Lucas wrote:

Hugh wrote:
One type of task manager that I think nobody has mentioned is the type
>that not only lists your tasks but also schedules them in the working
>day. When I used Windows, there were several available (the name "Above
>and Beyond" rings a bell), but I have seen none for the Mac. Do they
>still exist?

I confess that I have searched somewhat obsessively for such software
over the last 10 years, and I have tried just about everything. There
are indeed some options available, although I find all of them lacking.
I will highlight a few options on various platforms:

Windows (old software): In addition to Above & Beyond, there was TimeTo
and Watership Planner.

Mac (old software): SmartDay did this, but never became sufficiently
polished and was abandoned.

Project Management software: Obviously overkill, but I have used
full-blown project management software for this purpose. Any software
that includes "resource leveling" can be configured to automatically
schedule tasks according to priority, deadlines, availability, etc. I
have used Microsoft Project. On the mac, OmniPlan and Merlin Project do
the trick. On the web, LiquidPlanner also does this.

Recent software:
-- Focuster has already been mentioned here. It's relatively simnple,
and it lacks prioritization, but it's automatic scheduling works well.
-- JXCirrus Planner tries to be a full-blown, extremely powerful
automatic task scheduling solution (including being able to give tasks a
numeric priority), and it works on Windows, Mac, and iPhone. I recommend
looking at it, but there do tend to be major bugs, and it isn't exactly
elegant. If the bugs get worked out, it would be my first choice.
-- SkedPal is much more polished and is also cross-platform (including
mobile). It's an excellent option, with a highly sophisticated approach
to blocking time for different sorts of tasks. My only issues are the
lack of numeric priority and the approach it takes to automatically
scheduling short-duration tasks ahead of longer, higher-priority tasks,
but for many people these aren't problems.

DIY approaches:
-- Another powerful solution I have found is Tinderbox, which I have
configured to be a capable task manager, including with automatic
priority-based scheduling, but I have stopped using it for that purpose
because of the inability to sync tasks with my iPhone. I am sure
InfoQube could also be used.
-- Excel can be configured to do this, but there are severe limitations.

As far as which task manager I currently use: Last year I switched to
index cards, which I loved, but eventually there were too many issues
with transporting cards and losing cards, so I switched back to
electronic. But I have grown to appreciate the card metaphor, and I've
been trying various Kanban options. Currently, I'm using Zenkit, which
is quite powerful but also a bit buggy. I'm still on the lookout for
better automatic scheduling options that can sync with iPhone.

Many thanks, Lucas. I'm exploring a number of these suggestions (which it's good to see still exist, at least a dozen years since I first looked at them).