My wrists have been bothering me some this week, so instead of a written post today you get two video reviews this week (for the price of one!). Today it’s Nozbe – read on to see my notes or watch the video below.
Nice features:
- Lots of opportunity to get really fine-grained here. I haven’t seen another project/task management system with “contexts” done quite the same way, but there’s some cool ways you can use it – especially since you can create your own contexts and customize them. For example, you could create an “in a hurry” context that you put short/quickie tasks in (no matter what project they were associated with) and then when you only had thirty minutes or an hour to work before a call, knock out 2-4 fifteen minute tasks quickly by viewing that context and just getting started.
- It syncs with Evernote! (And also with Dropbox.) I have since tested out the Evernote syncing function and it works really well, with the one note that tags in Evernote correspond to project names in Nozbe, which is a bit odd (I’d have assumed that notebook names in Evernote corresponded with project names in Nozbe). I haven’t tested out the Dropbox compatibility out, though.
- Large, easy to see at a glance icons and text. No squinting required!
- It looks as though it’s geared towards solo users or smaller teams. This is pretty convenient since most things that have as many features as Nozbe do are intended for teams of at least five people, and require a bit of tweaking to work for solopreneurs. Not so for Nozbe – it can & will work beautifully for a team of one.
- Lots of drag-and-drop functionality.
- It’s surprisingly flexible. Since Nozbe is based on the Getting Things Done system (which I find kind of overwhelming and intimidating, at least the way I’ve seen it explained), I expected it to be one of those tools that kind of forces its users to comply with that specific system. Not so! If you want to, you could use it for a GTD-type system; if not, you can just use it however you wish.
Other things:
- It’s not super visual. The large text and icons make it a lot easier to see things at a glance than some text-based tools, but it still doesn’t have a “see tasks laid out on a calendar” function, the ability to customize backgrounds/color schemes, or color coding.
This is good for you if:
- You’re already a hardcore GTD user, or use a modified version of that, since Nozbe is set up specifically for that system.
- You’re a solopreneur or work with just one other person.
- You aren’t as picky about aesthetics as I am.
All in all, I like it a lot! I’m not sure if it’ll become my main productivity tool – I thought it would, and then when I actually started trying to use it, I ran into some speed bumps. I might give it a go again or try something else in the meantime. But if you fit the parameters above, definitely check Nozbe out. And let me know if you have any questions in the comments!