I usually do that on a small notebook that I carry around with me all the time and transfer the writings every now and then to the PC.

Wunderlist is a versatile application that aids users in their task management. It actually offers more than just task management but more about that later. Users need to create an account on the first run of the software before they can use it. This is done by submitting an email address and password to company servers.

The main interface is displayed afterwards which lists tasks on the left side and folders on the right. Folders are used to group tasks for easier access and management.

Tasks are added with a click of the mouse or with one of the available hotkeys (Ctrl-T or Ctrl-N). Tasks are marked as complete with a click on the square at the front and marked as important with a click on the star.

It is also possible to add notes to tasks to add more information and to delete tasks.

Folders are added as easily and it is possible to move tasks around using drag and drop.

The search at the top finds matching tasks in all folders and displays them together in the main interface.

The footer bar offers several filtering options, for instance to display only completed tasks or those that have been marked as important, or filter tasks by time.

Tasks are automatically synced with the user’s account which makes it possible to log into the software from another computer to access the same data.

Lists can be printed or send by email to friends. It is further possible to share tasks and notes with other users of the service.

Wunderlist is not only available for Windows but also for Mac and iPhone. An Android version is in the works as well. Wunderlist is a handy, very responsive task management software that’s ideal for users who work on different computer systems and devices regularly.

The software is a alt-tab feature replacement for Windows. It replaces the standard Alt-Tab task switcher, and adds some cool functionality to it.

For starters, pressing Alt-Tab after installing Vista Switcher and making sure it is running displays larger preview images of the selected task, and a task listing that is excellent to work with.

Users can still cycle through all open tasks by pressing the tab key, or Shift-Tab key, and Vista Switcher will automatically display a preview thumbnail of the active tasks.

The mouse can be used as well in addition to the keyboard to select a task from the list. The application supports scrolling through the open tasks with the mouse wheel, or by directly placing the mouse cursor on a listed task row.

vista switcher

Vista Switcher in addition to that adds the new keyboard shortcut Alt + `to the Windows system. This can be used to cycle through all open windows of a single application, for instance through all Word or Excel documents.

List of all hotkeys

Alt + Tab Switch between open windows
Alt + ` (Backtick) Switch between open windows of a single application (for example, MS Word documents or Explorer folders)
Ctrl + Alt + Tab Switch between open windows on the current monitor (monitor with the mouse pointer or active window)
Win + F12 * Show the list of all open windows (“Sticky” mode)
Win + F11 * Show the list of open windows of the active application (“Sticky” mode)

Task List Navigation

Arrow Keys,
Page Up, Page Down,
Home, End Navigate the task list
` (Backtick) Navigate to the next window of the selected application
1, 2, …, 9, 0 Select the task number 1, 2, …, 9, 10 (hold down the number key for a while to switch to the selected task)
Shift + Arrow Keys Select the current task and navigate the list
Insert, S Select the current task and go to the next
Backspace, D Deselect the current task and go to the next
A Select all / Deselect all
Delete Remove selected task(s) from the list

Windows Management

Space, Enter Switch to the selected task
F2, M Minimize selected task(s)
C Cascade selected tasks on the desktop.
V Tile vertically selected tasks on the desktop
H Tile horizontally selected tasks on the desktop
F6, < Restore selected task(s)
F7, > Maximize selected task(s)
F4, X Close selected task(s)
F8, T Terminate selected task(s)

Other

F9, – Sort the task list by title
F10, + Sort the task list by application (groups on the taskbar)
E Explore the EXE path of the selected task
P Open the Preferences dialog
App (or Menu) Show the context menu

As you can see, there are lots of helpful shortcuts. Tasks can be activated by pressing their reference number on the keyboard, they can be sorted, terminated, their windows maximized or their root folder opened in Windows Explorer.

The preferences offer options to change some of the behavior of the program. Here it is possible to disable the autostart of the program, change the way the items are shown in the task list including the ability to disable the preview thumbnail, configure multi-monitor system support or define exclusions.

task manager

Best of all, Vista Switcher is offered free of charge, and unlike its name suggests compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Linux, of course, has no shortage of tools to keep track of your tasks. In fact, one might say Linux has too many todo list tools. So I thought I would show off a few of the lesser known tools so you might expand your own repertoire. I will even show you an ncurses based todo list tool for those of you who prefer to not bog yourself down with GUI tools. Enough said. We all have too much to do, so let’s get on with the tools.

Figure 1

tudu

I have to show this one off first. The tudu tool is the ncurses based to do list that will make any Alpine/Nano lover happy as a clam. This tool is very simple to use. You can install it with a command like apt-get install tudu , or you can find it in your Add/Remove Software tool. Once installed, you use the tool from a terminal window and issue the command tudu. When you open the tool you will see a single task that you can delete and then start adding your own. You add/edit tasks with commands.

tudu has a very unique command structure. The more handy commands are:

• f – Set the prioroity of a task.
• h – Move the cursor one level out in the tree hierarchy.
• l – Move the cursor one level in in the tree heirarchy.
• j – Move to the next task.
• k – Move to the previous task.
• J – Move to one position down.
• K – Move to one position up.
• m – Mark a task done.
• dd – Delete a task.
• o – Add a new task.
• t – Set the priority of a task

You can lean many more commands from the man page for tudu. Now let’s go back to GUI.

Figure 1

Tasks

It doesn’t get much more simple than the tasks tool. You will find this in your Add/Remove Software tool (and most likely it will be labeled tasks-hildon). What you can do with this tool is simple: You add and remove tasks. Oddly enough, it doesn’t have all the “bells and whistles” that tudu has, but it will be easier for many to use. There are some quirks involved with this tool.

Although you are able to create Categories, the only way to do so is after you have created a task. To create a task you enter the text in the New task… text are and hit Enter. Once you have done that double-click on the task you created to open up the task properties. Within the task properties you can click the Category drop-down and select New Group. This will allow you to create a new Category. There is one problem. As of this writing, as soon as you create the new group, Tasks will segfault and close. You can open it back up and everything you just created will still be there.

Outside of that odd segfaulting, Tasks is a nice little application. You can prioritize your tasks, give them deadlines, and even add links and notes.

Other task tools to consider

Of course you can’t think about todo/task tools without looking at your integrated groupware tools. Both Kontact and Evolution have outstanding task tools. You can even look at the Thunderbird plugin Sunbird which has a good tasks tool. There are so many of these tools to choose from. So if you’re looking to keep your tasks organized in Linux, you might need a todo list to help you decide with todo list to choose!

Gmail Tasks users can now easily send a task list by email which might be interesting for some users who want to notify another person of their task schedule. Sending out tasks by email will add all tasks in list format to a new email in Gmail. The email will also list the name of the task list. Notes and due dates on the other hand are not added to the email.

A question about the benefit of this method opposed to simply writing the tasks down in an email will surely come up. It would have made sense if notes and due dates were included in the Gmail tasks export but they are not. It might therefor be faster in some situations at least to write down the tasks manually instead of using the Gmail Tasks menu to export them. Some users who spend most of their day in Gmail might appreciate the new feature on the other hand.

The first thing to do is to install Launchy. This will give you awesome application launching skills. Just press alt + space and start typing the app you want to launchy. It remembers stuff, so I can now launch Firefox by just pressing “f” and then enter. You will then have to install the script from Lifehacker which is a bit more complicated than extracting an archive, but nothing you can’t handle, take a look at the site for the instructions.

Once done, you can add items to a list easily, by just typing “rtm”, pressing tab, entering the task name and then enter. This will add that task to your inbox. If you want a bit more control you can add a due date, the list name, priority, tags and notes, in that order, by pressing tab after each one, and enter at the end.

This method is  so great, because it is really quick, and it also enables you to add tasks without having to go to the site. You can just add tasks all day, and maybe take 15 minutes at the end of each day to manage your tasks.

It’s one of those applications that will be used by the geeky sort, those who don’t mind a stark exterior with a pretty complicated interface. Tobu is also different because as it describes itself, it is a “freeform information organizer”, and that pretty much holds up. You can use it for task lists, notes, thoughts, ideas, project planning, anything you like, but it will take some time to think it through and apply it.

The basics of it is that you create notes, with a name, a tag and a description. You can then simply list your notes by tag, or tag combination. That’s really all to it, but underneath this simple method lies a pretty complicated system. Tags are the main way of navigating, just enter one or more and items will pop out quickly. You can also see the relation each item has to other tags for cross reference.

What I love about Tobu is that it really lets you do anything. Tag all your tasks with “task” (how original), and when you list items in that tag you will get your task list. You can also use “today”, “tomorrow” and other tags to designate time frames and schedules. Tag all your notes with “note” (I’m really something aren’t I?) and you can list all of them, seeing all the other tags applied, or list ones in the “notes” and “blog” section for notes about your blog.

The power of Tobu, and all other application like it is that they only provide the framework, while you provide the method. This makes these applications the most flexible out there, but you need the best possible composure to use them effectively. If consistency is your cup of tea however, you will love Tobu.