Help me help him find some software!

September 25, 2009 11:37 AM

What are the best Windows programs dedicated to making to-do lists?

The CEO of my company is looking for software to help him keep track of his ever-growing list of things to accomplish. If he had a Mac, I would recommend OmniFocus, The Hit List, or Things. Which Windows equivalents of these programs do you recommend and why? While I won't say that web-based solutions are out, they are not preferred.

Google brings back odd results and past MeFi questions don't really help.

Thank you!

posted by Aleen to computers & internet (7 answers total)

Look through old lifehacker.com posts -- it's a common thing they discuss.
posted by brainmouse at 11:39 AM on September 25, 2009

I use "Tasks" in Outlook for this, purely because I already use it for e-mail. I like it - it's been intuitive to use, I always keep the program open anyway for e-mail, and nothing extra to install. However, I've never compared it to anything else.

I am also partial to a good old-fashioned text file on the desktop.
posted by peanut butter milkshake at 11:49 AM on September 25, 2009

If you understand the basics of GTD then OneNote, part of the Office suite, makes a great task manager.

Printing a full list of your to-dos for the day is incredibly easy and managing the list is actually fun.

It's the only task management system that I've used and stuck to.

Additionally, OneNote is awesome for taking notes at meetings, collecting your digital stuff (I have a recipe book and a guitar tab book in mine). It has an embedded video and audio recorder, and you can drag and drop any type of file into the program to create a link.

It's the most flexible task management system that you'll find on Windows, but it's openness may make it seem to complex or unstructured for some.
posted by DumbPoet at 11:51 AM on September 25, 2009

Google brings back odd results

You do know that GMail has built-in TODO list(s), right?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:26 PM on September 25, 2009

I really like minitask.
posted by kylej at 2:25 PM on September 25, 2009

In the Windows world, a lot of people seem to like ToDoList.

- AJ
posted by Alaska Jack at 6:08 PM on September 25, 2009

After having tried and discarded many others, I'm getting good mileage out of the freeware version of My Life Organised.
posted by Hogshead at 8:31 AM on September 30, 2009