Post written by Marlon Ribunal.
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I am a happy camper with the BlackBerry Bold 9780. This phone is definitely an upgrade from my Nokia E71. I have now fully adopted my BlackBerry as my primary GTD Tool. And I want to talk about one of my favorite BlackBerry Productivity apps – myTasks, a free BlackBerry GTD app.

The advantages of this application, I think, are these:

1. Mobile – It’s in my BlackBerry phone, so obviously it’s mobile. I don’t have to boot up my desktop or pull out my laptop from its sleeve in order for me to access this application. It’s almost ready within reach whenever I need it. It lives in my pocket. The only limitation is my cellphone’s network coverage. And of course the battery life (I need a backup battery).

2. Integration with Blackberry Calendar – One of the best features of myTasks is it’s integration with the BlackBerry’s built-in Calendar app. I can set the Start Date or Alarm (Notification) within myTasks and it will also be captured in my Calendar at the same time.

3. Sync with other devices – I can sync myTasks’s data with BlackBerry’s Calendar app; therefore, I can sync it also with other compatible devices (via the Calendar).

So why am I using a different application instead of just the built-in Calendar or Task App? You’ll see in few sentences.

The BlackBerry World App myTasks’ page describes the tool like this:

myTasks allows you to sort your tasks into projects. The projects themselves can have projects within them. Store voice and text notes in your tasks to organize your progress on the tasks, all within an attractive user interface that you will love the second you lay eyes on it!

The app’s Dashboard provides list of Projects and the number of tasks on each project. The only problem with the Project task count is it fails to count tasks within a sub-project. Yes, you can create projects within a project, which I think is intuitive.

It also shows you the total count of ongoing tasks and the current, next day, soon to expire, overdue, and “no due date” task counts. The “no due date” is quite similar to the “Someday” task of the GTD system.

BlackBerry myTasks App Walk Through

Let me just walk you through the simple process of capturing your tasks in the myTasks – a BlackBerry GTD Tool App. I’ll let the screen captures I took from my BlackBerry Bold 9780 do most of the talking. MyTasks is a solid GTD tool. It can cover most of anyone’s needs on capturing data in a GTD context. If you’re wondering why we need to start from creating a project, let’s go back to the definition of a project in GTD: a Project  is simply any desired outcome that involves more than one task. The following picture illustrates myTasks app tasks hierarchy:

Creating Project

Open myTask app. Start creating a project by pressing the Convenience Key. A context menu will give you the option to “Create Project”. You can set Sort Order of the tasks: By Name, Date, Priority, Status, or Manually.

Creating Task

Select the Project that you just created and choose it by pressing the Trackpad. You have the option of creating a sub-project or create tasks within a main project. You can also create tasks from within a sub-project.

Set Task Attributes

Priority: High, Normal, or Low

Status: Not Started, In Progress, Waiting, Deferred, or Completed

Percent Complete: Percentage

Tag – Tags or Context

Reminder: Task Reminder and Notification (Alarm)

Etc.

Set Reminder

Like I said, myTasks data synchronizes with  the built-in Calendar app. The Reminder set in the myTasks app works like a typical Reminder within the Calendar app.

Mark Tasks and Add Text or Voice Notes

You can easily mark any tasks as Deferred, Waiting, In Progress, or Completed. You can also add text or voice notes to any tasks on the fly. The Voice Note tied with the task itself is one of the great features, if not the greatest feature, of myTasks app. This is really big if you are a GTD practitioner.

Task View in Calendar

You can view the tasks created in myTasks within your Calendar.

The BlackBerry myTasks App In Action

I have created a short youtube video of the BlackBerry myTasks in action. This is really a cool GTD tool!

BlackBerry myTasks App GTD Tool In Action