Task Coach is a simple open source todo manager to keep track of personal tasks and todo lists. It grew out of a frustration that most task managers do not provide facilities for composite tasks. Often, tasks and other things todo consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks. In addition, it offers effort tracking, categories, and notes.

"If you're anything like me, your task list is long and growing, but the time you have is just as fixed. How do you manage that? I handle that problem by looking at my calendar and my task list together when I'm planning my day. I tend to be too optimistic about my tasks, trying to schedule more into my day than I should. Fortunately, Emacs can help me make sure I don't overcommit. Here's how it works..."

"Many professionals bill clients for their time. Even if you don't, keeping track of the time you actually spend on tasks can help you improve your time estimates and check if you're spending enough time on the things that are important to you. For example, keeping track of the time you spend on tasks might show you that you spend two and a half hours each day just responding to e-mail. If you can identify problem areas like that, then you can look for more effective ways to perform the tasks that take up a lot of your time. I love Org's timeclocking support, and I think you will too. Because it's integrated with your task list, you don't have to switch to separate application or reenter data. You can get more detailed time reports, too.

The Task Spooler project allows you to queue up tasks from the shell for batch execution. Task Spooler is simple to use and requires no configuration. You can view and edit queued commands, and you can view the output of queued commands at any time.

Getting Things GNOME is a GNOME tool that takes the task list to the next level. GTG allows for tag-able task, add sub tasks, includes a plugin systems (with plenty of included plugins), and more.

If you spend most of your time in OpenOffice.org, you might want to be able to manage to-do lists and tasks without leaving the comfort of the office suite. Since Writer doesn't have such a feature, you can create your own no-frills task tool and at the same time sharpen your OOoBasic skills.

I’ve already pointed out a few note-taking, organizer-type applications — hnb is my favorite, probably followed by vimwiki; but that’s certainly not the end of the list. You’ll need a list, just to keep track of all the programs you can use to make lists.

The book is organized into 9 chapters, holding a total of 99 recipes in all. Each recipe introduces the task, tells how to prepare to perform the task, offers the specific steps, describes how the task is supposed to work, and lists any additional information related to the task.

"Organizing your tasks into projects can help you plan ahead, track your progress, and stay motivated. Working from a project list allows you to plan your day or week instead of just reacting to other people's requests. Keeping your projects and tasks in Org makes it easier for you to review your completed tasks and plan the next step. If you include some text describing why you want to do the project and what your intended outcome is, this can help you stay motivated throughout a long project.