For years I have searched for the ultimate system to become more organized. Of course it all started on paper in the early 90’s using the various brands of planners.
In 1992 I moved to a Casio electronic organizer. What a nightmare. These little devices did not have any method for backing up to a computer, and they were somewhat fragile. I owned a couple of different models, and I remember the chore of typing the data on the very small keyboard.
I sort of gave up for a while and used a combination paper and desktop PC system through the mid-90’s. There was a Toshiba notebook computer in the mix for a while as well.
In 1998 I discovered the ultimate – the Palm Pilot 5000. This little monochrome-screened 
wonder not only could store an immense amount of data, but it would backup everything to a computer. The computer software was not fantastic, but it was usable. I quickly picked up the special handwriting language that was used by the Palm. I never did have any luck trying to read email, but as a basic organizer it did very well. I owned two Palm products moving forward.
Sometime around 2000 I purchased a Dell Axim, because Windows CE looked like it might beat the Palm operating system. The Dell Axim used Outlook, which would ultimately be my personal information organizer for many years. I also went through a couple of Dell Axims. I actually still use the X30 to this day. The 624 MHz processor and SD card expansion are great for watching videos.
In 2007 I began to yearn for an online solution to organize my life. Late in the year, I moved my personal finances online with mvelopes.com. All of my banking and bill pay have been online for years. This portion of my life was ready for the Internet.
I looked at several online organizers, but settled on testing iScrybe and Google Calendar.
iScrybe:
I had followed iScrybe for many months following a video that I had seen on YouTube. It appeared to be an amazing way of organizing your life, thoughts, and projects. It relates well to how humans can look at a big picture and then focus on more granular details. The Thoughtpad is great for gathering information from the web and then storing in a controlled manner for a later project. The task list is located right along the calendar, so it is easy to schedule tasks.
I had two problems with iScrybe. One is that it is still in beta so one does not know if it will survive and how much it will cost if it does. The second problem is that iScrybe does not work well on the small screen, and they do not have any provision for mobile access. They do have a provision for off-line access, but I needed access from a PDA.
The developers of iScrybe could fix these problems by indicating how they plan to support the company long-term. I could then feel more comfortable as to how this project will shake-out in the future. The mobile access problem could be tackled by just having a simple WAP sight that lists my schedule for the next few days.
Google Calendar:
I had dabbled with Google calendar for about a year, but the show-stopper for me was the lack of a task list. I know that there are plenty of online task lists, but I wanted one that would integrate with the calendar. Rumors have been abounding that Google is going to add a task list, but Google had never confirmed the rumor.
I then discovered Remember The Milk and more importantly that it would integrate into Google Calendars without an add on. Let me explain that last bit. There are several types of applications that promise to integrate into Gmail and other online services. The problem is that you need to download a small software extension for your browser. This is all fine and good, but it is not good when you need to jump on a public computer. It is also trying when you need to redo your computer. I “redo” my computer about every other month.
Remember The Milk integrates into Google Calendars by showing up as a calendar. This is one of the joys of Google Calendar. If you would like to add the schedule of a favorite sport you just search for that calendar. In my case, I enjoy a NASCAR race on Sunday afternoons. I searched for a 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule, and all of a sudden I have the whole schedule on my calendar. The same can be done for holidays of differing religious persuasions, countries, etc. You can also share your calendars with others and vice-versa. They can just viewers or they can add items to your calendar.
The other plus for Google Calendar is integration with Gmail. An example would be that I recently signed up to attend a conference. When they sent my confirmation email, I had an option on the rights bar to add it to my calendar. Google calendar filled in all of the information from the email and even provided a link to Google Maps for driving directions. I had invited someone else to attend the conference as well, so I simply shared this event with them. They were able to indicate in their Google Calendar if they did indeed plan to attend with me.
Mobile access for Google Calendars is okay. It is not entirely straight forward, but it works. You can view a simple listing of your events by day on a mobile web device. To add new tasks you can “text” them to your calendar using SMS.
Remember The Milk:
Remember The Milk (RTM) is a very sophisticated task manager. You can do just about any operation with tasks, and they have various options for listing or tagging tasks. The search is also very intensive.
Mobile access for RTM is amazing. You can do just about any tasks on a mobile browser that can be done on the desktop computer. You can complete tasks, add new ones, or even delete them. They have great search such as “shopping” when you step into the store and for the life of you cannot remember why you are there. They offer off-line support using Google Gears. The service is generally free, but they do reserve some services for Pro accounts which cost $25 per year.
Another great way to use RTM remotely is to tie it to a Jott account. That is a tease for a service that we discuss more in a later post.
Overall, I am happy with the conjunction of Google Calendar and Remember The Milk. I am still curious to see how or when Google will integrate a task list into Google Calendars. I would have a suggestion – Google please purchase Remember The Milk.