Mobile App based. Truly exciting times.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

• My first link for this week is called How to Deal When GTD Kicks Your Ass – 5 Steps for Sanity. This is a guest post on the Producteev GTD Application blog and it a great read!
• My second link is to a great post titled 3 Goal-setting Tips That Don’t Work (And 3 That Do) This is a great post that looks at 3 common myths regarding goal setting.
• My third link is to another great post from Lifehacker about How to Use Multiple Computers to Increase Your Productivity. I use multiple computers including my iPhone and iPad and they sure do fit into my workflow.
• My fourth link is about using Evernote GTD and More to Get Organized. I love Evernote and it fits into my GTD system to help me keep all of my important information to hand.
• My fifth and last link is to a short article from Business Week called Let Reality, Not Fear, Be Your Guide. This is from a business coach who looks at your expectations and how you should be setting them.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

This is an excellent presentation by Merlin Mann from the OmniGroup booth at Macworld 2011. This is a 56 minute presentation about how to trick out your OmniFocus perspectives.

This is a MUST SEE if you use OmnIFocus as I do.

Tricking-out Your OmniFocus Perspectives from The Omni Group on Vimeo.

I have had a little break from this blog as I have been very busy getting things done but I am back with my usual weekly collection of links. Quite a lot has happened over the past month and I have completed two exams since my last writing so I have been busy studying and prepping for these.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

• My first link for this week is called How to Delegate a Task in OmniFocus with Sparrow. I have been using Sparrow since it went live and must admit that it has pulled me away from Mail.app. This Apple Script is the first bit of customisation for Sparrow that makes it fit more into a GTD system. Hopefully more of these will come to make the GTD process even more streamlined.
• My second link is to a great review of the Sparrow Mac Email client. I have a lot to write about Sparrow as I have recently switched from my beloved Mail.app to Sparrow for my email and I must admit that I am loving it!
• My third link is to a great leadership post from Fast Company called How Do You Measure Up as a Leader? Very good post from Fast Company that is well worth a read if you have to lead people.
• My fourth link is a link to a great How to Get Things Done with GMail post from scribd.com. I do not use the GMail web interface although I do use Gmail but this is still worth a read.
• My fifth and last link is to an excllent review of OmniFocus and other GTD apps in a post called A Sledgehammer Called OmniFocus from Shawn Blanc.

This is an excellent and in-dpeth review of OmniFocus and really does provide some real pros and cons as to using a powerhouse application such as OmniFocus as part of your GTD system.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

I hope you are all ready for Valentines tomorrow? It is my wife’s birthday so we get to celebrate two things, and I do not have any excuses to miss either!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

• My first link for this week is to a great Getting Things Done post titled The Solo Attorney’s Introduction to Getting Things Done. I do like these introductory posts to the GTD methodology and always enjoy hearing how other people are Getting Things Done.
• My second link is to a great post from my wife titled Cherish the Moment. Now this is not truly productivity related but it is a post that teaches us the important of living where you are right now. Do not get caught up in the journey but stop and enjoy yourself where you are, right now.
• My third link is to a post from the whole self blog called decluttering, it’s the way forward. I must admit that my wife is a master at de-cluttering and I have learned to harness the power of de-cluttering from her.
• My fourth link is a link to a video comparison of Microsoft OneNote and Evernote. Being a Mac user, I have never used Microsoft OneNote but I do know that Evernote does everything I need it to do!
• My fifth and last link is to a shortlist of OSX Time & Project Management Apps. Being a Mac user I found this a great list of apps I might not have known about.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Very productive week for me and looking forward some new challenges in the coming week.

Trying to get some more posts done in between my regular weekly links but I have a lot on at the moment so the blog post ideas are stacking up.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

• My first link for this week is to another great Lifehacker post looking at Why I Get More Done with a Plain Text To-Do List. I always say it is not about the tools you use but more about getting things done the way that works for you. A simple pen and paper worked for me before I switched to OmniFocus.
• My second link is to a great post titled A ridiculously simple way for Getting Things Done. Some great little snippets in this one and definitely worth the read.
• My third link is to a producitivty post from Laura’s Dark Arcive that promotes her Top tips for Getting Things Done. Nice post with some simple ideas to increase your productivity.
• My fourth link is a link to 4 Tips To Improve Your Time Management Plan. Time Management is critical to productivity and this post is great for helping you with a Time Management Plan.
• My fifth and last link is to a nice little post from Facile Things titled GTD and the benefits of routine. I am big believer in routines so give this a read!

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Another week is over and the start of another week is soon to begin. Last week was a busy week for me and I got through it all unscathed.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

• My first link for this week is to a rather cool looking Gmail Mac email client called Sparrow. I have just rebuilt my main Mac to incorporate an SSD and I am looking to move away from Mail.app as it was hogging my system so the timing of this is perfect for me. If you use Gmail and a Mac be sure to give this a try.
• My second link is to a great post titled Motivated People Make Things Happen While Everyone Else Is Watching. How true is this! and the title of this post is just as good as the content found within.
• My third link is to a great review of the OmniFocus GTD App from Appstorm.net.
• My fourth link is a link to a review of Wunderlist: Free and Easy Task Management. This is cool looking and new GTD app doing the rounds.
• My fifth and last link is to a post is a great post from Lifehacker titled Set Aside a Mind Sweep Day When Work Piles Up. Good advice from the great Lifehacker blog.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

I have just returned from a great weekend in the Lakes with my wife. A great way to recharge the batteries after a hectic Christmas and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

• My first link for this week is to the rather excellent post by Tony Schwartz titled Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything. You may have already read this as it has been republished at sites like the Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. If you have, re-read it and if not, read it now!
• My second link is to a great Productivity Web App called iDoneThis. Seems a simple idea but effective so be sure to give it a try.
• My third link is to a post titled Procrastinating: to delay is human from the Calgary Herald. Procrastination is something we all suffer from and this post looks at not being so hard on yourself and to actually plan for procrastination.
• My fourth link is a link to an interesting post titled A Few Words Against Productivity. Some interesting viewpoints are covered in this post.
• My fifth and last link is to a post covering 5 ipad apps for lawyers who love to Get Things Done. Although this is aimed at Lawyers don’t let this put you off as it is a good collection of 5 great iPad apps for Getting Things Done.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!