IQTELL recently announced their shut down. It came as a big surprise to me, out of the blue. I dealt with some initial shock for a couple hours feeling overwhelmed at the idea of transitioning out of IQTELL to some other systems again.

I took a quick look at some GTD apps like MyLifeOrganized and Zendone, but didn’t really like what I saw based on my needs. I was hesitant to move to another all-in-one system after getting burned by going all-in with IQTELL. I decided I didn’t want to make that sort of commitment to single system again.

My IQTELL Exit Strategy

I have the GTD concept down solid in my head at this point, and decided I was going to make it work by using these key elements:

  • Going back to Gmail to manage all my email accounts
  • Using a label in Gmail called “Process” to flag any emails that need to be processed on my next weekly review before I archive them and get them out of my inbox
  • Using Evernote for extensive note taking and document archiving – which I had already been doing even when using IQTELL
  • Subscribing to Todoist.com as my new task manager and inbox
  • Making a checklist in Evernote that I can use each week for my Weekly Review

Why Todoist?

One of my biggest complaints about IQTELL, even though I found it useful, was that it always felt really rough around the edges and was randomly glitchy. I didn’t want those qualities in whatever system I switched to. Todoist has a reputation for being very elegant, efficient and simple yet powerful as a task manager. I liked that idea. I trialed it for about 4 hours before deciding to pay for Premium version, which was very affordable.

Todoist allows me to do exactly what I need with a task manager:

  • I can email to an inbox
  • I can rapidly and easily type in tasks
  • It is easy to set due dates and recurring tasks in a way that doesn’t make my brain cry
  • I can set up projects with sub tasks
  • I can assign contexts (labels) to tasks
  • I can set up reminders easy
  • The “Today” dashboard is a simple summary of tasks that are overdue and due today, and it keeps me focused when griding through all the stuff I need to get done
  • I can use Todoist on all my platforms (computers, Android phone, iOS tablet)

And that’s about it for me – there are some other powerful features that I will likely use but that core of features is exactly what I needed in a task manager.

Not Looking Back

It’s only been a couple days since the IQTELL shutdown was announced, but I’ve already switched out of the system completely and haven’t looked back. It sucked to move hundreds of tasks and projects to a new system, but Todoist was so easy to enter things into it actually made the transition pretty painless. I really only spent a day planning and executing my exit strategy from IQTELL. It sucks to see IQTELL go, but it also feels good to move to some software that doesn’t feel so rough and actually works a little more elegantly, even if it’s not an all-in-one software GTD solution.