We are glad to announce the immediate availability of Viira 1.3. This release is largely made of various suggestions that many of you passed along.

With many thanks to all of you that dropped us a line telling us what features you would like to see, here is what is new in Viira 1.3:

• Track project-less and context-less tasks. Project and Context Views now provide an easy way to locate tasks without a project or a context and prevent these tasks from “slipping through the cracks”. Simply select <No Project> and <No Context> in Projects View and Contexts View and all tasks without a project or context assigned to them will be displayed, respectively. (Thanks Sean for suggesting this one!)
• Start in Last View Used . A new setting available through Viira’s options lets you start Viira in the last used view, making it easier to return to where you left things off.
• BlackBerry Storm support. As the momentum behind the BlackBerry Storm adoption grows we are pleased to the Storm to the list of supported devices. Long-time owners of and recent upgraders to the BlackBerry Storm can take full advantage of the device’s unique capabilities like the touch screen and orientation sensitivity to get things done on the go with Viira.
• Performance enhancements. An engineering optimization put in place in Viira 1.3 drastically boosts the speed with which appointments stay in sync with the native BlackBerry calendar, making it possible to integrate a large number of appointments in your GTD system. (thanks Rajesh for helping us through this one)
• Appointments sorted chronologically. Day View now lists all appointments in chronological order, making it easier to get a quick and intuitive glance of what lies ahead for any given day.
• Free trial limits raised. The Viira 1.3 Free Trial comes with raised limits on the number of projects, contexts and tasks.

As usual, Viira 1.3 comes as a free upgrade to all buyers of the full version. To get upgrade Over-The-Air (OTA) simply point your BlackBerry to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb. Alternatively buyers can log in to our site and download the ZIPed installer and install.

A free trial of Viira 1.3 is also available.

A Someday/Maybe list is an important but often times overlooked feature of any solid GTD system. The list consists of all those actionable items that we want to get to at some later point but that cannot be acted upon now.

The idea is to record all the Someday/Maybe items and, while getting them out of our busy minds now, to review the list later and decide if the time to act on a particular task or idea has come or not.

The way I handle Someday/Maybe items with Viira is by using contexts. I have two contexts - a ‘Someday’ and a ‘Maybe’ - largely to keep a clean separator between things that I know I will have to get to eventually (”get going on tax return”) versus wish-list items (e.g. “learn French”).

Once I have assigned a task to the Someday or Maybe context I do not assign a project or date to that task. This effectively keeps the Someday/Maybe items cleanly separated from the other tasks in Viira. This makes intuitive sense: if a task has a due-date associated with it or is part of a larger work-in-progress project then it probably isn’t a Someday/Maybe item any more.

Once captured, the key is to do a scan of the Someday and Maybe contexts on a periodic basis - perhaps during the Weekly review. Here is a shared email to David Allen from a person who successfully leveraged his Someday/Maybe list in his GTD system and got things rolling at the right time - and was very happy that he did.

The topic of Someday/Maybe lists is a big and open-ended one and there are many tips on how to make the most of it while avoiding some of the pitfalls (like turning it into a procrastination list). Andre from Tools for Thought has posted a great article on dealing with some of the challenges and how to overcome them - an excellent read!

Getting Things Done is a wonderful organizational system. There are many tools, constructs and best practices out there that help us leverage it to its full potential. But when we dig through and absorb all the technical details of implementing GTD in our lives one very important ingredient is often overlooked: discipline.

It takes discipline to internalize and use the GTD principles day in and day out, it takes discipline to make a point of always using your GTD system, and most of all it takes discipline to bring your in basket to empty on a regular basis.

It is lack of discipline that can stand in the way of getting things done. A great article on 3by9
by Tyme White talks about how discipline can be particularly important for tackling a certain kind of tricky to-do items: those that need to get done but towards which we feel some internal resistance. And GTDWannabe writes about periodically encountering friction with and even abandoning your own GTD system and some thoughts on how to handle that.

In a way, discipline is the glue that keeps it all together. Personally, I am relying heavily on my BlackBerry for help in this department. I naturally carry my BlackBerry with me wherever I go and with Viira on it all the time, sometimes just looking at the device serves as a conscious (or subconscious) reminder that I have set to do a certain number of things that day. In a way, it is a subtle visual cue for me to stay as close as possible on that course (or quickly adjust it, should the need arise).

It may not sound like a great deal but having that visual reminder right in front or next to me has really helped me stay much more productive on my daily, project- and context-specific to-do’s and also has made my organizational system a regular and effortless part of my daily life. Now, if only getting the entire in-basket to empty was this easy…

Viira 1.0 is now out the door, thus marking the official launch of what we hope is the most easy-to-use and complete Getting Things Done tool for BlackBerry devices.

Viira 1.0 provides full support for all the essential elements of any GTD implementation. To-do items, or Tasks, as well as Appointments can be organized by projects, contexts and by day. Pulling out the next action is quick and easy, be it the next action for a particular project, in a given place or when just looking at what needs to be taken care of before the end of the day.

Getting Things Done is all about dealing with rapidly changing priorities and quickly refocusing on the next task. Using GTD on a BlackBerry can be a definite advantage. Viira 1.0 makes the process of dealing with those changing priorities easy, intuitive and as accessible as your BlackBerry.

With Viira categorizing and re-categorizing a given task or an appointment is one pearl (or trackwheel) click away and many of the most common activities like creating, deleting or opening tasks, projects and contexts have quick shortcuts to make the entire process fast and fluid.

So check out the Free Trial, and happy GTDing to everyone!