Life Balance

I loved this app on my Palm and used it there for many years When I converted to Macs there was no iPhone version and I didnt find the app very usable without portability to iPhone I returned as soon as the iPhone app became available but have never been able to use it because the app syncs all the past data and presents me with hopelessly clogged calendars Support has been not been helpful providing me with fixes that dont fix or answers that are brief and unintelligible But this kind of response lets the developerscheck off my problem in their Life Balance app as completed In desperation I suggested a simple fix allow an option to sync with iCal for future dates and ignore history Well that didnt happen A year later and support will not answer my request for a return of my money Other users are exactly right about the attitude of the developers This app is their lifestyle and they are making enough money that they can ignore any problems that dont enhance their lifestyle     Major Sync Problem

I bought this app and its desktop friend awhile back and disappointedly got rid of it a month later It defeats its purported purpose of managing time and priorities Even reading the manual and understanding all its seemingly brilliant workings one discovers swiftly that in fact the software makes more of a mess of your life than it organizes it Since you set all the very complex parameters and then the app does the rest it would seem great until your priorities change and you forget your original setting leaving you to go back to the preferences of every goal to balance them out All this time and energy just to generate a todo list over which you ultimately dont have too much control Too many taps layers swipes and options and very little Maclike sleek simplicity and intuitive interfaces The design is clunky and awkward despite the high price and the promises of the designers Llamagraphics should take more advantage of the iPhone design and features but instead they settle for an obsolete Palmlike style that seems as buggy and fraught with complexity as Windows In contrast I started using Things instead and I havent regretted it once Its smooth intuitive beautiful and endlessly useful It contains the tasks I want to inbox and sort and I have the freedom to move items in and out of my Today plans to schedule them group into projects postpone into Next or Someday and assign areas of responsibility too that can repeat Things is easy to set up without all the annoying variables colors bells and whistles of Life Balance and it works for ME and keeps my life in balance as I change and adjust my life on a daily basis instead of prescibing what I do based on some algorithm derived from screen after screen of minute preference panes that are easy to lose track of In short dont waste your money on Life Balance and those who havelike melets push this programmer to finally overhaul their app so that it lives up to its promises with real flair sensibility and iPhone like quality     Tedious

Were employees of Llama writing the previous reviews they sound overly rehersed The software is extremly cumbersome To create a task one must tap outline button click edit scroll to the bottom of the list hit the new task a few times as for some reason its incredibly unresponsive hit the name of the task erase the default task title manually using backspace no clear button available hit save click done in the previous screen then click back to go back to the list This is nowhere near as simple to use as the Palm version Crashes often even with 21 firmware The dragging interface is also buggy and not intuitive as the palmwindowsmac version HUGE dissappointment Dont waste your money              Employees writing reviews

Its now much quicker to enter tasks from anywhere The new color coded date field in the todo list is very nice Much more like the desktop version              Excellent update

But not worth it with all of the other software options available I used this consistently and loved it when it was in its hey day and had a palm device It was wonderful I was excited to see the iphone version but its clunky and hard to work with compare to other options I am sorry that I spent money on it and am reluctantly deleting from my phone I dont know the backstory with the developers but I wish them well Losing a family member is hard and I hope the founder is restored to full health soon With that said Id advise looking elsewhere I switched to todoist and love it Simple elegant and easy to enter info     Great concept

Life Balance is the very best todo and time management tool which supports Getting Things Done GTD approach and adds some more good ideas While it is not ideal nothing else comes close enough if you need to manage hundreds of things to do For me it is a life saver If you are a pro remember that mobile version of Life Balance should be used in combination with Mac version if you want to be really efficient It is fully functional just tough to enter and organize hundreds of things on iPhone Mac interface is so much more productive However for those starting iPhone version could give a good overview of the features Just remember that iPhone interface is not the best side of Life Balance Yes it is now much better but it could be still polished for beauty and productivity Palm and Mac interfaces had years to be polished                 Top choice for a busy person

Ive been using Life Balance since the days of Palm III and this version was one of the first apps I put on my iPod touch Since then it had fallen into disuse because its more awkward than the excellent PalmOS version and there were so many other todo lists out there But I recently got fed up with all these other apps and remembered that I hadLife Balance Even better than I had remembered It still has a lot of potential on iOS so I was thrilled to see that they updated the MacOS version not long ago So lets hope theyll roll out a mobile update soon Its worth every penny              Hope theyll update the iOS version soon

No updates for 3 years and no support for iPhone 5s larger screen User forums seem to have been deleted Such a pity I miss Life Balances unique approach to task management     Abandoned by the developers

Long time LB user The iPhone app just isnt as polished as the Palm app was Still awesome and the best GTD system out there Just sorely needs a UI update not very pretty too many taps and no way to switch between todo and outline while keeping the same task selected or displayed              Concept Great UI Not so much

Would be nice to have alarm           Alarm Feature

I have probably been using Life Balance for over a decade first on a Newton then PalmOS and now the iPhone As a system its fantastic for me However the execution of the current version is really subpar First of all its buggy v 504 on a 3G iPhone LB frequently crashes to the iPhone home screen so far no freezes So far my files havent been lost but I have lost what Ive been working on and for something as critical as a todo organizer I shouldnt have to worry about it at all Second the user interface is just bad I acknowledge that its the nature of the system to be a little bit more cumbersome than a plain todo list or outliner but there are too many instances of just poor choices made by the UI designers Most glaringly too many clicks needed to add a new task and the new task information all needs to show on one page especially the notes Finally in spite of consistent feedback from users its been nearly three and a half months since the last posted update If you are going to price a product at a significant premium by iPhone standards especially considering that this is not intended as a vertical application you need to provide more responsive support I am a LB fan and I hate giving LB any less than a fivestar review but there are just too many kinks and bugs in the current release for me to recommend it If any of these problems are addressed I will be right back to amend this review Until then I just cant recommend LB for the iPhone to anybody        Disappointed

I have awaited LBs arrival ok the iPhone since the iPhone was announced Im quite happy to see it here but it cant really help you balance your goals if it crashes every other time you run it Give it some time Its a great system and will be a great app           Great but crashy

This update adds not just one but three ways to make adding tasks very quick First a streamlined entry approach second the option to add a new task tab at the bottom where its always available and third perhaps my favorite stealth featurethe ability to enter several items with shared attributes Ive tried Things and have looked at other GTD apps such as OmniFocus but Life Balance is the first that helps me get the big picture as well as handle the daytoday without becoming cumbersome As others have said its much like a mix betwen GTD and Franklin Covey Id strongly recommend using both the iPhone version and the desktop appbut this update especially the colorcoded dates and quicker entry make it very usable standalone as well Kudos Llamagraphics                 Nice update to already excellent app

I just completed a sidebyside comparison of Life Balance and THINGS and have concluded that Life Balance is superior In Life Balance you can create task hierarchies with tasks subtasks etc In THINGS you are limited to one level of tasks If you purchase the desktop version you can create areas of responsibility and projects with tasks underneath them but areas of responsibility are not available on the iPhone and even on the desktop that only gives you two levels of tasks With THINGS you can create tasks with due dates but in Life Balance you can create tasks that occur once tasks that occur on a due date tasks that occur on a calendar date and tasks that occur routinely THINGS has recurring tasks on the desktop version but you have to sync routinely to get them on the iPhone Life Balance includes an integrated calendar so you can manage both tasks and appointments THINGS does not Life Balance prioritizes your todos automatically based on your life goals and the importance of the tasks you create to achieve them With THINGS you can tag todos with a priority but you have to manually move tasks to the Today Next or Sometime lists and manually arrange them in the list if youve not tagged them with a priority Both Life Balance and THINGS have tags or contexts THINGS has hierarchical tags which allow for more powerful list filtering but also adds to the complexity of creating new tasks Life Balance Gives you feedback on whether or not you are working on tasks in a manner that is aligned with your life priorities THINGS does not THINGS does have a more attractive interface and makes it easier to add new tasks but Life Balance has indicated that they are working on this for their next release                 Balanced Life

In sum highlyoverpriced created for a very narrow auditory of friends and oldfans outdated and inconvenient software with limited functionality and no hopes for improvements I remember LifeBalance from the middle of 90s and it has not changed much even been ported to iPhone 10 months ago It is highly overpriced software about 100 for desktop and iPhone with functional and interface of the past millennium especially Desktop software On the top of it developers do not care about improvements because they do this software for themselves and for fun as they admitted on the web forum Keep in mind that life for us is not simply about trying to build a big business or for endless drudgery and suffering but also for fun goodness and happiness That is a pity that the company did not inform me before selling me this program because it cost me money and a lot of wated time From my point of view the most annoying issues with iPhone application are ToDo list doesnt show due dates and do not sort tasks in a way required by users so it is very easy miss very important task that was put on the bottom of the list ToDo list shows empty nontasks groups that actually shouldnt be on the list There is only one filter filter for places and no filters for due dates or any other categories In general Tasks tree and ToDo lists are very simple and limited with no much difference with paper list that you can use for free instead of LifeBalance Desktop version is also very weak No group operations for tasks No sorting and filtering functionality No possibility to change font size No possibility to customize you list and assign colors to top task groups and of cause no icons keywords or any other user specific fields My expectations to see any significant and actual changes died and I stopped using this software and start using Bonsai from Natara Software but you can find many other similar applications with more functionality and usability and much cheaper than LB     It is a disaster even after update

This app is much more dynamic than any other organizer I have used For instance repetitive calendarbased events appear on the same daily todo list as errandsreminders Also projects can be categorized into categories subcategories subsubcategories etc Definitely worth it because it actually works                 Worth it

For years I have evaluated Task Management methodologies and software After embracing David Allens Getting Things Done GTD productivity principles I searched for software allowing easy implementation of GTD and presenting next tasks taking into account my emphasis on various life areas To date Life Balance is the only software I have discovered that allows a well integrated blend of these concepts It is my personal assistant with me 24 hours a day allowing me to effectively respond to the dynamic demands of life in a well balanced manner I define that balance independent of projects subprojects and tasks Taking into account where I am any deadlines I have the importance of the task to its project my life area balance etc Life Balance provides me a tailored list of tasks I appreciate the elegant simplicity of Life Balance The current iPhone release is an excellent implementation of Life Balance concepts that embraces the iPhone design paradigm Llamagraphics has addressed most of the early usability problems I am confident they will continue to make an outstanding product even better in subsequent releases I recommend the iPhone Life Balance as your Personal Life Assistant It is far more than a ToDo List outliner                 Elegant Personal Life Assistant Supporting GTD

There are as many ways to track and log todos and appointments as there are people seemingly because everyone seems to do it a little bit differently Nevertheless most people could benefit from some sort of structural overview of their thinking about tasks and some refinement of the process of how they accomplish them Thats where systems of getting things done pun intended come into play There have been various gurus at various times who have come forward with various systems of how to accomplish the things in ones busy life that need accomplishing Most of them have at least one or two very valuable tools or tips one can use to make ones own workflow more streamlined and ones life less hectic But eventually most of these systems boil down in one way or another into a set of choices made by the person who developed the system about how THEY think you should go about your day and your process of taskmanagement And although some of their suggestions and method may very well be good advice for virtually everyone oftentimes the real nutsandbolts of their system reflects not so much universal tips or guidelines which most people would benefit from but the author of that particular systems own personal preferences for accomplishing tasks And so it can often go that a system which comes highly rated from various magazines and other gurus and anonymous reviewers on websites looks initially appealing and makes sense within its own universe but when you put it into practice it just doesnt work for you Or it works but you find yourself wishing you could do this or that thing with it except the system itself isnt set up for such a thing Enter Life Balance I wont try to convince you that Life Balance isnt itself also a system in which choices and decisions about the way things ought to get done have been made because it is But of all the time and task management applications either paper or computerized Ive looked at more than cursorily Life Balance is the one which comes closest to a genuine handsoff agnostic approach to getting things done Not to say it doesnt care that you get things done just that it has been written and organized with enough care to allow for the sort of flexibility and adaptability to ones own workflow thats just not often found in these sort of buttoneddown efficiencyisall applications The very title alone should give you some sense of that concept Life Balance Not ToDo or Getting Things Done Life Balance remembers to help you back up breathe and remember that you are more than the sum of the mundane tasks you accomplished today Set up properly it allows you to USE it not be a slave to it it manages the rare trick for a software application of getting out of your way and allowing you to actually accomplish the things you initially sought out the software for in the first place instead of making you use it the way the designer intended like the bizarrely ritualistic way one is forced to order at Starbucks stand in this line for this drink that line for that drink another line for food Remember to use specific terminology Move to yet another line for payment and then a final line to receive ones order This is the way too many productivity apps force you to interface with them I have no doubt that most if not all of them are wellintentioned and truly believe that if everyone just did things they way that they the developer know has worked for THEM then all would be right with the world Llamagraphics Life Balance is one of the very rare software applications where you can tell from virtually the first moments you spend with it that the designers were not only technologically savvy enough to produce a technically excellent piece of software but wise enough already to successfully walk the fine line between providing users highquality tools and space to clarify their minds and their work patterns without toppling over into insisting that users follow X Y and Z procedure in order to achieve Total Perfection the ONLY way its possible their way The Llamagraphics team understands that what works for one might well not work so well for others and the software allows for that flexibility Its best of course paired with its desktop counterpart Having the companion desktop application makes things much easier to see in a literally and figuratively big picture sense of things and it also provides a noniTunes backup solution which is critical in any app of this kind The only things which keep Life Balance from being a five star application in my opinion are the cost over 100 for both applications and the lack of geolocation hooks for the Places section it would be wonderful to be able to input either the GPS data or a street address for various places so that the iPhones application could seamlessly adapt the todo list depending upon where one actually is in the world Other than that and those are minor quibbles truthfully if youre the kind of person whos been trying or is thinking about trying to get a handle on a wooly or outofcontrol set of tasks and appointments and commitments one that recognizes that you are a finite being with needs outside of simple productivity then youll look a long time before youll find anything as good as Life Balance to meet your needs              Excellent overall

I wish it had continued to develop There were some really innovative things about it and do far as I can tell nobody picked up the idea where they left off Its really the only thing I found that helped to determine where you should be applying your focus Others come close but nothing else really does it Unfortunately the interface is and tedious and it will probably never change        Sadly this is abandonware

I have used this app since 2001 on a Palm Pilot The problems now are cumbersome I realize the creator had some health problems but I depend on this app Can anyone get in there and update Suddenly I cant use the slide feature for the effort it is impossible Create an app for the OCD and realize we will be very OCD           Luanne

I highly recommend this software to anyone with a great deal on their plate andor multidimensional lists The pie chart provides concrete feedback to conceptual projects                 Listmakers dream

The one feature I wanted integration between outline style task lists and calendar events is unnecessarily complicated and slow to use           so so

Ive relied on this app for a very long time but it has not been updated in about five years While the developers sell it as functional and focus on other projects the leftover interface is dated and clunky and just buggy enough not trust on the iPhone six It also freezes occasionally when I sync Im looking at alternatives I suggest you do too        Dead App

Ive been a Life Balance user for years Macintosh Windows Palm and now iPhone I was delighted to see this app released on the iPhone but I fell away for a time after the initial release Still I have found nothing that can compete with the zenlike feel of this application It doesnt just act as a task list but it lets you prioritize the facets of your life and will gently help you balance them Visit their website and read the forums a bit If I have one criticism for it and the one thing that keeps it from 5 stars its that data entry is not as streamlined as it should be Fix that one aspect and nothing can touch it              Im Back and Im Happy

I absolutely love this app I have been using it for years To date I have not found a better app to organize my life and make sure that I stay on track with my goals With that being said the problem with this app is that a several years ago the wife of the developer or the developer herself went through some sort of personal issue and after that there has been no support for this application I feel that she either needs to sell this app to another company or Apple needs to take this application down No really Because now it doesnt even work with iOS 8 it freezes and it would if someone would just simply support it           Love It But The Developer Needs to Support It

I agree with most of the other reviews regarding criticisms about input and interface issues Still however what this app gets right it gets spoton I do wish the interface to the Life Balance Mac client would be overhauled completely Its extremely outdated and counterintuitive By contrast the iPhone app interface is much cleaner and more intuitive though not without its own issues Criticisms aside its one of the most used and most useful apps I own It gets used multiple times every single day which incidentally means things like the interface and input frustrations become more noticeable than they would in an app I only use occasionally The great parts of this app and its sheer usefulness far outweigh the criticisms I have              Extremely useful with some flaws

Updated This is my most expensive purchase till date from AppStore and I regret it fully Despite many customers complaining about the nonintuitiveness of Task Entry the developers have done nothing to improve the usability I used to love this program on Palm But unfortunately this iPhone version is far from perfect My advice Do not buy     Good Update

Doesnt work     Abandonware

I tried this iPhone version of Life Balance and as many others have said it is lacking some features that would really bring it up to date like a calendar showing tasks dates I also participated in the forum on their website and when you post a message it takes forever for it to appear in the forum They are so far behind the curve it is sad Their lack of interest is evidenced by their lack of communication on an ongoing basis with their user base        Developers seem to have lost interest in development of app

I really liked the premise of this software am sad about it no longer being in development It would be nice if one day it could be resurrected but Im not holding out much hope     Sadly it looks to of been abandoned

Best program Ive used for the GTD system and Ive used alot The balance feature puts it far above the rest The developers are very responsive                 Love it love it love its

Ive loved Life Balance for years The newest version is the best yeteven with schedules and due dates and multiple jobs plus the frenetic life of a vet tech student and all the chaos inherent there Life Balance does everything from reminding me to eat yes when youre juggling multiple jobs school you can forget to nudging me to start the major project due in a month and plan for my nieces wedding AND teasing me to take a bit of me time So totally customizable that it will fit anyones life Support is great personal and not from some incomprehensible press 27 for English average wait time is 30 hours or the formulaic trash other productivity programs seem prone to Just wish that Apple would allow more alarm sounds G                 Yet again Organized

Im a manager of project managers This app is essential to me Other competitors are more handsome but they all have a flaw in their data model Projects and tasks are separate entities LB has a simpler data model such that it fully support GTDstyle task management and also easily allows you to rapidly enter and rearrange projects It also loads faster than its betterknown competitors I dont know why In LB a project is a task with subtasks This is incredibly useful While on the go you can tap in Get that widget done with its context ala GTD and date Later you can sit down and put tasks under it Call Mike Write the framostat module You dont have to retype your task as project or whatever LB is just simpler to use Yes its an ugly app that looks identical to its Treo version However it is also an incredibly useful and fast app Your choice Useful or pretty The day LlamaGraphics gets around to making this a pretty app too perfection But until then I vote for useful                 Practical tool perfect data model despite the UI blemishes

Man have to take another star offcheck out the last updatedespite a litany of user needs and charging 20 PLUS like 40 if you want to sync for this NO UPDATEimprovement since fall of 2008 How shappy can you get I really like the overall picture of this system but entering data is a PAINthis is a mobile system folksentering data on the move This only gets 2stars until the developers do an efficiency analysis Need to enter data on a number of fronts in TWO click andor edit anything or LESS A system that enables efficiency in ones life should model efficiency In addition a HUGE hip feature of notetodo apps is configuring the note sections such that phone numbers email addresses website urls and map locations links are imbedded ieclickableSO handy in accessing information pertinent to the task Please program this CMon you have the big picture integratedstreamline the details UPDATE Amazing at a 2000 app price plus an 80 desktop fee the only way to ensure your data is backed up thats 100 peopleand still LifeBalance has gone almost 4 months with no update ensuring that the Iphone customers needs expressed here are even reasonably met From a business standpoint unbelievable        VERY Cumbersome

I have used Life Balance for years on a long line of Macs and Palms I just recently purchased my first ipod Touch and of course I had to add it to the Touch as well I could not live without Life Balance Sure this app is a bit complicated and sure its more expensive than many of the other iphone apps But its the best way Ive ever found to keep my complicated life organized Appointments projects tasks dreams of what you might do some day all can be efficiently organized and prioritized through LB and easily retrieved when you need to review them This app has a lot of features that can keep your life running smoothly and productively Unfortunately theres too many to list in one short review I am giving LB 4 stars instead of 5 only because I would love to see two features added First I have always been sorry that Life Balance doesnt have a better visual calendar integrated into the app It does sync and work well with iCal but there would be even better compatibility with an integrated calendar And second I would like to see an option added to the ToDo list so that I could manually customize the todo list item order by simply moving them myself rather than always depending on LBs own calculations of weight and priority No app is perfect but IMHO Life Balance comes closer than most And no I dont work for the company im just a devoted customer              I depend on it

I guess there is no money in programs like this because Llamagraphics has done nothing to address the problems noted by other reviewers Or else there is so much money that they dont have to Either way its too bad              Needs an overhaul

Ive been using Life Balance since the early Palm days Ive used both Windows and Mac desktops Ive used a lot of to do applications both web based and software There is nothing quite like this program If you spend the time to learn how to tweak this program it will remind you of what you really want to spend your time doing Best of all it show tasks that can only be done under your present location or time Ive downloaded other apps with fancier interfaces that barely had any functionality What is the point of that Yes Id like more features Theres always some new functionality that would be nice to have Most folks dont use a tenth of the available functions in Life Balance If you want a solid program that is flexible and customizable you should at least consider Life Balance Take the time to read the Advice Book and see what this program is capable of It may become on of your favorite programs too                 Nothing else works like Life Balance

Ive been using the desktop version of Life Balance off and on for years now and had been impatiently waiting for the iPhone app to come out I love it Life Balance reminds me of my priorities every time I open it up and nudges me to spend more time doing the things I said I wanted to do So glad to be able to take my coach on the road with me now with the iPhone app                 Life balance for iPhone Hooray

Lots of people have caught the Getting Things Done GTD bug after reading David Allens book but had a hard time sticking with it Life Balance LB provides the best software Ive seen for implementing a GTD system personalized to the way you think about your life goals projects and tasks Its really great for productivity to be able to sync between LB on the iPhoneiPodTouch and LB on a Macintosh a separate product downloadable with a 30day free trial LB comes from a dedicated software company which has invested many years of effort in the product done a great job in terms of usability particularly with the v5x release and built a strong user community                 Fantastic productivity app highly usable great ability to optionally sync to laptop LB

Its been agonizing watching this app fade to obsolescence I finally had to stop using it and switch to Toodledo last year because LBs synch glitches were hindering my productivity Even so although I love Toodledos webbased synching I still pine for LifeBalances brilliant balance and nested location features and I hope someday this product reemerges from its own ashes For those casting personal aspersions on the developers please do realize that Catherine White survived a freaking BRAIN TUMOR and then her mother died so please show some mercy        I miss this app

For 20 I expected that the developer would have put more thought into how people use this app Entering new tasks is a chore To change your place you must scroll to the new place using the touchy iPhone select control and then hit ok Why wouldnt they just show the places as a list so that one touch is all you need This is a very standard iPhone control its as if they purposely wanted to make it complicated        Shockingly bad UI

It may take a little getting used to but so does being truely organized If you have ever worked with and like Franklin Covey or similar organizers you will love this If you havent come in with an open mind and you will be pleasantly surprised This is not a simple todo list This product works with what you say is important not only at the task level but at a goal setting level as well You tell it what part of your life you want to emphasizefocus on and it will point you in the right direction If you use it to organize your lifetake the next step and let it enhance it I have no affiliation with Llama I am just a very satisfied customer                 Somewhat cumbersome but well worth it

Ive been using Life Balance on the Palm and Mac and Windows I own all 4 now for over 4 years I even switched back to the Palm because this wasnt available on the iPhone when I bought my first iPhone I came back as soon as I heard Apple released their SDK and the AWESOME people at Llama Graphics committed to writing this Do yourself a favor go to their web site and read all the info you can and how long theyve been around and how incredible their support is Even download their trial versions to see how it works You can do GTD style or Franklin Covey style or both Top down or bottom up but I prefer a hybrid model myself depending on what Im doing and this has always fit the bill Worth evey penny and then some You absolutely wont regret the purchase It will motivate you guide you and put your life back into balance BEST PRODUCTIVITY APP ON IPHONE MAC WINDOWS PALM              The best lifeproductivity app for iPhone

I have been a fan since first buying Life Balance for my Mac last year The latest updates for the IPhoneIPod Touch make LB much more user friendly The new add task tab now sits as an icon on my bottom icon bar and available to use at any time The color coded status in the ToDo view makes it very easy to see what needs your focus for the day And being able to configure a few shortcuts in settings was a nice touch In short this update addressed the few concerns I had with the previous version Some have said this application is overpriced but I use Life Balance every day and believe this update makes it an even better investment                 Good updates in 51

I had life balance on my palm tx I like the new improvements good app thanks John Breen I have not signed into my acct in a long time will check in soon              Good job

Excellent update The current version shows tremendous improvement One of the beat life mangement and getting things done software Now only if their Mac version is as streamlined as the iPhone version                 Excellent

I used Life Balance for about a week life balance seems appealing and I may yet give it another try but Im bagging because Im at a commitorquit level and Ive not been able to develop enough trust 1 I had frequent crashing problems it seemed to run out of memory if I add 3 tasks in quick succession The support person was friendly and very responsive but I dont have time to work as a troubleshooter 2However it does seem different enough that I might try again If I go back I will try using it primarily on my PC and using the iPhone version as a syncd way to keep tabs and make minor revisions but not the primary planoutbigprojects interface like I was doing here Note that the PC Mac versions from their website have 30day free trials Check it out 3I didnt have the confidence that it would pull to the top things that had hard approaching deadlines and I didnt use it long enough to really test that the crashing problems hurt my ability to develop trust However it is a very thoughtful way of managing stuff to do I liked the outline view for planning my day and the way it had routinely as a way to schedule a task I liked the theory of it suggesting things based on where my actual vs my target life balance was for my todo list and I had a positive experience with that feature I think checking the agenda view could have helped with my nervousness about deadlines I like the concept of scheduling things with deadlines and lead times They also handle context place in a nice way you can mark multiple contexts as being subcontexts for example while at office I will also want to see phone tasks I didnt find a way to go through and mark things as high priority for the short term something I like to do I also found it awkward to toss new tasks onto the list everything has to have a life category it belongs to On one hand this is kindof cool it made me really think about the use of my time for some activities and whether or not that really contributes to my life goals but I dont have time to ponder the ultimate meaning of every mosquito task and I felt challenged to just toss them on the list for now and know theyll be at the top at the end of the day when I get home and have time to ponder them then I could probably come up with a workaround make a life goal of stuff I think I just gotta do if I were more committed and ponder their meaning more gradually over time I think Life Balance could be an evolutionary improvement over other time management apps but as a former GTDer who has felt a little crazy ever since switching to the IPhone its not making me feel better quickly enough           some real potential but couldnt handle my use standalone

Ok you cant really forget it because you have to LOOK at it daily to see what you have to do BUT I really like the way Life Balance handles recurring tasks I researched a lot of todo apps before I bought Life Balance since many apps of this type cost significantly more than a typical app Im glad I went with this one it is perfect for my needs I didnt have any problems with the interface it is working fine for me as a standalone app Ive had it a few days and already Im getting so much more done than I used to I think this app would work well for creative people as the feel of it is more fluid than a typical todo app Get the free Life Balance advice book before buying this app it explains how it works Once I read it I was certain I wanted to get Life Balance I am not disappointed So far I am using it for planning my wedding staying on top of household chores and making sure I schedule some creative time into my life like playing my viola Theres also good calendar integration so Ive been using it for appointments as well You can view your todo items an agenda of your calendar items or a mixture of both I like that it shows how much effort youre putting into different areas of your life so you can make sure to balance your life in the way that seems best for you                 Set it and forget it

At 1999 one would expect the application to work well on its own rather than simply as a synchronization to the full desktop version of Life Balance which is a great application in its own right However the awkwardness of its interface makes this difficult at best Awkwardness permeates this app such as In the ToDo list view tapping on an item moves you to the settings of that task rather than checking the item as done In the Outline view expanding and collapsing sections requires one to tap small arrows on the left just so otherwise tapping on an item sends you to the settings view Adding a task cannot be done easily To add a task one must first go to the Outline view then tap edit then scroll to the bottom of the outline to click add new task then make sure you tap on the small green to add the task tapping on Add new Task does nothing then tap on New Task to enter the task name then tap on Project to move your task from the Your Life category which is the default and cannot be changed to the category of your choice then tap the top left category icon to go back to the outline view then tap the green done button at the upper right which closes edit and completes the entry of your task The awkwardness of adding new tasks is enough to kill its usefulness as a standalone application This could be easily fixed with a simple dockbutton and form interface but with each new version of the application adding a task remains awkward and inconvenient This would seem to imply that despite its price the application is intended as a portable addon to the full Life Balance program However even at this the application fails For example within the desktop application tasks are ordered based upon your overall category goals but due dates are also indicated listing which are due now which are overdue and which are upcoming tasks This hybrid version of ordered priority and due date is one of the desktop versions strengths as it allows one to both get things done following larger overall goals but also ensures that you can catch those tasks which have a specific due date In this version there is no indication of due dates within the ToDo list thus a strength of the desktop application doesnt carry over Again this could be easily addressed by adding this info in a colorcoded way as is done in the desktop application but it remains lacking through several revisions Overall the application gives the impression that the developers cannot decide whether the application should be a standalone application modeled off their desktop version with all the bells and whistles included however awkwardly or a portable extension of their excellent desktop application As a result it fails miserably at both If you use the desktop version of Life Balance and desire portability then this application is better than nothing However if you seek a productivity application useful in its own right then seek elsewhere This review is for the 504 version     Awkward and Overpriced

Taking another star off my rating since I am daily frustrated by the inability to move from an item in To Do mode to the same item in Outline mode The only thing keeping me using this is inertia too much time to find and switch to a new system If you are not already a Life Balance user dont even bother with this app it is too painful Ive been a Life Balancer for years on the Mac and Palm platforms When I switched to the iPod touch this summer I had great hopes for the iPhoneiPod version of LB The biggest failing of this version is that there is no way to get from a task in the ToDo view to that same task in the Outline view Many times a day I try to do this eg when reprioritizing an entire project when a subtask appears on the todo view There are also many counterintuitive interface problems especially when using one of the three different ways of adding a task none of which are as easy as adding on the Palm version I will keep struggling along with it since so much of my life is already tied up in LB but what used to be a pleasure is now a chore        Almost unusable compared to previous versions