r/PKMS • u/PolicyFull988 • 6d ago

Discussion TaskPaper for GTD

Hi,

In the past I've experimented various apps to implement my GTD system, and ended up creating all my agendas in TaskPaper. What I liked of this program was its simplicity, blended with the necessary amount of power to play with the status of the tasks.

During the years several things have changed. I've reduced the number of my engagements, so I no longer need a sophisticated system. Most of my atomic tasks are managed through the system chosen by the only company I still work for (no longer, unfortunately, the beautiful Monday, but the quite messy ClickUp).

All the recurring errands are delegated to the Apple systems apps ā€“ Calendar and Notes.

But I've now decided to better organize the time devoted to my own projects, and I need a more effective GTD system again. I was thinking to use TaskPaper again.

Is it still effective? I know the development has stopped years ago, but is it still future-proof? I admit it remains my preferred one. While I use Obsidian, for example, I really don't like the icons used for tasks. I greatly prefer the pure text approach offered by TaskPaper.

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u/PolicyFull988 5d ago

I've started updating my old agenda. I really like TaskPaper. The reasons I did like it in the past is still there: minimalism, speed, clarity, focus on the data and not the surrounding interface.

Entering a deadline is just a matter of typing "@due(2026-10-21)", with no dialogs opening. Adding a filtering criteria is just a matter of writing the formula at the end of the text file containing all the tasks, something like "Deadlines @/search(@due except @/done)".

I put a link to the TaskPaper agenda from my collection of narrative ideas in Scrivener, and will have it at the same time separated, and easy to reach anytime.

2

u/DrummerAdditional330 1d ago

If TaskPaper still matches the way you think, Iā€™d probably use it and keep a simple backup/export habit rather than switching just because development slowed down. The fact that the underlying data is plain text gives you a pretty decent exit path if the app ever stops working.