Overview
I’ve actually been using Doit.im (Snoworange Inc.) for about six months since I started my comparison of GTD systems. I needed a solution for managing my work projects while I reviewed additional systems, and so I narrowed my list of potential solutions to four or five and this was one of them. Due to its cross-platform compatibility (and the fact that I was trying to use my new MacBook Pro more) I decided to migrate all of my data to this application, use it to manage my day-to-day projects, and try out other systems in parallel.
I can’t stress how pleased with solution I’ve been. The application works well and the development team seems to be fairly responsive with inquiries. Whether this translates to an output of requested features or not, time will tell. The company appears to be a fairly new startup and new functionality is pushed out pretty quickly. There is a 30-day trial and the Pro version is a low price of $20 per year.
Snoworange has done a good job of implementing a GTD-oriented solution as opposed to a task or list manager that is capable of accommodating GTD. There are a couple things about the system that are obvious missteps, but overall it’s a very good implementation.
Pros
- I can’t stress enough that this solution is a strong candidate for anyone with a variety of platform needs. I use a PC desktop at home, a PC laptop and a MacBook Pro at work, an iPad occasionally at work, and an Android smartphone. I actually prefer the web interface over the PC application but that doesn’t really help if I am using my laptop and don’t have access to a WiFi connection. The cross-platform support with Doit is really fantastic.
- While Areas of Focus (Personal, Job 1, Job 2, etc.) are not supported, Doit’s tagging capabilities make this a minor issue. The ability to create custom search queries (filters) and save them for one-click use makes for a very powerful way to view your tasks in whatever manner is most important to you at a given time/place.
- Presentation is superb, with many options for viewing your tasks in a way that personally works best for you. Task management is simple and most operations are fairly simple to navigate; the workflow efficiency of the application is constantly being improved by an active development team.
Cons
- Tasks added to a project are automatically assigned a status of “Next” when in theory there should only be a single “Next Action”. I’ve raised this with the development team (as have several other users) and they seem resistant to changing the workflow. Their recommendation was that I use “Someday” or “Waiting” instead for queued tasks that are not my Next Action, but both of these status have specific (and different) meaning in a GTD implementation.
- Task management is controlled by a tasks placement in a time-based category (Today, Tomorrow, Someday, etc.) rather than in a project. This means that you can process your inbox, assign a project and context to a task, and it remains in your inbox. This is confusing to users and it would seem tasks should be controlled by their placement in a project instead, but this is a minor workflow issue.
- In order to delegate a task, the contact has to create an account with Doit.im. This renders the contact-delegation functionality useless if your colleagues don’t all want to sign up for accounts. I’ve resorted to using tags for this, which waters down the power of the tagging system by including a bunch of names in the list.
- While you can batch assign tasks to contexts or statuses using drag-and-drop, you can only batch tag tasks using the Mac application.
So, let’s see how it performs against my feature list:
| Feature | Description | Doit.im |
| Tasks | Tasks | Yes |
| Subtasks | Subtasks | Yes |
| Projects | Projects | Yes |
| Contexts | Contexts | Yes, defined |
| Quick-Add | Put tasks into my inbox either directly to the app or via email, being able to quick add is a plus | Yes |
| Move Tasks | Move tasks directly to projects from inbox with shortcut keys (as opposed to having to cut, browse, paste) | Yes |
| GTD Hierarchy | Organization hierarchy must include Projects > Tasks > Contexts > Tags | Yes |
| Focus Areas | I wouldn’t mind having another higher level of organization above projects, either as drawers to file projects in, areas of focus, or nested project folders as these things would let me separate Work, Home and Personal projects | No |
| Delegates | Assign tasks to delegates (this was done as free text or from a contact on TodoMatrix, which was nice) | No |
| GTD Statuses | Use of standard GTD task statuses (Next Action, Waiting, Someday) | Yes |
| Due Dates | Set a deadline/due date | Yes |
| Delegate Due Dates | Set a deadline by which a delegate needs to complete a Waiting For task | No |
| Reminders | Set at least one reminder for the task (TodoMatrix allowed up to three reminders for the task and one for the delegate’s due date) | Yes |
| Recurring Tasks | Create recurring tasks | Yes |
| Task Ordering | Order tasks (preferably by drag and drop) | No |
| Google Sync | Sync with Google Calendar is a nicety, but it’s not something I really need or even know for sure I would use | Yes |
| Notifications | Some sort of notification badge to let me know that I have tasks aging out | Yes |
| Views | Time- and context-based views so I can review all items due within three days, or all past due items, or all items with @phone context | Yes |
| Search | Search functionality to find tasks | Yes |
| Search Filters | Create and save complex search queries and views | Yes |
| Multi-platform | Multi-platform availability (Web, Windows, Mac, Android) that allows for both cloud storage and offline updates from app | Yes |
| Offline | Update task list locally while offline for sync later | Yes |
| Windows | Application that runs on the Windows platform | Yes |
| Mac | Application that runs on the Mac platform | Yes |
| Web | Application that runs on the Web platform | Yes |
| Android | Application that runs on the Android platform | Yes |
| iOS | Application that runs on the iOS platform | Yes |
| Free Trial | Try the application for free for a period of time (days) | 30 days |
| Subscription | Cost of subscription or Premium/Pro account | $20/yr |
User Interface
The user interface is pleasant on all of the platforms and it’s easy to use, which typically means you’re more likely to put data into it. While system aesthetics are not overly-important to me, I also don’t want a system that looks like it was assembled by someone as a chapter project in their programming class. This is a good-looking application. In-line editing of task details would be nice — you currently have to open the task to change the name or an attribute, whereas being able to click on a field and edit the value would be nice.
Developer: Snoworange
Website: http://doit.im
Thanks for this review. I’ve been using DoIt for just about one year now. I have to admit that I’ve thought of abandoning it at times because I felt it’s too restrictive. It would be nice if they would allow some tweaking to the interface. But, I finally figured out that the more I use it, the better it works for me.
Andy, thanks for your comment. I’ve dealt with the same struggles. Overall, I like Doit in comparison with its competitors, but there are some aspects of it that just drive me nuts — like the Next vs. Next Action conflict.
I think that if you try this and Nirvana, whichever one catches your fancy best is probably your best bet. I like both of them, but I prefer the multi-platform functionality of Doit.