One of the problems I’ve had in picking a personal information management (PIM) application is the great degree of overlap among various related categories. For example, where does a “To-Do List” application end and a “Project Management” application begin? Or how about daily journal software and applications that organize your notes? And let’s don’t forget “sticky notes” applications, “shoebox” software, “scheduling” applications, “file storage” tools, and so on.

Truth is, a lot of these categories are slowly merging, and that’s part of what holds me up: Surely the ultimate convergence will be upon us soon, so just wait a little while longer. Yeah, right. The problem with this kind of logic is that convergence is a trend that never stops, and if you never dive in and pick something to help you manage information and/or get organized, you might never start.

The reason convergence keeps going is that each new software idea sparks another one. Both users and developers participate in this amazing dance, and ultimately we all end up winners. This is why I stress the importance of avoiding lock-in. Whatever you choose, try to make it one that won’t keep you from switching to another in a year or two, if the avatar horse you’ve chosen peters out before the finish line.

With that brief intro, I’m going to start a new series looking at a category of software commonly known as “Personal Organizers.” These differ from PIMs mainly in their strict focus on project management, with the humble to-do list being the foundation for all of them. In 2006, there has been a rush to market by developers wooing converts to the “Getting Things Done” approach to personal organization. GTD, as everyone seems to call it, is the brainchild of David Allen, whose website and rapidly growing “flock” come across to the unenlightened as a serious religious movement. Obviously (I think), it’s not that, but just having arrived from Mars, it looks that way to me. (Of course, zealous Mac users like me can come across that way, too, until you take a closer look.) GTD has numerous champions in the Mac world—in particular the popular 43 Folders website, which first came to my attention as a good source of information about using Quicksilver. It turns out that 43 Folders champions Quicksilver because it’s such a useful tool in helping folks adhere to the GTD Way.

Whatever you may think about David Allen and the specifics of his GTD prescription, most busy professionals today are definitely in need of help in Getting Things Done. If you find a tool or approach that helps you with that worthy goal, it’s worth adopting, and the arrival of so many innovative personal organizers will hopefully help more of us get a grip on all the to-do lists we’ve got floating around in our brain.

By way of clarification, what I refer to as Personal Information Managers (PIMs) can be thought of as a superset of applications that personal organizers fall mostly within. The PIMs have a jack-of-all-trades approach, recognizing that to-do lists are one kind of information we need to manage, but so are software serial numbers, online store receipts, web bookmarks, journal notes, blog entries, and so on. However, so far none of the PIMs I’ve tried can be used for project management as effectively as the best personal organizers. The reverse is also true.

In fact, I’m starting this series with a software package that could almost be considered a PIM, and I almost added it to that other list this evening. But ultimately, Process by Jumsoft is a Personal Organizer. Its focus is on helping you get things done, not on helping you organize all the information you have scattered around the house or office.

Besides Process, I have earlier looked at a couple of other products in this category, both of which fell pretty far short of the mark for me:

• High Priority
• Stapler

Others that I’ve tried in the past and found wanting include Burnout Menu (which is no longer “in business”), and CheckOff (which I haven’t tried in over a year). Both of these apps let you manage to-do lists in the main menubar.

I inaugurated this list with just one application, and as I finish reviewing others, I’ll add them to this list (in alphabetical order). Products that I especially like and intend to either adopt or keep watching for awhile are designated with checkmarks ().

1. Frictionless (Added 12/31/06.)
2. Process
(Added 12/12/06.)

For the future, I have a long list of additional software in this category that I plan to try over the next weeks (months?), and as with the PIM article, I’ll likely be adding more to the list as time goes on. These are listed in the Addendum

Process

Process is an impressive young application that’s already onto version 2.0 and has quite a lot to offer in the way of general project management. The user interface is particularly strong, and it embodies the kind of flexibility and user-centric thoughtfulness that thankfully is becoming the norm rather than the exception in the Mac market today. There are, however, some curious omissions and inconsistencies in implementation that kept it from sweeping me off my feet. Its price tag of $39, which makes it one of the most expensive apps in its class, probably helped moderate my enthusiasm as well. Still, it’s got enough going for it that I’ll probably keep checking for updates. My list of pros and cons explain the test results in more detail.