Review: iGTD Task Management Application

posted at 09:00:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
GTD/Productivity

When I had the chance to review Smart-To-Do List recently, I didn't think I'd find another productivity tool that would work so well for me, the only reason I'm not using it day-to-day is that it's unfortunately Windows only.So, I continued the hunt and the next program I found was "iGTD" - from the website:

You are a busy person, aren't you? And there's an easy way to track all things that have to be done... and to get those things done! iGTD takes some concepts from Getting Things Done methodology and makes them easy to understand and use in your every day life. But it's definitely not limited to the GTD concept - you can really use it the way you want.

When I first fired up the program, the interface did look a bit confusing and certainly not as simple and clean as Smart To-Do-List but there are a lot of handy tutorials on the site - in fact the program has some of the best documentation I've seen for a while for a free program.

The first step I took was to add a list of contexts. This was a little fiddly to get the hang of as the "Apple+N" key always adds a new task. I had been expecting that clicking on content list would "activate it" but you can add contexts by hitting "Apple+Shift+N" or clicking the "+" sign at the bottom of the screen.

Context List

After adding contexts, I then added my projects which was quite simple and a nice piece of functionality is that you can add sub projects:

Project List

You can then start adding tasks by hitting "APPLE + N" and assign them to contexts by simply pressing the arrow keys once the Context column is active. It's not as quick as Smart To-Do-List in terms of adding tasks but once you get the hang of it, it isn't too arduous.

Add New Task & Task List

There are a few more features in iGTD that aren't present in Smart To-Do-List such as 5 levels of priority, recurring tasks, "energy" required, start/due dates, and I think these are really handy - especially as I have some recurring tasks so now I don't have to remember to re-add them each month, iGTD does it for me

Task Priorities

Task with Due Date

As well as simple task management, you can add links, notes, contacts and tags to tasks as well. I've not yet figured out the use for tags but I guess it's Web 2.0 Standard functionality now isn't it?!

Add Notes

Add Links

As well as storing tasks, you can also post website links (from Firefox and Safari) and emails (from Apple Mail) in your task list by simply hitting "F6" (or Function+F6 on my MacBook)

Add URLS

You can view your added tasks by context, all contexts, project, to complete or completed

View All Contexts

Contexts can be printed out, or exported - although I didn't see an XML export so it means that your tasks are locked into iGTD

In terms of getting your tasks into iGTD, you don't have to add them directly via the program. There is a desktop widget that you can use, the program also integrates with QuickSilver

Dashboard Widget

iGTD with QuickSilver

All in all I'm really liking "iGTD" and the way it integrates quite well with everything even if it isn't overaly portable. Knowing me, I'll probably get bored with in in a while and try something else but there are still some features I've not looked into yet like Syncing with iCal, .Mac (No mention if it works with Mobile Me - but then does anything?) but no syncing with any form of mobile device that I can see - which is a shame as I could probably have done something with a bit of nifty XML parsing.

So, if you're looking for a simple Task management application with a GTD twist and you're on Mac, seriously think about trying "iGTD". Or maybe you think I've missed some other great program. Let me know in the comments or Contact Me.