It has been said that a Systems Administrator's job is to sometimes enter a chaotic environment, calmly identify patterns, assess conditions, adapt and simply…to effectively manage change, mounting pressures, and chaos itself…often. Though while change remains fun, chaos can drown even those who've chosen to remain in this line of work, year after year.

On a personal level, for the past few decades, it seems I've constantly been reviewing one task tracking & management tool after another. It's about time I'd finally found something.

My goals have always remained simple-enough; I want a ubiquitously-accessible, fast, simple, and reliable tool that:

1. Enables quick, fast & easy data-entry, anytime & anywhere.
2. Can be as easily backed up as restored.
3. Possesses paper-like simplicity, but remains paperless.
4. Uses data storage which is not database-driven.
5. Functions, with equal ease, on my iPhone, Mac & Linux systems, yet remains equally accessible for quick jots from the office computer, or other equally-trusted & secure computing environments.

On a professional level, I've seen some interesting in-house collaboration and project management tools and processes, such as adaptations of Agile and GTD methodologies, and tools including customer-specific wikis, task tracking and ticketing, comprehensive code and configuration change management engines, and various project management utilities. Though this is all far too heavyweight, structured, and complex for just one person's personal task & project tracking needs. Some are just silly, too; I mean, who has a weekly meeting with themselves, just to sync, share, and brainstorm on their various projects? Above all, who has the time to maintain a daily journal of all personal activities…again; great for the professional side, terrible for one guy's attempts at personal task & project management.

Today’s personal task management tools have morphed into complex, rigid, database-like applications, which often integrate poorly with other tools on differing platforms. This database-like behavior is great for some individuals, and excellent for group collaboration efforts. Though try mixing a rigid structure with chaos; its akin to mixing oil and water. You'd better be prepared for show-stopping issues. For me, a rigid personal task management tool quickly becomes an unworkable show-stopper.

Recently, at The Moment I was finally ready to abandon this seemingly endless search for a decent personal task management tool, I stumbled upon a MacOS-based tool called TaskPaper…then a few minutes later, TaskPaper.web, TaskPaper.vim, TaskDone (a hosted app themed off TaskPaper), and even discovered recent news about an upcoming TaskPaper.iphone project. Finally, a straightforward task management app for the iPhone, which easily syncs with a desktop tool! I couldn't believe what I was reading!

TaskPaper's concept is an alternative which harkens to simpler (and faster) days…when tools like WordPerfect for DOS, or even AppleWriter, were the word-processing kings; easy, fast, flexible and effective data entry, without the clutter, noise, and seemingly-unnecessary interface silliness of more modern tools. Except…TaskPaper has a very-valued modern twist; immediate & simple markup, with effective task tagging.

TaskPaper (and its spinoffs) recognizes and auto-formats projects, tasks, notes, and tags (such as due-dates, cross-project links, dependencies, etc…). Now…I've stopped wading through apps with unwanted and unused features, noisy menus, and sluggish interface complexity …now…the yard really was cleaned last weekend.

Dont just take my word for it:

• MacApper review
• Two weeks of project management with TasksPaper.