Thinkhole Labs

I’ve been using Microsoft Outlook to manage my TODO list for a while.

Yes, I know… everyone complains about Outlook, but for me it fits the bill about 90% of the time. The tasks are easy to add, there’s a place to add notes, and it keeps track of when I complete tasks. But it is very limited in overall functionality, and it doesn’t scale well… with lots of old completed tasks cluttering the UI after a while.

I’m a picky person, and it’s just not quite right. So the hunt begins for the perfect TODO list…

There are a multitude of web-based options including 37 Signals’ Tada List hosted option, TaskFreak (LAMP), GTD compliant Tracks (RoR!), and Nate’s Tada List Clone (TLC). But I don’t want other people keeping my data, and building a whole LAMP stack just to maintain a TODO list isn’t always practical.

Another option is Microsoft Project. I’ve used it. It’s very cool, and really… who doesn’t like Gantt Charts? But it’s definitely overkill for 90% of what I do. Plus it costs a small fortune (IMHO), so that one is off the list for managing small tasks.

So I’ve been looking into simple task management software, preferably F/OSS. In the past I’ve tried Dev Todo, and Matt uses vim and a text file… but both of those options are little too low tech for me. :)

I’ve seen Task Coach mentioned on the python-announce list quite a few times, and figured I’d try it out. It’s in Python, and therefore cross-platform. It has a decent looking UI and is generally easy to use. It supports subtasks, and it’s easy to customize the main view (e.g. don’t show me completed tasks). Sounds like a winner.

I loaded it tonight on Windows (no problems), and so far I like it. It’s still not perfect, but I think it’s the closest I’ve come so far. Maybe I’ll try using it for real for a while and see how it works out.

If you have any recommendations, pass them along. :)

Update: Hrm… apparently Task Coach was Download of the Day at Lifehacker back in April 2006. Does that make it productivity pr0n?