Sunday, March 11th, 2007...10:22 pm
Nozbe: Starting to Get Things Done via the Web?
Well, howdy to all of you Black Belt Productivity readers. This is the first in what is going to be a new feature here at BBP…the review of products that are geared toward people who practice GTD.
First up on the Cavalcade of Fun: the web app, Nozbe.
Nozbe touts itself as a ’simple and efficient web-based productivity system.’ At first glance, there is a lot of great things in Nozbe that I have not seen in other GTD web apps. But once you start looking further, you start to see noticeable limitation in the app that are really unacceptable.
When you log in you are greeted with a main screen that really does not tell you a whole lot about what you have to do. It shows you how many NAs you have and how many Projects you have…that’s it. It takes another click to get to any relevant information. The last section tells you how important Contexts are…so important that you cannot change them! [More on that later]
So, now you click on your Next Actions link to start adding the things that floating in your head. Oh wait! You cannot add Actions that are NOT associated with a Project. Oops, that is a no-no. I can think of so many Actions that I have that are not in a project. Allen himself states that you should drop single Actions into your Context of choice to keep up with. The limitation that NAs have to be part of a project almost make this app unacceptable for me to use. I kept going with adding some Projects so that I could add some Actions.Project creation is a snap. Put in a Name, and an optional description and you are done. THEN, you can start adding NAs to the project. Adding Actions is just as easy as Project creation. Click on the “*NEW ACTION” button and you are rolling. All that you need to enter is the name of the Action, a time estimate (starting at 5 mins) and a Context. The latter two are from pull downs.
The real innovation that Nozbe has incorporated is the selection of the Next Action. In your list of Actions for your projects, you can star one, and that marks that particular Action as the Next Action. It is a quick way to mark your Actions as the Next Action, and you can even have multiple star in your Actions list. The starred Actions make up the listing that is accessible from the main page. Using your Next Actions list to work from you can change the time estimate and even complete the Action. You can also rearrange your list by drag and drop, which is a nice feature, though not unique in the GTD web app space.
Now on to the Contexts. You cannot add/modify any of the Contexts in the current setup. This is totally unacceptable for use as anyone’s trusted system. GTD is a framework for each to individually customize to one’s needs. Now the developer states that customizable contexts are “first on his Nozbe to-do list.” I am sorry, but that is a no brainer and should have been out with the Alpha release, let alone the Beta release.
Some other things that I noticed were not in Nozbe: recurring Tasks, no way to email Actions into the system, no scheduling devices, and no way to move Actions between Projects. Now not all of these missing features are what I would call vital to a good GTD app. But they are all features that I have noticed in other GTD apps already in release. I also understand that Nozbe is still in Beta and therefore not all of the functionality has been added. I will gladly come back to Nozbe upon final release and reevaluate it as a viable app for GTD practitioners.
Nozbe will also have a paid subscription that adds some additional functionality. Currently, I think that the additional functionality should be added to the free offering. According to the Pricing Structure, with the free account, you get to add 1 customizable context. That is a JOKE.
Nozbe will be sure to fail if the number of customizable contexts is still tied to the subscription upon final release. That is the essence of GTD…make a system that is your own. I think that the number of available Projects is definitely acceptable to be based on the level of your subscription, as is the amount of file storage and availability of SSL. But not the Contexts. Everyone should be able to customize as many as they want. They are telling people that if they want to use Nozbe, they will have to change the fundamental structure of their system, and I don’t foresee many people doing that…especially when there are other offerings available that will adapt to the user’s system to the tee.
I think that Nozbe has the potential to be a great GTD web app. But it is not there, yet. Just scanning the forums for Nozbe Feedback and Feature Requests see the same posts over and over again: add customizable contexts, add recurring tasks, allow Actions without Project dependency, etc. I will keep an eye on the development of Nozbe, and hopefully the developer will heed the calls of his users, and add the functionality that really is needed for this to be good GTD app, let alone a great app.
- Michael
6 Comments
March 11th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
[...] Original post by Michael Ramm [...]
March 12th, 2007 at 2:49 am
[...] update: The excellent GTD blog Black Belt Productivity does an in depth review and comes up with some of the same points as I did plus a whole bunch [...]
March 13th, 2007 at 4:25 am
Hello Michael - thanks for your in-depth Nozbe review.
I can see you like Nozbe a lot
but because of this the review may for many sound a little “harsh”, don’t you think?
Let me respond to some of the things you have raised in your review:
Your wrote:
> When you log in you are greeted with a main screen that really does not tell you a whole lot about what you have to do.
You are a power-user. Don’t forget that. On the first screen “first-time” users learn about the service and the whole idea behind Nozbe.
Before we move out of “beta”, power users like you will be able to easily “hide” this page.
Your wrote:
> You cannot add Actions that are NOT associated with a Project. Oops, that is a no-no
I addressed it in my blog. Just create a project called “stuff” or “private” or “whatever” and dump your actions there. Dividing actions into projects gives Nozbe more “structure” and “order” - I found many competitive web apps lacked this, they are too liberal… and this turns into clutter. And I don’t want clutter in Nozbe.
Your wrote:
> The limitation that NAs have to be part of a project almost make this app unacceptable for me to use.
This is a very strong opinion and very strong sentence and c’mon Michael, honestly, you can’t use Nozbe because you have to create a project “stuff” or “inbox” (takes 1 second) and to dump your tasks there?
Your wrote:
> You cannot add/modify any of the Contexts in the current setup. This is totally unacceptable for use as anyone’s trusted system.
Tomorrow - read my blog or just log in to your Nozbe account and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Nozbe is in Beta, so I guess to try Nozbe and give it for a spin, it could be acceptable
I know you want to use Nozbe full time with all your custom contexts and projects, and believe me I’m doing everything I can to make it ready for prime time as fast as possible.
Your wrote:
> According to the Pricing Structure, with the free account, you get to add 1 customizable context. That is a JOKE.
Not really it isn’t. C’mon, you get 13 predefined contexts + 1 custom contexts in FREE version. 14 useful contexts. This is a whole lot. IT’S NOT A JOKE!
Free version is for evaluating and not targeted to power users - power users need more than 5 projects and need more custom contexts. And if they need it, they can upgrade anytime.. and c’mon… for less than 5 bucks a month (and now it’s all free) to be more productive than ever is not a big price to pay, now is it?
Your wrote:
> I think that Nozbe has the potential to be a great GTD web app.
Michael, thanks for saying at least something positive about Nozbe in the end
Again, thanks for your review, but let me just point one thing for the future - you haven’t really focused on reviewing the web application, you focused on the things it lacked.
You haven’t mentioned the simplicity, ease of use, quick interface and logical way of dealing with actions, notes, projects and contexts… and I guess this is where my web app stands out of the crowd. This is what my users keep on telling me.
Still remember words of Marc Orchant (Office Evolution): “When I saw Nozbe I smiled… a new GTD web app that keeps it simple..”
Your wrote:
> At first glance, there is a lot of great things in Nozbe that I have not seen in other GTD web apps.
Well… that’s what I mean… you mentioned there are great things in Nozbe, but later you forgot to talk about them in your review… and it’s a shame…
To other readers - feel free to try Nozbe and let me and Michael Ramm know what you think, by posting comments on this blog.
To Michael Ramm - again, thanks for taking your time and reviewing Nozbe, hope you like my comments - they are in good faith - I really enjoy reading your blog
March 15th, 2007 at 5:10 am
Just a quick update:
- you can create your own contexts in Nozbe (also assign cool icons to them)
- you can share your projects with other people
And more features coming this weekend
So yes Michael, I’ve been listening to you and other users
March 17th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I tried to sign up w/Nozbe, be I just got a blank page at http://prod.nozbe.net/page/signup. I also tried to leave the folks at Nozbe a message, but the only way to do that is when you’re a member, which I’m not because I’m having problems signing up. Fatal Catch-22.
Maybe they’ll read this and resolve the issue. I’m using Firefox on Ubuntu Linux if that helps.
March 19th, 2007 at 7:06 am
There was a temporary issue with Nozbe this weekend which has been caused by some server mis-configuration (we are tweaking the server settings for the official Nozbe release).
Right now everything works just fine so you’re free to sign up whenever you want and take Nozbe for a spin.
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