Task Five – the simple yet beautiful online task management tool

6 Nov
2008

I never really managed to get GTD working for me.
The basic concepts of the GTD (Getting Things Done) method are really easy to grasp and pretty useful:
Write stuff down instead of trying to remember it, do the easy tasks quickly to get them out of your way, divide projects into smaller tasks and review your tasks periodically.

However, just like so many things in my life, turning a nicely put “method” into a productive habit is… almost impossible for me – my attention span lasts at most a couple of weeks, as if I were related to the common goldfish.

The one method that’d work for me… generally, would be one where I could write down my projects and goals, somehow mark my progress (I’m in constant need for confirmation and gratification, just to keep me going), automatically have it under my eyes on a regular basis (I kept forgetting to open up the GTD software I’ve been trying for the last couple of years), help me prioritize between different tasks and, most importantly, be really easy to use(no complicated setup, hierarchies or folders).

There is a lot of software out there that meets this criteria, offline or online. The one I use for the time being is TaskFive. Gorgeous, really easy to use, pretty effective.
Task Five

What it is not:

This is not the classic GTD tool. Not even a remote relative of GTD software you might know of.

What it is:

TaskFive.com is mostly an online task management tool for an individual or for a team(company).
Unlike GTD or other similar task management tools, it looks and behaves mostly like an online timetable for the current week. You can allocate tasks for today, tomorrow or any other day(although you only get to see one week at a time), but you can’t allocate more than 5 tasks for a given day.
This is what I like about it, actually: a quota of 5 tasks for a day is big enough to be useful, yet small enough to force you to prioritize; otherwise, the whole purpose of GTD would be lost and you’d get tens of overwhelming, minor, insignificant tasks.
Another reason why it works so far for me is because it’s really easy to use and set up. After creating a user account, there’s no extra setup necessary; no labels, folders, no recurring alarm setup. Nothing redundant or unimportant.

The need for instant gratification and progress tracking is achieved by checking out the items of today’s (or any other day’s) list. Reaching the weekend after having checked all your 5*5 tasks for the past week is pretty rewarding.

What I think is really the killer feature of the app is that it’s targeted at companies, not individuals. While an individual can use it like a simple task / gtd tool, the project manager can use it as a simple team project management that works. A company can add more users to the same page, so that they(and their manager) can see their individual progress during the week. Some reports are available, as well as SMS notifications(though I didn’t quite get what they are supposed to do). It’s worth mentioning that the company account costs(quite a bit actually – €9 per user after 2 users).

To close up, I really like this: the UI looks and feels great, the app is simple yet beautiful and effective, and having it bookmarked as my starting page helped me get more organized and feel more productive for the last week or so. Knowing that such a product was developed in less than 5 days using Ruby on Rails is the final cherry on the cake.

In: productivity| software
Tags: gtd, online tool, productivity, review, taskfive

18 Responses to Task Five – the simple yet beautiful online task management tool

Troy Malone

November 7th, 2008 at 11:33 am

Thanks for writing about this. I will have to check it out. Looks good for Personal Productivity.

Troy Malone
Pelotonics

Godzhesas

November 7th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Looks interesting, yet for task management i think Basecamp is very good, and if you need even more then just task management i like http://www.comindwork.com

OlgaS

November 7th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

I would also recommend you to check out Task2Gather. It is quite new on-line task management service that is available from Mac and Windows (via browsers), iPhone and Windows Mobile (via stand alone apps). This way you’ll get organised and have access to your tasks from everywhere.

McColley.net » Blog Archive » TaskFive Streamlines Tasks in an Elegant Calendar View [Task Manager]

November 7th, 2008 at 5:30 pm

[...] About us TaskFive Streamlines Tasks in an Elegant Calendar View [Task Manager] Friday, November 7th, 2008 @ 7:30 am | Author: admin The first thin you’ll probably notice, and possibly complain, about in the free online task manager TaskFive is that it limits you to five to-dos for each day. If you see that as more of a creative/realistic constraint than a hindrance, you’ll probably like its other features. TaskFive sports a seriously clean design, with a one-week calendar view and simple click-to-edit tasks. You can set up SMS and email notifications for task due dates and daily agendas, and companies can set up group task calendars for multiple users—though TaskFive charges a per-user fee after more than two are added. For individual task management without too much fuss, though, TaskFive seems like a pretty great solution. TaskFive is a free service, requires a sign-up to use. TaskFive [via Hack the Day] [...]

TaskFive Streamlines Tasks in an Elegant Calendar View [Task Manager] - Softsaurus.org

November 7th, 2008 at 6:47 pm

[...] The first thin you’ll probably notice, and possibly complain, about in the free online task manager TaskFive is that it limits you to five to-dos for each day. If you see that as more of a creative/realistic constraint than a hindrance, you’ll probably like its other features. TaskFive sports a seriously clean design, with a one-week calendar view and simple click-to-edit tasks. You can set up SMS and email notifications for task due dates and daily agendas, and companies can set up group task calendars for multiple users—though TaskFive charges a per-user fee after more than two are added. For individual task management without too much fuss, though, TaskFive seems like a pretty great solution. TaskFive is a free service, requires a sign-up to use. TaskFive [via Hack the Day] [...]

Alex

November 7th, 2008 at 7:24 pm

The one thing that I liked about this app is that it somehow lives on the boundary between classic “TODO” app and team project management. And the fact that it looks great for a project implemented in 5 days…

TaskFive Streamlines Tasks in an Elegant Calendar View [Task Manager] | Kroezer

November 7th, 2008 at 10:22 pm

[...] The first thing you’ll probably notice, and possibly complain, about in the free online task manager TaskFive is that it limits you to five to-dos for each day. If you see that as more of a creative/realistic constraint than a hindrance, you’ll probably like its other features. TaskFive sports a seriously clean design, with a one-week calendar view and simple click-to-edit tasks. You can set up SMS and email notifications for task due dates and daily agendas, and companies can set up group task calendars for multiple users—though TaskFive charges a per-user fee after more than two are added. For individual task management without too much fuss, though, TaskFive seems like a pretty great solution. TaskFive is a free service, requires a sign-up to use. TaskFive [via Hack the Day] [...]

John B. Kendrick

November 8th, 2008 at 2:45 am

I used and taught Covey and Daytimer for many years before reading David Allen’s GTD book and switching to GTD. Its made a significant impact for the good on my business and personal productivity.

And I found an application that allows me to view my entire GTD at work on my Win machine, at home on my Macs and even on my cell phone. And another app lets me call in tasks to my GTD without any writing or typing, great for those thoughts that hit me while driving.

I’ve written about my experiences with GTD at http://johnkendrick.wordpress.com/how-to-gtd/ John

Jimmy Liew

November 9th, 2008 at 5:47 am

hi, does anyone know where can I download it? It sound impressive.

Contrast | The Blog | Five hidden TaskFive features

November 26th, 2008 at 10:03 am

[...] It was a simple app, and we focussed on getting the simple things absolutely right. Others have written that we did a good job. But in building TaskFive, we wanted to flex our creative development [...]

EnlightenedOne1

January 10th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

I use Todoist for my tasks. I like it’s minimalistic & responsive interface.

http://todoist.com/

BacarliW

February 7th, 2009 at 6:41 am

Thanks for the write-up!! A great “GTD” example is a plugin for Outlook called Outlook Track-It. Does anyone on here use it? It’s my savior right now..downloads a simple toolbar add-in that sets followup reminders. If anyone knows anything else from this programmer, please email me!

Shane Tolmie

July 9th, 2009 at 10:07 pm

I swear by GTD. It reduces stress levels by an order of magnitude. Been using it for the past two years and have never looked back or had less stress at work.

I will say one thing though: GTD can make you efficient and completing tasks but it will not necessarily make you effective. To actually push the business ahead you need to continuously tackle the unpleasant tasks ahead of the fun, exciting (yet perhaps not quite as inportant) tasks. GTD is the first step, discipline to do the unpleasant tasks first is the second.

Oh, and you can get the audio book of GTD on BitTorrent or DC++.

Jeanette Nuñez

July 6th, 2010 at 12:29 am

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Task Five – the simple yet beautiful online task management tool

What it is not:

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18 Responses to Task Five – the simple yet beautiful online task management tool

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