My All-Time Favorite Software Program and Secret Weapon

Printer-friendly versionSend by email

I've been using a personal information manager or PIM program called Time & Chaos for about 15 years.  I discovered it while I was working at NYU Medical Center and convinced them to buy it for the office long before Outlook was available.

I've used it faithfully since then and have synced it with all versions of the Palm operating system for many years.  When the Palm Pre was first launched, I went out (like I always do) and bought a Pre on the first day they arrived before knowing if it would sync with Time & Chaos.  Happily I discovered after a bit of work that it would sync nicely with Exchange and using their hosted application ChaosHost, I am able to sync wirelessly between laptop, phone and the internet. 

Since I launched Lyric Systems, I have always promoted it on my website.  Recently, I've realized that while other folks use Outlook, Act, Goldmine and other such programs perhaps they don't know that there are cheaper, more elegant solutions out there so I'm sharing one of the secrets of my success with you today.

Why do I love this program so much?  Let me count the ways...in no particular order.

1.  It syncs with my phone, the Palm Pre.

2.  At a glance, I can see who I'm supposed to meet with; what I'm supposed to do; who I know and what day of the week, month or year it is. 

(I am reminded of the time when I was hit by a Con Edison van while crossing the street in Manhattan.  As the ambulance was taking me to the hospital, I was asked some cognitive questions and one of them was to name the day of the week.  I remember thinking, "Gee...when I haven't been hit my car I have a hard time remembering what day of the week it is, surely there is a better question they could ask me...:-)"

3.  It has nice reports for the contacts, appts. and to do items.  In fact, it replaced one of my old favorites, "Calendar Creator Plus" that I used a long time ago because it produced beautiful monthly calendars which I used as a project management tool....back before Windows existed.

4.  The interface is deceptively simple and straightforward.  I remember the day when my boss at NYUMC came into my office and said, "I needed to change an appointment and I thought if I click on the appt. and drag it to the calendar day would that work...and it did.  To me that is a well-designed interface...it just simply works and it hides the power and complexities that it offers beneath a deceptively simple face.

5.  It's affordable.  $49.95 for Time and Chaos and $59.95 for Chaos Intellect.

6.  It's fast, stable and reliable.

7.  It plays nice with Microsoft Office for mail-merges; reports; email and browers.

8.  It allows me to manage 3 distinct businesses; 50+ friends and countless family members and make it seem like I have a whole team working for me when it's just little 'ol me.  You see...I am the wizard behind the curtain....:-)

9.  The president of the organization sometimes answers the tech support line.  I've spoken to him many times throughout the years and he and I were the first guinea pigs for Palm Treo syncing when the new Treos came out.

10. You can backup the data and the program to a USB drive and run the entire program off of the drive from any computer.

I recently upgraded (for $19.95) to Chaos Intellect which incorporates an email client into the Time & Chaos framework.  Now...I'm wondering why I waited so long to do it and I've happily kicked Windows Mail, the successor to Outlook Express, to the curb.

You can download a copy of the fully functioning the software at Chaos Software. Check it out...you will not regret it and if you like it, pay it forward and share the love.  We need to encourage the software vendors out there to make more software like this.

Category: 
Cool Stuff
Daily Update
Share this