Getting Sandy in my Face

gordonmeyer — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:03:09 -0500

For quite a while now, Tasks Jr has been my task management tool of choice. I switched to it from my own Tinderbox-based system after I decided that having access to my list from any ‘net-connected system was important to me. But now I’ve switched again.

Over time, the aesthetics of Tasks Jr’s design, its limitations (which are resolved by the more advanced versions, I must admit), and the fact that a recent MySQL/PHP update at my web host caused problems made me think about ﬁnding another solution.

So I’ve begun the great migration to Values of n’s Sandy. Its integration with Twitter and the almost magical email-based interface are icing on the cake, beyond what Tasks Jr offered.

The aphorism “out of sight, out of mind” could have been created with me in mind. To make the most of any system, Tasks Jr or Sandy, I need to have it constantly open and visible. With a web site, it’s easy to lose the window when opening another URL, or simply absentmindedly closing a Safari window. I’ve tried every trick I can think of to keep my task list open and at-hand, including Dock icons, setting it as my browser home page, and even the nifty WebDesktop application.

But thanks to a comment here on 43Folders, I discovered Fluid. The work of Todd Ditchendorf, Fluid allows you to create WebKit-based dedicated browsers for webapps. In other words, it makes a standalone app whose sole purpose is to connect to a speciﬁc website. This allowed me to create a Sandy application that lives in my Dock, and I don’t lose my place when opening web pages or surﬁng with Safari.

You can use Fluid with any web application of course, and there’s a Fluid Icons group on Flickr where you can get images to use with the app. Thanks to Rael at Values of n, I uploaded a Sandy-speciﬁc icon the other day, which you see in action in the screenshot above.

So far, the combination of Sandy and Fluid is working out quite well. Sandy is smart, easy to use, and reminds me of appointments via Twitter and SMS. Thanks to Fluid, my Sandy digest is omnipresent to keep me on task while at the computer. Give both of them a whirl and see if they don’t work well for you, too.

”Getting Sandy in my Face” was written by Gordon Meyer for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 20, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Meet Sandy

wood.tang — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:37:56 -0500

I Want Sandy is an email-based, automated personal assistant created by Rael Dornfest and values of n, makers of Stikkit. I’ve been messing around with her (in a totally platonic way) since Cory Doctorow mentioned it last week, and it’s really slick.

Sandy herself is built on Stikkit and named after Tim O’Reilly’s real-life assistant. You interact with her by sending emails to a special address, using keywords like “remind me” or “remember to” to tell Sandy what you want to do, just like you would with another person.

Sandy recognizes dates and times in a number of formats, and will send you reminders whenever you assign a speciﬁc time. For example, if you wrote “remind me to take out the trash at 5 pm tomorrow,” Sandy would note this and send you an email or text reminder close to that time, according to your preferences. You can also email Sandy commands to lookup stuff and send it back to you, very handy if you’re on the move with an iPhone or Blackberry, or, you can always manage all your stuff on Sandy’s website.

Sandy also supports recurring events and tags, so GTD users could easily turn it into a nice, trusted system with mucho lists and contexts. It even has group functions, so that if you CC Sandy on an email to someone else and give her instructions (Sandy, remember to …), she’ll send reminders to you both.

Combined with a voice service like Jott, Sandy could make an immensely useful personal system for someone who lives in email or is inclined to keep their stuff on the web. That, and she’s kinda cute too.

”Meet Sandy” was written by Matt Wood for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 21, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"