Task managers - what should they be able to do?

Posted by Chris Thompson
Mar 30, 2008 at 10:01 PM

As far as I can tell, Ecco does all of the things on your list except “definable icons per task”... I suppose even that one could be done with a customized bullet column.

Ecco will probably never be bettered as a total package of good user interface + functionality for task management. (I think of it as an operating system for projects, really, it’s so customizable and poewrful.) SQL Notes looks like it’s coming along and betters it in several ways functionality-wise, but the UI leaves a lot to be desired. On the Mac, OmniFocus is similar in some ways but is too GTD-inspired. Good if you really want to get into that methodology, but what makes Ecco genius is its freeform nature.

I honestly think “GTD” is a liability, and software developers are in some sense chasing a false grail by trying to jump on that bandwagon. For instance, David’s notion that every task should have exactly one context is poorly thought out. For instance, what about an item I can buy either at the grocery store or at a drugstore? What context do I use for that. OmniFocus tries to stay within the GTD mindset by keeping the single context restriction but introducing hierarchical contexts, but that only partially solves the problem. Also, contexts are in some sense inherently counterproductive… a big part of the GTD approach is the idea that you should be able to dump items into your inbox as quickly as possible. Yet as soon as you introduce contexts into a program, you not only have to hit some hotkey, enter your task, then you have to tab to another field, decide what context this task should be in (is it “business” or “phone”?), type some more stuff, then hit OK. Too much work for no payoff.

Some of Allen’s ideas, like delegation, periodic reviews, etc. are useful though. But I’m skeptical of systems that aim too much to the GTD paradigm. The better systems are freeform like Ecco or Things.

—Chris

Graham Rhind wrote:
>I did find one personal task manager that did
>almost all of this but had a problem with database corruption. I am therefore
>currently having to use a blend of Outlook, Zoot and Sciral Consistency.