While last time round I compared two similar apps, here’s a look at two which are radically different in the way they approach task management. Midnight Inbox is the app for those who’re managing tons of projects and need to have everything organised, while Taskpaper is the simplest of GTD apps, designed to stay out of your way.
Midnight Inbox
Inbox is designed for power users. Alas, with all that power, they haven’t managed to keep complexity in check. Then again, GTD apps are all about what kind of work you do, how you work, and your personal tastes. Let’s take a look at how the app works, so you can make your judgement.
The user interface is pleasing to the eye, with wooden accents lining the toolbar. The application is divided into five key areas.
Projects. The user interface for projects is much like an outliner or your average pen and paper notebook. This feeling of course is fuelled by the excellent typography—a sans-serif font—used throughout your task lists.
You can customise your project, using task lists, tags, and notes. You can have tasks, sub-tasks, sub-sub-tasks, and so on. You can use keyboard shortcuts to create any of these lists.
Collect, will use spotlight to gather all your active files on your desktop, recently edited text documents, your email, as well as include any recent Todos, Events, and bookmarks from Safari. The goal of collecting these is not to organise them, but to quickly review how things are playing out in your daily computer usage. The collect window will also list out any of the quick notes you might have added as well. Process, in my opinion is very similar to Collect, with just a few differences in the way it functions.
Review, is an extension to your Projects and tasks. It’s sort of like the Today, Next, Someday, etc, of GTD apps. Daily review will list out immediate tasks. There’s weekly review, someday, think about, etc.
The Work section is basically tags. Unlike Things, Inbox is geared to handle a certain number of tags. You can add unlimited number of them, but they will eventually take up your entire sidebar. This however makes tags more accessible and visible so as to actually use them.
Inbox also has a ‘yak timer’, which reminds you to do start on some task in case you’re procrastinating. Inbox is also a time based task manager, so you can start processing files from the ‘process’ tab, and set a certain time frame, set future actions. It’s all a little too organised if you ask me.
In a nutshell, Midnight Inbox is a sophisticated getting things done app, that is geared towards a power user, who does a lot of things, and is diligent enough to go through all of it. The somewhat convoluted interface will definitely drive away those who just have a few tasks and projects in mind. The Inbox iPhone app is due in July, along with the iPhone 3.0 software.
Taskpaper
If you’re used to using pen and paper for managing your tasks, this will be the next step in your advancement in the computer age. Taskpaper is all about simplicity, featuring a brilliant user interface that only Jesse Grosjean could think of.
When you first launch the application, it looks like some kind of text editor built around bullet styles. Once you use TaskPaper however, the task management aspect starts becoming apparent. It’s got support for tags, intelligent search, little notes, all enveloped by your different projects. I’ve done an full review of Taskpaper, which you should check out if such an app interests you.
Taskpaper also has a very passionate fan following, more so than any other GTD app on the market. If I may quote someone who sent me an email to make sure I included Taskpaper in this review, “I think it’s a great little alternative to both Things and The Hit List for people that find themselves working more on tracking the project than the project itself.”
Taskpaper does not have an iPhone version yet, but Grosjean is said to be working on one. At $30 for a license, it’s much cheaper than the other GTD apps, and depending on who you ask, is really efficient at crossing tasks off that list.
