Every so often I inventory my methods for managing my daily data like to do lists, tasks, appointments etc. I am always looking for ways to make things easier to manage and review what technologies can help in the endeavor. Most recently with my purchase of the Iphone I have been looking for the one killer app to allow me to brain dump and collect thoughts and cool web finds. What i am settling toward is a combination of a few applications that integrate well together.
Google services Gmail, Calender, Docs and Picasa have become my primary presence online. Accessible and integrated to my Iphone this provides me the one stop two way service anyone would expect. Anyone who puts down Iphone's email capabilities and calls it a toy just hasn't tried this configuration. (see related article in my blog). Google's only downside is task integration on the Iphone itself.
Reqall.. Reqall is a web application that has an optional browser component and an iphone application that focuses on memory and reminding you. The great part of Reqall is you simply talk and it creates the list item and can categorize it for you as well. It will email you a daily itinerary of your to-do list / appointments, and integrates with Google Calendar. So for example if you said "meet Bill at Mcdonalds 2pm next friday, contact 603.123.456" Reqall will turn speach to text, adding an entry into your calendar for 2pm next friday. If you look at the entry Reqall made you will see the phone is active so simply tapping it will dial it, this works the same for web addresses. If you provide a date, Reqall will use the date or date range to make the entry.
Those who are old school will enjoy the fact you can type your entries as well. Reqall is quite smart and understands locations or contexts like "at work" "at home" etc. You can also forward an item you get in you email inbox to your Reqall account and it will insert in right in. Everything stays in sync and you have a web interface via browser as well. The browser add-on for firefox allows for clipping web info and pops up reminders as well.
www.Reqall.com check it out...This application gets high marks. The web interface is a tad clunky but the system under active development so i am sure it will improve.
Evernote is an application that could be thought of as an information agregator. It allows for capturing almost anything you want to remember and works very well. It's free version is a bit limited in monthly traffic if you do pictures and web pages alot but it is really usefull for grabbing and collecting things. I use it alot for my phone to grab a picture or to grab ref material on the web. Evernote has a free desktop application and firefox add-in that makes capture and management painless. The iphone app is limited but works smooth. I use Evernote as part of the capture process and if it is something that will require action move it into the Reqall side of things if needed.
So for now this combination looks to be solution for applying the Getting Things Done principles to my task management. I can collect an manage my day to day all electronic and have all accessible and in sync on the phone or at the desktop.
What is this Posterous? Well it provides the "one post" solution to update my Blog, Twitter and Social Feeds. It allows for me to share straight off my Iphone and I can post here to everywhere via a simple email. It does ALL the heavy lifting with attachments.