The co-founder, Gaetano Caruana, of FruitfulTime, publishers of a task/list manager software for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, wrote to me and asked me to review his product.

Disclosure: I received a software license in return for my review and Gaetano assured me he wants my unbiased and impartial review only because anything less would insult my readers’ intelligence.

You’re smart, folks. So here it is.

Part 1 — Stop Procastination Now eBook

FruitfulTime comes in a .zip compressed download package bundled with a free Adobe .pdf eBook.

I found this book very valuable personally. Your mileage will vary.

It arrived at the right time for me, when I was at last begining to see personal results from my new commitment to self-management, often misnamed “time” management.

You may delay, but time will not.
— Benjamin Franklin

Before I get too deeply into it, I’m going to make a plug, not for my own wisdom, but for the wisdom of some brilliant men and women I’ve learned from. This collection is on my night stand. Here are 58 profound quotes on time and life. I highly recommend you read them all.

Find any of these 58 time quotes helpful? Download your free copy here

The Good:

The author addresses the main reasons people procastinate and ruthlessly addresses the truth.

Like lying to people when you make commitments you can’t keep. Or offering excuses why you didn’t do what you said. Like lying to yourself about the kind of person you are.

You know, character problems.

The author’s cutting refreshing honesty was enough to make me stop dead in my tracks and ask myself, “Have I done this?”

The answer, is yes.

I resolved to do it less, including lying to myself.

I started with realizing the biggest thing holding me back was not getting out of bed when I planned. I lied to myself about how my day would start, and it got worse from there.

So I immediately walked to the computer, opened Google, and entered this search string:

how to become an early riser

Well, wouldn’t you know there was an article written with the exact same title? It’s on Steve Pavlina’s “Personal Development for Smart People(tm)” blog.

He had 1 2 3 related articles and I did what they said.

The result? After hours of practicing (yes practicing) how to get out of bed when the alarm clock goes off, I now automatically get of bed each day, weekends included, at 5 a.m. as planned regardless of when I go to bed. If my beautiful girlfriend has called me and woken me a bit early, at 5 a.m., I say, “I love you, Bear. I have to go. Click,” and start my day.

She knows the next hour’s for me. And by doing this for me, I will be a better person for us, long term.

There are 5 simple habits I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and I never consistently did ANY of them for more than 4 days in a row. Not for years. And I’ve never done all of them in one day.

Ever.

I decided I would have my “Personal Victory”, “Rudder of the Day”, “Hour of Power” and get things off to a great start at “oh five hundred”.

I didn’t have enough time for all 5 in that hour so I thought long and hard about what ones to do and chose 4:

1. reading aloud my “autosuggestion” card with feeling and visualization once and once only (no delay here!), describing my purpose in life in 5 areas – spiritual, physical, personal, business, and financial – and 13 habits, qualities, and/or attitudes I want to have, think, and do
2. nutritional supplements including a green superfood drink and desicated liver, probiotics, and vitamin D
3. physical training
4. education in a specific personal skill

Then a funny thing happened.

Now that I’d begun practicing moving to each item without delay, drilled and rehearsed in it, at 5:47 a.m., I was done.

The next day, I added the 5th project, education in another specific personal skill, to my list.

This start to the day means I have eaten a healthy breakfast, showered, shaved, and done an hour’s work over and above my 1st hour to myself (working on me) by the time most people wake up. And I have more energy.

I am eating healthy too throughout the day and into the night. I credit this in large measure to my excelellent start, and the people who helped me learn how.

The habit of moving quickly to the next task, even if that task is making a decision about what to do, and carrying on has been a tremendous gift to me.

In 39 pages including the title page and introduction, 1.5 line spacing, and plenty of pictures, there’s a lot of great tips here, which will jumpstart you to acting on an answer to some of your challenges.

You should go to FruitfulTime and download it for the eBook reason alone. If you don’t, well… maybe you don’t have a problem with procastination…

… or maybe you have a really B-I-G problem with procastination!

The Bad:

English isn’t the author’s first language and there are more typos and grammar errors than there should be. And not colloquial “sales copy” grammar errors (like starting a sentence with the word “And”).

The author, whom I’ve corresponded with several times now and is an intelligent friendly guy, should hire an English writer to proofread his eBook since it reflects on his company to many people. I look beyond spelling, but my mom wouldn’t.

The Ugly:

Not a whole lot.

There are a few areas where I differ with the author, yet trusted mentors of mine agree with him and not I. Others, like David Allen of Getting Things Done® are closer to my approach.

I’m not a huge fan of breaking projects down into tasks and subtasks, nor do I think time limits are right for many projects. For a space shuttle launch, sure. But for 90% or more of projects, this is a better approach: Inboxes at Zero.

(When reading that link, you can skip to the image where you see “Daunting Projects” down to the part by Mark Taw about “Cascading Next Actions” and stop at “Oh the joy:” if you like.)

I follow the delightfully complex enough to handle real life GTD workflow process…

Do you feel this workflow chart is a bit intimidating at first, but promising? Download your free copy here

… and prioritize in the moment using the Dwight D. Eisenhower “importance-urgency” matrix (popularized by Stephen Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”), and I also consider David Allen’s criteria of context, time available, and energy available. With the caveat that where possible, I do the hardest thing first.

Especially the emotionally difficult thing.

Want to have your copy of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s matrix with 3 extra things to consider that make the matrix practical in the real world? Don’t want that reminder to do the hardest thing first, but realize you need it? Download your free copy here

Part 2 — FruitfulTime Task Manager Software v. 1.0

The Good:

FruitfulTime is set up almost exactly the way Sybervision’s awesome (I mean life-and-mind-transforming) “Neuropsychology of Self-Discipline” program says you should manage goals and tasks.

It breaks them into subtasks when you want. You can also set start and end dates for each task as recommended by the above and set priority. You could use this for “critical path” and “float”, two ideas championed by Sybervision.

The Bad:

One problem. I don’t use it.

I use the “give project a name”, “set project goal”, “determine Next Action” approach… and only plan projects which need it.

Even then, I use different methods per project.

For example, my physical training plan is workouts of no more than 10 exercises pre-printed by myself on a recipe sized index card: calisthenics, calisthenic mixed with “strand pulling” (resistance bands), midsection training (like it sounds: includes the back, and internal organs with power breathing), and cardiovascular workouts with many options on one card.

That’s the plan. I pick one card a day. How much more planning does it need?

So FruitfulTime works the way many people say you should work… it just doesn’t work how *I* work.

An item in its favour is it can be run from a USB thumb drive so its portable. I’d prefer it syncing with a web browser and giving me online access, and it doesn’t.

I use Google’s wonderful Calendar synced with my Thunderbird Lightning (plugin software for Thunderbird, my email client) for scheduled events (and a paper planner: giving serious thought to finally purchasing an electronic PDA for managing contacts and scheduled tasks, synced with my computer and the web, and will still keep index cards held together with a binder clip as my primary walking around input medium).

Google, astonishingly enough, doesn’t support tasks at all. It’s a ludicrous oversight. I have to use clunky “all-day events” to simulate tasks I perform when I’m by my home office phone, say.

So, for the right person and that may be you (download it, read the free eBook, test it, see if you like it) there is a place for FruitfulTime. You may love it.

For me, I’m sticking with my wide selection of linear lists I can scan quickly, not “subtask” lists.

It’s like threaded comments on a blog. Some people love them. Some people don’t. I like comments to appear one after the other. Unless it’s a tech support forum, then threaded works.

I have a folder in my computer called “Next Actions” and that becomes an @computer list. My desktop has a Next Action tray (in addition to an inbox) and this similarly becomes a Next Action list, which is also great if I’m working on something and get interrupted.

I toss it in there, deal with the interruption minus the stress, and get back to it when it makes sense to do so. It’s there. I see it. I like that tray empty so I get it done.

All my email funnels through to one inbox and I send using multiple identities, in other words, personal and business, mostly. That saves time logging in all over the place.

Even my Firefox web browser’s bookmarks are customized with a toolbar so I can drop and drag links into my “Next Actions” and assorted folders for processing.

See where I’m going? I have a “Next Actions” folder in my Thunderbird email client and that becomes another Next Actions list too.

I also keep Next Actions list(s) organized by context (@out, @client’s factory, etc.) when I need them, anyway, in my portable stack of index cards, behind a red tab.

With all these lists, folders, trays, virtual and hard copy, I also have a “waiting for” and “someday/maybe” option.

I even have a Google Desktop sidebar with my 5 purpose statements and 13 habits, qualities, and attitudes rotating up top with photos of the woman I love and want to be with and our friends and family rotating below. Below that, is, yes, you guessed it — another Next Action list for tasks I need to do sitting at my computer.

I have a spreadsheet with daily and weekly next actions in it. Repetive tasks to put in my pocket paper planner (and one day, electronic PDA).

These, plus my 43 folder hard copy tickler file helps me stay on top of things without messing around.

I use the right tool for the right place and job. Yes, FruitfulTime could have a major place in a trusted “complex enough” system. I don’t see it as being a total solution.

If you use it, you’re dependent on your hard drive. Like always, back up weekly, even daily. (You’re asking for trouble, time lost, and maybe major money down the drain or even a business failure fool if you don’t back up. I’m sorry if that startles you in any way, but it’s true. I say it for your own good.)

If you’re not backing up (hey, I’m a bit “obsessed” with it!), turn it into a project and figure out how.

Here’s one way to get started. Here’s another.

Note: They fit together gorgeously.

The Ugly:

I have no idea why it asks you for a password by default every time you open it. Since it’s primarily designed to be used on your desktop, this seems overkill. Instead, the software designers should have made this a configurable option and included a “ReadMe” file or a pop-up message on installation informing the user of this.

Recommended?

The eBook, absolutely. This is the verbatim P.S. at the bottom of the email I sent to the co-founder earlier today:

P.S. I shall be eternally grateful for your Stop Procastination Now eBook.

The software? It’s not set up the way I like it; however, it may be set up how you like to work (there’s no rule that says you have to use subtasks, determine priorities in advance, and select start and end dates where they aren’t needed) and it’s certainly set up in a logical way as recommended by many project planning and time management experts. It has value. You decide how much.

I hope some of the information contained in this review has been helpful to you. As one of my favourite salespeople, Joe Girard, says, “I don’t want to sell you. I want to help you make the right choice.”

UPDATE March 25, 2008: Removed all links back to FruitfulTime.

I wrote this review because the co-founder wrote to me and asked me to.

I had promised earlier in the month I would finish it no later than March 31st. With a pressing schedule, of course I did it anyway. After writing it, I received an email which, strangely enough, I thought was meant for me. This email invited me to be a FruitfulTime affiliate.

I completed the application process, which I thought would be a formaility, and was told it would be reviewed by the company.

I was then told because my site is, “not tuned to sell FruitfulTime software” (not my original intent with writing this review anyway and incidentally I was going to add a disclosure statement to that effect, similar to the one about receiving a software licence at the top of this post), I can’t have an affiliate account.

Before being informed that my site is inadequate for their purposes, the co-founder asked me if I would, as “a well connected salesman”, be interesting in “pushing” FruitfulTime to my offline contacts. To which I replied, “No.” As a professional salesman, I don’t push, certainly not as a rule, nor to my most valued contacts. And the people I value is pretty much everybody. I ask questions, I listen, I lead when I have enough information to understand whether it’s good for the other person. There is a difference.

If I push anything, it’s for a person (myself first, foremost, and after dinner) to better themselves. And to that end, I thank the co-founder for his eBook.

Everything I said in the review stands. The product isn’t better nor worse for this.

By Christoph Dollis at 5:31 PM on Saturday March 22nd, 2008, and filed under GTD / Productivity, Purpose, Software.

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