Task managers

Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Apr 19, 2007 at 09:31 PM

I use two task organizers: Achieve Planner and GoalEnforcer. Achieve Planner is an ambitious program that includes comprehensive task and project planning features. I use it form more global planning, projects and broad tasks rather than for the details of task planning, although if you like a straight up outliner for this purpose, Achieve’s outliner is the best I’ve seen in this genre, having all of the “modern outlining features” I have previously dwelled on. In fact, apart from the mind mappers I’ll get to in a minute, Achieve seems the only task planner with a solid outlining infrastructure.

Achieve Planner is under continuous development, sometimes very rapid, sometimes only fast. It allows three levels of meta-outlining (tasks, projects, and result areas); includes a comprehensive master outline; allows different approaches to allocating tasks to time, from an MLO style “task chooser” to a systematic daily and weekly planning module.

In addition to tasks at all levels of molarity, AP has vehicles for setting and organizing goals. In a few months, the developer (Effexis) will release a further innovation, where Goals and Projects are tightly integrated.

For the molecular task analysis I use GoalEnforcer, a graphical outliner with BrainStorm like continuous hoist specially adapted for task analysis. I’m quite taken with the basic design, and I think the developers are smart and ambitious, but it may still lack sufficient features for advanced users who aren’t entranced by the vision. However, it is on fast track development, and released of rc versions are anticipated every month. So far the first two of the eight have been released. The Hyperfocus is actually preparatory for a very interesting multiple cloning feature; at its present development, you might not find much use for it. However, a rapid entry/brainstorming feature has increased the usability in rc2, and most importantly in my judgment, multiple selection will be implemented sometime in the upcoming rounds of upgrades.

Everyone is probably aware of the task manager capabilities of Mind Manager. I don’t favor it, but those who like to do task analysis in a traditional mindmapping application, reinforced specifically for task analysis and planning, should probably take a look at a new one, Open Mind (Bus. edition). Pricey though.