TaskMaster

TaskMaster is an application for implementing the Getting Things Done system. TaskMaster does not feature:

  • a particularly pretty interface link to Disco,
  • use awesome Web 2.0 AJAX technologies,
  • store web clippings and metadata,
  • have an extensible plugin architecture,
  • export your task list to HTML,
  • integrate with iPhoto,
  • nor does it even synchronise with with .Mac, Mail, PDA nor iCal. Egads! (It also does not synchronize with these things, for you strange Carbon-based lifeforms living in North America.)

On the other hand:

  • TaskMaster is fast,
  • it’s free (yeah, in both the free-beer and free-speech sense),
  • uses very little memory so you can keep running all the time,
  • has a very simple interface,
  • and most importantly: gets out of your way so you can actually do the things you have on your GTD list.

Here’s a screenshot of its interface, featuring real tasks from my to-do list:

XXX

Here’s how I use it:

  • Click on one of the + buttons to add a new to-do item, project, or context.
  • If you want to figure out what urgent stuff to do next, click on the Due Date column to sort your tasks by date.
  • In the mood to get a particular project moving? Sort by the Project column and see all your tasks there.
  • In a particular GTD context right now? Sort by the Context column.
  • Tip: For the due date, you can type in any date that can be parsed by Cocoa’s NSDateFormatter control, such as “today”, “tomorrow”, “now” or even “next week”.

Nothing more to it. Yep, it’s pretty simple, but that’s the intention. There are plenty of excellent organisers around if you look hard enough. For the Macintosh, there’s Journler, Kinkless GTD, Tracks+Locomotive, Yojimbo, K.I.T., and don’t discount that that Excel thing either. But they all have, like, toolbars and buttons and plugins and stuff, and were too complex for a simpleton like me. TaskMaster’s about as cheap’n’cheery as you can get!

Download

  • Bling

Developers

TaskMaster was written initially in about 15 minutes (no exaggeration), thanks to the superb CoreData framework that’s available on Mac OS X. It has, so far, has had zero lines of code changed from the default Xcode template. I’ve put maybe about an hour of work into it since then, but that’s really about it. Hooray for decent development frameworks being available, huh?

  • Bling

License

Tired of reading 69-page software licenses? Yeah, so am I. (And that doesn’t exclude you either, Mr. GPL). This is why TaskMaster uses the coolest software license known to humankind, the WTFPL license by Sam Zoy:

XXX: WTFPL

Have fun!

^D