Damian Nicholson

I realised earlier in the year that my collection of post-it notes on and around my desk didn’t cut it anymore. I needed something as simple but more scalable. This led me to being in the market for a task management tool, and I finally decided on The Hit List.

Similar to the increasingly popular Getting Things Done app Things, I use The Hit List to store and prioritise my list of tasks when working on personal projects or just for keeping track of the general day to day errands I have to run.

Now that I’ve used The Hit List for over 6 months, I thought I’d share what features I think make it a killer app. In order of importance:

Fully Keyboard Navigable

Being a web developer by trade, I use keyboard shortcuts all the time and the fact that THL can be fully navigated via a few keystrokes is a big win for me. What’s more is that The Hist List actively encourages it’s users to go down this route.

Quick entry for multiple-tasks

Most GTD apps have a quick entry via a system-wide keyboard shortcut and THL is no different. The Hit List stands out from the rest as you can enter and categorise more than one task via its quick-entry interface.

Contexts

Contexts are a GTD term, and are a physical place where your able to achieve your tasks e.g. @work, @home. I find this especially handy as you can filter all issues by a context, meaning the next time your down the shops, you won’t forget those batteries for your Mighty Mouse.

Smart Folders

An intelligent filtering system to group issues based on a combination of the meta-data you attach to them. A powerful tool if you embrace contexts, tags, due dates and the like.

Recurring Tasks

A productivity application wouldn’t be complete without a recurring task feature, and the one built into The Hit List is mega simple.

Humanised Date Picker

Like most of Google’s services, THL boasts humanised date input so your recurring task to mow the lawn “every last saturday of the month” will be scheduled accordingly.

My overall conclusion is that if your in the market for a GTD app then The Hit List is well worth trying before you make the plunge.

Did I also mention that an iPhone companion application is on it’s way shortly too