Best Personal Development Software

[Greg]

Can anyone recommend good personal development software out there?

Any genre really - just curious as to what is out there that has really worked for people.

[JKuehl]

What helped me alot was "The Journal" by David RM Software - i keep track of all kinds of special days, dates and such in it. Also i´m journaling my thoughts in there, even use it to store bookmarks, winamp livestreams, pictures, mindmaps and so much more - great piece of software!

[tobyhede]

I like Backpack by 37 Signals ... it has a great set of tools for collecting and organising ideas and information. Basic edition is free, and than various enhancements are available in the paid versions.

Plus, the interface and design are really good. Excellent source of inspiration for my own software development.

[Jim]

I really like Tracks It's a GTD organizer written in Ruby on Rails.

If you don't want to invest the time to get Tracks running on your own, here are a few hosted solutions.

[Milo Riano]

I organize everything in Outlook. With the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2007 everything is tightly integrated.

[Brendon Colby]

Originally Posted by Jim

I really like Tracks It's a GTD organizer written in Ruby on Rails.

If you don't want to invest the time to get Tracks running on your own, here are a few hosted solutions.

I just read GTD (absolutely amazing book) and was looking for something web based. Thanks for the link!

[helgi]

Originally Posted by tobyhede

I like Backpack by 37 Signals ... it has a great set of tools for collecting and organising ideas and information. Basic edition is free, and than various enhancements are available in the paid versions.

I use Backpack as well, paying $5 a month and really impressed with it. Also looking forward to the big update that's supposed to be coming this week.

For journaling I've been using MacJournal from Mariner software for a couple of years now, a relatively simple way of maintaining an organized collection of entries, and the newest versions have a really useful full screen option for writing without distractions.
My only issue with it is that it has started to become heavy with time (currently at around 600k words total) and so I'm sure it's hogging more resources than it should. Might be able to do an archive in it though.

[ctraupel]

Originally Posted by helgi

I use Backpack as well, paying $5 a month and really impressed with it. Also looking forward to the big update that's supposed to be coming this week.

For journaling I've been using MacJournal from Mariner software for a couple of years now, a relatively simple way of maintaining an organized collection of entries, and the newest versions have a really useful full screen option for writing without distractions.
My only issue with it is that it has started to become heavy with time (currently at around 600k words total) and so I'm sure it's hogging more resources than it should. Might be able to do an archive in it though.

I used MacJournal as well, even paid for it But then I stumbled over t he open source tool Journler and immediately migrated all of my data (quite a lot of work, but I think it's worth it).

Journler holds all my ideas, plans, lists and so on, I don't know how I managed before

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by JKuehl

What helped me alot was "The Journal" by David RM Software - i keep track of all kinds of special days, dates and such in it. Also i´m journaling my thoughts in there, even use it to store bookmarks, winamp livestreams, pictures, mindmaps and so much more - great piece of software!

Seconded! I've found the templates feature very handy for improving my writing, and the reminders for making sure I don't slack off on my daily/weekly/monthly writing endeavours. And a scheduled task to run the application so I don't forget that first important step

[akapulko2020]

nice little app which runs in Firefox .

[FuturePast]

Tiddlywiki is a bit of a Swiss Army knife. A wiki in a single file that runs in your browser.

[boris]

I am working on an app for lightweight personal project management called FusionDesk. It should be ready in 2 weeks.

It supports GTD very well, and is very flexible so anyone can implement their own methodology if they have one.

Here is a screen-shot for a preview:
FusionDesk5 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[wheelie]

I know Steve likes and recommends Action Outline for a PIM (Personal Information Manager) and I tried it out as well as several other programs that were recommended in the comments under the relevant post:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...ng-mental-ram/

By far the best one that I've found is UltraRecall by Kinook:

PIM software for Windows - personal information manager and knowledge manager for Windows

It has a lengthy trial period and I really put it to the test. It features a free reader as well so you can keep your database (which is kept as a single file!) with you on a pendrive and use your info on any computer. Very useful for me when I'm trying to share my research notes with others. Web pages, pdf's, all office docs imbed into the interface and can be linked and inter-related within the outline. I just ponied up the $100 for the unlimited pro version and I am continuing to discover more and more useful capabilities. Very cool app.

I also use DavidRM Software's The Journal (per Steve's recommendation) and it is an elegant and usefull application that delivers exactly as it should.

I axed MS Outlook as soon as Thunderbird was on it's feet and running. I find Outlook bloated and complicated and Outlook Express under featured. Thunderbird works beautifully for me and keeps getting better. I recently added an extension called Reminder Fox which helps me keep track of all my auto-payment schedules as well as all the birthdays and travel dates, etc.
You can find it here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/1191/

Feel free to ask me anything more.

[Henry]

I like Google Notebook + Google Calendar to implement the GTD system.

[scoobie]

Originally Posted by boris

I am working on an app for lightweight personal project management called FusionDesk. It should be ready in 2 weeks.

It supports GTD very well, and is very flexible so anyone can implement their own methodology if they have one.

Here is a screen-shot for a preview:
FusionDesk5 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The screenshots look good. This looks like an interesting product, however I hope the feature set is wide and strong enough.

Some of questions about the features:
Will it be able to generate a prioritised (smart) to do list? (based on due date, importance, priority and other ratings)
Will there be a slider for task importance?
Will there be a slider to set task urgency?
Can tasks have dependencies?
Will it record time spent?
Will it show what you've spent your time working on graphically (like Life Balance does)?

I recommend you look at My Life organized and its Google user group if you've not done so already. The consensus of this very active community is that you should derive a task's priority from a combination of urgency and importance ratings. (ie don't sweat over urgent tasks that are of low importance to your overall goals). I think the way you are setting a tasks priority would be too basic for most users. Most people seem to want to have their to do list prioritised for them.

[scoobie]

I second:

MLO (My life organized) ( a very sophisticated task manager and prioritiser)

Onenote 2007 (especially tagging features)

Outlook 2007 Calendaring and task manager

and some new ones for you all:

LifeLog (personal time log)

Sciral Consistency (for regular recurring tasks like tracking food eaten, or exercise)

LifeBalance (similar to MLO above in many respects, though with graphical output for tracking time spent versus where you wanted to spend your time - this is a very nice feature - though overall a smaller feature set compared to MLO)

Achieve Planner Similar to MLO above but with an integrated calendar

[and]

Originally Posted by boris

I am working on an app for lightweight personal project management called FusionDesk. It should be ready in 2 weeks.

It supports GTD very well, and is very flexible so anyone can implement their own methodology if they have one.

Here is a screen-shot for a preview:
FusionDesk5 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Boris, under what license will you release this? Free or fee? if fee, how much?

[trekr5]

I borrowed an excellent tip from someone here on the board...

Make up a powerpoint presentation of your intentions and then run it on our computer..almost like a screensaver. That's what I've done so I'm reminded constantly of where I want to be in my life

[htmljenn]

I've been trying out EverNote - I use it for well, everything, but mostly to jot down my thoughts as I'm doing something else. It helps me to stay focused on a task (a la GTD) without worrying that I'll forget that I need to buy cat litter (or whatever).

[Dwane J.]

I have been using My Life Organized for about a year now and really enjoy it. It's flexiable enough to be used for storing daily tasks, tracking goals, scheduling due dates and more.

I looked at other outlining software and this had the right amount of features.

[boris]

No one mentioned OneNote. While most of us have get used to MS Office, there are still very exciting things coming from Microsoft.

OneNote is the killer note taking application. It allows you to take notes in a very 'holistic' way. (and I don't even like this word!)

[Caveman Joe]

Another vote from me for MyLifeOrganized - and the PDA version isn't bad, either.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by boris

No one mentioned OneNote. While most of us have get used to MS Office, there are still very exciting things coming from Microsoft.

OneNote is the killer note taking application. It allows you to take notes in a very 'holistic' way. (and I don't even like this word!)

I second OneNote, I keep almost everything in it. Other than that I use OutLook. They also conveniently work together.

[Henry]

FREE Mindmap software, open source, and it's sweet too

FreeMind - Mindmapping software

[Johanka]

Freemind is good.
I use Instiki for various note-taking, drafts and brainstorming, Yahoo calendar for appointments and the command-line todo.txt for next actions.

[mustard76]

I use backpackit.com. You can add audio notes to your "backpack" from your cellphone. I love this feature.

[wilsonng]

I vote for ONeNote.

in terms of organizing myriads of information and tidbits of knowledge and readings it is great.

[goalenforcer]

If you are open-minded and enjoy new and interesting approaches, take a look at GoalEnforcer GoalEnforcer - Goal Setting, Goal Planning, Goal Managing

[SeanYuriua]

I'm using MyLifeOrganized (:: My Life Organized :: Task Management Software) on both Desktop and PDA. Quite impressive tool.
Sean

[AndrewRSM]

I use PyGTD.

A couple months ago I was looking for a way to start organizing all the tasks on my mental to-do list. I read about GTD [Getting Things Done] and decided it made sense. I then decided I wanted some software to aid me in this advanced listmaking/self organizing ideal. I went through many programs, many of which already noted here, and came to the conclusion they were all hard to manipulate and generally Bloated software.

I stumbled upon PyGTD. I originally thought it would be too difficult to use, but I am now in love. PyGTD is a python script that organizes a to-do list based upon entries you put into different categories. For each entry, you use a code to put in urgency and importance, due dates, and even how often you want a task to recur.

Example of something you would put into a category file:

* Morning Review
C=0 I=5 U=4 T=1H D=2004-11-08 S=0D R=2004-11-01+1W ID=1
1. Review upcoming tasks and appointments
T=10M
2. Clear your head
T=20M

C is for percent of completion, I is for importance, U is for urgency, T is for estimated amount of time it'll take you to complete, D is the date you want this to pop up, R is the recurrance. ID is generated by the script.

This isn't even really a program in the way you may normal think of them. You edit text files and run a python script to generate a new text file based on the priorities you state (even which categories you want to work with at the time).

This concept may take some getting used to. Read the site and the couple pages of documentation, and you, like me, may like what you find.