I’ve been loving the python scripts from http://code.google.com/p/todotxt/ for hacking on my todo.txt file, especially the philosophy of “choose your own project format”.

TaskPaper is the GTD app I was waiting for (and I didn’t even know it!). I’ve been using the OmniFocus builds for months, and I’ve noticed that I spend an inordinate amount of time fiddling around with it. Furthermore, I have to use a PC at work, so I was rocking a separate text file as my work To Do list. Yesterday, I added a .taskpaper extension to the file, mucked a tiny bit with the formatting, and—BOOM!—it’s a TaskPaper file.

This is definitely one of those cases where simplicity = bliss. I purchased last night, after only one day of trying it out.

PS The screenshots in the post look suspiciously Leopard-y… :P

In the past week I tried the 0.9.x version of this app and I love it. But I still use my paper planner a lot, with its gtd project / next actions lists and its ‘notetaking feature’, which even allows me to create mindmaps (fiddle-proof).

Switching between paper and computer is a bit counter-intuitive, but confusion can be kept under control:

I only use taskpaper for projects and next actions that I have to do at my computer or my desk - I found that everything else, especially project lists, ‘errands’ and ‘waiting for’-tasks, is easier to review in paper. When a project or task is related to an item in taskpaper, I mark it in the paper planner with a rectangle. In taskplanner, items that relate to paper planning can be marked as well, with a tag like @calendar. Works great so far!

I’m stuck in a no-mans land between it and Omnifocus.

OF matches my complexity.

But tasks have hid there too.

In using TP a few things really do help.
- You can’t futz. Very important.
- Straightforward implementation of multiple contexts, tags whatever.

Contexts are treated as tags, you can mix and match Contexts in the trad GTD sense, some 43-folders ones (@cogitate and the like…), and subproject headers as tags. Easy and I like it.

I also found that I ended up with very complex project structures in OF. Very. Complex. And TP makes me be simple. Which is kind of great, you gotta just do.

But… then again, there’s a part of me that brackets my experience of it. I’m always aware that I’m stopping my analytical break-it-all-down side from fully flowering… TP just doesn’t do my projects justice.

Stuck in the middle….

Speaking of TextMate, I made a bundle that's very much inspired by TaskPaper.

This is a very nice little application. I love it’s simplicity.

It works well to get a list onto my iPhone. I have an email account that I use only for loading info onto my iPhone. It’s easy to copy and paste the TaskPaper list into an email and send it to my iPhone account.

I pick up the email on my iPhone as I walk out the door and I’ve got all my lists with me for review. TaskPaper works great for this because it is so simple and the list is in plain text.

Inspired!