I’ve been looking for a GTD application I would actually use regularly for a long time. I want something quick & simple, that isn’t too intrusive, yet lets me add tasks and get reminders any time. Finally I’ve found two that seem very promising.
The first one I used for several months was iGTD, but I find it much too unstable and too bloated. It was always freezing up and crashed very frequently. Its iCal sync option always caused a lot of trouble for me, adding multiple duplicate calendars or overwriting existing calendars. Even recent versions crash as soon as I enter a task. I’ve given up on it.
After getting fed up with iGTD I went for the minimalist approach with TaskPaper. The nice thing about TaskPaper is that it uses plain text files – there’s even a TextMate bundle that duplicates much of its functionality. However, it really isn’t GTD. It simply lets you compile a list of tasks, but doesn’t let you specify a due date or priority.
Anxiety is also very light weight, and it has the added feature of syncing with iCal. However, it’s very intrusive unless you have it hide the window when inactive, and it doesn’t really do much.
Finally I tried EasyTask Manager, which seems to offer the perfect blend of features & simplicity. It does lack a few features like a quick entry feature & reminders. It does sync with iCal, though, which can set a reminder. Unlike iGTD, it can sync everything with a single calendar instead of creating calendars for each project or context.
EasyTask would probably be my first choice if I didn’t try the Things beta. Things is also fast, convenient, and powerful. It does lack iCal syncing, although that’s supposed to be in the final version.