As a fan of productivity software, and a subscriber to the ideas in David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology, I regularly try new software methods for handling my task management. These days I feel too constrained by Outlook, and although Backpack is very useful, it falls short when attempting to organize based on the three dimensional model used by GTD: tasks by project and context.

In my searching for a new solution, I stumbled upon a customized version of TiddlyWiki, called MonkeyGTD. If you're not familiar with TiddlyWikis, they're basically fully functional wikis completely self-contained in a single HTML file. They're intended to be run from your local machine, but you can also put one online and use a plugin to upload your changes. Personally I've become attached to the idea of being able to reach my system no matter what computer I'm sitting at, so it had to go online.

Luckily, I found a free TiddlyWiki host called TiddlySpot that allows you to create a free TiddlyWiki. Browsing their FAQ I found that you can replace the default TiddlyWiki that TiddlySpot creates with another customized one, like MonkeyGTD. I just followed the steps in the FAQ, and voila - I've got a MonkeyGTD TiddlyWiki that is online so I can get to it from anywhere, but if I need it offline I can simply download it to my local machine and run it from there. Later, when I have connectivity again, I can simply upload it over top of the one on the site, and I'm back in business online. For me this is the best of both worlds.

So let's take a step back - why MonkeyGTD? What is MonkeyGTD? What the heck is this post even about?

MonkeyGTD is a customized TiddlyWiki that has been created specifically to support the work flows in the Getting Things Done methodology. What's really cool about it is how it automatically handles Projects and Contexts and creates an overall Dashboard view, as well as mini dashboards for each Project or Context, depending on how you choose to view your information at a given time. You can play with this fully functional demo version, which also includes a download link.