I am known for many things amongst my circle of friends: my rapier-like wit, my roguish good-looks, and my humility. The one thing that I am assuredly not known for is being organized. I lose things all the time; I forget people's birthdays and I can never seem to recall what I need to do on a given day.
Good thing there is a whole cottage industry developing around the concept of "Getting Things Done." The idea behind GTD (as the Getting Things Done wonks call it) is to create a framework around your tasks which enables you to succeed in getting those things done. Sadly, it just doesn't work for me. I get so lost in the details of creating the "System" that will supposedly let me accomplish my goals, that I never spend any time actually doing anything, other than figuring out what I have to do. That's why, time after time, I return to the age old method: a handwritten To Do list. It works like a charm every time, and creating one (which I do in a hierarchical fashion with several To Do's each having multiple tiers of sub-To Do's under them) is simple enough that it takes mere minutes to set up, and is flexible enough that one can track any small to medium scale project with it (assuming, of course, that the project doesn't involve too many folks).
There have been a slew of GTD-focused apps introduced on the Mac in the last few years. I've looked at each with the hope that they would free me from my disorganized shackles, supplanting my paper for something more technologically advanced. Each has failed me. That's not to say they are bad apps, they are just too complicated for my rather simple needs. I thought all hope was lost, and that's when I met TaskPaper.
TaskPaper, from Hog Bay Software, is my favorite new app of 2007 (Skitch is also high up there, but it is still in beta. Shipping has its privileges). TaskPaper, as the name suggests, offers itself up as a replacement for pen and paper in your organizational world. Shockingly, it has convinced me to give up my paper based list once and for all. Read on to find out why.
