There is a popular joke about Linux users that we are so busy tweaking our system to do things for fun that we don’t have time to do important stuff. Getting things done in a structured manner (regardless of your OS) has always been a challenge for me. Writing down things to do on a piece of paper just doesn’t work for me anymore, specially since I spend a lot of time in front of the computer it makes sense to have a GTD application on my desktop I can have access to all the time. So ever since I made the complete move to Linux I tried quite a few organization tools to help me get things done much more efficiently, some of these tools are OS independent but all of them works on Linux. Hopefully you will find some of these apps helpful.

Tracks is not your grandma’s to-do app and perhaps thats a good thing. In order to run this app you will need to install and configure mysql (or SQLite3) and Rails; you can run your own web server or use the built in mongreal server. Its not as scary to install as it sounds, even if it was, its totally worth it. Tracks is a very extensive GTD application that works a lot like basecamp. You can host it yourself for personal use or on a public server to collaborate with others on group projects.
 

I like the fact that ThinkingRock is one of the few GTD app that takes the concept of David Allen’s GTD in the literal sense. Unfortunately ThinkingRock takes the concepts a bit too literally where you have to go through too many steps to create simple task lists and process them. Some users who enjoy (and needs) strict discipline and guidance to maintain their task list might enjoy this approach. ThinkingRock is a java app, so installation is pretty straight forward.

Lightning is an add-on for the popular desktop email client Thunderbird. Instead of running two apps (Sunbird and Thunderbird) it brings in the best of Sunbird and integrates it in to Thunderbird. This is a fairly popular extension so most of you should know about it. This was one of my favorite apps until I stopped using a desktop client for my emails.

GTDTiddlyWiki Plus is a client side TiddlyWiki designed to be a single repository for GTD list. It is not designed to be host on the serverside (unlike tiddlywiki). Though it doesn’t function as a traditional form of “check box” to-do list, it incorporates the simplicity of wiki features into GTD. Sometimes you need more than a checkbox.

I just recently bumped into Chandler and it is really an impressive GTD app. Its more than just a to-do list, its described as a organized notebook that also have GTD elements built into it. You can track notes, to-dos and events from the calendar. You can even share your calendar with other users, backup your chandler and have web access to chandler hub. I am still playing around with it but so far it is highly recommended from me.

What GTD app do you use (besides tomboy)? Share with us in the comments.

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