Open-Source GTD and Project Management software

A list is now available in Sourceforge:

Task Unifier

TaskUnifier is an open-source, cross-platform (Java application) task management software based on the well-known GTD (getting things done) methodology. It will help you manage your tasks and therefore your time. TaskUnifier is free and open source except the Toodledo synchronization feature. If you save its file to Dropbox or any cloud file storage you can sync between installs.

Link: http://www.taskunifier.com/

Todomoo

Todomoo is an opensource todo manager specially designed to help you manage projects without advanced scheduling. It organizes projects in hierarchical tasks, in different categories. It stores payment details, timers and multiple notes for each task. Supports task sorting by every main window column. Multilanguage . Automatic backups. Fully portable, it uses SQLite.

Mark Forster, getting everything done and the autofocus method

Getting everything done proposes several methods, all of them based on one long unprioritised list of everything that you have to do. The differences in the versions relate to the way in which you work the list. More details at Mark Forster's website.

Workflowy

Very simple and intuitive list-style organization with a zooming interface that allows for easy movement between an overview and focus on specific things: Workflowy

Firetask

A new self-organization app for the Mac, the former iPhone/iPod app, still available for these gadgets, Firetask combines the advantages of  GTD with proven classical task management features such as due dates and priorities in a unique way. Firetask is strictly project-oriented and makes it simple to add tasks, delegate and schedule. Everything is neatly synchronized between phone and computer.

Curio

Curio is a sort of digital notebook for freeform information gathering, brainstorming, and creative exploration.
You can use this Mac-only app to take notes, manage tasks, make photo collages, sketch with brushes & pens, and create beautifully styled lists, mind maps, tables, and index cards. All within the same amazingly intuitive integrated environment.

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is a combination of online service plus desktop or mobile app that synchronizes instantly your to-do lists, ideas, and notes, not very different from Simplenote, but allowing some advanced customization of the interface, drag and drop support and other features.

You can download the app for Mac or Windows, and a mobile app is on the way. It's free (currently in beta).

Here is a video demo of Wunderlist:

Crocodoc

A very promising collaboration platform to highlight and comment documents online, Crocodoc lets your team review a common document (PDF, Word, Powerpoint, Web pages, or any image).

Suggested uses of the service include reviewing documents, get feedback on web design projects, take study notes, fill out pdf forms, and send / receive annotated reports to and from clients.

TaskClear

A new data management, document management, Apps & Tools in a package especially tailored for small businesses.Customizable, packaged with many utilities

Free for up to 2 users, paid plans for more.Website: Taskclear.

Review on Make use of, with detailed feature-by-feature comments.

To-do apps for Ubuntu

A good review of to-do apps on OMG Ubuntu.

This blog is a very recommended source of information for Linux-Ubuntu users. 

The pomodoro technique - timeboxing

The Pomodoro  technique by Francesco Cirillo is a particular timeboxing method of organizing your tasks.

You set a defined time frame for each of your tasks and get to do them one at a time. You can use a physical stopwatch, like the tomato kitchen clock (hence the name), or a computer application if you work mostly online.

For Mac users there are several apps, and some are freeware tools. Pomodoro, especially designed for this technique, as Renzo Borgatti’s Pomodori and Guillaume Cerquant’s TimeBoxed. For Windows you can use Keep Focused or Matomato.

Some simple stopwatch utilities for Windows can be downloaded (freeware) from the Portable freeware collection.

If you are an AIR user, Viktor Nordling’s Pomodairo works in any operating system as an air application.

A similar concept of slicing your tasks in actionable parts is what  Vitamin-R offers. This app (Mac OS X) complements the task capturing and organizing features of modern to-do list managers, by forcing you to concentrate fully on one task a time and keeping distractions at bay.

Vitamin-R breaks down large, vaguely defined tasks into a series of short "time slices" of between 10 and 30 minutes, each with specific, easily reachable and actionable objectives. During these time slices it keeps you focused on accomplishing only this one objective and provides you with mechanisms for dealing with interruptions, poor concentration, etc.

Vitamin-R is available from Publicspace.




Reference books:
 

Merlin, task management

Merlin is a professional-grade project management tool for Mac OS X by the german company ProjectWizards.

One of the interesting features of the program is its ability to import brainstorming sessions.  Brainstorm with your colleagues and capture information as a Mindmap. Whether you are using Novamind or MindManager, you can quickly and easily take the results of your brainstorming sessions and open it in Merlin as the basis for creating the initial structure of your project.

You can download an evaluation copy of the (commercial) program and a useful PDF manual as reference.

TimeGT

TimeGT is a promising new multi-platform (Java-based) app: freeware for Windows, Mac or Linux. It offers secure online and offline access through a desktop application.TimeGT supports the Getting Things Done (GTD) Method and it is possible to organize tasks, ideas and notes in numerous ways. You can assign  unlimited depth subprojects for increased clarity for your projects. Tags are also supported to add appropriate context to tasks.

There is a free (rabbit) and a paid (hedgehog) service associated with TimeGT. The paid plan offers also server-supported sync, and automatic continuous backup.

 Here is a video review of the application:

Simple reminders with task.fm

Task.fm is a nice reminder tool. It is an online service with a free plan and a paid plan with extra features. Use it to create sms, email or twitter reminders. Task.fm can understand your natural language like "meeting with bob next tuesday at 9am", so you don't need to enter dates and times manually.


Task.fm includes a built in to-do manager which you can use to create unlimited lists; reminders and todos can be tagged  (including hashtags à la Twitter).

Goals on Track

GoalsOnTrack is a paid online service, focused towards goal setting and features an intuitive dashboard to access all its functions. Its goal tracking and assessment are outstanding, with complete vision board, habits tracker, goal journal, progress review and reports. It also includes full-featured task management and data synchronization.

Here is a rundown of the many features of GOT:

Goal Setting

Create SMART goals Upload your own pictures for goals Mark goals as accomplished Put goals on back burner to deal with them later View goal status and progress at a glance Reorder goals Assign your own categories for goals View goals by categories

GTDagenda for Android

GTDAgenda, commented here earlier, now can be synced with its own Android app (or you can use this mobile application in standalone mode):

More information here:
http://www.gtdagenda.com/android.php

Scanahand: turn your handwriting into a font

One of the first things you probably consider when you are learning digital design is to create a typeface from your own handwriting to use in the computer. For a normal user, the process isn’t exactly intuitive nor simple, and it might be necessary to hire the services of a professional type designer.

TimeGT

Promising new (Java) multi-platform app for life and tasks handling. It offers:

• Desktop Application; freeware for Windows, Mac or Linux.
• Secure Online and Offline Access with (paid) sync and backup capabilities
• Supports Getting Things Done (GTD) Method
• Offers numerous ways to organize tasks, ideas and notes, suiting a wide range of time management techniques.
• Unlimited depth projects for increased clarity for your projects.
  
• Tags to add appropriate context to tasks.

Get it here: TimeGT

Forced creativity (with your life)

What do people who were once paid to be creative for a living do when they’re laid off? They have to get creative with their own lives.
Lemonade is an inspirational film about 16 advertising professionals who lost their jobs and found their calling, encouraging people to listen to that little voice inside their head that asks, “What if?”

The meaning of procrastination

According to John Kelly (Royal College of Art graduate).

Doit.im: Adobe Air / Google Android GTD software

Doit.im is a Cross-platform task management tool, which can sync with Phones.

“Under the guidance of the GTD task management principles, Doit.im will help you sort your mind out, to get rid of various pending ideas, and help you organize tasks and focus on items at hand, so that you can closely track your work and feel easy when faced with bulks of complicated projects. With no pressure but efficiency, you'll further enjoy your work and get unexpected success.”

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Spicebird: Open Source Collaboration Software

Spicebird is a collaboration client that provides integrated access to email, blogging, contacts, taks, calendaring and instant messaging in a single application. It provides easy access to various web services while retaining all the advantages of a desktop application.

 You can even extend Spicebird with different add-ons which add new calendar features or change the way you access your contacts, message and news reading, and more.


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Shuffle and other Google Android GTD apps

Shuffle is a personal organizer for your Android-based mobile phone. Based on the Getting Things Done methodology, Shuffle is a "dumping ground" or inbox for ideas and tasks, which can subsequently be processed into actions, organized into contexts and projects, etc.

Since Shuffle lives within your mobile phone, you have permanent access to it and you can grab every elusive thought preventing it o bother you later, and stay focused on what you really need to do.

Visit the Shuffle project page to download it, read the complete description of its features, or check how it works with a comprehensive screenshot tour.

Bonus: another related application for to-do lists in your Android-powered phone: TooDo, with very nice features, such as its two-way synchronization with Remember the milk and Toodledo.

If you want to learn more about what Android is all about, nothing better than some short videos by the developers team , like this one:

More distraction-free writing utilities

PyRoom is a free text editor that stays out your way - and keeps other things out of your way, too.

As a fullscreen editor without buttons, widgets, formatting options, menus and with only the minimum of required dialog windows, it doesn't have any distractions and lets you focus on writing and only writing.

Similar to other programs commented here before, such as JDarkroom, it is distributed under the GNU General Public Licence v3.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Chandler: integrated information manager / organizer

A Java- based, cross organizer available for MacOSX, Linux and Windows, Chandler
aims at being an integrated approach to information management. Its quick Entry Bar with smart date parsing lets you enter everything from ideas to reminders and meetings, so you can efficiently capture any thought. Triage Lists let you manage everything from deadlines and meetings to drafts and ideas. Incorporated tickler Alarms to auto-re-focus deferred items to NOW, and a wealth of sync tools for Calendaring | Organization | Web Access | Sharing. See the short video description to the left.

Some of Chendler’s features include:

Integrated Calendaring
Manage, preview and add to your Calendar, without having to go to the Calendar:

• Schedule Tasks on your Calendar
• Turn Reminders into Events on the Calendar
• Prepare for Meetings by tracking them from the Triage List
• Preview what's on your calendar in the Mini-Cal Preview Pane
• Create Events from the Quick Entry Bar
  

Each Collection comes with a Calendar View so you can easily maintain multiple Calendars.

Rich Calendaring Features

• Color-code and Overlay multiple Calendars
• Recurring events
• Time zones
• Alarms
• Day, Week and Month Views
• Mini-Calendar with Busybars and Preview Pane
• Share your Calendars or Create a Group Calendar

Flexible Organization
Organize information into Multiple Contexts By project, by people, by importance, by status, on your calls list, on your calendar, on your task list, on your spouse's task list...

• Gather Notes and Events into Collections you define
• Drag and Drop them into as many Collections as you see fit
• Triage items in each Collection into NOW-LATER-DONE sections.
• Easily maintain a Calendar for each Collection
• Star important Notes and Events
• Filter your collections to see only Starred Notes and Events

Back up and Web Access

• Access your data from the web thru Chandler Hub
• Sync Chandler across multiple computers
• Sync your Apple, Google and Mozilla Calendars
• Add new items to Chandler from iGoogle
• Set up Chandler IMAP Folders to download email

Sharing and Collaboration
Share collections to:

• Share your Personal Calendar
• Maintain a Group Calendar
• Collaborate on Drafts
• Maintain Checklists together
• Brainstorm as a group
• See who's done what in shared Collections
• Share Calendars with Apple iCal, Mozilla Cal users
• Subscribe to Google Calendars
• Give others access to collections from the web
• Send Notes and Invitations to others by email...
• Edit and re-send sent items with Updates

Chandler Desktop is free and it is available in English, German, Finnish, French, Swedish and coming soon in Portuguese. Find out more in the product tour and the comprehensive documentation and help in their website.

Some more GTD applications

Here is a handful of GTD applications that I've recently heard of and I'm about to try.

TaskFreak! is a simple but efficient web based task manager written in PHP that you can install in your server, single or multiuser.

TaskStep is an open source, PHP-powered web application designed to help you organize your ideas and responsibilities.It is a simple and elegant way to keep track of what's on your mind.

Combining a functional, attractive interface with familiar task-tracking methods, plus a sprinkle of GTD, TaskStep will let you get over the hill of managing your todo list and well on your way to actually getting things done.



Taskwriter is a streamlined approach to GTD organization. In this case it is a hosted (free) service: it shows careful attention to user interface design and principles of simple contextual productivity. Check it out for an simple online solution with zero learning curve.

Similar to Taskwriter: Simplegtd, again a free hosted service with ease of use and focused interface.

And, don't forget all the programs and services linked in the sidebar -->

GTDAgenda

GTD Agenda is an online organizer based on the GTD method. I have had it listed on the sidebar for a while, but I haven't tried it out until recently.

You can try it out or sign up for a basic or a premium (pro) account here. Unlike other applications commented here before, this is a paid service, starting at $4.45/month for the basic plan.


Extra care has been taken to provide a frawework consistent with the GTD method, with:

• Goals to concentrate your effort and move you in a direction;
• Contexts where or how a task is accomplished. By default, GTDAgenda comes populated by just a few contexts, but it is very easy to add as many new contexts as you need. You usually prefix them with the “at” (@) sign to keep them grouped together;
• Projects sets of actions, that map to one of your goals;
• Tasks and Next Actions break out each project into specific actionable items;
• Schedules
• Checklists in weekly, monthly of year frames, with priority scale;
• Calendar for important reminders, you can also use it as tickler file. It can be hooked to an online iCal calendar for easy synchronization with other calendars or online organizers.

There is a someday / maybe folder and an Archive / reference folder, but they don't seem to appear in the sidebar. (only contexts and next actions are listed there). However, you can access these folders in any of the items you add to next actions or projects. A workaround to have a list of those missing items could be to create a “project” for each category named respectively someday/maybe and archive.

Whenever you need a list of actions, goals or any other item, you can print it out or send by email.



GTDAgenda provides mobile access in a specific url (http://gtdagenda.mobi/) and it can also be integrated with Twitter.

For team / collaborative organization, you can invite other users to get them into your contact list.

Support options
You can browse or participate in the forum, request support by email with an online form. It is advisable to read first some of the help articles and usage examples. The help is comprehensive and you will find specific articles like Use Gtdagenda to implement Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen, Make Gtdagenda a part of your 7 Habits for becoming Highly Effective, How to implement Zen To Done (ZTD) with Gtdagenda, How to use Gtdagenda for the Gym, How to use Gtdagenda for School or How to use Gtdagenda for Software Development.


What could be improved?

• Include more pre-filled contexts by default and example database files, so you can customize and start using it faster.
  
• Print options are a bit limited. You should be able to customize the printouts.
• A private RSS for any of the lists or queries in the organizer would be great for those who keep an eye on their RSS reader.
• An export / import utility to have your data backed up, or transferred to and from other desktop or mobile applications.
• The look of the application. This is a very personal opinion, but an appealing interface encourages you to use the application and enjoy more the task of getting organized. A suggestion: include different skins and theme switching in future updates of GTDAgenda.

Task Merlin: advanced GTD organizer

For your personal organization a very basic program might be enough, but some eye candy and extra features won't hurt. I have recently heard about TaskMerlin, a Windows application that fits the bill, from simple to-do lists to complex collaborative project management. As a bonus, it looks really great —this really helps making your organisation more attractive.

When you start TaskMerlin you are welcomed by a Tip of the day, a good way to learn its features and how to use bit by bit:


The program interface is divided in five panels and a common icon / menu bar on top. This is the default view, but you can activate or deactivate the separate panels as you wish:

The top left window is a folder structure where you access your documents and folders. If you open the included example file, this space includes an Inbox, where any thought can be temporarily captured, waiting for processing, a Projects folder with topic or place subfolders, where you save your current projects, an Archives folder for reference, storage, ideas that you set aside, etcetera, and finally a Trash Bin. Of course you can customize all these folders or rename them at your convenience.

Once you open a Project, the second panel, top right, presents a list of the different tasks and action it includes. The data associated to each task is comprehensive, but you are not required to introduce all the possible fields: type, context, status, priority, summary, progress, assigned to, due date...

You add new tasks, actions, projects or items like research, purchases, information, events, administration... right-clicking in this top right panel. The list of possible items has been thoroughly populated for you, so it's very likely that you'll find exactly the specific item you need to add for any project, be it purchasing something online, doing maintenance work on your terminal or whatever task you might think of:

The bottom left panel lets you filter and one-click access to your saved items, based on their associated fields. For example, you can get a list of what you have to do today, next actions, what needs to be done in a specific context...

If you need to create a filter, TaskMerlin provides a step-by-step wizard that will guide you. This Wizard will pop up when you hit the "new filter" icon on the Filters panel:

In the bottom centre panel, the contents of notes, actions and other items are displayed. Unlike other utilities of this type, TaskMerlin provides a rich text editor that gives you a fine control of the appearance of the notes, including a mini text editor. These notes can also include pasted objects, links, time stamps...

The last panel, on the bottom right side of the window, is a properties panel called Document. It displays all the characteristics of a given item. The sheer amount of information you can associate to any item may look overwhelming, but it just means you can choose whatever information you really need and leave the rest.

My overall impression is of a well-designed and robust program that offers very advanced capabilities, and goes hand in glove with the GTD methodology. Yet at the same time, you may choose to use a subset of its features and a simpler interface, hiding the panels you don't need.

The program requires Microsoft .NET framework and it is available at the moment only for Windows Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003/2008, Me, 98. There are two editions, one personal and one professional version, plus an evaluation version. A comparison matrix is available. All of them can be downloaded from the TaskMerlin website.

Now available: the book

Related to some of the imagery published in this blog: 1000 Heads is an imaginative collection of illustrations in which the human head experiments the strangest transformations, actions and variations: a fascinating and mesmerizing trip through the world of symbols, associations and memories. It is now available from Lulu.

Description of the book:

158 pages, softcover, 19.05 cm x 19.05 cm, black in white interior, colour cover, available from Lulu.com (in Spain you can also order it from Bubok.)

To see what's it like, you can see some page spreads here (32 of its pages) or visit the (different samples) page preview in the online bookshop. A video showing the book being browsed is also available at Youtube.

Plotting the improductivity

Or the antiproductivity. Come on and admit it: you're always trying to find the lamest excuses to waste your time without getting to work...

(click the image to see a larger version!)

The 1000 Heads project

Here's a new daily image project, called 1000 Heads. It's based on human head images in my sketchbooks. They are filled with imaginary heads containing all the stuff one could possible think of.

Either as a warm-up exercise, to develop a new idea, or just to have fun for a while, I find myself making variations on the theme all the time.

A selection of these peculiar heads, after scanning and cleaning up, were vectorised and published at Typephases as a collection of dingbat fonts called Capsbats (a set of 3 fonts) and Entestats (3 more fonts.)

In this project I am going to post one of these heads every day, with some further modifications and usually paired with some quotation (be it related or not to the image.)

This collection of images is part self-entertainment, part concept visualization. I hope they are inspirational for you and make you think, hopefully sparking some new insight.

Making plans for the semester

Making plans for the semester, originally uploaded by DailyPic.

Thinking on the things I want to do best in the next few months or so...
I just couldn't bring myself to just write down a list, so after a while of fooling around with pencil, markers and some washes, this is the "decorated version" of the list. Now if I only can do some of it.

See more of my artwork in my Flickr page!

Simple, easy and light todo list apps

Managing to-do lists is an essential piece of your personal organization. You can either (or both) create and use lists on your computer (online services or standalone applications) or with the most simple and portable setup ever: pen and pencil.

There are many to-do list applications available, providing different feature lists.You may find the to-do list function included in more complex programs, such as full-featured organizers, but sometimes it's preferable to use a fast-loading, focused tool to quickly access your task lists. These are a few applications of this kind I have tried and found to be useful. There are also online services to create and manage your to-do lists (see the sidebar and the bottom of this post.)

ToDoList is a rare form of task management tool, one that allows you to repeatedly sub-divide your tasks into more manageable pieces whilst still presenting a clean and intuitive user experience.

Main Features of ToDoList:

• Simple interface
• Freeware
• Support for hierarchical data. The number of items/subitems is limited only by memory (although performance may be the deciding factor before you exhaust memory).
• Marking a parent item as 'done' will also gray-out child items, but they are not disabled or automatically marked as 'done'.
• Top-level items and sub-items are created using different toolbar buttons. An ellipsis (...) indicates that an item has sub-items. All items can be expanded or collapsed (by double-clicking).
• There are task-specific context-menus.
• The tasklist is automatically saved when closing the software or minimizing it to the system tray. The previously open tasklists are re-opened on startup.

Smart To-Do List
Recently it has come to my attention a very fast and unobstrusive program called Smart To-Do List. You can run it in portable mode from a usb flash drive (also meaning that you don't need to install it and clutter your windows registry) and it's very lightweight yet still well focused on managing to-do lists. You get a project list (you can use templates for similar projects) and within each project you add tasks as you need.Tasks can be associated to different tags (which you can use as contexts) and a degree of priority can be assigned to each. Then, you can customize the display by context or by priority... The data can be exported as html or xml. Although this application is intentionally limited, it does its job quite well. And as you can resize its window to a rather small size and yet access all its functions, it comes very handy to quickly add tasks to whatever projects you are involved with.

As it happens with many productivity tools and services, Smart to-do list is available both in a free and paid version, the second one without the limitations of the first, obviously.



To-Do Desklist and Swift To-Do List
To-Do Desklist is another simple, nice looking and easy-to-use tool with good interface and good features:

• You can place To-Do notes directly on your desktop, assigning priority levels to to-dos.
• All to-dos can have a reminder to a specific date and time.
• Hotkeys for adding a new to-do and displaying all to-do notes in front of other windows
• Sorting To-Do Notes by priority or by date
• You can add an alarm to an item
• Desklist also allows you to assign priority and add extended notes to tasks.

It's freeware for Windows only.They have a more feature-rich program called Swift To-do.
Swift to-do, again, has a free and a paid version.
An online version of the program exists and you can even try it out on your browser as a demo.

Online services
For a comprehensive list of online todo list services, check out the following articles:Distraction Free GTD: 32 Todo List Web Applications Online todo lists compared
do also check the sidebar of GTDrawings, where we list several online to-do lists.

In / out

In / out, originally uploaded by DailyPic.

A drawing about being positive despite negative input in your day-to-day.
Scanned from my current journal / sketchbook, A4 size. Ink (brush pen.)

The text says something like
"every day we're under a rain (if not a storm) of negativity, trouble, limitations, frustration. We need to turn all this over, and always bring out some positive thinking. No escapism: being rational if necessary, passional sometimes, but always trying to find the positive elements. These are what will brin us forward, leaving the ballast of negative weight behind."

See more of my artwork in my Flickr page!

GTD: 22 visual side notes more!

Here are some drawings that I missed in previous posts. I've realized a few of them are repeated, but most of them are completely new. These are visual side notes sketched on the margins of the Getting things done book, but I traced them on three layout paper sheets for a cleaner appearance (and less scanning work!)
Soon I will post bigger versions and individual comments for the drawings. Meanwhile, take a look: find them at my Flickr page, together with other samples of my artwork.

See more of my artwork in my Flickr page!

Browser-based GTD organizers

There is a variety of free and commercial solutions for your Getting Things Done-style organisation. Among these we find several browser-based applications. Some are quite simple and easy to set up (or with no setup at all), while others require more complex installations and system configurations.

Let's examine a few of these applications.

You can download GTD-PHP from http://www.gtd-php.com. An application focused specifically on organizing your tasks and projects, the GTD-PHP project provides detailed documentation, including screencasts. Here's how you create a new project explained visually:

We already talked about Nexty, a similar GTD-compliant organizer similar to GTD-PHP and with similar system requirements.

Those two applications have common requirements: you must install them on a webserver with PHP and MySQL (the typical requirements for most CMS and blog systems such as Wordpress, and other popular web applications.)

You can alternatively run either GTD-PHP or Nexty in your own computer if you install a personal webserver application, as we explain in the post about Nexty. It is even possible to set up and run those appls in a portable fashion, so you can take them wherever you want with your usb drive. I've recently discovered a portable webserver called MoWeS thats comes with a selectable bunch of preinstalled software that includes GTD-PHP!

Tracks and What's next

What's Next is a personal productivity application that supports David Allen's Getting Things Done system, or GTD. What's Next provides an environment in which to be effortlessly productive - it has been designed to offer a great user interface and generally be a joy to use:

The application works under Mac OS X, Windows, various Unix- and Linux-variants. It is a browser-based application that comes with a small local web server based on Ruby. The installation in Windows and Mac OS X is pretty straightforward, while on Linux it's a bit more complex. See the downloads page in the What's new project for more information. You will also find a detailed user manual explaining the different features and uses of What's next.

Tracks is another browser-based GTD application that also requires a more unusual (and fairly complex) setup with Ruby on Rails. It looks really good and it is fully compliant with the GTD philosophy. While its requirements and installation procedure may seem more discouraging, there is also an option of installing it more easily. Check the Bitnami Tracks Stack solution.

One of the most peculiar features of Tracks, apart from the expected Projects, Actions, Lists and other GTD elements, is the statistics page, which provides a comprehensive information about your projects, actions both in numbers and in graphics. You also get a very useful tickler file to remind you of necessary actions.

TiddlyWiki-based apps
TiddlyWiki is a single html file which has all the characteristics of a wiki - including all of the content, the functionality (including editing, saving, tagging and searching) and the style sheet. Because it's a single file, it's very portable - you can email it, put it on a web server or share it via a USB stick. (definition from the TiddlyWiki project page.)

GTDTiddlyWiki is a GettingThingsDone adaptation by NathanBowers of JeremyRuston's Open Source TiddlyWiki. The purpose of GTD Tiddly Wiki is to give users a single repository for their GTD lists and support materials so they can create/edit lists, and then print directly to 3x5 cards for use with the HipsterPDA.


Next Action is a Getting Things Done todo-list tracking tool. It's a personal database for your action items and todo lists that you use through your web browser. Now a Google Gears enhanced service, it stores its data in your computer while running from a remote server. You can also try to find the old version, which stores your data internally in the html file (saving it each time you use Next Action, by using the save as complete webpage option.)MonkeyGTD is yet another wiki-based solution:

My recommendation? If you don't want to waste time setting up your applications, you can start using any of the three last TiddlyWiki-based apps. They offer full functionality and you will be using them within minutes. Your decision will depend, however, on what you prefer: a usb app, a server-hosted app or a local install.

Finally, do check other GTD applications (not browser-based) already commented here in GTDrawings, such as Thinking Rock and other services and programs you will find in the blog.