Comments on: GTD on a Symbian Phone (Nokia E71)

By: Running GTD on an iPhone | Time Management Solutions

Running GTD on an iPhone | Time Management Solutions — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:20:43 +0000

[...] of you who have read my previous article about running GTD on a Nokia phone perhaps remember that we omitted completely category synchronization at that time. This was however [...]

By: RegionalSalesman

RegionalSalesman — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:02:43 +0000

There is a problem when editing tasks on the go i.e. lets say i have something on my calls list > the call creates a new task, say @excel. In Outlook i have usually all the project related mails etc. binded to the particular task. Now having made the call, in fe. Palm enviroment i would just change the tasks category to excel and maybe do some fine tuning on the subject line. But all the material would still be there. If i make the same in s60 enviroment, it will result the task being in wrong category when i sync back to outlook. I could of course check all the task lists after the sync, but given the amount of tasks i currently have (483) that isnt a solution.

However, thanks for the tips. Im struggling with my E90 kommunikaattorillani on the same subject. I just came across a cheap unused Treo 750 and have been toying around with it. Perfect for GTD but as i travel a lot, its a toy compared to nokias (esp. the e90 i treasure) as a phone (and all things non-PIM).

By: El Marko

El Marko — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:04:04 +0000

The solution of using MS Exchange isn’t practicable, generally speaking, outside a corporate environment. A solution that syncs with Outlook would fit for small, independent businesses. And, hey, even the city of LA is now moving to Gmail, and at least there are tools that now will sync Symbian with Gmail.

I found the proposed workarounds with respect to dating and limiting the use of categories to be, well, challenging. While GTD on Symbian does require one to adapt, GTD also prefers the adaptations not actually get in the way of maintaining the trusted system. I don’t want to have, as a regular task, something along the lines of “advance date of undated tasks, in Outlook”.

Although Harri proposes some thought-provoking solutions to Symbian’s serious drawbacks, I find the use of AquaSync and AquaCalendar (by PocketTorch) to be a better solution. While not perfect, AquaSync appends Outlook categories to the subject field of calendar and task items. AquaCalendar provides a way to view tasks and calendar items through sorts and filters, on the appended categories.

I am dismayed to note that, very recently, PocketTorch appears to have shuttered its web site. Consequently, I have been encouraging SBSH Mobile, which is developing a product originally created by PocketTorce, called “Reminders”, to take over the development of AquaSync and to incorporate AquaCalendar’s views into SBSH’s calendar product.

Like many GTD adherents, I moved from the Palm OS, which I found provided PIM capabilities for superior to Symbian. But, the Palm OS was used in only lousy phones, IMHO, and so I’m stuck with Nokia and an OS which, insane as it seems to me, doesn’t acknowledge the need to categorize anything.

Anyway, there you have it. I think Nokia’s feet need to be held to the fire, over this issue of support for categories and syncing categories to desktop-and cloud-based PIMs. Nokia’s smart phones will remain to be not-so-smart, in comparison to Windows Mobile in and Palm OS devices, until this problem is addresssed.