A plea for data detectors on the iPhone

It's one of those features that every iPhone user now uses, I'm sure of it.

It's the ability to recognize and use the email addresses, addresses and phone numbers that appear in the content you interact with you on phone. It's a feature that has saved my butt on many occasions. But I want it to recognize dates and certain action words to automate making appointments and other to-dos.

It's a function I'm familiar with as a Mac user. Right now such functionality is only available in Mail.app. I use data detectors and can chose things to create a 'to-do' within an email or note. It was something I used to really enjoy doing to keep me on target before the iPhone came out because – believe it or not – I had better task management on other phones but the small screen made it difficult to enter tasks on the go.

In the past, I chose phones that could iSync'd and tasks were part of the package. Why Apple has not implemented simple iSync task syncing is beyond me. I'm stuck using programs that are not really integrated into my workflow and crap falls through the cracks.

I hit one of those moments a short while ago when interacting with email on my iPhone. Having to leave a program to capture a task messes up the flow because you are constantly flipping in and out of programs and that's really annoying.

I want to be able to highlight a portion of text and have one of the options be /To Do/. Then I could add due dates, alarms, notes etc. Then move on to the next email.

Given the infrastructure exists, it's just a matter of implementing it. I hope they do so soon. Task management is the biggest weakness of the iPhone right now.

I've said so before. It's causing my eye to wander, Apple.

Jott, my new BFF

So I've been a big admirer of Getting Things Done – the organization system popular with the geeks and other productivity fiends. The premise of the system is that in order to relaxed and productive, one needs to have a mind like water. Basically, you keep nothing stored in your head because doing so is stressful and it is the stress about doing something that often hinders one from getting things done in the first place. So David Allen recommends that you keep an inbox – a central repository of stuff to do. From there, take stuff out of your inbox and sort them into contexts, projects, someday etc. I'm not going to get into a lot of it here. Follow the links above for a good overview. I do recommend the book/audiobook. 

I've loved the GTD idea but have never found a good way to keep a decent inbox, and Apple hasn't helped things. I love Apple mail but tasks are treated as red-headed stepchildren. They aren't synced with the iPhone in a way that you can act upon them. You can see them but that's definitely not enough. Even that task functionality is pretty weak. I've tried many things, including Evernote, a centralized note program, but the iPhone version is a little unwieldily and the entire program doesn't have powerful enough to-do functionality. 

I discovered the Jott app for the iPhone a few days ago; they make a Blackberry version as well. OMG! It's incredible. When you launch the program, you see an old reel to reel tape recorder – cute retro touch. You have 15 seconds to say something and it transcribes it and posts it. You can either manipulate your Jotts in the app or you can go online and use their web version. It's finally the seamless inbox I've been  seeking. There are various Jott links to other web software but they require a subscription. I'm going to see how I fare without it, for now. I now have the Jott app open nearly all the time to capture silly things like blog posts, what I've eaten, exercise etc. It all maps back into tracking myself. I'm hoping I'll improve. :)