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Organize your life the open source way

Chandler Sometimes when I look at a task management program, I wonder how people’s lives have become so complicated that they need a computer to help them organize it.

Assuming you’ve reached this point, you’re going to need a program that lets you dive in with a minimum of instruction. Anything more and you’ll never get around to the task of learning it.

It was with this key feature in mind that I approached Chandler, an open source personal information manager that recently reached version 1.0 after several years of work.

First impressions: The interface and icon are quite nice, which is a good thing because you’re more likely to use an organizer if the experience is pleasant.

Setup: Chandler is divided into three columns with a toolbar across the top. Use the left column to decide which notes you want to look at: all of them, the ones you’ve sent out by e-mail or those you’ve divided into categories such as Work, Home and Fun. Below that are mini-calendars that allow you to look at notes by date.

The centrepiece is the list of notes. They are triaged into Now, Later and Done. You can star them for that extra bit of importance or put an alarm on them so they don’t get forgotten. It also has a calendar view that looks a lot like iCal.

(By the way, what they refer to as “notes” would be better described as “tasks” in my mind. But that’s a nitpick.)

In the right column are details on each note. You can set their start and end times, determine how often they occur and jot down some details.

Ease of use: I was able to figure out how to use the program mainly by clicking around and seeing what happened. Even if I hadn’t been able to do this, the Chandler website has clear instructions for the basics. You’ll definitely need them, though, for more complicated tasks such as importing from other program.

If you’re the type who likes to fire up a new program and start using it immediately, Chandler allows for this — you can just dump and go. Use an input field in the toolbar to type in a note and hit Return. It will show up on the list and you can decide if you want to do more with it. At the very least you should designate where it belongs in the Now-Later-Done triage, but even this can be skipped if you’re in a hurry.

Sharing: One of the great things about Chandler is that you can sign up for an account and share the calendar you’ve created. The program is cross-platform, so your Windows and Linux using friends can join in. Notes can also be shared by e-mail.

Bugs: I got an error when I tried to send an e-mail. After exchanging messages with some helpful people on the Chandler mailing list, it turned out that I had set up my account incorrectly. It was an innocent enough mistake on my part: I was merely copying the information from my Apple Mail preferences, but in doing so I changed the default port number for outgoing mail — and that’s a no-no.

Conclusion: Chandler is definitely worth a look for anyone seeking a way to get their life in order. It looks good and it’s easy to use. Setting up e-mail was trickier than I would have liked, and perhaps some documentation on this point would be in order.

More information: The Chandler website is a good first stop. But don’t miss the three-minute tour.

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 in

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  1. I’ve been trying to use iGTD for a while, and it is great. But it takes as much time to set up a new task as it does to get down to working on it. I’m giving Chandler a try for the following two reasons:
    1 – Simple input, simple priority structure
    2 – I can share info with my wife
    The bonus is that you can sync this over the internet. So I’ll report back in a couple of months on whether or not it has helped!

    Great find!

    Heyes

  2. Be sure to let us know how it goes.

    Mark

  3. As promised here is an in use review:

    I’m definitely not using the application to its fullest networking capability, but just managing the various aspects my life, it has already become invaluable. Because it is so easy to input tasks, I do. Then when I have the time to figure out my priorities, it doesn’t require all of the time and thought that iGTD does. I figure out what I’m going to do today, and get it done.

    I’ve played around with sending non-chandler folks some of my events, and that seems to work well enough, but the online interface doesn’t let you add notes (although one gets the impression that it should). Clearly there are a few bugs to work out, and there’s no way I would migrate my email over to the application, but it has a very solid beginning.

    The development team is quick to respond, and the response comes from real people typing.

    I give this Four Scrimpy bites on the Old Mac.

    Heyes





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