Always chasing little scraps of paper around the office? Then consider “My Life Organized” (MLO) as a task manager.
This is a very short review because I know I have another five tasks to achieve before I shutdown my computer tonight. How do I know that I have five tasks? Because I use a combination of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) system and “My Life Organized” (MLO).
In a nutshell MLO is task outliner. It allows you keep track of all of the things you want to do now, tomorrow and ever. The outliner looks and works like the windows folder system. If that was all MLO offered it would be a good tool.
What sets it apart from every other to-do list manager I’ve tried (and I’ve tried 20+ applications) is the to-do list. When you create a task you assign it places (contexts in GTD speak) – like: Home, Office Office Calls, etc. In the to-do list view you filter by place, so you only see the tasks that you can do at the current moment. For example I’m currently sitting at my office desk so I see all the places related to my Office. There are tools to focus on a branch in the outline, to limit places to visible at certain times, etc.
There are two other key aspects a very active user community (on Google groups) and developer who is listens and constantly improves the program to fit its user’s needs.
So if you were like me, always chasing bits of paper then stop reading this review and try: My Life Organized: https://www.mylifeorganized.net/. Available as both a Windows and PocketPC application (N.B. some enterprising users have got MLO to work on the Mac and Linux with WINE).
There. One task on my list is complete. Four to go.
Mark Levison has been helping Scrum teams and organizations with Agile, Scrum and Kanban style approaches since 2001. From certified scrum master training to custom Agile courses, he has helped well over 8,000 individuals, earning him respect and top rated reviews as one of the pioneers within the industry, as well as a raft of certifications from the ScrumAlliance. Mark has been a speaker at various Agile Conferences for more than 20 years, and is a published Scrum author with eBooks as well as articles on InfoQ.com, ScrumAlliance.org an AgileAlliance.org.
Greg says
Great article. I created a free web-based note taking app that is available at https://www.notebookg.com. The purpose is to provide a lightweight structure to keep notes about any subject, and tag for future search. I’ll be adding group note taking soon.
Vipin says
Are you still using this system?
Lifehacker says
Download of the Day: My Life Organized (Windows)
Windows only: Task manager MyLifeOrganized outlines your project list in a hierarchical view with subtasks. The free version of MyLifeOrganized organizes tasks and subtasks with priority. The pay-for Standard and Pro versions track contexts, goals, du…
Tamar Greenberg Bracha says
Just what I needed! It’s 10:00 p.m. already, and I still have 5 things on today’s list of things to do.
Yesterday’s list is buried under today’s, and it hasn’t been finished either.
I will take a look at My Life Organized tomorrow, and I’ve already sent myself an email to remind me to put it on tomorrow’s list of things to do.
Thanks so much for the tip!